USCBS presentation at a 2015 Congressional event
USCBS is dedicated to the prevention of destruction and theft of cultural property, as at this archaeological site in Iraq.
Presentation and pledge at the Smithsonian

Preserving the past – protecting the future

U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield

U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield

USCBS is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing the destruction, damage and theft of cultural property during armed conflict and natural disasters.

How does USCBS help prevent cultural property disasters?

Training

We coordinate with the U.S. military, U.S. government, and other cultural property organizations to protect cultural property worldwide during armed conflict.

Awareness

We strive to raise public awareness about the importance of cultural property as the shared right of all humankind.

Emergencies

We advise and assist, worldwide, in the protection of cultural property damaged or threatened by armed conflict or natural disasters and provide emergency planning.

Latest News & Alerts

  • July 23, 2026

    New Report on Damage to Cultural Heritage Sites in Ukraine

    The Museum Conservation Institute-Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (MCI-SCRI), along with the Virginia Museum of Natural History’s Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML), Penn Cultural Heritage Center, Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab, and the University of Maryland’s Center for International [...]

  • July 10, 2026

    Rising Sea Levels Threaten Jamestown’s Archaeology

    The site of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, is rich in archaeological material. Archaeologists are continually finding artifacts belonging to the English settlers, the Powhatan people, and Africans who were enslaved [...]

Learn more about the protection of cultural heritage throughout history

As early as the 2nd century BC, we know that authors were criticizing the wartime plundering of art. And, in more recent times, many laws and treaties have been written to protect and preserve cultural property. For instance, the Lieber Code of 1863, commissioned during the Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln, was the first legislation to explicitly call for the protection of cultural property during times of armed conflict. And, in 1954, The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in Times of Armed Conflict and its First Protocol were adopted after a meeting of representatives of the United Nations, under the auspices of UNESCO.

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