I meant to post this in January but it wound up sitting on my desktop until I finally got to it.

The Practicum in Digital History kicked my butt and sucked up a lot of my time that might otherwise have been spent burning bandwidth here.

Some observations:

As of 17DEC22 I finally completed the requirements for a BA in History from SUNY-Albany. Yay me!

Now I’m on to my MA in Public History.

I had a choice between an MA in History and one in Public History. The History MA is 30 credits and the Public History MA is 36. The main difference is that for the Public History MA, one needs 6 credits of internship (at a rate of 50 hours of internship = 1 credit; total 300 hours internship).

========================
Group A: Academic Content Courses
(18- 21 credits)
Geographic and thematic courses in History, including one reading course
Research Seminar

Group B: Public History Courses
(9-12 credits)
His 501 Introduction to Public History

And other courses selected from the following:
Introduction to Historical Agency Management and Practice
Curatorial Practices for Historical Agencies
Interpretation of Historic Sites and Artifacts
History Museums
Material Culture Studies
Introduction to Historic Preservation
Practicum in Oral/Aural History
Practicum in Digital History
Practicum in Historical Documentary Filmmaking
Practicum in Historical Narrative

Students must complete a minimum of 30 credits of coursework chosen from Group A and B as apportioned plus a supervised internship for 6 credits.

Internship in Public History

Major Field Exam:
Satisfactory completion of a major field examination covering academic and public history course content.
===========================

The choice of Public History seemed more suited for what I wanted. It’s not my intention to teach (although Mrs. Vivas thinks I should). My chasing after this MA is so that I can write better about firearms history.

Also, as I look around my office and my hard drives, I realize that I have come into possession of a great deal of data that needs to be sorted, preserved and made available to other collectors.
I have ideas for advancing the academic/research side of our hobby (religion?) and a Public History degree may help me to put those ideas into action.

I thought it might be interesting to document the quest for the MA in Public History, so I’m posting this message and plan to periodically update it as the process plays out. I’m thinking that along the way, as I delve deeper into the courses on research resources and techniques, I might be able to pass those along so others who are looking to expand their research skills.

There is a fellow whose tagline on his posts states that he prefers to be called a collector because it sounds better than a hoarder. Funny, but it has some validity. As a collector, we don’t just accumulate firearms but we also look into their history and what makes them valuable (not necessarily in a monetary sense) to us.

Anyway, enough pontificating.

Classes start 18JAN23. I‘m signed up for two 3-credit classes:
AHIS 509 - Intro to Historic Preservation 18JAN23 - 02MAY23
An overview of the field of historic preservation, emphasizing the history, evolution, and application of its programs. Significant areas, such as the history of the preservation movement, historic preservation laws and their application, and the identification, evaluation, registration, and protection of historic resources will be discussed.

AHIS 596 - Practicum in Digital History 18JAN23 - 02FEB23
This course introduces students to the practice of history in the digital age. It focuses on how the Internet and digital technologies and software have reshaped public and academic history presentation platforms and venues -- as well as historical research strategies and tools. As a hands-on course, it will teach students the fundamentals of digital history. Areas of concentration will vary depending on the instructor but will include such topics as: narrative and hypertext theory and practice, digital imaging and visualizations, primary- and secondary-source databases, wikis, blogs, augmented reality, digital mapping, virtual museums, historical gaming, GIS and digital mapping, audio and video media processing and editing, and more.

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

So classes ended and I wound up with an A- in AHIS 509 - Intro to Historic Preservation and, surprisingly, an A in AHIS 596 - Practicum in Digital History.

This brings my post-graduate GPA to 3.85.

I should mention that all this takes place at SUNY-Albany in the capital city of The Peoples Democratic Republic of New York (state motto “An Indictment Is Not A Conviction!”).

I need 300 hours of internship and I put in for an internship as a Firearms Record Specialist at the Buffalo Bill/Cody Firearms Museum and I really thought I’d get it. I’ve spent the past many years dealing with firearms records, you’d think that experience would count for something.

Unfortunately for me, they went with someone else and a consequence of my pinning my hopes on that one internship was that once it did not come to pass, it was really too late to put in for any others.

