![](media/image1.jpeg){width="8.253472222222221in"
height="1.207638888888889in"}

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| ![](media/image2.jpeg){w    | **The National Armory**                |
| idth="2.3465277777777778in" |                                        |
| he                          | Two hundred years ago, Congress        |
| ight="3.066666666666667in"} | realized that the new national         |
|                             | government needed to manufacture its   |
|                             | own weapons for the Nation\'s armed    |
|                             | forces. This far-reaching decision was |
|                             | confirmed on April 2, 1794, with \"An  |
|                             | Act to Provide for the Erecting and    |
|                             | Repairing of Arsenals and Magazines\"  |
|                             | setting Springfield Armory on a career |
|                             | lasting 174 years as the main          |
|                             | government manufacturer of U.S.        |
|                             | military small arms.                   |
|                             |                                        |
|                             | Springfield was chosen because of its  |
|                             | strategic position above the Enfield   |
|                             | Falls of the Connecticut River on the  |
|                             | main national highway. During the      |
|                             | Revolutionary War, this important      |
|                             | location served as the Continental     |
|                             | Army's primary Arsenal for munitions   |
|                             | and supplies.                          |
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**An Industrial Giant** Inventions such as the Blanchard Lathe,
interchangeable parts, and rudimentary assembly lines all trace their
origins to Springfield Armory. The Armory was the first major employer
in Springfield. The advances initiated in the complex started
Springfield on the path that made it a manufacturing center and the most
important city of western Massachusetts. This was recognized when
Springfield became a city in 1852 and the recently built Main Arsenal
was incorporated into the City Seal.

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  **Winning the War** Springfield Armory\'s              ![](media/image3.jpeg){width="1.2381944444444444in"
  extraordinary response to the demands of World War II  height="1.7479166666666666in"}
  marked the crowning achievement of its long history.   
  Production was well underway on the new semiautomatic  
  M1 rifle and the Armory, equipped with modern          
  machinery and facilities, was ready. Production        
  processes were refined so that inexperienced workers   
  could handle most operations. This led to the          
  Armory\'s version of \"Rosie the Riveter,\" in which   
  thousands of women, who had never imagined themselves  
  as factory workers, played a vital part in wartime     
  production. In 1943 the work force at the Springfield  
  Armory was 13,500 employees, of which 43% were Women   
  Ordnance Workers (WOW\'s).                             

  ------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------------

**End of the Armory** Traditionally, the Armory had emphasized
production and it had difficulty adjusting to an uncertain postwar
mission that stressed research and development. The Armory also fared
poorly in complex bureaucratic infighting within the defense
establishment. To cut government spending, the decision was made that
private contractors would meet the needs of the U.S. Military, thereby
eliminating the need for further funding of operations at Springfield
Armory. In 1964 Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced the
closing of the institution, which was completed in 1968. Public efforts
centered on a four-year battle to keep the Armory open. The effects on
the community and industry were deeply felt. In time, many manufacturers
supplying the Defense Department were owned by foreign interests. This
fact represented a reversal of the thinking that had led to the
establishment of the Armory in 1794. Today the United States,
ironically, is dependent on outside sources for needed arms.

**The Springfield Armory Museum** During and after the Civil War, large
numbers of captured and surplus weapons were sent to the Armory to be
reconditioned. Many of these had

little value and were put aside as curiosities. These arms, along with
the samples of imported arms purchased early in the war and arms
transferred from the Washington Arsenal formed the nucleus of the Armory
museum collection.

Major James G. Benton, Armory Commanding Officer from 1866 to 1881, is
credited with establishing the museum as a public attraction in 1872.
The first expansion of the collection was the addition of the Centennial
Exhibit, displayed in Philadelphia in 1876. He later advanced the idea
of the museum as a \"reference library\" of weapons by adding arms from
the Indian Wars.

**Armory Facts:**

-   Daniel Shays led a force of about 1,100 insurgents in an attack on
    the stores at the Arsenal in Springfield January 25, 1787. The
    attack was ineffective and his forces were disbursed by militia.
    Shays' Rebellion reinforced the need for a written document defining
    the powers of the State and Federal Government. The final product
    exists today as the United States Constitution.

-   The first recorded Christmas observance in Springfield was in 1820
    with a service at the Springfield Armory Chapel.

-   Springfield Armory played a major role in creating Springfield\'s
    present religious diversity. Despite the Town of Springfield's
    Puritan intolerance, the Universalist, Episcopal, Methodist,
    Baptist, and Roman Catholic denominations were established among
    Armory workers, with early services held on or near Armory property.

-   Before the Civil War, musket production at the Armory typically ran
    800 a month. At its wartime peak in 1864, production sometimes
    reached 1,000 muskets a day. The number of different jobs at the
    Armory increased from 113 to 390 during the war.

-   West Point graduate David A. Lyle developed a life-saving
    line-throwing cannon while stationed at Springfield Armory that was
    employed for rescuing crews from coastal shipwrecks. By 1906,
    thousands of lives had been saved along America\'s coasts.

**Bibliography**

**Arms for the Nation,** edited by David C. Clark, South Greensburg
Printing Co., 1994.

**King\'s Handbook of Springfield,** by Moses King, James Gill
Publisher, 1884.

**Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology: The Challenge of
Change**, by Merritt Roe Smith, Cornell University, 1992.

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| Additional information | ![](med                                     |
| can be obtained by     | ia/image4.jpeg){width="3.841666666666667in" |
| contacting:            | height="3.4034722222222222in"}              |
|                        |                                             |
| **Springfield Armory** |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| **National Historic    |                                             |
| Site**                 |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| **One Armory Square,   |                                             |
| Ste. 2**               |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| **Springfield, MA      |                                             |
| 01105-1299**           |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| Telephone: ( 413)      |                                             |
| 734-8551               |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| Fax #(413) 747-8062    |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| E -mail: SPAR\_        |                                             |
| Interpretation @       |                                             |
| NPS.Gov                |                                             |
|                        |                                             |
| Internet:              |                                             |
| <htt                   |                                             |
| p://www.nps.gov/spar/> |                                             |
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> **Armory workers during World War I \~1918**