Popular vs Authentic History

[Greg]

Today for Easter my wife and I visited Kelvingrove Museum here in Glasgow. Kelvingrove has a fantastic display of weapons that I am reasonably pleased with... though have my reservations.

 

A 'Hands on' Demonstration included a French Model 1831 (US Model 1832) artillery short sword. These were short Roman Gladius-style weapons issued during the French Napoleon III period and popular throughout the world until about 1880. Numerous armies fielded them for artillery and some foot officers.

 

The museum guide demonstrating the weapon explained it was a 1800-1815 Napoleonic sword, used by the French against the British... gasp!... he's wrong, it was issued well after the Napoleonic wars as the French were using the short curved Briquette at this time (also known as the 'champagne sabre' for the ability to cut a cork off in a neat trick.)

 

So...collectors... this gets me thinking... I did not get into the guys face over his error because he was education children at the time about arms and weapons. But his dates and ID were wrong and I have 15 years of short edge weapon collecting to back me up, he has maybe 15 minutes... but in historical education to have people hold, handle and understand militaria... is it more important to be historically accurate and correct or fudge the reality to fit an education programme regarding a theme?

 

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Take for example out recent investigation of SS ammo... we know a SS factory produced it but cannot prove the SS put the ammo in a SS rifle and fired it.... should it be consigned to SS produced ammo only and be correct on what we know, or is it perfectly fine to 'make up' the rest on wide speculation to create a story and say this is SS unit issued?

[Kenny Andrew]

I agree I think both G and I have visited the Black Watch Museum in Perth which is excellent however there is a glaring mistake in the fact the Kriegsmarine dagger is described as an Army or vice versa.

 

I was all set to tell the curator about the mistake but when I got to where he was standing I kind of thought I can't really be bothered , I think G did the same, but really we should have corrected the mistake, Greg too but some times it seems more hassle than it's worth ,and whither they would actually do anything about it is another matter too.

[Ross]

Today for Easter my wife and I visited Kelvingrove Museum here in Glasgow. Kelvingrove has a fantastic display of weapons that I am reasonably pleased with... though have my reservations.

 

A 'Hands on' Demonstration included a French Model 1831 (US Model 1832) artillery short sword. These were short Roman Gladius-style weapons issued during the French Napoleon III period and popular throughout the world until about 1880. Numerous armies fielded them for artillery and some foot officers.

 

The museum guide demonstrating the weapon explained it was a 1800-1815 Napoleonic sword, used by the French against the British... gasp!... he's wrong, it was issued well after the Napoleonic wars as the French were using the short curved Briquette at this time (also known as the 'champagne sabre' for the ability to cut a cork off in a neat trick.)

 

So...collectors... this gets me thinking... I did not get into the guys face over his error because he was education children at the time about arms and weapons. But his dates and ID were wrong and I have 15 years of short edge weapon collecting to back me up, he has maybe 15 minutes... but in historical education to have people hold, handle and understand militaria... is it more important to be historically accurate and correct or fudge the reality to fit an education programme regarding a theme?

 

-----------------

 

Take for example out recent investigation of SS ammo... we know a SS factory produced it but cannot prove the SS put the ammo in a SS rifle and fired it.... should it be consigned to SS produced ammo only and be correct on what we know, or is it perfectly fine to 'make up' the rest on wide speculation to create a story and say this is SS unit issued?

 

Thankfully nobody did speculate about the ss ammo or make up the rest cetainly not in the original post which was a question rather than a story. Hopefuly we dont have anone silly enough on this forum to go off on a flight of fancy or go off on an unhelpful tangent

 

[Graeme]

It depends what you are wanting.

 

If we take films. I would love to see historically accurate films - but would they be any good?

 

We can all sit about mumping and moaning about how did he get a CCC when they haven't even been in combat yet and his trousers are the wrong shade of blue and they are using a T34 made up to look like a Tiger. If you want historical accuracy watch a documentary. Films are for fun and entertainment. If they spark the interest of 1 person into finding out what was historically accurate at the time, as well as entertaining the rest of us, they have done their job - and done it well.

 

Museums on the other hand are a different matter. They are a source of learning and teaching. Our schools are already failing our children with phonetics and all other manner of left wing liberal teaching ideas. God help us if a Museum can't get it right. These people are supposed to be experts or have experts on hand to help.

 

This attitude of 'why bother' has been dragging us down to the level of a tplac for years. It should be considered a moral duty to explain to museums and other places of learning what is wrong and how to correct it. It's possibly this attitude that makes my daughters teachers turn tail and run when they see me.

 

I now depart to watch the 1936 version of the Charge of the Light Brigade. No historical accuracy at all - but a feckin good film!!!!!!!

[Kenny Andrew]

Your quite right G I agree , although I did have a hangover that day

[Graeme]

You can't have a better excuse than that