The museum's collection primarily centers on the First and Second World War, as the American Legion members who founded it were primarily World War I veterans, and many World War II troops passing through the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation left things with the museum they did not wish to bring home. The large number of souvenirs given by American veterans has resulted in sizable displays on Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, to include a section of the Dachau Concentration Camp removed during said camp's 1948/1949 refitting for use as refugee housing. Modern records keeping of the collection was begun in 1977, documenting the variety of objects still within the structure. An increasing number of pre-World War I objects were acquired starting in the 1980s, most notable of which are the uniforms of Moses Myers, on loan from the Chrysler Museum of Art.