Submarine Force Library and Museum

Submarine Force Library and Museum

A UGM-84 missile outside the entrance
Established	1955
Location	Groton, Connecticut, United States
Type	Military museum
Collection size	33,000 artifacts 20,000 significant documents 30,000 photographs
Visitors	150,000/year
Curator	Steve Finnegan
Website	www.ussnautilus.org

The United States Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum, located on the Thames River near Groton, Connecticut, United States, is the only submarine museum managed exclusively by the Naval History & Heritage Command division of the U.S. Navy, which makes it a repository for many special submarine items of national significance, including USS Nautilus (SSN-571).

Visitors may take a 30-minute self-guided audio tour of the submarine. In a 2009 visit to the museum, a writer for Connecticut magazine found several veterans of the U.S. submarine force who talked about their experiences while visiting the Nautilus.

Established in 1955, the museum was originally operated by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and was known solely as the Submarine Library. In 1964, it was donated to the U.S. Navy and moved to its current location along the Thames next to Naval Submarine Base New London. It received its official title in 1969. Hoping to convince the U.S. Navy to donate the Nautilus to the museum, in 1984 the "Connecticut Nautilus Committee" was formed to raise funds for an improved museum. A new, 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m²) facility was built with funding from the state, individuals and businesses, opening in 1986. In late 1997 the Committee decided to start planning and raising funds for a 13,465-square-foot (1,250.9 m²) addition to the museum building. Fundraising started the next year, and construction project ran from 1998 to early 2000. The new addition was officially opened to the public on April 28, 2000 "in conjunction with the Centennial Celebration of the United States Submarine Force", according to the museum.

The museum has 33,000 artifacts, including the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, the USS Nautilus. Launched in 1955 and decommissioned in 1980, the submarine had traveled under the polar ice cap and reached the North Pole during the Cold War. Also at the museum is a replica of David Bushnell's Turtle, built in 1775 and the first submarine used in combat; midget submarines from World War II; working periscopes, salvaged parts from the nuclear USS NR-1, a submarine control room, models of submarines, and the Explorer, an early U.S. research submarine.