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Monday 10am - 3pm Tuesday 10am - 3pm Wednesday 10am - 3pm Thursday 10am - 3pm Friday 10am - 3pm Saturday 10am - 3pm

National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey

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National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey

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National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey
Building 2, 100 Camp Drive
Sea Girt, NJ 08750 Admission is free.

Located on the grounds of the historic National Guard Training Center, The National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey (NGMMNJ) in Sea Girt is dedicated to preserving and explaining the military history of New Jersey. For over 40 years the museum has collected, preserved and displayed artifacts with specific historical relevance to the New Jersey National Guard. The museum presents the role of the New Jersey Militia and National Guard within the context of the larger history of the state, using original and reproduction uniforms, weapons, photographs, artifacts and art from the period of Dutch, Swedish and British colonization through the War for Independence, Civil War and World Wars I and II, the Global War on Terrorism to the present day. Parking for the NGMMNJ is located directly before the entry gate to the National Guard Training Center (NGTC) in Sea Girt at Sea Girt Avenue and Camp Drive. The Museum is also home to the Center for US War Veterans’ Oral History Project which contains over 600 interviews and records of local veterans of all branches from the Mexican Punitive Expedition to current day. In conjunction with the Library of Congress, veteran interviews are conducted and summarized for submission to the Veterans History Project. For more information or to access the collection, contact Assistant Curator Carol Fowler. We also feature a second standalone site, the Lawrenceville Field Artillery Annex, located on the grounds of the Lawrenceville DMAVA campus. Featuring over a dozen artillery pieces and armored vehicles, the Annex's mission is to present and explain the importance of New Jersey Artillery throughout history, as well as the unique military story of the Trenton area.

10/30/2026

Stop by the Lawrenceville Field Artillery Annex tomorrow before you head out for your trick or treating! Get a small treat after taking a look at our military treasures.

10/30/2026

ARMY HISTORY HIGHLIGHT - The Day Martians “Defeated” the Army; 88 Years Ago.

Grovers Mill (West Windsor Township), New Jersey, October 30, 1938. On this day in 1938, a live radio broadcast of Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds” sent shockwaves across America as millions of listeners believed the U.S. Army was being obliterated by extraterrestrial invaders. Structured as a series of realistic, breaking-news bulletins, Welles‘ masterpiece detailed a Martian landing in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The broadcast creatively integrated the U.S. military into the drama, featuring a fictional “Captain Lansing of the Signal Corps” and a “Brigadier General Montgomery Smith of the New Jersey militia" deploying infantry, artillery (the fictitious 22nd Field Artillery), and tactical bombers to combat the extraterrestrial threat. The tension peaked when the reporter described a giant Martian war machine emerging and incinerating the military’s defenses with a devastating “heat ray.”

Welles’ use of “dead air” following the fictional reporter’s sudden silence convinced thousands of late-tuning listeners that the military had been wiped out and a real emergency was underway. Phone lines jammed police stations, and government officials expressed deep concern about public readiness. While the panic was later shown to be exaggerated by newspapers, the broadcast became a historic demonstration of the immense power of mass media.

The acute public reaction to the 1938 broadcast underscores how vulnerable a population can be to sudden, realistic disinformation and informational panic. In modern multi-domain operations, the Department of War views securing our communication channels and mastering information operations as fundamental to defending the homeland. Just as the nation learned the power of the airwaves in 1938, today’s Soldiers stand ready to dominate the information domain and defend our national security.

; ; ; U.S. Army; U.S. Army Reserve; The New Jersey National Guard; New Jersey Historical Commission - NJHC

Image credit: L-Orson Welles during the broadcast of the "War of the Worlds" from CBS Studios in New York City, Oct. 30, 1938. (Public domain) R-'Martian Landing Site Monument' in Van Nest Park, West Windsor, New Jersey, sculpted by Thomas Jay Warren, and erected on the 50th anniversary of the broadcast in 1988. (Courtesy of the Historical Marker Database/hmdb.org)

10/28/2026

in New Jersey military history, in 1781, the American victory at Yorktown was celebrated "with great éclat" in Trenton, capped by "an elegant entertainment" in the afternoon and "brilliant illuminations" in the evening.

10/26/2026

in New Jersey military history, in 2000, the New Jersey State Museum's Civil War exhibit opened in Trenton. The standing exhibit displays surviving flags of New Jersey's regiments on a rotating basis, supplemented with explanatory narrative and supplemental artifacts.

https://www.nj.gov/state/museum/exhibitions-current.shtml

10/25/2026

Visitors are welcome today, a sunny Sunday in Sea Girt.

10/24/2026

in New Jersey military history, In 1742, Gooch’s American Regiment, heavily recruited from across North American colonies, including three companies from New Jersey, was disbanded upon its return home from the expedition to capture the Spanish port of Cartagena in present-day Colombia. This demobilization followed a catastrophic campaign where thousands of troops in the regiment fell ill and died from yellow fever and malaria.

10/15/2026

10/13/2026

We love getting inquiries. We received one from a visitor to the Ocean City Historical Museum about pictures of the Ocean City armory where an artillery unit was a few days ago. My initial assumption was that he was referring to the Atlantic City armory on route 30. However I was able to find proof of at least 2 different artillery units, first the 308th AAA and then C Battery, 286th. So far as we can tell, the building is on the grounds of the Ocean City Intermediate School. We'll have to do some more research to see which units called it home throughout its life. Does anyone else have any pictures of the armory or have any remembrances? We really don't have much on it.

For any other research inquiries, visit: https://njmilitiamuseum.gov/researchers

10/08/2026

Visit us for the annual event at Brookdale Community College Lincroft campus on Saturday October 10 from 9 to 1:30. The museum staff will have their table set up as usual. Free and open to the public, stop on by and meet a great variety of assembled historical groups represented in the Collins Arena.

Visit us and dozens of other historical groups at the Monmouth County Archives Day this Saturday at Brookdale! https://www.monmouthcountyclerk.gov/archives/archives-and-history-day/

10/05/2026

Well this was a unique 'postcard'. We received this one-off 11x14 inch canvas doubling as a note. Thank you to Nate Ostrow for this original work of art. A creative use of color and it was a pleasant surprise on an otherwise dreary Monday morning.

Address

100 Camp Drive
Sea Girt, NJ
08750

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 3pm
Tuesday	10am - 3pm
Wednesday	10am - 3pm
Thursday	10am - 3pm
Friday	10am - 3pm
Saturday	10am - 3pm

Telephone

+17329744570

Website

https://njmilitiamuseum.gov/

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