The USAMHI’s archives contain numerous and diverse collections such as the papers of Nelson Miles, Tasker Bliss, William "Wild Bill" Donovan, Matthew B. Ridgway, and Creighton Abrams; the personal papers of nearly every U.S. Army Chief of Staff for the last sixty years; over 250 general officer oral history transcripts; veteran surveys from the Spanish-American War to the Cold War; a complete set of the U.S. Army Signal Corps photo collections from both world wars; the curricular archives of the Army War College from 1907 - 1995; and a growing audio-visual collection. The personal papers, diaries, letters and photographs of countless American Soldiers are the most valuable and unique parts of our holdings. This rich collection of Soldier stories runs the gamut from the Mexican-American War to current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The USAMHI hosts one of the largest military history libraries in the world. With over three hundred thousand volumes, the collection covers nearly every facet of U.S. Army and military history. The core of the rare book collection contains eighteenth century works once part of the original War Department library. The periodical section contains thousands of titles and countless issues, ranging from older copies of the Nation, Harpers, and Time to unit newspapers from the Vietnam period. The holdings include the Army and Navy Journal, various journals of the branches and services of the U.S. Army, and many foreign military publications. The USAMHI also holds fifty-two series of U.S. Army doctrinal, training and administrative publications. Over three hundred thousand field, training and equipment manuals from the early twentieth century to the present day are available for study.

The USAMHI is open to the public during normal business hours.