What is the Collections Portal?
The collections portal is actually two different catalog systems that help organize and preserve the museum’s collection. The 390th Memorial Museum’s Collections Portal allows you to search across the entire museum collection including object, archival records and information from the legacy database.
The portal was designed to enable keyword searching across our archival and artifact collections. The portal contains four tabs. The first tab is the Object Catalog, which includes most of our artifact collection. The second tab is the Joseph A. Moller Archives, with information about the documents, photographs and oral history recordings held by the museum. The third tab is the Personnel Database, which displays basic information about some members of the 390th. The fourth tab in the portal is the Mission Database, and contains basic information about the missions flow by the 390th. Please see below for more information on each tab.
Tutorials are available on our YouTube page. These tutorials cover all four tabs in the Collections Portal.
Object Catalog
The museum’s object catalog is the first tab in the portal. It offers photos of and information about artifacts in the museum’s collection. The more unique feature of the Object Catalog is that you can add your knowledge to it! If you know something about an object, you can contribute to the record. User contributed content will be made available to the public once reviewed by staff.
Joseph A. Moller Archive
The second tab in the Collections Portal is the Joseph A. Moller Archives catalog. Established in 1982, the non-circulating Joseph A. Moller Archive is the heart of the 390th Memorial Museum. Unique to the 390th, the archive include original photographs, letters, manuscripts and oral histories documenting the experiences of American veterans. Please be aware, only a portion of the materials in our archive have been cataloged, and much of the materials are still not available digitally.
The archives are organized hierarchically, grouping individual items into collections, series and folders. As you search the archive, you will find primarily records of those materials describing what is located in each folder. If there is a specific file, folder, series, or collection you are interested in that is not available digitally, please contact the Collection Team. It is most helpful if you can provide the collection number and folder name/number with your request.
The Joseph A. Moller Archive does not hold public hours at this time. We are happy to schedule an appointment for in person viewing.
While the Archives are available in the Collections Portal, you can access the archival catalog independently. This is best if you are focused on materials in the archive as it gives the best search results.
Personnel and 390th Missions Databases
The Personnel Database and 390th Missions Database are the third and forth tab in our collections portal. These databases works by keyword search. Please note the Personnel Database was constructed over decades in the museum by dedicated volunteers. It does not include every member of the 390th and occasionally errors in the form of misspelled names and other inaccuracies are present in the data. Please let the Collections Team know if you find inaccuracies.
Conducting Research on a 390th Bomb Group Veteran
For more information about researching a veteran of the 390th Bomb Group, please visit here.