Leatherneck: A Borrowed Nickname

Abstract

MANY VISITORS to the Smithsonian Institution have found the Navy History Room to be delightfully interesting. Many of those same visitors have come away from that room, after viewing the Marine Corps Exhibit, with the firm conviction that they had learned how the popular nickname of Leatherneck had come into being. They have believed that this bit of information could be passed on to others without being challenged effectively. To provide the clincher in any discussion of the term, and to silence any scoffers, those same individuals would triumphantly assert, And, furthermore, I saw it at the Smithsonian! Ever since ... t\.ugust 10, 1954, when the U. S. Marine Corps opened its permanent exhibit at the National Museum,! a display card has been prominently placed before an old leather stock which has constituted the focal point of interest in one of the exhibit cases. The card, with seeming authoritativeness, states: