General discussion > Contemporary Accoutrements

Guthman Collection of F&I and Rev powder horns

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satwel:
If you happen to find yourself in central Massachusetts, the Flynt Center of Early New England Life at Historic Deerfield has approx 70 powder horns on display through the end of December. It's the William H. Guthman collection. According to the gentleman who sold us the tickets, this collection outshines the one at Ticonderoga.
I went last week. Most all the F&I horns were carved in New York: Crown Point or Fort Edward and were carried by troops from CT. Most of the Revolutionary horns were carved in Roxbury or Cambridge during the siege of Boston. A few were Indian horns.
If you're nutty about powder horns, and you'd like some inspiration, it's worth the drive.

http://www.historic-deerfield.org/exhibitions

Randy Hedden:
Several horns from Bill Guthman's horn collection are featured in Jim Dresslar's book "Folk Art of Early America, The Engraved Powder Horn".  The photos in the book probably give you a better view of those horns than what you will be able to see at the museum  exhibition.

Randy Hedden

www.harddogrifles.com

mr. no gold:
Many were less than overjoyed over the transfer of the Guthman horn collection to the MA
museum. They will remain there on display for awhile until modern museology takes over and they are relegated to a storeroom and not seen again for a long, long time. This seems to be standard for too many of today's museums.  Add to this the bias against weapons and the things of war,  the elite snobbery of some curators and you have the effective removal of the things we all like from any research or study. Even academic research is difficult.
I recently tried to access a collection housed in a university in Illinois and was told that several forms had to be filled out and it would take several days to process my request which might be turned down. You can bet that I didn't waste the time waiting.
Gusss what I am trying to say is that I do not favor the acquistion of arms by museums at any time unless it is germaine to the nation's history (George Washington's swords, etc.).
Also, there are a number of horror stories on the disposition and maltreatment of various collections held by museums. It's a bad deal for the collector or arms researcher in far too may situations. Smithsonian, anyone?
Dick

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