The Admiral Nimitz Foundation was established in 1964 (as the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Naval Museum, Inc.) to support a museum honoring Fredericksburg’s native son, Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces, Pacific Ocean Area. In respect of Admiral Nimitz’s request that the museum honor all those who had served in the Pacific, in the ensuing years the Foundation supported and guided its transformation into today’s National Museum of the Pacific War. Now a well-established and respected institution, the Museum welcomes approximately 100,000 visitors annually, including 10,000-15,000 middle and high school students from across the state.

• The original home of the Museum, the unique Nimitz Steamboat Hotel, restored by the Foundation to its 1890 configuration, now overlooks a 6-acre campus. The hotel boasts the new Cailloux Education Center, event facilities, and a modern exhibition on the life and career of Admiral Nimitz.
  
• Thick native limestone walls now enclose a memorial courtyard with over 1,200 commemorative plaques honoring individuals, units and ships that served in the Pacific Theater. The content of those plaques have been provided by families, friends, shipmates and comrades in arms. The Memorial Courtyard stands as a unique testament to love, friendship, duty and memory.
  
• A classic Japanese garden, a gift of the people of Japan to honor Admiral Nimitz for his wise administration and his respect for the Japanese people and their culture in the post-war years, provides an oasis for reflection.
  
• Ten granite monuments to the ten Presidents who served in World War II, and whose experience in the war shaped their leadership of the country, highlight a landscaped plaza. Here, public ceremonies on Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and throughout the year celebrate the profound gifts of freedom and security that the veterans of the Pacific War gave to the nation.
  
• The current George H. W. Bush Gallery, opened in 1999, houses a 17,000 square foot exhibition relating the story of the Pacific War, highlighted by a number of iconic artifacts, including an intact Japanese 2-man miniature submarine captured at Pearl Harbor, the diary kept by Major General Edward King during his three and a half years as a POW following the surrender at Bataan, and a complete B-25 Bomber.
  
• The Pacific Combat Zone, an outdoor exhibit area and living history venue completed in 2001, offers visitors a deeper understanding of the cruel struggle that took place between Allied and Japanese forces on the Islands of the Pacific.

The original museum, the Admiral Nimitz Center, was a property of the State of Texas operating under the Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Naval Museum Commission. In subsequent years, it was transferred, first, to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and then to the Texas Historical Commission. In November of 2005, under an operating agreement with the Texas Historical Commission, The Admiral Nimitz Foundation assumed full fiscal and management responsibility for the National Museum of the Pacific War, which remained a Texas Historical Commission property.