CivilWarTalk Throwback Thursday, 10-11-18

James N.

Colonel
Annual Winner
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Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Location
East Texas
CW ollecting - Then & Now
CW Collector.jpg


These two photos were taken sometime in the mid-1960's around the time I started college but record a much more important (to me!) then-recent development - the beginnings of my militaria collecting. At the time, naturally it was the then fairly available Civil War relics like the M.1860 Cavalry Sabre I'm holding which my mother had given to me for Christmas a few years earlier. By the time these photos were taken other accumulated items included a single Union shoulder scale I'm also holding; an original wartime copy of Harper's Weekly; a fine ambrotype of a likely New England soldier; cap pouch; Grand Army of the Republic Union veteran's medal; Union buckle and cartridge box plates; and Spanish-American War era canteen and haversack. Note also my room's decorations of a U.S. Army print titled First at Vicksburg; uniform plates of U.S. and C.S. troops; a set of souvenir Confederate flags from my 1964 visit to the then-Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond; and my "patriotic" bedspread thrown over my stereo cabinet as a tablecloth for the photos.

Alas! - I no longer have the saber which started it all; it was an import marked Henry Boker - Solingen, supposedly a rare importer. It was subsequently stolen in a smash-n-grab burglary now many years ago, but fortunately I never cared for it as much as I should have since it wasn't American-made. Although at one time I must've had a half-dozen of them, the one I kept is a nice mid-war dated one made by the Ames Manufacturing Company in Massachusetts. The haversack was traded or sold long ago, and the canteen converted back to its Civil War appearance for use reenacting, but I still have the rest. As can be seen by the photo taken this August in Jefferson, Tex. by Bobby (@bdtex ) although at least fifty years separate it from those above, my tastes haven't changed all that much!

Jefferson CW Symposium.jpg
 
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I like both displays, Both are interesting for different reasons. We all get older and our collecting tastes change, and I know, at times I wish I still had some things that I got rid of for various reasons. We get older and sometimes we don't learn much about our collecting habits. So I keep on collecting, hopefully I am learning something more than the history of the objects. I understand I am only the temporary caretaker of my collection.
 
Great post and I really enjoyed meeting and talking CW collecting with you this past weekend.
 
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