ALBANY – The New York State Museum recently announced “Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II,” a new temporary exhibition revealing the story of a top-secret U.S. Army unit that turned art, engineering, sound, and showmanship into weapons of war.
On view September 5 through December 27, the traveling exhibition brings visitors inside the world of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, an elite tactical deception unit activated by the U.S. Army on January 20, 1944. During the final year of World War II, more than 1,000 soldiers, including artists, engineers, radio operators, and sound technicians, used inflatable rubber tanks, fabricated radio transmissions, recorded sound effects, and carefully staged visual illusions to convince enemy forces that large American combat units were stationed where they were not.
Many of the troops trained in northern New York at Fort Drum, then known as Pine Camp, before deploying to Europe. The unit, armed with nothing heavier than .50 caliber machine guns, included future celebrated artists and native New Yorkers such as Ellsworth Kelly and Art Kane.
New York State Museum Director Jennifer Saunders said, “The Ghost Army’s story is one of extraordinary ingenuity, courage, and creativity. The unit reportedly had one of the highest concentrations of West Point graduates of any Army unit during World War II, alongside artists, engineers, and other soldiers who used sound, technology, and deception to create entire military forces out of thin air. Because their missions remained classified for decades, their remarkable contributions are still unfamiliar to many Americans. We are proud to bring this exhibition to the New York State Museum, where visitors will discover how art and innovation became a powerful tool of wartime deception.”
The exhibition allows visitors to explore the Ghost Army through features including: