Museum Exhibits Archives - Page 15 of 25

[FEATURED EXHIBIT] Thomas Ives’ U.S. Civil War Ship Flags

March 18, 2018 By James Mitchell Varnum

Our Varnum Memorial Armory Curator, Patrick Donovan, was reading a first-hand account of the 4th Rhode Island Volunteers at the Battle of New Bern in the U.S. Civil War, and came across the names of the ship captains who made up the naval force accompanying the expeditionary force. He faintly recognized one of the names: Thomas P. Ives. Back at the Varnum Armory Museum, he went through the stacks of archival boxes to find one labeled: “Ives flags, Civil War”.

Born and raised in Rhode Island, Thomas Ives was one of the wealthiest people in the country at that time and was, apparently, very patriotic. When the U.S. Civil War broke out, he donated his private yacht, Hope, into Federal service as a U.S. Revenue Cutter (predecessor to the U.S. Coast Guard). He commanded his now well-armed boat in the Mid Atlantic area and fought to enforce the blockade. Later, he commanded the USS Picket and participated in Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition, which aimed to shut down important Confederate ports.

On March 14th, Captain Ives participated in the operations that resulted in the capture of the important coastal city of New Bern. He would go on to fight Rebel blockade runners and Rebel shore batteries putting his life at great risk. In one fight, his ship was destroyed and sunk, yet he survived to fight another day.

The signal flags pictured here, as well as the 30-star (1848) Union Jack flew aboard his yacht, Hope, during the U.S. Civil War in 1861.

Thomas Ives' U.S. Civil War Ship Flags — Thomas Ives’ U.S. Civil War Ship Flags

Scale-Model of a U.S. Civil War Union Cavalryman

March 18, 2018 By James Mitchell Varnum

Rich Faranelli, a phenomenal modeler, just completed a 120mm-scale U.S. Civil War Union Cavalryman for display at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum.

The detail is incredible. At 9-inches tall, it will be a great visual aid for people to show what they looked like with all of their gear in place. We have a Cavalry uniform and many accouterments of Union cavalrymen and their horses.

Many thanks to Rich!

Scale-Model of a U.S. Civil War Union Cavalryman

[FEATURE ARTICLE] John Browning’s Remarkable Automatic Rifle: the BAR

March 11, 2018 By Brian Wallin

Sitting on a display case in the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum’s “World Wars Room” is a Model M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). Introduced late in World War I and now known by infantrymen around the globe, the “BAR” was the product of the fertile mind of John Moses Browning. He is considered to be one of the world’s foremost firearms designers with 128 firearm patents. He is credited with the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms along with a range of accessories, used by the military and civilian communities worldwide.

Model M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum

About John Moses Browning

Browning was born in Ogden, Utah in 1855 and at age 13 went to work in his father’s gun shop. His prolific work continued unabated until, while working on a design for a new self-loading pistol, he literally died of a heart attack in 1926 at his workbench in his son Val’s design shop in Belgium. Throughout his life, John Browning remained totally focused on his craft. He is known for such weapons as the M1911 pistol, the Browning Hi Power pistol, the M1917 .30 caliber water-cooled and M1919 .30 caliber air-cooled machine guns, the M2 .50 caliber machine gun, and the Browning Auto-5 semi-automatic shotgun. The U.S. Army adopted his classic BAR “Browning Automatic Rifle” early in 1918. Variations remained in use until the early years of the Vietnam War.

Origins of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

War brings massive advances in a variety of areas, from medicine to tactics, and of course to weaponry. Early in World War I, both sides recognized the value of a relatively lightweight and easily carried automatic weapon for use by infantrymen was evolving. John Browning was right at the forefront with a response.

The French Army had already introduced the lightweight (and cheaply made) Chauchat (an example of which is also in the Varnum Armory collection). This type of weapon would allow an infantryman to continuously fire at an enemy while advancing, a technique called “walking fire”. Trench warfare, which often entailed high volume of concentrated fire, was also an effective application.

Browning quickly developed his idea for an automatic rifle and introduced it in 1917. Following tests in Washington DC before some 300 observers and after additional testing at the Springfield Armory, the U.S. Army accepted the weapon. Although it required some modifications, it quickly proved its reliability under the most adverse conditions. Early models allowed single (semi-automatic) or full automatic fire of between 350 to 550 rounds per minute of 30.06 caliber ammunition, using 20 round magazines. Incidentally, Browning also demonstrated his .30 caliber water-cooled machine gun to the same audience. After some modifications, it also ordered by the Army as the M1917 model. Like the BAR, it would also serve well into the 20th century. Again, you can see an example of the M1917 in our Varnum Armory collection.

