The Cold War Museum was founded in 1996 by Francis Gary Powers Jr., son of the famed U-2 Pilot, and John Welch to honor Cold War veterans, preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations about the Cold War and its legacy. 

 

Since 2011, the Museum has been located at Vint Hill, Virginia, on the grounds of the former Vint Hill Farms Station, also known as Monitoring Station No. 1, which was a Top Secret Army signals intelligence base during WWII and the Cold War. The Museum shares a campus with Old Bust Head Brewery, Covert Cafe, and Vint Hill Winery. 

 

The museum has a Midwest Chapter near Milwaukee, WI and Francis Gary Powers Jr.'s traveling exhibit on the U-2 Incident of 1960 helps promote the museum internationally. Artifacts from The Cold War Museum are on display in institutions such as the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C., the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Musuem near Omaha, NE, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Musuem on Bolling AFB, and the Atom Muzeum in the Czech Republic.

 

Our collections are particularly strong in signals intelligence (SIGINT), image intelligence (IMINT), the history of Vint Hill during both WWII and the Cold War, Cold War Berlin, Civil Defense, atomic weapons, the U-2, USS Liberty and USS Pueblo Incidents, Cold War cultural and Olympic competitions, Strategic Air Command, submarine detection (SOSUS), the Cuban Missile Crisis, the STASI (East German secret police), and Soviet and East German disinformation campaigns. Many of our artifacts are rare one-of-a-kind items while some of our exhibits were created and donated by those who did the work.

 

The Cold War Museum is an all-volunteer organization, drawing upon our staff's extensive Cold War experience as professionals in the military and intelligence communities. We are the Real People Explaining the Real Things.

 

See why we built the Cold War Museum here: The Cold War Museum.pdf