The Musée de l'Armée was created in 1905, by merging the Artillery Museum and the Historical Army Museum. It will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2005, with the reopening of the western wing, renovated under the ATHENA II project.
The Artillery Museum (created during the French Revolution and set in the Invalides in 1871) is, in itself, the heir of two of the most prestigious weapons collections : the collection of the "garde-meuble de la Couronne" and the Condé princes collections (Chantilly). From 1852, those two collections were placed in the Invalides, and enlarged with a series of collections coming, among others, from the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Louvre, the artillery in Vincennes, the Hôtel des Monnaies, the Pierrefonds castle, and from numerous acquisitions made during the colonial campaigns, or due to private bequests.
The Historical Army Museum was founded in 1896, by a society named "la Sabretache", whose president , the painter Edouard Detaille, wanted to create, from his own collections, a national military museum, the way the retrospective rooms at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889 had been set.
Among the most prestigious collections of the museum, one can list the "ancient weapons and armours" one (the 3rd one in the world), the "artillery scale-models" one (quite unique) and an exceptional ensemble of exhibits, from the 19th century, related to Napoléon I and the marshals of the Empire, amongst others.
The Musée de l'Armée places itself among the greatest art and military history museums in the world. Its situation, at the heart of a military purposed monument, such as the Hôtel National des Invalides, offers an exceptional aspect. There are few military museums which can offer such a variety of exhibits and cover such large chronological periods.