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| Charlton Heston as "Will Penny" Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
Among the 14
galleries, the Robert E. Peterson Gallery is the largest in the museum. The weapons
donated to the NRA’s museum represent just a fraction of his vast collection.
The Southern Californian represents the quintessential American who served in
the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II and built a publishing empire of 32
monthly periodicals such as Motor Trend,
Guns and Ammo, Petersen’s Hunting, Handguns and Rifle Shooter.
An avid
hunter, Peterson tracked game on every continent. He “was credited with being
the first person to ever take a polar bear with a .44 Magnum handgun.” He was
Commissioner of Shooting Sports at the XXIII Olympiad in 1984, held in Los
Angeles, California.
Peterson’s
donated collection includes the Gatlin gun, British guns, personal firearms,
Italian Masters, American classics, Colts, German arms, European arms, and a
Jewel box. An experimental rifle, a Mauser action Falcon test rifle, formerly owned
by Elmer Keith, a Montana cowboy who became famous as a big game hunter, is
also part of the collection.
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| Big Game hunting rifles Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
The gunsmiths
of Europe created functional arms as well as elaborately decorated firearms for
the rich, indicating their social status through special metal and wood inlays,
damascening, gold and silver encrustations, engraving and etching, chiseling,
goldschmeltz, guilding, silvering, bluing, and browning.
German and
Swiss immigrants who settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, brought with them a
short rifle called the Jaeger (hunter) to use for sport and hunting in the
heavy woods that resembled their homelands. It was the same octagon-barreled rifle
used by Hawkeye, the hero of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. This
rifle was later lengthened to 40 inches and called either the Pennsylvania or
Kentucky rifle even though it was manufactured in every colony from around
1700s to right before the Civil War.
Eli Whitney of
New Haven, Connecticut, already famous for his invention of the cotton gin, received
in 1798 a government contract for 10,000 muskets to supplement those made at
national armories. Whitney’s ingenuity turned a rather complex manufacturing
process into a series of simple operations, thus revolutionizing manufacturing
in America.
Showcased
are gun maker and inventor Ethan Allen of Bellington, Massachusetts, Horace
Smith and Daniel Wesson (Smith & Wesson) of Massachusetts, who left a large
list of arms-design and revolver patents in their long careers, John H. Hall of
Portland, Maine, who patented the breechloading rifle in 1811 utilized in rifles
and carbines between 1823-1853, and Eliphalet Remington, Jr., who created a
handmade flintlock rifle in Ilion, New York. Although Remington the father was
not an inventor, he utilized ideas and inventions developed by others and acquired
them. His large scale government contract in 1845 of 5,000 Mississippi rifles
established the Remington name as the arms-maker in America.
Sharpshooters
like Annie Oakley from Ohio, her husband Frank E. Butler, whom she defeated by
one point, are famous for accuracy with rifles, pistols, and shotguns.
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| Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
A larger-than-life
bronze statue of Charlton Heston in his beloved Western role of “Will Penny”
(1968) pays homage to the National Rifle Association President Heston.
On display
are small guns imported during the Civil War from England, Austria, Prussia,
Saxony, Bavaria, France, and Belgium. Their quality varied from useless to
excellent. A shortage of revolver and carbines was experienced by the Union
Army despite Colt, Remington, and Smith & Wesson manufacturing them at
record levels.
The displayed
ten-barreled .45-70 Colt Gatling gun from the Robert E. Petersen estate was
used in John Wayne’s 1967 movie The War
Wagon and in the 1976 Clint Eastwood film, The Outlaw Josey Wales.
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| Roosevelt's office Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
Rifles and
other memorabilia are displayed celebrating our 26th President,
Theodore Roosevelt, author of 40 books, 150,000 personal letters, thousands of
magazine articles, New York assemblyman, rancher, Civil Service Commissioner,
President of the NYC Police Commission, Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
Colonel of the 1st USV Cavalry, Vice President of the United States
of America, recipient of the Medal of Honor and Nobel Peace Prize, father of
six children, and an NRA Life Member. He sent the following note to the NRA:
“I am so
heartily interested in the success of the National Rifle Association of America
and its work done in cooperation with the National Board for the Promotion of
Rifle Practice that I take pleasure in sending you herewith my check for $25
for life membership therein.”
According to
the Museum Archives, “His firearm collection was perhaps the largest ever
assembled by any president of the United States. He was known for insisting
upon exacting standards for his guns, and favored Winchesters and Colts. He
also treasured a pinfire shotgun that was a gift from his father.”
He inspired
the famous Teddy Bear by refusing to shoot a motherless bear cub during a
grizzly bear hunt. This gesture became a political symbol for his compassion
and for his presidency. President Roosevelt advocated for a balance between
conservation and sport even though he embarked on a year-long African safari in
1909.
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| President Roosevelt's personal effects Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
His Brooks
Brothers khaki canvas tunic, his Stetson hat, and his cavalry officer sword are
displayed in a case adjacent to his three valuable rifles and his
office/library and other weapons. The National Firearm Museum was selected by
the National Park Service to temporarily house Roosevelt priceless artifacts.
The home
where they raised six children, Sagamore Hill, built in 1885, has undergone $16
million in renovations since 2011. Roosevelt told his wife Edith, “I wonder if
you will ever know how I love Sagamore Hill.” It was the place where Roosevelt
died in his sleep at the age of 60.
Four of his
six children had distinguished military careers: Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1887-1944)
who perished in Normandy, France on July 12, was an avid hunter who took
expeditions in the Himalayas and Nepal with his brother Kermit; Major Kermit
Roosevelt (1889-1943) who died at Ft. Richardson, Alaska; 1st Lt.
Quentin Roosevelt (1897-1918), an accomplished pilot (his father was the first President
to fly in an airplane) who was shot down over the Western front on July 14 and
is buried at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, next to
this brother Ted; and Lt. Colonel Archibald B. Roosevelt (1894-1979) who served
in the 1st Division of the U.S. Army during World War I and in the
41st Division in the Pacific during World War II and was severely
wounded in both wars.
A memorial
to the police officer, Walter Weaver, killed in the 9-11 Al Qaeda terrorist
attack in New York includes his photo, pistol, and badges, Shield #2784,
Emergency Service Squad 3.
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| Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
A typical
child’s room display includes toy pistols, pea shooters, cork poppers, and
rifles which became popular in the 1850s and remained so until the 1960s. The
Daisy air gun was selling 1.5 million a year in 1960.
The
confiscated guns and wanted posters of various bank robbers and FBI suspects such
as Dillinger and Lester M. Gillis, and posters of ten most wanted fugitives such
as Juan Garcia-Abrego and Usama Bin Laden are displayed.
Guns for
hunting small game and big game are also exhibited in large cases.
There are
numerous cases of Hollywood posters, costumes, and guns used in famous movies that
promoted violence, war, and killing. The famous and hypocritical actors who made
millions from these movies speak against guns and against the right to bear
arms while hiring armed bodyguards for personal protection.
In case you
wonder why a museum would dedicate 14 galleries, 85 exhibit cases, and 2,000
guns to glorify the act of war, of aggression, of killing animals for sport or
food, consider the fact that firearms have a unique place in American history.
As Charlton
Heston said in a speech in September 1997, “There can be no free speech, no
freedom of the press, no freedom to protest, no freedom to worship your god, no
freedom to speak your mind, no freedom from fear, no freedom for your children
and for theirs, for anybody, anywhere, without the Second Amendment freedom to
fight for it.”
Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015
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