Travels and gun shows

We wished Dave a fond farewell a couple of weeks back and have been settling in to work sans curator.  No word on the search for a new curator, but we hope to have someone in place this fall.

I returned home from the Denver gun show last Monday (May 18).  It was a good weekend; we did around 150 serial number searches, eight Cody Firearms Museum memberships and a number of Factory Letters.  I wish I could make it to the Orangeville, Ontario show on May 31 as I am in the area visiting family, but unfortunately, I fly back to Wyoming that day.  We are looking forward to the two big gun shows in Cody in a couple of weeks.  The Winchester Club of America show is June 12-14 and the Winchester Arms Collectors Association show is June 19-21.  Makes for a couple of long weeks for us, but we enjoy seeing old friends and making new ones.

Gun Show Support from the Cody Firearms Museum

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The following is a listing of the shows that we will be supporting through the beginning of summer.

The Records Office will be available by phone (307-578-4031) during regular work hours and on the dates listed. Keep in mind that we will have “boots on the ground” at the Denver and Cody shows.

- April 4 – Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show, Tulsa, Okla. – Sat. 8 a.m.– 4 p.m.
- May 16-17 – Colorado Gun Collectors Assoc. Annual Gun Show, Denver, Colo.* – Sat. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. & Sun. 9 a.m. – noon
- June 13-14 – Winchester Club of America Show, Cody, Wyo.* – Sat. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. & Sun. 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- June 19-21 – Winchester Arms Collectors Assoc. Show, Cody, Wyo.* – Sat. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. & Sun. 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Cheers,
Dave

Busy, busy…

A lot of our friends assume that the winter is the slow season for us at the historical center. I like to think of it, however, using the metaphor of the duck on the pond. Everything above water is nice and calm like nothing is going on but the feet are just paddling away underwater.

Right now, the staff of the firearms museum, in tangent with other departments, is working on an inventory, verifying some paperwork for regulatory matters, working on label copy, and updating our own internal records for the objects in our collection.

The next few weeks are going to busy for me, personally, as I go to a gun show, present at Fourth Friday, and then head to meetings of a board on which I sit. The gun show is the Las Vegas Antique Arms Show at the Riviera Hotel (Jan. 16-18). Fourth Friday (Jan. 23) is a Winter event at the historical center. This month the focus is on the Firearms Museum. Following that, I am heading to Cheyenne for the Mountain-Plains Museums Association mid-winter board meeting (Jan. 29-31).

Should be fun!

Cheers,

Dave

It’s good to be home!

OK – finally back in Cody after a whirlwind trip to Idabel, Oklahoma and Kansas City, Missouri. I had great fun at the Museum of the Red River and at the Mountain-Plains Museums Association Conference.

The last couple of weeks being the blur they were, I am still processing some of the information. Besides spending all of one day presenting on Firearms and Museums (with assistance from my friends in the BATFE), I had the opportunity to talk and listen to a number of other museum professionals about what we do for a day job. Talks about Board Development, Technology, Facilities, Conservation, and Exhibit Planning were par for the course. The evenings included trips to many of Kansas City’s best museums (and they really are great!). Next year’s MPMA conference will be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Should be a fun one.

It wasn’t all fun and games, however. While driving through Oklahoma, we heard about the untimely death of our longest-serving Advisory Board member. John Riner Woods passed away on October 16, 2008, as the result of a terrible traffic accident.  I can’t fully express my feelings on the subject. John and I were just getting to know one another and I was looking forward to the insights gained by his wisdom, his collecting knowledge, and his business acumen. He will be missed.

And with that, I have to get back to work.

Cheers,

Dave K.