Dozens of historic military artifacts are flooding the Camp Blanding Museum, and the donations keep rolling in.
But instead of being on display, the pieces of history are collecting dust in a storage room.
Every medal, every uniform, even every photo being displayed has its own story to tell stories from which visitor Danielle Boyce wanted her children to learn.
“I've always believed that you have to know your history to not repeat the mistakes and to make better choices in the future,” Boyce said.
The museum, which sits just outside the Camp Blanding gates, once functioned as a guest house during World War II but now it welcomes around 11,000 visitors a year.
Curator Greg Parsons says he has many more artifacts that he would like to put on display, but he can’t.
“We've kind of maxed out our storage, our display area,” Parsons said.
With no more room, historic artifacts like uniforms and equipment now sit on shelves inside two storage rooms upstairs.
“I would say we've got close to 2,000 different artifacts,” Parsons said. “Out of that, probably two-thirds to three-quarters of that is in storage.".
Parsons said it will cost around $700,000 for a new facility. The National Guard will likely foot that bill.
The museum is trying to raise another $150,000 for interior work.
In the meantime, all they can do is wait for the chance to display the other artifacts in the way that they were meant to be displayed.
“We really need more space to be able to display more artifacts we've got in storage. That's how we tell the story of these gentlemen and what they did, not just our country but for civilizations as a whole,” Parsons said.
There is no exact date for construction to begin on a new building. Parsons hopes that in at least five years, the building will be finished.
Camp Blanding will celebrate its 75th anniversary on Saturday by dedicating a monument to Maj. Gen. Albert Hazen Blanding, for whom the museum is named.
The museum is taking donations to help raise money for the new building.
WJAX
