New Job!

[tark]

Started a new job today, at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum. Well, a kinda sorta job, it's volunteer work, four hours a day during museum hours. It's a lot like being a vendor at the Shot Show, I answer questions and provide information to the museum visitors. My main job is just to be in the reception area in case the boss needs to leave.

I have comprehensive knowledge of the guns, at least from the Krag era forward. But the historian here working in the research section has probably forgotten more than I will ever know, which leads me to my next subject;

Alongside the museum is a walkway that leads to an historical research section in the basement, which, to borrow an old phrase from the hippie era, will blow your mind. There is, literally, almost one copy of every firearms book ever published. Manuals, reference books, tech sheets, you name it. I am talking thousands, not hundreds, of books.

Ready for this? They have at least one issue of every American Rifleman Magazine ever published....from the first day, Issue one, number one, to the present.

And that's just the reading material! They have thousands of pictures of the Island, from the day the first camera took the first picture of the place. And now for the best part:

The historical research section is open to the public during museum hours, provided the historian is present. If you want to research the provenance of of a piece this would sure be a good place to start

 

[danez71]

Congrats. You certainly sound excited and thats a good thing in life.

What kind of free research will you be doing for us?

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

Congratulations. Sound like a cool gig, even if it is volunteer.

As you describe it I think I'd have a hard time staying on task with all there is to see.

 

[czhen]

Congrats, great time to learn more about our hobby.
Btw, uhhh, any free pass for THR members. We have planned a visit with my family to visit my brother in law on October.

 

[bannockburn]

tark

Sound like a firearms historian's dream come true job! Have fun with your new gig!

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Hey that sounds really cool tark! Have fun with it! I hope after I retire in 20 years or so, I can take a year off to get my bearings, and then volunteer or get a fun job in the firearms world. I'll be flat out DONE with my career by the time I can retire, so doing something different sounds really appealing.

congrats

 

[lightman]

Thats Cool! Its great that knowledgeable people like you will volunteer their time to places like this.

 

[Poper]

Slightly off the beaten track....

I'll be flat out DONE with my career by the time I can retire

I see similar statements like this quite frequently. What a sad feeling that must be. I really do not understand such sentiments. My career began when I left the USAF in Dec. 1980. I am 63 now, and have no intention of retiring. I do not wish to expire as my father did (we share the same career field) as he passed away less than 10 years after retiring. I believe a lot of what affected his health was the lack of needing a reason to get up and get out. He was asthmatic with emphysema which made any exercise very strenuous, but it also seemed to sap his spirit and gave him an easy reason to not exert himself.

I like what I do and only have minor dislikes about the profession, which usually has to do with personalities within it. Shooting, particularly long guns, is a hobby I enjoy that gives me a release from the daily grind and pressures. Maybe, after I turn 65, I will semi-retire and continue to work part time. Maybe not. I may just stick with it. Like I said, I like what I do and I believe it helps keep me thinking and feeling younger than my years.

I might just continue to work until they tell me to stay away!

 

[tark]

Btw, uhhh, any free pass for THR members.

Only pass needed is the one to get on the island. This can be obtained at the visitor's center. The only access onto the Island is the Moline gate on the Illinois side.

The research service is open to the public and is free.

 

[medalguy]

Congratulations on your volunteering. I volunteer two or three days a week at a NPS site, the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico. It's a beautiful place and I get to visit with people from literally all over the world. If anyone here is considering doing some kind of volunteer activity, I highly recommend it. It's very satisfying, I get to work when I want to work, and it isn't work at all. What more could you ask for?

 

[entropy]

Nice work, if you can get it. Congrats on getting it!
Try not to salivate on the display cases.

 

[tark]

Try not to salivate on the display cases.

Which one? The one with R.I.A 1903 serial #1 in original rod bayonet configuration? Never issued, never fired after proof testing?

Or the case with "U.S. Semiauto Rifle, Cal .30, M-1, serial # 2, a Model Shop Garand? Or the primer activated prototypes? Or the .276 Pederson rifles?

Or the 1892 Krag carbine, hanging on the wall? The only specimen in existence, literally, a one of one.

How about the five Indian rifles picked up from some obscure place called the Little Bighorn?

Or the Pederson devices, complete with accessories?

Or the three FG-42s one first model and two second models?

Or General John Buford's 1860 Cavalry saber? And it's scabbard? General Buford is generally credited with literally saving the Union. He recognized, that the Confederates he confronted were Lee's army, not just a raiding party. On July 1st he organized a defense that held the Confederate army at bay, just long enough for the Union army to arrive on the scene.

Every time I walk into that building I almost soil my pants. I worship American History.

And there is a lot of it in that building....

 

[4v50 Gary]

Congratulations.

Charles Trench (dec.) mentioned that there is a 1702 book published in Nuremberg that mentions a scoped rifle. Can you please ask the Historian about it?

 

[tark]

Can you please ask the Historian about it?

I will next time I see him. Possibly Monday at the earliest.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Sounds like a great place to volunteer.

 

[tark]

Can you please ask the Historian about it?

Actually, he was there today. lots of books in German, but none that old. Mostly soldiers manuals, factory literature and books on shooting and the like.