The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in World War I

When the American Expeditionary Force began arriving in Europe in 1917, it was at first equipped with a variety of European weapons, including the French Chauchat machine rifle (the Chauchat was also manufactured under contract in the U.S.). The gun’s poor quality was readily visible in its open, spring-loaded magazine. It easily clogged and also had the disturbing quality of falling out of the weapon. One look at the Chauchat and comparing to the BAR will make the differences quite clear.

Initial shipments of the BAR arrived in Europe in September of 1918, and the 79th Infantry Division took it into action. John Browning’s own son, Army Lieutenant Val Browning, personally carried it. The French immediately ordered 15,000 of them to replace their Chauchat. The BAR saw limited action. The Armistice was declared less than three months after the weapon’s first battlefield use. It is said that AEF Commander, General John Pershing, was also concerned that the BAR could fall into enemy hands. And was reluctant to issue it in large numbers. Some 52,000 BARs were delivered to the Army before the war ended.

Post World War I use of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

After the World War I, Browning continued to experiment improve his designs. Colt Patent Firearms and Winchester, both in Connecticut, were the principal manufacturers of his designs. Winchester took over the lion’s share of manufacture when Colt could not keep up with demand due to other contract commitments. It was Winchester that made some further improvements, such as adjusting the ejection of spent casings to one side instead of vertically. A third company, Marlin-Rockwell, also entered production and between the three firms turned out more than 100,000 BARs by the end of the World War I. Civilian models came out after the war, but never gained popularity because of their high price (and all such weapons were banned from private ownership in 1934).

In 1931, Colt introduced another variation: the Monitor Machine Rifle. It is one of the lightest-weight automatic .30 caliber weapons (about 15 pounds) and was intended for use by law enforcement (only 125 were manufactured). During prohibition, the military BAR was especially popular in the underworld (in spite of so many representations of the Thompson submachine gun in the movies). It was the favored weapon of bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (Clyde got his weapons by robbing National Guard armories).

The BAR remained in military service through the Korean War and into the Vietnam War, although it started to be phased out in the late 1950’s, replaced by a variant of the M14 and later the M16. The Army began phasing out the BAR in the late 1950s and was without a portable light machine gun until the introduction of the M60 machine gun in 1957, a general-purpose machine gun. In the mid 1980’s, it began issuing the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon.

The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in World War II

BAR in use in Europe during World War II

Between 1917and 1945, more than 350,000 BARs were produced. The major percentage came in World War II, with some 249,380 turned out. In 1938, as war clouds were looming, the Army recognized the need to equip squad level units with a lightweight automatic weapon began to issue a modified BAR, identified as the M1918A2. It was supplied with a bipod, which most BAR users discarded, preferring to use it as a shoulder-fired weapon and carry it with a sling. Initially, at the squad level, BARs were the only automatic weapons issued to a 12-man unit. Everyone was given basic training in its use. Although three men were assigned to its operation (a gunner, an assistant and an ammunition carrier), eventually, one man bore the burden with other infantrymen carrying additional magazines or belted .30-caliber ammunition.

In Europe, American forces encountered German units who had every fourth infantryman carrying a well-made automatic weapon. Japanese forces used the lightweight Type 96 squad-level machine gun. Both enemy forces could put out significant rates of fire with their weaponry and American units soon began issuing more BARs per squad to improve continuous fire against the enemy. Marines in the Pacific became particularly adept in using the BAR in tactics against well-entrenched Japanese. One of the BARs drawbacks was its small 20-round magazine. It also malfunctioned unless regularly cleaned. However, with some further modifications and better instruction in field maintenance under battlefield conditions, it quickly became a favored, shoulder-fired automatic rifle in all theaters.

An East Greenwich connection to the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

Now, let’s make the East Greenwich, RI, connection to the BAR. As demand for the weapon soon outstripped the capacity of the major arms makers, an unusual consortium of New England companies was created under the name “New England Small Arms Corporation”. It consisted of diverse companies who quickly converted from the civilian product lines to arms making: Massachusetts participants were A.G. Spalding & Brothers in Chicopee, Blake Manufacturing in Clinton, National Blank Book in Holyoke, and Elliot Addressing Machine Company in Cambridge. International Silver in Meriden, Connecticut, and none other than Boston Wire Stitcher Company in East Greenwich, RI, rounded out the membership.

Rather than produce components for shipment to larger prime manufacturers, New England Small Arms undertook the entire production process, producing weapon components, and then sending them to a converted facility in the Crompton section of West Warwick, RI, for final assembly into a completed weapon. Using this process, New England Small Arms produced 180,380 BARs during World War II, or an unbelievable 90% of the entire wartime production of 208,380 weapons. Given that large number, it is entirely reasonable to consider that the M1918A2 in the Varnum Museum was produced here in Rhode Island. All of companies quickly returned to peacetime outputs following cancellation of military contracts. Boston Wire Stitcher, or Bostitch as we know it, remained at its Division Street factory until it moved Route 2 in the 1960’s.

