Are there Establishments/Museums that Collect Airguns out there......

[bighit]

The Royal armoury in Leeds does have a display of airguns. It's not a major part of the museum but it's there I'll see if I can find a snap.

Dave

Is that the display with the HW45 with the shoulder stock Dave ?

Im sure there was a seperate display other than the one above also .

[bighit]

Leeds Royal Armoury 2016:

https://imgur.com/a/7pgb3bj

Whether it's still there or not, I don't know.


Dave

Im sure I saw the display in your pics in 2017 Dave .

[bighit]

Yes, but they have already have some very rare and important military weapons buried in the vault and not (never) on show. The airguns would end up crated up in there.

They seem much more interested in putting on medieval shows for kids than anything else.

Which makes economic sense, now that all museums (pre-COVID) moved from being academic centres of study to kids’ entertainment.

Of course, that’s sad.

Alex from SACS was told some of the historical airguns that may be handed into due to the AWL up here would likely go to the leeds museum or any others that did not have examples already.

Not sure if that happened.

[Hsing-ee]

There's the I.J. Bavarian Rhapsody Collection, sadly private, and also the Imperator Garvin Arsenal, also sadly private.

[Geezer]

Alex from SACS was told some of the historical airguns that may be handed into due to the AWL up here would likely go to the leeds museum or any others that did not have examples already.

Not sure if that happened.

As I alluded to above, RA Leeds have a bad rep among serious researchers. They keep masses of stuff in the non-accesible vault. If you are (great bloke, btw) Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, they’ll let you in. A bit. Otherwise not. They are increasingly not in any way a centre for academic research, and more (pre-COVID) focussed on doing knights doing sword stuff to entertain nine-year olds.

In my judgement, they are highly unlikely to give a flying toss about airguns.

I’d be very happy to be proved wrong.

[piggy589]

The Royal armoury in Leeds does have a display of airguns. It's not a major part of the museum but it's there I'll see if I can find a snap.

Dave

Isn't the home office firearm testing facility situated underneath the museum?.
One of everything ever made available for the boffins to examine and test if need be.
I could be wrong.

[micky2]

I think Danny's excellent web site is better than any Museum. you can view from the comfort of your own room.

[Powderfinger]

I can see why people are reluctant to donate to museums. Many museums end up with far too much to display. Donations to museums have sometimes been sold off or scrapped. The RAF Museum has scrapped aircraft.

[Unframed Dave]

Isn't the home office firearm testing facility situated underneath the museum?.
One of everything ever made available for the boffins to examine and test if need be.
I could be wrong.

I've no idea, it was a bit of a flying visit on the way back from Scotland.

Museums are getting a bit of a slating, but what alternative is there? Funding is low on the priority list and it isn't going to get any better. They have to do what they have to do to stay above water. As for appealing to the kids, again it's what they have to do. When ours were young, we took them to anything educational near to where we were at the time. These days, I'm museumed out. Something has really got to appeal to me to go to one. In fact, I actively avoid them.

There's no excuse for poor curation though, that's just bad lazy.

Dave

[johnbaz]

Hi

I went along to my local museum with an old (330 years old) Samurai sword to see if I could get any info on it, They just wanted me to donate it to them all the time, I know that if I had donated it, I'd never see it again as it wouldn't get displayed so I gave them the elbow, It was a waste of time anyhow as they let a European sword specialist give an opinion on it that hadn't a clue about them!

John
I'm

[45flint]

It’s said over here in the US if you want to have your collection never seen again donate it to a museum? Your better off selling it and having someone enjoy it. At airguns shows I try to have half my table be a exhibit of airguns most never see. Love talking to curious people about them.

[Garvin]

I can see why people are reluctant to donate to museums. Many museums end up with far too much to display. Donations to museums have sometimes been sold off or scrapped. The RAF Museum has scrapped aircraft.

I don't know why more museums don't put up pics of their surplus items online. They could post 3D detailed pics or panoramas that are very satisfying to see. Like this one:

https://www.360cities.net/image/the-sistine-chapel

Probably afraid it will lead to reduced numbers in person (pre-Covid)...

But... they could put the online collections behind a paywall and collect eg. 50p per visitor... it could really add up if a global hit...

[Hsing-ee]

As I alluded to above, RA Leeds have a bad rep among serious researchers. They keep masses of stuff in the non-accesible vault. If you are (great bloke, btw) Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, they’ll let you in. A bit. Otherwise not. They are increasingly not in any way a centre for academic research, and more (pre-COVID) focussed on doing knights doing sword stuff to entertain nine-year olds.

In my judgement, they are highly unlikely to give a flying toss about airguns.

I’d be very happy to be proved wrong.

I think I suggested it a while ago, but the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire would be a good place to house an airgun museum. Its close enough to the home of the once mighty arsenals of Birmingham and sort of in the middle of England. They could have a Springer Annex, a PCP Gallery, an Antique Boutique with a shed for the CO2 and pumpers. With one or two exceptions airguns are not military 'weapons' so they don't need to be mixed up with all those scary powder-burner types.

[Jerry Cornelius]

The Royal Armouries in Leeds does have a limited number on display, but I found it OK but rather underwhelming (about 5 years ago).

Their archives are potentially more interesting, but very few of the air guns they list are photographed and you only have brief descriptions to go on. To make matters worse, the descriptions and names have several errors.

https://collections.royalarmouries.o...sort=relevance

I looked through the air pistol archives and then contacted the curator pointing out some of the errors and offering to help correct their files. His secretary acknowledged my email and said that the curator would contact me within 6 weeks. Four years later, I am still waiting, and the errors are still there.

Kind of disillusioned me about archivists and their dedication to preserving historical accuracy!

Send it again! It probably just got overlooked rather than deliberately ignored

[Powderfinger]

Museums can be good for telling the story of a particular subject but collectors often do a better job of preserving the past, especially if they start a private museum. I think enthusiasts have done more to preserve historic British military aircraft than the government, for instance. Birmingham Council have some gun related displays at the city museums and the Proof House is n excellent museum but for comprehensive displays and preservation of airguns the collectors are doing a great job.