What is a Museum within a Museum?
The Ohio Military Museum (OMM) was originally located in Massillon, Ohio. However, due to dwindling membership, OMM merged into MAPS Air Museum in late 2015 to ensure the preservation of its contents and for the artifacts to still be on display for the general public.
OMM concentrated its contents on honoring Ohio’s Military veterans and had many artifacts, including uniforms from most U.S. conflicts as far back as the War of 1812. All of these contents were incorporated into their own display hall on the 2nd floor of MAPS Air Museum.
MAPS Air Museum honors the relentless work that members of the OMM achieved by retaining the name of Ohio Military Museum for its Exhibit Hall.
One of our newer displays that has been added to the Ohio Military Museum (OMM) Room at MAPS: Axis POWs In Ohio. With the fall of France during WWII, Hitler had conquered the bulk of Western Europe. New fronts opened to the East (the Soviet Union) and North Africa. As the battles raged, more and more Axis prisoners were being taken, but the Allies were running out of room for them; England had been the only destination, aside from Germans captured on the Eastern Front and imprisoned in the Soviet Union.
America agreed to take prisoners of war (POWs) starting in May of 1942, and by the end of the war, approximately 426,000 of them were housed from coast to coast. Ohio received about 6,000 German and Italian POWs, many from the North African campaign. Camp Perry was the base camp for these men.
The OMM Room is located on the 2nd floor mezzanine level.