The result is that this summer instead of chipping away at the internship requirement, I’ll be doing non-credit research and letters. Good for the small arms collecting community (I think) but not so much for my academics.

One of my advisors is encouraging me to get published a bit more, so I’m going to work on a couple things that are not -directly- firearms related but hover on the edge of firearms. I’m working on an article for the New York State Archive Magazine that deals with the purse holsters used by NYPD Policewomen. That falls into a historical field known as Material Culture and a subject I’ll be taking a course in this Fall.

I’ll also be doing some specifically firearms articles for various sources. I’m looking at S&W’s used by NYPD Policewomen, Colt Metropolitans and the NYPD, S&W Victory Revolvers and the NYPD and a few other things.

So that’s where my quest for a Masters’ Degree in Public History as a stepping stone to becoming a Firearms Historian is currently at.

I’ll update as things develop (or as the muse calls).

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

This my fellow forum member, is both interesting and educational. That you are able and willing to undertake the dedication too further education with knowledge. Please post progress and thank you for sharing.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

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And so it goes...

Bravo on your current achievements. I have little doubt that your present goal will come to fruition.

I firmly believe that sheep skins are proof of successful completion of a long and arduous task.


Much respect.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Congratulations on your accomplishments so far and keep us posted - I think great things are ahead for you and look forward to seeing what you produce.

Congrats Robert.

I'm excited for you and green-with-envy there Marine!

Valde invidus.


,

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Death? Smile back...

I think that you would make an excellent teacher.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Congratulations and good luck. If I have life overs, I would pursue Western History and Museum Science.

Excellent progress there, Robert!

Too bad about the Cody internship, but I think the lesson there is always apply for multiple positions/openings and scholarships/fellowships/grants. There is a lot of competition in the academic world, and most hardworking, persevering students wind up winning some and losing some. Just how it works.

Hey, we're all pulling for you!

Back when I got my MA in History, Public History was easily my favorite grad class.

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Some Might Say.

I'm confused. What is the differene between public history and history???

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Forum consigliere

Caje's question intrigued me. I found this:

"Public history is the use of historical skills and methods outside of the traditional academic realm of history. Public historians use their training to meet the needs of the community-the public-whether that community is defined as a city, a neighborhood, a business, or a historical society. It is the audience that differentiates the public historian’s work. The public historian’s audience might be a client, a government agency, or a tourist...."

What is public history? | Department of History, Geography and Philosophy.

SO Roy is a public historian in all things S&W.
Got it.

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Forum consigliere

Does the Collins Foundation offer internships?

Retired professor here (though not in history). One idea is to begin to organize what you have, plus what you will acquire during the course of your studies, and create the beginnings of an formal academic institute for firearms history. If SUNY Albany doesn't want to house such an institute, maybe some other institution will. Naturally, you would be in the position of becoming the director of the institute, so you would be creating your own job.

Since universities rarely use their dedicated budget money to support institutes, you would need to be able to raise what is called "soft money" from grants. There should be public or private agencies that offer grants to support your efforts, and you'll need to become familiar with them. Your faculty will help you with the grant-getting process. In fact they'll be thrilled that you're interested in one, because faculty get big brownie points if they are part of getting a grant. If successful, you might then be able to leverage that into a position at SUNY Albany, or elsewhere.

Good Luck!

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What, me worry?

When I first was in my grade advisors office, I noticed that he had a top of the line weapons grade Apple computer with a pair of screens slightly smaller than a parking space.

Every other person in the department had an unremarkable PC with a single 17" monitor. A couple people had two monitors. Nobody had a set up like this guy.

I figured he had specific computer tastes so he bought the gear himself. I asked him about it.

Me: That's a great set-up! You're a Mac guy and everyone else here has PC's. You bought your own gear just because you prefer Apple that much?

Dr.X: I really prefer Apple for what I do but this is the University's computer.

Me: <perplexed voice> Everyone else has PC, yours is the only Apple set up I see. How'd you score that?

Dr. X: <totally deadpan>I brought a $400,000 grant in last year.

