The CIA ’s museum , located at its headquarters in Langley , VA , is home to more than 28,000 items , including gadgets , weapons and espionage memorabilia . Usually , it ’s off limit to most non - CIA personnel — but a especial arrangement allowed Smithsonian cartridge clip totake a tourand photograph blue-ribbon exhibits .
[ Image : Dan Winters for Smithsonian cartridge ]
The museum ’s objects—18,000 of which have been catalogued , with hundreds on display — date from before World War II to the present . “ Every day , CIA officers help to form the course of world result , ” museum director Toni Hiley told Smithsonian . “ The CIA has a deep story , and our museum is where we touch that chronicle . ”
The stories behind some of the items are self - evident : a alphabetic character from future CIA director Richard Helms to his youthful son at the conclusion of World War II , write on Adolph Hitler ’s personal stationary ; a rifle mock up on the Kalishnikov AK-47 that was find next to Osama Bin Laden when he was killed by Navy Navy SEAL work under the breastplate of the agency .
As to be expected at a spy museum , the stories behind other exhibits are more cryptic , such as the Hi - Standard .22 - caliber shooting iron ( picture , above ) that was “ ideal for use in close space or for eliminating picket . ”
harmonize to Smithsonian :
develop by Stanley P. Lovell , the honcho of convenience and weapon for the Office of Strategic Services , the CIA ’s World War II forerunner , the long - barreled weapon system was flashless and muffler - equipped — design to kill without create a audio .
How tranquil was it ? According to Lovell ’s account , Maj . Gen. William J. “ Wild Bill ” Donovan , the chief of the OSS , was so eager to show off his representation ’s late deadly widget that he took a Hi - Standard and a sandbag to the Oval Office . While President Franklin D. Roosevelt was busybodied dictate to his secretary , Lovell wrote in his book Of Spies and Stratagems , Donovan terminate ten rounds into the sandbag . FDR give no poster and never stop talking , so Donovan wrapped his handkerchief around the still - hot barrel and presented the weapon to the president , tell him what he had just done .
Roosevelt is said to have responded , “ Bill , you ’re the only furious - eyed Republican I ’d ever permit in here with a artillery . ” Donovan gave FDR one of the gas pedal , Hiley told me : “ It was displayed in Hyde Park . But the OSS occur one daylight and say they ’d have to take it back because it was classified . ”
Also on display , a metal reenforce Browning automatic rifle :
[ It was ] one of slews the KGB embedded in the walls of the U.S. embassy in Moscow , and thus a keepsake of one of the most clumsy episodes in the U.S.-Soviet détente . In a supposedly helpful move , the Soviet Union offered to sell the United States precast concrete module for the building , supposedly to check that it would be up to code , and the United States accepted . But mid - construction inspections begin in 1982 , including X - rays , revealed that the Soviets were turning the building into a vast antenna , with some bugs so advanced they could transmit each keystroke from the embassy ’s IBM Selectric typewriter . After that , the top floors of the embassy were torn down and replaced by a secure “ top lid ” of four floor . The labor choose more than four days — and was done by American contractors .
To see picture of more exhibit , readthe clause and accompanying online exposure galleryat Smithsonian magazine ’s website .
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