South Bend-area factories made tools of war. Now they’re in joint exhibits at two museums. – South Bend Tribune

Joint exhibit explores locally crafted artifacts

The first dual exhibit at the neighboring Studebaker National Museum and The History Museum in South Bend trots out big, heavy artifacts of war and little ones, too with stories of how they were all crafted by local hands.

On the Studebaker side of the Manufacturing Victory exhibit, which runs through Feb. 6, you see a horse-drawn wagon by the Studebaker Corp. that was compact enough for the Turkish Army to navigate over mountains of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13.

At The History Museum, you dive into this hardware tour with a 190-pound diving suit, made for World War II, complete with a spherical head and a round window. The brass-tipped boots have lead soles to sink a divers feet, lest the body flip over, causing the suit to fill with water.

Headlines in History: 1918 Spanish flu epidemic slows Christmas mail delivery

Next to the suit on the wall, an old-time company newsletter from the U.S. Rubber Co. in Mishawaka, also known as Ball Band, displays photos and text showing which employees made the suits and how.

A lot of the companies promoted their workers as the Army at home, said Kristie Erickson, the museums deputy executive director.

Ball Band was one the largest producers of diving suits at the time. This suit, acquired at auction, comes with a hand-cranked pump next to it that delivered air to the diver.

These two separate museums adjoin each other on the same campus and have collaborated in joint advertising and joint memberships. But Manufacturing Victory, which opened June 19, marks the first time theyve shared an exhibit to this extent, said Marilyn Thompson, marketing director for The History Museum.

Most of the items in The History Museum were already part of its collection, but other pieces were either loaned or acquired.

South : History Museum holds annual gala

The story really starts in the hallway exhibit that links the museums. It is sparse on goods, as this section covers the earliest wars the South Bend area supported. Here, you learn about the Utah War of 1857-58, known as President James Buchanans blunder to squelch what he mistakenly thought were rebellious Mormons in the Utah territory. Studebaker stepped in to help a Mishawaka wagon maker fulfill its federal contract for the compact wagons. The Boer Wars of 1899-1902 also called on Studebaker wagons for the British Armys clash with South Africas Dutch-descended farmers.

The beefiest war muscles are seen in The History Museum, as its main exhibit covers World War II and later. After the diving suit, you find a long, military cargo sled from 1941 with wooden runners, alongside a T24 Weasel all-terrain vehicle with tank-like belts that turn around its wheels. Both were made by Studebaker. A large photo shows the Weasel dragging the sled over snow. Some of the Weasels were amphibious, too, Erickson said.

On a much smaller scale, theres a sextant and altimeter, used for airplane navigation. Bendix Aviation Corp. made the sextant. But the altimeter came from the musical instrument company Conn in Elkhart, which was skilled with metal and precision. Likewise, Erickson says, the local Wilson shirt factory made items for uniforms. Singer Sewing Machine factory, which was skilled at cabinetry, made crates. A wall of posters illustrates several other local companies in the war business whose goods couldnt be found or included in the exhibit.

The Turtle on display is a peculiar metal frame riding on a set of balloonish wheels, which Studebaker made to haul cargo across snow and sand.

Theres a Studebaker Champion car known as the Blackout Model because the bumpers and hubcaps are black, a substituted metal because chrome was needed for war products.

The Bendix RIM-8 Talos Missile had hung in the South Bend International Airport from 2004 until early this summer, when it moved here. The missile has been part of the Studebaker Museums collections since the 1970s, Archivist Andrew Beckman said, though, prior to the airport, it had hung in the Discovery Hall at Century Center and in the building that once housed the old Freeman-Spicer auto dealership.

3-2-1 - Fire!Talos missile moves from South Bend airport to the museum

We are trying to figure where its final destination is, Beckman said, adding that there arent any plans to bring it back to the airport.

Erickson said the Talos was the largest of three such missiles made as the U.S. militarys response to Japans Kamikaze pilots in World War II. They were used through the 1970s, often perched on naval ships, and could be equipped with an explosive or nuclear warhead, she said. The one on display was able to travel up to 150 nautical miles. And no, Beckman said, it no longer has a warhead.

The Humvee on display was made in 1983, two years after AM General was awarded the contract to build them. It sits near a modern-day simulator the company still uses, now on loan, with a seat, screen and steering wheel for visitors to try. Its sanitized daily, Erickson said.

At the end, documents show local war contracts. Photos and a few signs explain the racial integration that didnt come to factories until World War II.

We can talk about all of the businesses that produced for the war, but none of that would have been possible without people, Erickson said.

In the Studebaker Museum, the exhibit begins in the atrium with items to mark the 50th anniversary of AM General. Theres a 1982 Mutt jeep, designed by Ford but also made by AM General. Multiple companies, Beckman said, would build military vehicles and items from the same design.

The upstairs part of Manufacturing Victory shows wagons and vehicles that never left the factory, held for posterity. Beckman said these pieces had been visible in the museums basement, but, now grouped together, they have more interpretive signs and artifacts.

Next to the compact Balkan Wars wagon, there are two different horse-drawn water carts, one designed for the U.S. and the other for the British.

Interpretive signs explain how Studebaker held off on modernizing its factories for the onset of cars, opting instead to focus on manufacturing war goods.

Studebaker put the needs of the country ahead of profits, Beckman says.

A photo shows Alexander Arch, the South Bend man who shot the first round of ammunition in World War I, who later would work at the Studebaker factory for a while.

A nearly 6-foot-tall wheel from 1917, made for an artillery carriage, is so weightyit took extra staff to roll it into place without tipping over, he said. Near an ambulance wagon, there's a 1918 Army escort wagon, the equivalent of an Army transport truck, that was among 8,000 that Studebaker made, Beckman said.

A horse-drawn plow made by Oliver Chilled Plow Works, next to a photo of a Victory Garden, shows how large communal crops would feed folks at home while rationing was in place. And in a photo from the war bonds effort, a sign on a local horse-drawn float carries the public sentiment toward Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Emperor during World War I: A Pill for Kaiser Bill.

What: Manufacturing Victory

Where: Studebaker National Museum, 201 Chapin St., and The History Museum, 808 W. Washington St., South Bend

When: Through Feb. 6

Hours: Both museums open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Admission: $15 per adult, $12 for seniors, $8 for ages 6-17, with discounts for veterans and active military.

For more information: Call 574-235-9664 for History Museum or 574-235-9714 for Studebaker Museum. Or visit historymuseumSB.org or studebakermuseum.org.

See the original post here:

South Bend-area factories made tools of war. Now they're in joint exhibits at two museums. - South Bend Tribune