Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00789R001300210004-1 " questice ORTELTS Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00789R001300210004-1
/& ft Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : GIAR P96-00789R001300210004-1 [ue oS Wake : ole , ymuawe ata (jgw : ee Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00789R001300210004-1
Museum Takes Aim At Gun History For 7-year-old James Monroe Davis, swallowing a bitter spoonful of medicine was one of life’s most dreaded evils. This time, he required more coaxing than usual. Take the medicine, his father said, and he would get a surprise. The bribe worked. Young Davis opened, swallowed, and collected his re- ward—a boy’s .410 gauge shotgun that cost $1.50 in 1894. That was the beginning of a firearm collection Davis spent the rest of his life assembling. More than 20,000 _ firearms and related artifacts are now housed in the J.M. Davis Gun Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. Visitors can walk for a mile through the collection, viewing some relics that date far back, such as a 14th-century, hand-held cannon from the Orient. Along with the guns, the museum also has large collec- tions of antique German steins, Indian artifacts, World War I posters, and John Rogers statuary, popular during the Victo- rian period. Rogers’ sentimental portrayal of everyday people is similar to Norman Rockwell’s works. Davis moved to Oklahoma in 1916, after trading several thousand acres of Arkansas timberland for the Mason Hotel in Clare- more. He worked the desk at night, which afforded him ample time for his passionate ’ hobby. Gun collectors from all over the. world journeyed to Claremore to trade pieces and information with the noted au- thority at the small hotel. Before long, the lobby, hallways, dining room, and seven upstairs rooms were filled with firearms. At the entrance to the mu- seum stands the old key box and registra- tion desk, with dozens of guns arranged geometrically above it just as they were in the hotel lobby. “On rainy afternoons, my wife and I would farm out our children and go to the hotel. We would spend hours looking at the guns, until our necks gave out,” says]. Lee Good, who has been with the museum since it opened in 1969. The collection spans the history of fire- arms from the mid-1300’s and basically stops with weaponry from World War II. There are ornately decorated pistols, as well as handguns so small they can be hidden in a woman’s palm. Muzzle-loading rifles and Colt pistols, which played major roles in the history o this country, take up much of the collec- tion. The muzzle-loading firearm was a primary weapon during the America Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil War. Atthe J.M. Davis Gun Museum in Claremore, Ok John Wesley Hardin, and Pretty Boy Floyd are see Later, along with the Winchester rifle and Colt revolver, it helped settle the West. ‘gle suggests.” homa, weapons belonging to Bonnie Parker, in the Gallery of Outlaw Guns. olibri, which weighs only 2.5 ounces and res miniscule 2.7 mm cartridges. The argest is an .82 caliber musket made in hina. The overall length of that gun is 8 feet, 10 inches. Almost everyone who visits th€hRagikyG HT s eventually drawn toward the Gallery of Outlaw Guns, to view firearms once used by such infamous owners as Pancho Villa, John Wesley Hardin, Pretty Boy Floyd, land Bonnie Parker. There are about 1,000 Colt firearms in the collection, including a rare Walker Colt, manufactured in 1847. Following the advice of Texas Ranger Samuel Walker, the Colt Patented Firearms Company de- signed a pistol for mounted troops. The result was the .44 caliber model with a 9-inch barrel that weighs almost 5 pounds. The Walker Colt can be fired six times without reloading. Many of the firearms feature unusual design styles. The wide-muzzled blunder- buss was used in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. The muzzle of the largest one that’s on exhibit measures more than 4 inches in diameter. “The design of the blunderbuss was strictly a psychological thing,” says Good. “Jt didn’t scatter the shot like the muz- The museum, at 333 North Lynn Riggs Bivd., is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Additional information on the collection is available by writing to J.M: Davis Gun Museum, Box 966, Claremore, Oklahoma 74018; or call (918) 341-5707. Many of the pieces indicate the gun- makers were expert craftsmen. One of the most ornate models is a rifle with a Mique- let lock mechanism, a style that originated in Spain around 1600. The gun is deco- rated with more than 50,000 pieces of nat- ural and stained ivory, brass, and gold inlays. Another piece designed primarily as a work of art is a 17th-century German crossbow. Ivory, bone, and mother-of- pearl inlays form signs of the zodiac and other celestial figures along the stock. The smallest gun in the museum is the The stock of a 17th-century German crossbow is decorated with ivory, bone, and mother-of-pearl] aa September 1985 43 Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00289R061300210004-1