The local Community College offers a class in grant writing; always thought that would be a good one to have tucked into my academic weapons rack!

Best,
RM Vivas

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

An oversimplification would be a historian writes for other historians and academics, a public historian writes for a broader less academic audience.

Kinda when you're doctor (historian) writes in your chart that your 'experiencing a prolonged episode of epistaxis' and then the doctor (public historian) tells you "you're having a heck of a nosebleed".

Supposedly a History Masters is better for teaching and a Public History Masters is better for museum/curator work, although there is much cross-over between the two.

Or so I'm told.

Best,
RM Vivas

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

So yesterday (21AUG23) was the first day of class for the fall semester.

To recap:

In Spring 2023 I started my quest for a Masters degree in Public History from State University of New York at Albany (SUNY-Albany).

The degree requires 36 credits, 6 of which must be from a field related internship.

For Spring I took two clases that were worth 4 credits each: Intro to Historic Preservation and Practicum in Digital History.

Both classes were worth 4 credits each; got an A in Digital Practicum and an A- in Historic Preservation.
8 down, 28 more to go.

Picked up a summer internship (sorta/kinda) that, quite frankly, a man could build an academic career out of. That’s 6 credits if I do 300 hours of work (1 credit per 50 hours). I’ll get an incomplete in it for the summer because I haven’t yet hit the 300 hour mark but my instructor tells me that once I log 300 hours, hand in some paperwork and such, it’ll be done and graded and I’ll get the six credits. I figure that will happen in about six weeks or so, so let us count those in the ‘done’ column.

6 more down, 22 to go.

That brings us to Fall 2023.

There was a class I wanted to take last semester that I got closed out on (most graduate classes in the History Department are 15 students or so).

It suddenly opened up for Fall -after- I had already selected two four credit classes. I didn’t want to chance losing it again so, despite my better judgement and desire not to die from exhaustion, I signed up for it.

The result is that I am now signed up for THREE four-credit classes for Fall!
AHIS501 – Introduction to Public History
AHIS508 – Material Culture Studies
AHIS610 – Research Seminar in History

Introduction to Public History involves “…exploring the world of public history to see how historians present history to diverse public audiences. The field trips will acquaint students with important historic venues and repositories in the region….”. Lots of museum trips to see the mechanics of how museums take information and make it into a presentable form to the public. Of the three classes, this is likely to be the most challenging and time-consuming. The instructor is a fellow I’ve had before and is a decent enough fellow but a bit of a hard grader. On the other hand, he teaches an after class Akido group and brought in enough grant money last year that he has his own University funded cruelly high end Macintosh computer set up at a University that is all PC (it was -serious- money).

Material Culture Studies looks to be a bit easier and a bit more fun. It focuses on the historical concept of Material Culture; the history imbued in an object. Right up my alley because, hey, guns are objects! Our first paper, due in 4 weeks or so, is supposed to be about how objects can become associated with a specific gender and how that alignment can change over time. For this project we have to choose an object (or class of objects) that has changed its gender history at least once over time. Sounds like a good excuse to write about women and firearms….hmmmm…..what could I come up with…… LADYSMITH!! Perfect! Guns are for men but lets make something for the gals!

I think this will be a decent class that won’t be super difficult.

Also, I’m going to stay within the sphere of firearms so I don’t consider it Material Culture Studies; instead I think of it as Materiel Culture Studies. See what I did there? I’m hilarious! Seriously, that joke killed in the English Department.

The final class of the semester and the one I think (hope!) will be a ‘gimme’ is AHIS610 Research Seminar. The purpose of this class is to teach students to write a scholarly paper 6-9,000 words long for a peer reviewed journal, like,…the SWCA Journal maybe?

This one may be a ‘gimme’ because not only does it meet exclusively online, I can take the ‘scholarly article for a peer reviewed journal” that I have been working on this summer (which will run about 12-15,000 words) and hand that in. That means that the bulk of my semester work for this class is already done AND whatever isn’t done is stuff that I would be doing anyway, now I’ll just get academic credit for it. Gimme the ‘gimme’s! (Also, when the article hits the SWCA Journal I think its going to have a very big reception amongst the readers; not to be immodest but I think it’s killer!)

