The Oshkosh Public Museum is marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II with a special art exhibit from the prestigious United States Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. The exhibit includes 60 paintings from the United States Navy Art Collection, created between 1941 and 1945.

The exhibit will be unveiled at 1 p.m. April 23, 2005, with a special opening celebration on the museum grounds. The celebration will feature a naval brass quintet, a Marine Corps color guard and a featured speaker, Rear Admiral Richard Ridenour (Ret.). A reception area reminiscent of a World War II USO canteen will be set up inside the museum. The Elderberry Trio, a 1940s-style group in the vein of the Andrews Sisters, will perform between 2 and 4 p.m., when the reception concludes.

The exhibition runs through October 16, 2005.

The U.S. Navy Art Collection has its roots in the rising tensions of the 1941 "undeclared war" in the North Atlantic against Hitler's feared U-boats. New York muralist Griffith Bailey Coale convinced Admiral Chester Nimitz to send Navy artists into action to record military activities in ways that cameras and the written word could not. The Navy Combat Artist Program was approved and established in August 1941.

Eventually, the Navy sent eight artists to serve in combat areas around the world. Together, they produced over 1,300 drawings, watercolors and paintings that illustrated books and magazines and toured the nation to raise morale and inform the public. After the war, the collection continued to be used to educate the public. The paintings were last exhibited in Oshkosh in 1959.

The museum will exhibit a collection of paintings titled "A Vision of History," as well as an exclusive collection devoted to the role of Navy women, known as WAVES, during World War II. Works in "A Vision of History" document combat actions in the European and Pacific Theaters, including the Normandy and North African campaigns, as well as the 1945 invasion of Okinawa. The WAVE paintings show women performing a wide variety of wartime tasks, such as aircraft maintenance. The captions are the artists' own words, providing firsthand insight into historical events.

With the U.S. and its allies locked in a grinding war against three powerful enemies—Germany, Japan and Italy—women were vital to the war effort. "Women were well trained and assumed a tremendous variety of important roles, from mechanics to radio operators," explains museum director Brad Larson. "We have conducted oral histories with men and women who served during the war. It is very apparent that women served a crucial function, and they did it well."

The oral histories were done in conjunction with the nationwide Veterans History Project (VHP), administered through the Library of Congress. The Oshkosh Public Museum has been a participant in the VHP since its inception in 2000. The museum continues to focus its collecting efforts on the World War II generation. Thus far, the museum has collected over 100 oral histories and recently published a book based on the project.

In addition to the Navy art, the museum is exhibiting objects from its own World War II collection. Included are souvenirs brought back by returning GIs, such as captured uniforms, a Nazi banner from the infamous Reich Chancellery and weapons like the Nazi MP-40 submachine gun.

Personal items of the period clearly express the heartbreak and anguish that this generation experienced both on the battlefield and on the home front. "Letters, diaries, photographs and film should be considered important historical documents," explains curator Debra Daubert. "They can bring history alive in a very powerful and personal way."

The Oshkosh Public Museum, located at 1331 Algoma Blvd. in Oshkosh, Wis., is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays and national holidays. It is handicap accessible, and parking and admission are free. For more information, call the museum at 920-424-4731 or visit its Web site.