The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in the Korean War

During its employment in the Korean War, it was praised by soldiers for its ability to sustain high rates of fire in all conditions. As noted, BARs remained in service into the early years of the Vietnam conflict. It was favored over early versions of the M-16, which was prone to jamming. James Ballou, in his book “Rock in a Hard Place: The Browning Automatic Rifle Story”, published in 2000 by Collector Grade Publications, Ontario, California, quotes an Army Special Forces sergeant remembered that “we had a lot of Viet Cong infiltrators into our camps who would steal weapons every chance they got. Needless to say, the most popular weapon to steal was the venerable old BAR.” The Ballou book is a good overall reference on the weapon.

Phasing out the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

BARs could still be found in National Guard armories into the mid 1970’s. Significant numbers had also been made over the years under license for overseas military in Poland, Sweden, Belgium, and China among other places and were still in use by some military units into the 1990’s.

About the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum

Our M1918A2 was manufactured around 1943. It is equipped with the folding bipod stock and the familiar 20-round magazine. It has a black walnut stock that, due to wartime shortages, was replaced by a plastic Bakelite stock (same material as in the old Western Electric dial telephone units). Our ownership of “the opposition” in the form of the German “Sturmgewehr” infantryman’s machine gun and the Japanese Type 96 allows for an eyeball comparison of the major automatic weapons carried by both sides in World War II.

[FEATURE ARTICLE] A Fowler Musket With a Rhode Island Connection

March 11, 2018 By Brian Wallin

As we have come to discover, the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum archives are a genuine treasure trove. Armory Museum Curator Patrick Donovan and the rest of his team continue to sift through decades of acquisitions, and have come up with some surprising pieces. Recently, an item was discovered that carries an interesting history of its own as it may have been used by one of the West Bay’s most prominent early settlers: Thomas Gould of North Kingstown, RI. Carrying an inventory tag that indicates it was donated to the Varnum Continentals in 1930, it is a fowler musket. This month, we take a look at the musket and the family with which it is connected.

Details of our fowler musket

The weapon itself is typical of the type of flintlock musket that hung over the mantle of nearly every early colonist. No home was complete without a long gun as it was vital for gathering food and, in some cases, for defense. This particular musket is what was commonly known as a “fowler”, a term that originated in the 17th century. The gun was used for hunting game, most commonly wild ducks, geese and other fowl: hence, the name. The barrel is 62.25 inches in length (as opposed to 55 inches for the standard “Brown Bess” type) with a bore diameter of .75 inches. The tang is 2.25 inches. The length of the lock end to end is 7.5 inches. The barrel is pinned with three pins. The length of the fowler offered improved accuracy, although it makes the gun heavier and more difficult to carry in the field. An interesting aspect of our musket is that it has a crude, handmade trigger guard. Some experts believe that the barrel and stock on this particular weapon likely date rom the late 1600s while the lock and hammer date from the very early 1700s.

The term “fowler” actually refers to a person, not a weapon. A fowler was a hunter of birds who may or may not have used a firearm on his prey. Hunting is fun yet a meaningful activity, it keeps the balance of an ecosystem, to learn more about hunting, you can find a guide to hunting anywhere across the internet. The Dictonarium Brtiannicum, published in 1736, defines a fowler simply as a “bird catcher”. A fowling piece, then, would have been a portable firearm for hunting birds. It’s as simple as that.

Fowler musket at the Varnum Memorial Armory

Fowler muskets in the American Revolution

Militiamen in the American Revolution often carried fowlers since it would have been their personal gun. Writing on the website Ammoland.com on September 6, 2010, noted arms expert and historian George C. Neumann noted each militiaman was responsible for his own weapon.

The gun specifications were vague. Massachusetts, for example, required only ‘one good firearm.’ Because Britain had done little in past years to furnish her Colonists with military arms, the militia deployed a wide assortment of smoothbore muskets, carbines, fusils, trade guns, light or heavy fowling pieces, and rifles—of varied lineages and bore sizes.

Militia statutes, in general, required only that a militiaman’s long arm be of “musket bore” (.69 caliber or larger). The only specific requirement was a weapon that could function as intended. Muskets could normally fire about four rounds a minute (and that would also require good weather as flintlocks did not work well at all in the rain).

There was little standardization at the time since the only established armories that turned out patterned weapons in numbers were in Europe. The wooden stocks varied in finish and quality as well. The Varnum Armory’s musket lacks a buttplate, again, not unusual for a locally made weapon of the time.

These gun makers used whatever parts they had on hand or could make themselves. So, there was little uniformity in the weapons. It was a common practice to piece together guns: for example, putting an older flintlock together with a new barrel and/or stock. Colonial gunsmiths would also use European parts when they could get them or would fabricate them in molds.

