Today at the Canadian War Museum

Sad part is they have all the correct artefacts do it right, just not the will to go the extra mile necessary.
 
JP said:
I have a couple of Friends who work there also, they want to portray a general impression of an era or event. The details are not that important, their point is they cannot be experts on every detail that cover events from Vikings to Korea. So the little details that irks us so much as collectors are secondary to the management.
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I volunteered at a museum for 15 year. this irks me, because the Museums whilw they have to remain popular to survive, also are required to pay attention to the details, it is part of their job.
 
Claven2 said:
I guess that's what separates word-class museums like the Smithsonian or the British Museum from shoestring outfits like Canada's museums.

A good analogy is this:

How likely do you think it is that the British Museum would mis-identify a second kingdom Egyptian sarcophagus as a third kingdom piece? Or a Ming vase as being from the Yuan dynasty?

After all, to the public they're just trying to give the general feel of ancient Egypt or to show the general beauty of ancient chinese pottery, right?

WRONG.

To do that would seriously tarnish the reputation of those WORLD CLASS institutions of preservation and learning.

It's just that simple. Do we want out national museum that recognizes the sacrifice of untold lives to be world class, or third world?

Me, I would prefer world class.
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I agree with you, but I doubt there are very many, if any, museums in Canada that are world-class. There simply isn't the funding or public interest to make it happen. Archives fall into the same fate, except they're even less visible, yet much more important in many respects.

For what it is, a place to educate the masses about some of Canadian military history, the CWM does the job fairly well (aside from a lot of the PC bullcrap). For being an authority on all it holds (which is a great deal), it fails. You don't even want to see what the accession files look like...

The CWM is the red-headed stepchild of the Museum of Civilization, when really it should be the other way around.

It's too bad that those of you who have offered to volunteer have been turned down or ignored - that is inexcuseable. Part of the problem with the CWM is its policies - For volunteers to work, there must be an employee supervising. If one section only has one employee, s/he can't be around much to supervise. For example, I heard several volunteers worked on the Panther, but could only do it with Jim around. This meant the volunteers couldn't work on it during weekends, when they could afford to put the most hours in, even if Jim wanted - it was crown corp red tape and bureaucracy. Very frustrating for all parties involved. Just one more example of the inefficiency of government :rolleyes:
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
I agree with you, but I doubt there are very many, if any, museums in Canada that are world-class. There simply isn't the funding or public interest to make it happen. Archives fall into the same fate, except they're even less visible, yet much more important in many respects.

For what it is, a place to educate the masses about some of Canadian military history, the CWM does the job fairly well (aside from a lot of the PC bullcrap). For being an authority on all it holds (which is a great deal), it fails. You don't even want to see what the accession files look like...

The CWM is the red-headed stepchild of the Museum of Civilization, when really it should be the other way around.

It's too bad that those of you who have offered to volunteer have been turned down or ignored - that is inexcuseable. Part of the problem with the CWM is its policies - For volunteers to work, there must be an employee supervising. If one section only has one employee, s/he can't be around much to supervise. For example, I heard several volunteers worked on the Panther, but could only do it with Jim around. This meant the volunteers couldn't work on it during weekends, when they could afford to put the most hours in, even if Jim wanted - it was crown corp red tape and bureaucracy. Very frustrating for all parties involved. Just one more example of the inefficiency of government :rolleyes:
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The Museum of Civilization is a Red Liberal pile of politically correct excrement. I NEVER advise visiting family to go there. The CWM is SUCH a worthwhile cause in comparison, it's laughable and I would still think so if I wasn't into guns.

The stupid thing about volunteering at the museum is employees there only need enhanced reliability clearance. I work for the Fed Gov and have Secret clearance and they STILL would not give me the time of day when I tried to donate my time. I can pick up the phone and talk in person to most of the authors of the reference books they use to make up their displays and info cards, but "so sorry, we're too busy to even return your calls to volunteer". Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with their management polices IMHO.
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
I agree with you, but I doubt there are very many, if any, museums in Canada that are world-class. There simply isn't the funding or public interest to make it happen.
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I would submit the Glenbow Museum in Calgary as an example of a Canadian world class museum. Calgary is also home to the Museum of the Regiments (which admittedly i haven't been to in an awfully long time), and Heritage Park which is a historical park/community about Life on the prairies a the turn of the century. It does extremely well, and is now doing a major expansion, and is truly impressive in scale and scope. As a "living museum" there is no better example of a place truly focused on "giving the overall impression", but I guarantee that they don't make mistakes about their displays.
 
2100 firearms in the Glenbow collection, what do you want to bet that they messed up on the identification of any of them.

Linky just add the w

ww.glenbow.org/collections/museum/military/
 
Part of the problem with the CWM is its policies - For volunteers to work, there must be an employee supervising. If one section only has one employee, s/he can't be around much to supervise. For example, I heard several volunteers worked on the Panther, but could only do it with Jim around.
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no kidding

15+ spotless military record

35+ years with s spotless record..........

but i am still an ass
 
Lou, you missed out on the most fun part of that place, the small arms vault (though it is closed access, so dont think that you missed a turn or something). I had the priveledge of being invited in there, and my god, the stuff they have in there is beyond belief. What you see out on display is just samples of what they actually have. I was able to not only see and touch, but to operate the actions, mag changes etc. on MP40's, StG 44's, AK47, Brens, as well as the standard k98's and L-E's. Seeing the 50 for the first time sent chills down my spine...how lucky i feel now to have fired 50+ rounds through it in the slow, powerful thumping that puts such a big sh*t eating grin on your face :):):) All I gotta say is thank you CF
 
can14 said:
I have an original ww1 shoulder stock for a webley .455 pistol that they have in their display with the bayonet attached. I offered to give it to them to make the display correct. But......no answer to...fax....e-mail......
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Your shoulder stock is for a Webley flare gun which uses the same frame, not for the revolver.
 
I don't think so if it was picked up on a Normandy beech and has a volley sight forestock. More likely a converted Mk1 wearing the Mk1 nosecap. Just my opinion.

Hard to tell more from those pics.
 
I saw the rifle in question, all I can say it it's pitted all over and in a uniform way, which is consistent with it having been in salt water for awhile, then poorly stored/taken care of, and refinished at some point after that. The story seems believable to me.
 
If you want an example of how Museum administrators SCREW UP, I could refer you to our Pima Air Museum. We had a large number of VOLUNTEERS restoring aircraft supervised by a very knowledgeable Mechanic supervisor(also volunteer) The PRATT with a college degree, who was the head of the museum staff, decided he knew how to run aircraft restoration better, even though the only dealings he had with things that fly was to ride in them.
He decided that he knew more than the "volunteeer" who was running restorations and told him he wasn't wanted. Result? EVERY volunteer QUIT. So now we have a B36 in pieces that won't get assembled, plus a bunch of other aircraft needing work. The reason we got the B36 in the first place was because we had a lot of volunteers who liked the work.
 
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