So those classes are (I think) 4 credits each, so by the end of Fall I pick up another twelve credits. That means that after this semester I will be TEN credits away from completing!

So that’s where I am now on the road to becoming a Firearms Historian.

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

Thanks for the update - looking very much forward to your article.

Good for you. The closest I ever came to doing something like this was swearing out an affidavit for a Motion to Dismiss describing how the FEG 9mm pistol made in Hungary was a copy of respected Browning High Power and that the safety features derived from the Browning High Power worked in the subject FEG pistol of the case. I must have done something right as we got the client dismissed out of the case long before the trial.

Good luck to you, RM! 12 credits is a full time student's load, but it's doable if working full time. Just need discipline and focus.

Thank you, OP and best wishes as you achieve this milestone. That is both a very interesting and intellectually rewarding pursuit; as well as, a service to the collecting community.

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Rather be outdoors

✂️ focus comittment and will - YouTube

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

I have decided that, should I get my master’s degree in public history, I shall identify myself as a Materiel Culture Historian.

My Material Culture instructor thought that was hilarious, but I think I’m going to go with it.

(Materiel (with an ‘e’) is defined as military goods/equipment…you know….guns!)

Anyway, I have an assignment due the 18th:

“#1 Objects & Gender. (Due Sept.18)
Objects often become associated with a specific gender. This alignment can change over time. An example of this is the blue jean. In the 19th century these trousers were associated with men who did manual labor. By the 1930s some women who did manual labor, usually on the family farm, also wore them but they were still strongly associated with working men. By the 1950s teenagers of both sexes wore them for casual attire. Today, they are gender as well as class neutral.
For this project, chose an object (or class of objects) that you feel has changed its gender association at least once over time. Describe the object, its history, and how it came to be identified with a specific gender. Then explain how and why that changed. You should consider how our understanding of gender in the 21st century has influenced the dynamics of objects and gender association.”

So I’m thinking the S&W M36/60 Ladysmith would be great example and would have the bonus of being an object that switched genders twice; went from M36 to Ladysmith and then the Ladysmith reverted back to a modifed M36 when too many guys started liking the Ladysmith but didn’t want to get razzed for the name.

I’m waiting to hear back from the instructor on how deep she wants us to go into this thing. It’s supposed to be 6-8 pages long but, as the son of a lawyer, I have an unintentional tendency of submitting 20 page papers when I could have gotten by with a 10 pager.

Anyone have any LAdySmith M36/60 advertising featuring women or advertising featurning the -de-gendered version made later, I’d love to see it.

[email protected]

Best,
RM Vivas

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

RM, if you go to Google Images, and plug in S&W Ladysmith advertising, a bunch of samples show up.

E.g.,

I've always liked the Ladysmith 3913. It's visually appealing, fits my hand well, and I could swear that it has a better trigger than a regular 3913--though I think someone went over the parts list and found it the same as the regular 3913.

I also like the discontinued Ladysmith version of the model 65.

The Chiefs Special Models 36 and 60 did not change to Lady Smith and back to a non-Lady Smith version. S&W produced both concurrently, the Lady Smith being a rather limited run in comparison to the total number of Chiefs.

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

And there is the original Ladysmith, and the mysterious SN 709 Ladysmith which may or may not have been carried by Adolph Hitler during his rise to power.

Robert,

There are some excellent recommendations in these posts.

I may be wrong but I would also think that your methodology and methods would be important. What works best, and what doesn’t work as well. Thinking along those lines, I think that someone in the S and W Collectors Association could make your work less onerous, especially Mr Jinks and his assistants. Someone in the Smith and Wesson Historical Foundation might also provide excellent recommendations. Going further I wonder if someone at the Marine Corps Museum who has done similar research work could provide some suggestions? That is a world class operation. Different goals with similar methodology.

I understand your challenges. I was in the Ph D program at Arizona State University

Good luck in your professional and academic work!

Semper Fidelis,

Bill

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That's what we do!