The flintlock mechanism, by the way, was developed in France around 1615 and replaced the earlier “matchlock”, which literally required a match to ignite the powder charge. During the American Revolution, colonists used some 300,000 muskets of which more than 80,000 were handmade by between 2,500 and 3,000 gunsmiths scattered across the colonies. Captured British muskets would have been valued as they were usually armory made and had a consistent uniformity in quality. The “Brown Bess”, as the issue-type weapons were commonly called, were also copied by local gun makers.

What do we know about our fowler musket?

Mount Farm, Daniel Gould Allen's home — Mount Farm, Daniel Gould Allen’s home

There is a very good chance that it was owned and carried by one or more of several generations of the Gould family and could have been used to help guard the beaches of the Quidnessett section of North Kingstown, RI, during the American Revolution. The family patriarch, Jeremiah Gould, emigrated from England in 1637 and settled on Aquidneck Island (he later returned to England and died there). His son Thomas was among a group of wealthy men from Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and Warwick, who banded together in 1666 to purchase the northern half of a large section of land purchased from the Narragansett Indian tribe in 1659 by Major Humphrey Atherton and his partners to keep it out of the hands of the Plymouth and Connecticut colonies. Thomas Gould, along with Nicholas Spink, John Greene, Capt. John Cranston, Arthur Aylesworth, John Allen, and Henry Reynolds among others thus became the largest landowners in the area controlling property encompassing over half of the Quidnessett territory. The entire story is recounted in some detail in Volume II (1883-1884) of the Narragansett Historical Register, printed by the Narragansett Historical Publishing Company and also in The History of Kent and Washington Counties by J.R. Cole, published in 1889. Both of these reference works can be found in the South County Room of the North Kingstown Library.

Thomas Gould’s property, about 325 acres, took up most of what is known as Calf Pasture Point, abutting the Bay and Allen’s Harbor. He settled his nephew Daniel Gould on the property. Daniel’s son Jeremiah, who remained in Newport, RI, then inherited the estate from his father. Meanwhile, Daniel had also deeded 150 acres of the upper Gould Farm on what is now known as Pojac Point. It was Daniel’s son Thomas who then inherited the Quidnessett lands and lived a long life on the larger farm. The Gould residence grew from a simple cabin, over time, to encompass a multi-wing structure some 100 feet long. At least three generations of Thomas Goulds also ensued. Several of them were alive during and after the Revolution.

This little genealogical journey has a point. Given the age of the fowler in our collection, it is quite likely that one of the Thomas Goulds, either the fifth or sixth generation to bear the name, would have been of the age to have used the family fowler musket around the time of the American Revolution. Of course, family lore and fact sometimes intertwine and that’s what makes historical research challenging at times.

Although we have yet to find a Thomas Gould listed on formal militia rolls, it is within the realm of possibility that one of the Gould men indeed carried the Varnum Continental’s fowler along the shores of the bay during that period, participating in the watch for marauding British troops.

Where did our fowler musket come from?

There is also the interesting question of exactly how the fowler came into our possession. One plausible suggestion is that it was acquired through the Varnum Continental’s “founding father”, H.V. Allen, since the Allens and the Gould families intermarried. In fact, both Mount Farm properties were willed by the sixth generation Thomas Gould in 1836 to his nephew Thomas Gould Allen. The latter was the son of the legendary Judge John Allen, and father of Daniel Gould Allen. He, in turn, was the grandfather of our own H.V. Allen.

Daniel Gould Allen lived his entire life on the family farm in Quidnessett that was close by the Gould’s Mount Farm property. He married his wife, Amanda (Waterman) in 1840. Daniel died in 1895 and his wife passed away in 1904. When H.V. Allen’s grandmother died, he settled her estate. So, somewhere along the way, the fowler just might have been passed on to or acquired by H.V. A prolific collector with a devotion of history, he would have likely then placed the fowler in the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum collection for safekeeping. Of course, this last part of our story is conjecture. But as we said, history is often filled with “could it be?” stories. This one does make for an interesting progression, doesn’t it?

In all, the Gould fowler musket is a fascinating piece of Americana representing the early days of colonial weaponry. Our curator, Patrick Donovan, has already received input from a number of knowledgeable individuals on the gun’s components with a view towards further revealing details of its past.

[FEATURED EXHIBIT] Restored United Train of Artillery Militia Flag

February 18, 2018 By James Mitchell Varnum

At the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum we have a hand-embroidered and fully restored militia flag for the United Train Of Artillery from Providence, RI. They were one of the early founding companies of the U.S. Artillery. Formed on April 22, 1775, they participated in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and the Battle of Rhode Island.

We are trying to determine this flag’s age. A Rhode Island Historical Society publication states that it’s circa 1775. Our research suggests early 1800s, though.