John Browning beginnings

[H Richard]

It was a nice day so we took a drive up the Mississippi to Nauvoo, IL where the Mormon settlement of the mid 1800's is gradually being rebuilt. This is the shop where John Browning began his gun building business.





Inside the home/shop are displays of the famous guns he built and a recreation of his shop on the original ground it was built on.


Just some of the examples of some guns his family went on to build..



It is unfortunate the reflections from the glass cases make some not very visible.








(the air cooled machine is a non firing mock up)



Inside the shop is parts breakdown of some of the guns.





And what his original forge looked like.





We had been there before, but it must have been over 15 years ago.

 

[JJEH]

Very nice, great history, thanks for sharing!

 

[Alk8944]

This is moderately interesting, but exceptionally inaccurate. This would be t re-construction of the shop of John Brownings father Jonathan Browning before the Mormons fled Nauvoo in the winter of 1846-1847.

Our John Moses Browning was not born until 1855 in Ogden, Utah Territory, after the Mormons had become established in what would become Utah in 1896.

 

[LedFowl]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. Pretty interesting pictures.

 

[AJ]

About 95% of the display needs to be in Utah.

 

[Joe Kent]

John Browning ,the father had his first shop here in Quincy. Il. before Nauvoo. The shop in Nauvoo is interesting and does have some of his original works on display but most are John{ the son's} designs. It none the less is interesting. Thanks Dick for posting.

 

[4barrel]

I have the same birthday. 1 23. I am not famous yet.

 

[H Richard]

All of the displays, and the history story has been placed in this reconstruction location by the Mormon Church. Any inaccuracies need to be addressed to them. It is John Browning's home, "The Father" of John Moses Browning.

 

[DWalt]

I am not sure of the meaning of "Nauvoo" maybe any LDS members can explain it. I believe the Mormons, during their westward trek, stopped at numerous places along the way and named some of them Nauvoo. My childhood home was in an area formerly called Nauvoo (Ohio) allegedly named by some Mormon settlers who stopped there for awhile. And I went to Nauvoo Grade School there - that's what it said on the building, now long gone. Many of the natives pronounced it "Nar-Voo."

Another similar place worth a visit is the Robert H. Goddard rocket museum and workshop in Roswell NM, where Goddard did much of his pioneering research and development of liquid fuel rockets. Surprisingly crude, but he made it work.

 

[catadjuster]

I grew up near Nauvoo - the Browning display has really been updated since way back then (1970's).

 

[Absalom]

I think we need to be careful with any judgments here.

That this wasn't THE John Moses Browning's shop, but his father's, is clear from the chronology. But whether the display is in any way inaccurate or misleading depends entirely on the way it is curated and presented.

I can't read the labels, and the one plate readable doesn't make any incorrect claims. So I wouldn't criticize the exhibition just based on this. There is nothing wrong with displaying some of the son's achievements in a father's house.

 

[DWFAN]

I've been to the museum in Ogden and it's simply amazing. Spent almost half a day there on a semi guided tour and I can't say I saw everything. As you stand in the entrance you look down the main drag of Ogden with the mountains looming in the near distance. Almost surreal. If you can go do it. You won't be disappointed.

DW

 

[codenamedave]

I remember reading about how he got started making his first gun, a single-shot rifle. His father reminded me of the practical, no-nonsense type of guidance I got from my folks.

JMB was complaining about a problematic rifle they owned, and finally said "I could do better than this."

Father: "I wish you'd get at it."

I've been to the museum in Ogden and it's simply amazing. Spent almost half a day there on a semi guided tour and I can't say I saw everything. As you stand in the entrance you look down the main drag of Ogden with the mountains looming in the near distance. Almost surreal. If you can go do it. You won't be disappointed.

DW

Is that the one in the train station? American Handgunner had a great article about visiting there, the staff actually let the editor of the mag and Bill Laughridge, owner of Cylinder & Slide, tear down JMB's prototype that became the 1911. They were appropriately reverential, as in one instance they found a piece had been brazed on, saying it was "likely the touch of the master himself." The editor wrote that no E.O.D. technicians ever dissembled a bomb with more care!