RM Vivas, good for you! That looks like a good program, and you won't regret the work. Publish those papers. Hey, write a book when you are done!

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Heavily armed old man.

Well you should have gotten in touch with me...I coulda put a good word in for you with the researcher of firearms records at the Cody museum. Heck I coulda gotten you on the phone with him. If I remember right at the last gun show he said he was getting a little tired of the position. Of course you may be a little over-edumacated to work with him. I think he graduated high school...oh heck...I know he did. He's actually a pretty nice guy. He get's his boss to sign the historical info letters. They actually pay him sometimes!

So the quest to become a Classically Trained Firearms Historian continues.

It’s interesting to see how classmates are planning things. Almost every one of them is either going to teach or work for some state historical agency/museum.

I’m the only fellow there who is doing this for their own improvement rather than as some career steppingstone.
On the other hand, Mrs. Vivas would very much like me to get out of my current job field (which takes a pretty decent physical toll and an immense spiritual/psychological toll) and teach.

Anyway, my instructor in my The Research History Seminar class was expounding on the need to get published. I understand that in academia (and she teaches the class towards the idea that all the students will pursue something in academia) publishing is a sort of way of showing one is relevant field-wise. She was really beating that publishing horse though. I can see where there is merit in her argument and although I try to get something out every now and again, I think I really need to step up my publishing game.

I’ve been keeping a little notebook of ideas for future projects. Some are very large and some fairly straight forward. Whats really interesting is how while doing research for one project I will come across a document or image or note that leads me in another direction and makes me say “hmmm…that seems like a new project waiting to be done…”. Mission creep!!!!

A couple are not even about small arms directly but indirectly.

I though I’d share some of the ideas.

Untitled – A piece aimed for the NYS Archives magazine. Describes how I used NYS Library holdings to decipher previously undecipherable NYPD purchase records and construct career biographies on different officers. A rare instance of a non-gun work going out to a non-firearms publication. I think they’ll go for it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it touts the library’s holdings.

Untitled – A look at the NYPD Model 60 debacle, with a list of returned guns and copies of some of the correspondence between the PBA and their lawyers and S&W. Includes a bunch of stuff from the evaluation program that led to the adoption (and eventual un-adoption) of the M60 NY-1.

The First 500 - An analysis of the first 500 Registered Magnums with an emphasis on the statistical analysis of barrel length, grips, sights and other features based on factory records showing how the guns were configured AS SHIPPED rather than how they appear now after post-factory use/modification. Includes analysis of shipping destinations and timelines as well as some of the purchasers who were famous at the time but have faded into obscurity. This one is getting very big; about 30-35 pages so far and it’s going to go long. It’ll likely be my thesis for The Research Seminar In History 600-level class I’m in now. This is rapidly becoming my gateway drug into wanting to get an RM.

Fairest of The Finest – The use of the S&W .32 HE and the M36-1 3” HB by the NYPD Policewomens Bureau from WW2 through 1973 (and a little beyond). Emphasis on providing serial number data showing what gun went to what officer. Possibly something I may present at next years SWCA Symposium.

Iron Alley – History and overview of the row of gun dealers that populated Centre Market Street behind NYPD HQ and supplied the guns. Jovino, Sile, Lava, etc.

Untitled – History and use of the Colt Cobra revolver by the NYPD, with serial number data and showing what gun went to what officer.

Untitled – History and use of the Colt Metropolitan revolver by the NYPD, with serial number data and showing what gun went to what officer.

Untitled – History and use of the S&W 2” M10 revolver by the NYPD, with serial number data and showing what gun went to what officer. Only 400 ever purchased.

Untitled – Directory of NYC gun dealers from the 1880’s to 1960’s.

SAA Census – This is an ongoing project where I collect data from published Colt historical letters and create a database of Colt SAA info. It’s at about 2,500 entries right now and is really a lot of fun to play with. If you have a gun that shipped to the Joe Blow Mine on 21JAN88 and was part of a 6 gun shipment, you could possibly find what other guns were in the shipment as well as seeing how many guns went to that dealer all together, if the features were early or late, etc. It really has some interesting potential as I add more and more entries to it.

