The Galleries
- Robert E. Petersen Collection
- Ancient Firearms - 1350 to 1700
- Road to American Liberty - 1700 to 1780
- A Prospering New Republic - 1780 to 1860
- A Nation Asunder - 1861 to 1865
- The American West - 1850 to 1900
- Innovation, Oddities and Competition
- Theodore Roosevelt and Elegant Arms - 1880s to 1920s
- World War I and Firearms Innovation
- WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Beyond - 1940 to Present
- For the Fun of It
- Modern Firearms - 1950 to Present
- Hollywood Guns
A Nation Asunder - 1861 to 1865
Civil War arms including domestic firearms manufactured both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line and firearms imported by both sides.
Significant Firearms in Gallery 6:
- Numerous Confederate Pieces including a copy of a Sharps breechloading carbine, Richmond rifle-musket Type II and 1795/1808 conversion of Virginia Manufactory of Arms musket
- LeMat Revolver Similar to that used by Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart
- Relic Enfield Musket found in a Virginia bog
- Sharps Carbine captured from a Massachusetts soldier by a Virginia cavalryman and retaken at the Battle of Rappahannock Station, Virginia on November 7, 1863
- Colt Model 1860 Revolver lost by Colonel John Singleton Mosby's men during a raid on Fairfax, Virginia
- Smith & Wesson No. 1 Revolver used by a member of the First New York Dragoons during the tidewater Virginia campaign
- Spencer Carbine lost by a member of the 19th New York Cavalry near Dahlgren, Virginia
- Confederate copy of Sharps Carbine
- "John Brown" Sharps Carbine