The Artillery Museum was inaugurated in its current form at Draguignan in 1982, but its history however goes much further back. In fact, Princes and monarchs wanted to preserve rare or technically peculiar arms very early on. Thus in 1685, the Duke of Humières, who was the Grand Master Gunner for the Kingdom of France at the time, created a conservatory of French arms at the Paris arsenal. His objective was both didactical, to train artillerymen, and technical, to improve the knowledge of the time. The collection grew over the years and an institution was created to house it at Saint-Thomas d'Aquin in Paris. This institution, the predecessor of the Artillery Museum at Les Invalides in Paris, went on to become the Army Museum in 1905. Now for the most part open to the public, the Artillery Museum possesses such prestigious objects as a bronze cannon cast in Strasburg in 1732 as well as numerous small models from the mid-18th century's Gribeauval system. The oldest item dates back to the mid-15th century. The museum also presents collections and tells the story of artillery up to approximately the 1950's.