Municipal Firepower – A profusely illustrated piece on the various firearms/artillery used as monuments in my county. I’ve found some Civil War cannons, a 4.5” M1 howitzer, a nice M1917 water cooled on tripod and a German MG 08/15 all used as public monuments. I know there are a bunch more, I just have to locate them and do the history on them.

Untitled – A census of DSC gun orders. Lists DSC gun shipments by date, user, user address, city, state, number of guns in shipment, DSC shipping number and contract number. Most entries would simply say how many guns went on a particular day to a particular address although in some instances there is serial number data. Interesting for seeing where some guns went and in what quantities. Surprising number of mom & pop type places getting one gun or two gun shipments. Some info as well on the forms and procedures for ordering the guns.

NYPD Victory Revolvers – A look at the S&W Victory revolver as used by the NYCPD with serial number data and showing what gun went to what officer. Basically a S&W version of my Colt Commando article that was in the CCA Rampant Colt Fall 2022 issue. ( www.vivasandson.com/CCACommando.pdf )

Trophy Cops – A detailed look at the history of awarding engraved revolvers as prizes to NYPD cops who excelled in various aspects of training from 1917 to 1973. An expansion of a thesis for my undergraduate class. Lists all known Trophy Gun recipients with a brief synopsis of their careers. Serial number data where available. This one is another that will likely run rather long.

So yea, when people ask why I seem to have no time, this is part of the reason!

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

Wow - lots of great topics. Looking forward to reading one and all.

One of the many research projects I have going on right now is this one, which I described in a post a few weeks ago:

“…Untitled – A census of DSC gun orders. Lists DSC gun shipments by date, user, user address, city, state, number of guns in shipment, DSC shipping number and contract number. Most entries would simply say how many guns went on a particular day to a particular address although in some instances there is serial number data. Interesting for seeing where some guns went and in what quantities. Surprising number of mom & pop type places getting one gun or two gun shipments. Some info as well on the forms and procedures for ordering the guns…”

This is turning out to be quite interesting. I’ve indexed maybe 1,000 or so DSC orders and it’s quite interesting to see who got guns from the DSC. One example is the National Rifle Association taking delivery of 50 Victory revolvers in May 1945. Another is some company that produced cork; you may think that wouldn’t need an armed guard but if you’re a cork maker in WW2 I bet you’re banging out a lot of life jackets and the like, hence the guards.

While the vast majority of the orders don’t contain serial number data but instead will simply say “50 revolvers” a surprising number -do- have serial number data and I’ve picked up perhaps 800 serial numbers of DSC guns that shipped to Boeing, various Ordnance plants, lots of LE agencies, and a surprising number of small companies that you would not immediately think of as vital to the war effort.

I’ve also come across a fair bit of literature about the Plant Protection Forces and how, for administrative and authority purposes, they were considered Auxiliary Military Police. That solved a lot of problems I should think, in places where handguns and their carrying was tightly controlled (looking at you NYC!).

One thing that I came across and find rather fascinating is the 2-inch Victory. Conventional wisdom is that they were produced in relatively small batches, with an eye towards the CID, military intelligence, cloak-and-dagger crowd. For the large part that’s true. What I’m learning is that if you wanted a 2-inch Victory -AND- you had an authorization from DSC, you could simply ask S&W to take your authorized 4-inch and re-fit it to 2-inch!

I’m still going through all the correspondence but apparently, if you contacted DSC for a revolver, they would tell S&W that you were authorized a 4-inch Victory. Once the purchaser found out his authorization was approved for the 4-inch gun, he would contact S&W and ask them to pull the 4-inch barrel and replace it with a 2-inch barrel. There was an additional charge to do this; it was put on a repair bill for $1.50!

If that seems cheap, remember that S&W got to keep the original 4-inch barrel, so their only real cost was the labor, hence the $1.50 repair charge. While civilian arms sales were curtailed during WW2, S&W was allowed to continue to repair civilian guns as long as they had parts on hand.

