Moving the Official Museum of the Boy Scouts of America to New Mexico Expands Ability to Share Scouting’s Rich History with More Visitors
IRVING, TX – (December 5, 2016) — Today, the Boy Scouts of America announced the decision to relocate the National Scouting Museum to Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. Supported by generous donors, a new expansion of the Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library and Education Center will be built in 2017 to allow the organization to share the rich history of Scouting with more visitors, including the tens of thousands of campers, volunteers and alumni that visit Philmont each year.
For decades, the National Scouting Museum has played an important role in preserving and telling the rich story of the Boy Scouts of America and the positive impact Scouting continues to have on youth and families. The museum is committed to preserving the rich, 100-plus-year history of the Scouting movement by collecting, organizing, preserving and displaying some of Scouting’s greatest treasures, including 600,000 artifacts. This collection not only documents Scouting’s unique influence on American culture, but also tells the story of a movement that has positively affected the lives of more than 110 million young people.
“We honor the trust placed in our organization by generous donors and benefactors by continuously assessing our stewardship of all of the historical assets entrusted to the Boy Scouts of America,” explained Rick Bragga, chairman of the National Scouting Museum Committee. “We considered all possibilities and decided that relocating the museum to the iconic Philmont Scout Ranch best accelerates what the museum is trying to accomplish.”
The National Scouting Museum, formerly the Johnston Memorial Museum, was established in New Brunswick, N.J., in 1959 as the official museum of the Boy Scouts of America. It was then moved to the grounds of Murray State University in western Kentucky in 1986. In 2002, it was relocated to Irving, Texas, adjacent to the BSA’s National Service Center.
“We are humbled and excited about the opportunity to welcome the National Scouting Museum to northeastern New Mexico in 2018,” said Mark Anderson, director of program at Philmont Scout Ranch. “Since our first camping season in 1938, more than 1 million Scouts, Venturers and leaders have experienced the adventure of Philmont, and we look forward to introducing the thousands of visitors we get annually to the rich history of Scouting by adding this important attraction to our community.”
For more information about the National Scounting Museum, visit www.bsamuseum.org.
About the Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®” The Scouting organization is composed of nearly 2.4 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 21 and approximately 960,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.scouting.org.