Fuller Gun Collection

[donna]

The Fuller Gun Collection is in the Visitor's Center at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We stopped at the center and toured park this past week. There is a you tube video on the collection at:

This exhibit is a must to see. Collecting guns was Claud Fuller's hobby. It did not come easy for Mr. Fuller. He dropped out of school when he was 12 and went to work in a Kansas City flour mill. His fascination with the way things work continued, as he later found a job as an engineer in the brick-making business.

Armed with a 7th grade education, Fuller's career as an engineer blossomed to produce 48 patents for the brick-making processes and machinery. But firearms remained his passionate hobby. By 1923, after thirty-seven years of collecting, the growing collection included over 2000 items.

In 1949, the Fullers, Claud and Zenada, decided something more needed to be done to display the collection. They offered a portion to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, stipulating the collection always remain in the park to be studied and admired by the visiting public.

Fuller always visited the park and shared about the guns. He died in 1957 after 80 years of sharing his passion for technology and mechanics with thousands of people, in person and in writing.

Their collection lives on at the park.

 

[redbob]

A beautiful grouping of weapons in an inviting atmosphere.

 

[Old Hickory]

He wrote a few books on Civil War guns also. Some information I've not seen elsewhere. Thanks for posting this. Donna.

 

[donna]

His wife, Zenada helped with his collection. Since his job was so demanding, she would go to auctions and estate sales alone to purchase rare guns. In addition, she taught herself typing and stenography to help her husband publish several books on firearms.

 

[donna]

If you put in Claud E. Fuller's name, his books come up on Amazon. Many are quite expensive but know they be worth having.

 

[Old Hickory]

If you put in Claud E. Fuller's name, his books come up on Amazon. Many are quite expensive but know they be worth having.

I got my two from Amazon a few years ago and they were almost free! Former library books. I guess he's been, "discovered".

 

[Old Hickory]

The thing I like about Fuller's, "The Rifled Musket" is the second part, drawings of actual targets shot with the original guns using issue ammunition, fired by soldiers of the era. It gives a very good idea of what each gun was capable of, from smooth bore musket to the Sharps rifle.

 

[donna]

My husband really enjoyed this exhibit. I would like to get him some of Fuller's books.

 

[Bob Owen]

Every time we get house guests that have never seen the collection, we take them down to Chickamauga to see it. It's an awesome collection that you can follow the development of US firearms in one stroll through the museum. Just outside the collection room is Col. Wilder's Spencer rifle. I always have to stop by and admire it every time I go there.

 

[Bob Owen]

 

[nitrofd]

I really hate that collection because each time I see I never leave the visitor to see the rest of the park...rats...

 

[johan_steele]

Bob... why the hell couldn't you have been born a beautiful woman? Because then that pic would be darned near perfect.

 

[chellers]

Pssst......Johan.....perhaps the ladies here think the pic is "darned near perfect" as it is!!!

 

[frankconrad]

You really need several days, study until you are numb go someplace to recover and then go back again.
I have never had the opportunity to really look at it. Like the John Browning Museum at Rock Island Arsenal, and the NRA museum at Bass Pro in Springfield, MO, just to much to absorb at one time.

 

[donna]

We did purchase the small booklet, "The Fuller Collection of American Military Shoulder Arms" by Harold L. Peterson at the gift shop at Visitor's Center at Chickamauga and Chattanooga Military Park.

As written, there were so many arms to see and try to do in short amount of time. Just not enough time.

 

[gary]

The Fuller Collection is a must see. That whole area is filled with historic sites including Lookout Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain, Kennesaw (RR and Civil War Museum), Picketts Mill, etc.

Other worthy museums for firearms include the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax. Virginia. Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, Mass., Colonial Williamsburg (and its DeWitt Museum). I understand that Gettysburg took down much of its collection. The Frazier Arms Museum in Louisville, KY is worth visiting. A neat little museum in Ohio is the Log Cabin Shop in Lodi, OH. I don't know if the Smithsonian American History Museum ever put their firearms collection back on display. Somebody update me please.