I found this quite interesting because A) it raises issues about what 2-inch guns are ‘contract’ 2 -inch versus “Hey, here’s a buck and a half, gimme a snubbie!” and B) it explains outliers in 2-inch gun serial ranges.

At some point I’ll have an article with copies of all the correspondence and forms, but right now other projects are taking priority (trying to get my First 500 article finished and out for Spring 2024!).

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RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

The thought process around being a firearms historian is a little like a cross between treasure hunting and being an archival MacGyver. Sometimes you're on the hunt for an amazing treasure (serial number data) and sometimes you have to adapt, improvise and overcome in order to get things done.

One of the many, many projects I have going on right now is taking the existing NYPD firearms records and ‘enhancing’ them. This involves taking the original document, creating a spreadsheet entry for it and punching in data from other sources for each Patrolman.

The greatest issue is deciphering the handwriting. As I’ve pointed out before, if you can’t read the name all you can do is just confirm the gun went to the Department and was sold to -somebody-.

I’ve just about completed book 42-46, which covers all the Victory sales. I’m doing an article on the NYPD Victory revolver during World War Two and I want to be able to tie a name to each gun. The problem is that the names are illegible.

Normally the solution to this is to take a name like Jxxx SxxTH J(illegible letters here) S(illegible letters here)TH and wash it through a list of Academy graduates or a civil service list. If I know this kid graduated September 1944, I’ll pull up copy of Spring 3100 for that month and look at the list of graduates. 250 kids graduated, fourteen had a first name starting with J. Fine, that narrows it to 14 kids. Now I look and three had a last name that started with S. Great, now down to three kids. Of those three kids, only one had a last name that ended in H. That’s our guy, John SMITH. If there is no graduation list available, then I use a civil service list from an archive I found of The City Record.

This has worked insanely well until I came to a batch of about 300 names from early 1946 for which I could find nothing in Spring 3100 and nothing in the civil service list for 1945 and 1946. This was perplexing.

As with many things, sometimes when you hit a roadblock you have to stop, regroup and approach from another angle.

I decided I would take a drive to the NYS Library in Albany and pull their back issues of Spring 3100 and see if I missed something. It’s a drive and a half day lost but I figured it was worth it.

I’m laying in bed this morning thinking about then trip and how I’d rather stay home and my mind starts wandering around the problem. I started thinking about the hiring process and why there was no civil service list to be found for 1945 or 1946 for these early 1946 kids I was looking at. Then it hit me; the City had a hiring freeze during the war. They were not giving any new civil service exams because of the freeze BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THEY WEREN’T HIRING OFF AN OLD CIVIL SERVICE LIST.

Plopped down at my desk, pulled up some files and discovered that the last civil service exam for the Police Department was given just after the war started and was published 09SEP42. I took the suspected names of these 1946 kids and ran them against the list. Bingo! These 1946 hires were off the 1942 list!

So now I’m able to confirm the names and attach them to the individual firearms records.

Why is this important?

Because when I publish the list of who got which Victory, you want to be sure your guys name was John BURNS and not John BERNS before you go spend time and resources digging up the background on the wrong Patrolman in an effort to thoroughly document your gun.

So, another roadblock surmounted, and some lessons learned. I hope to have this NYPD Victory article done in the next couple weeks and then get it off to the SWCA people to see if they have an interest in publishing it.

Best,
RM Vivas

__________________
RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837

So, the quest to become a Firearms Historian continues...

One of the classes I am taking right now is Curatorial Practices for Historical Agencies. This class is another ‘behind the scenes’ of how museums operate. It’s really quite fascinating and the temptation to be that fellow who walks in the doors of a museum and never leaves is quite tempting.

One of the projects we are working on right now is to select an object from the museums deaccessions list and write an opinion on whether the object should stay or go.

It took a little horse trading but I was able to swap objects with another student and my object was an Eli Whitney NYS Contract musket. I have to write on why I think the museum should keep or get rid of it. I favor keeping it, but that not the point of this post.

In order to support my argument for keeping it, I figured that I should know if the museum had any more muskets like it. After all, you don’t need twenty Whitney muskets. If, however, they only have one...

