canadian war museum

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can14

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Does anyone know someone who works in the firearms section of the canadian war museum? I have a complete WW1 Webley shoulder stock.
They have a display of soldiers going over the "top". One of them has a webley .455 with bayonet. When the .455 was used with a bayonet, it had a shoulder stock. I have a couple of original WW1 stocks and would like to give them one for the display. But, no one ever answers my inquiry!
I don't want to send it, so someone throws it out on receipt because they don't know what it is.
I have spent 3 years making offer. So this Nov 11th, I though that I would see if anyone here knows someone who works there.
 
Good luck with that...

From what I have heard so far the War Museum has been very unresponsive to the firearms community, or anyone for that matter. There are quite a few errors I noticed in the labeling of the small arms collection over there, and none of the staff seem to care.
 
On top of that, the employees are on strike right now, and it's not looking like it'll end soon - no side seems to be wanting to move. I'm sure once that's resolved that you could get in touch with someone. I do have a couple of contacts there (being myself in the Museum community), but they are on the picket line these days :(

Lou
 
I wouldn't trust the war museum with anything valuable. My family has a section of nose art from a fighter our cousin flew in Burma. Surviving fighter art is rare and this one is from a Canadian ace and DFC holder. We talked to the war museum but they weren't interested in a loan, only a gift, and with no guarantee that it wouldn't end up in some musty storage facility like so many other artifacts.

I'd suggest a local museum, maybe a regimental museum, people who would really appreciate the item.
 
It is a fantastic museum to visit. They have a german torpedo on display. It is huge. As long as a car. had no idea they were so big.

Saw a few mislabled rifles. Called a M96 a M85, for example. That seem strange, sicenthe Swede is so obvious.
 
the people who work there are not gun friendly. they are historians.there is about 6 layers of political bull#### to even talk to them. keep it or sell it to some one on the forum who will appriciate it. not stick it in the basement and forget about it, or let it rust away untill it gets put out with the trash.or tradeed off for some thing of value to them.
 
I very much enjoyed my visit to the CWM, but as others have said, they are completley useless when it comes to returning emails and such.

I wrote an article for the CSSA magazine, so I contacted them prior to my trip to Ottawa.
No response
OK, fine, I'll just write it without any assistance. So after finishing the draft, I sent them a copy by email.
Still nothing!
 
The big problem is the lack of manpower right now, due to the strike.

That said, there is also a rather "left" shift in the POV of the museum IMO.

I contacted the museum's image services, and ended up having my e-mail forwarded to a curator due to him not having anyone actually working below him at the time. (3 weeks ago)

We had an interesting discussion, and I brought to his attention that there are some "significant" artifacts in the collection, such as, presentation C-7 and C-9's, (S/Ns 86AA00001 and 85AA0001 respectively) that weren't ID'd as being presentation items....he was interested, and noted the info as well as a bit of background info I was able to provide too.

NS
 
Deaccessioning

MRCLARK said:
But to who??? I'd like a little piece of that action where do they sell the stuff?

Gov auctions?
Click to expand...

The curators need material that fits whatever the mandate of their museum is. The CWM needs artifacts, documents, photos, etc that are pertinent to the Canadian experience in war. If Great Uncle Bill was awarded a VC with his VD, Clap and Scar in the British Army, they don't care. It is pointless to donate those items to them.

Yes, they are mostly historians, which isn't saying much. They seem to go out of their way to hire people with little or no military experience. Rightly or wrongly, the CWM management does not want only the military experience to be shown. They believe it is only part of the story. But just look how much trouble was/is caused by some of their choices in artwork. I for one am horrified to see a so-called sensitive piece of art portraying a war crime in Somalia. But do they listen to little old me?

Deaccessioning is the dirty business of moving things along, hoping to trade up for something better. Think about zoos, where do all the extra baby giraffes go? How did the CWM get its Staghound armoured car? By trading extra parts of the collection to a collector.
 
My one and only visit to the new place left me not wanting to come back. It's a nice collection of 'stuff', but in many cases, poorly or inaccurately described. I got a sense that many displays were written to be 'PC' (i.e. the glossing over of the Ross Rifle issues), so as not to offend anyone, whereas others seemed to be there just to piss off veterans and those currently serving (i.e. Bomber Command, Somalia paintings).

As a place to see some interesting architecture and military 'stuff', it's pretty good. But as a place to really learn about the nation's military accomplishments, it's a bit of a dud. Think of it as history 'lite'.
 
Their response (or lack of same) to you shows their level of interest......Before you give anything to CWM or any other Gov't Depot, consider this: your "gift" will likely end up in a box or filing cabinet, never to see the light of day again. Consider your fellow collectors: if you sell it, it will likely survive another generation at least (weapons excluded) and be appreciated for it's history. The CWM essentially closed it's doors when St. John of Chown left the building.....
 
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