OK, not a big deal. I asked the instructor how many Whitney or Whitney-type muskets the museum has. She said she was not sure but would get back to me. Later I got a spreadsheet emailed to me with 300 guns that ran the gamut from Japanese matchlocks to belt-fed crew served!

I’ve pared down the list to include only Colts and S&W’s. I left the Maxim’s on there just for fun.

Assuming that the information in the document the museum provided is correct, I could probably do a stand alone article on “The Wells Fargo Colts of the New York State Museum”. The S&W revolver listed as belonging to Admiral Potter, however, sounds interesting. Also, there may be something to be done with the Wesson rifles.

Note the Colt revolving rifle!

ID Number Object Name Maker Date Made Description Remarks / History
H-1942.5.17 Rifle 1880, SN 751, Wesson single shot
H-1942.5.20 Carbine 1860, SN 10066, Colt revolving
H-1942.5.22 Rifle 1880, SN 2197, Wesson single shot
H-1942.5.35 Rifle 1880, SN 5360, Colt's Saddle Gun
H-1970.151.1 Revolver Manhattan Firearms Company 1850, "Wells Fargo" model percussion revolver. Frame is engraved. Cylinder is engraved with a stagecoach scene.
H-1972.76.7 Revolver ca. 1917 Smith & Wesson Model 1917 .45 caliber revolver. Serial number 111142. Lanyard ring at the butt with a piece of leather string attached. Dark black metal. "United States Property" engraved on the underside of the barrel
H-1976.113.1 A-B Revolver 1900, SN 251480, with black leather holster, belt, etc. Smith & Wesson
H-1977.200.1 Gun, Machine Maxim, Hiram 1914-1918 1910, SN 43100, on sled mount, M'08
H-1977.200.2 Gun, Machine Maxim, Hiram 1914-1918 1910, SN 9733, on bipod, M'08-'15 Spandau
H-1980.36.2 A-B Revolver 1900, pearl grips, S&W, holster
H-1984.85.4 Revolver Colt's Patented Fire Arms Manufacturing Company 1860 1860 Colt Navy percussion revolver. Steel is blued. Wooden grip. Serial number 88252
H-2003.29.1 Pistol Colt's Patented Fire Arms Manufacturing Company ca. 1898 Long barrel, six-shot revolver. Blued steel components. Wooden grips, left of which notched in five places. Owned by Frederick C. Anderson (1872-1954) and used by him as a soldier 1898-1900. Serving among other places in Cuba, Philippines and China. He reportedly killed five men, one of whom tried to rob him in China. Anderson in 1954 used the pistol to commit suicide. The weapon was acquired by the donor, who notes he grew up next door to Anderson "like a grandfather to me". See file folder for more about Anderson.
H-XX.320.1 Revolver Smith & Wesson 1860 Smith & Wesson rimfire revolver for 22 caliber rounds. Dark wooden grip. 75237 serial number stamped on the metal part of the grip.
H-XX.322.1 Revolver 1860, rimfire, Smith & Wesson
H-XX.322.2 Revolver 1890, nickle-plated, Smith & Wesson
H-XX.322.3 Revolver Smith & Wesson 1890 Smith & Wesson top break revolver with lanyard ring. No grip is attached to the frame. Belonged to Admiral Potter.
H-XX.322.5 A Revolver 1910, SN 83115, M1917 Colt & holster XX.322.5 B (holster) is in C03-H10-B03-4
H-XX.322.6 A-B Pistol 1920, semi-automatic, SN 8127, Colt Super .38
H-XX.374.2 Revolver Colt's Patented Fire Arms Manufacturing Company 1860 Colt Navy percusion revolver, Serial Number 11137. Cylinder is engraved with images of sailing ships on the water. Photographed by NYS Archives 11/1997 for publication
H-XX.374.3 Revolver Colt's Patented Fire Arms Manufacturing Company 1850 Colt Wells Fargo percussion revolver. Serial number 144842. Engraving of a stagecoach scene on the cylinder
H-XX.374.4 A-E Revolver 1850, cased set, complete, Colt Wells Fargo

__________________
RM Vivas
SWCA#1482L, SWHF#837