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ISSUE 06 APRIL 2011 

MAGAZINE 

26 

Uniforms 

Stockholm 

06 

25 

Conference 

Graz 

The Unknown Warrior 

Chatham 

32 

New Technologies 

Feature

ICOMAM – the International Committee of Museums of 

Arms and Military History - is an International Committee of 

ICOM – the International Council of Museums. 

It provides a forum for museums worldwide: 

• To encourage scientific research about arms and 

armour and military collections, both in specialised and 

general museums and in military collections. 

• To stimulate a proper, professional standard of collection 

care, management, conservation and use in line with 

internationally recognised good practice and ICOM 

guidelines. 

• To promote the highest standards in display and 

interpretation. 

• To encourage networking and partnerships between 

museums and research the world over. 

ICOMAM achieves its goal by holding triennial 

congresses and intermediate symposia on relevant topics. 

ICOMAM has over 260 members, representing museums 

in more than 50 countries world-wide, including such 

famous institutions as the Royal Armouries of Leeds, the 

French Musée de l'Armée, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 

The Musée de l'Armée et d'Histoire Militaire in Brussels, the 

Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer of Vienna, the Real Armeria of 

Madrid, the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul. 

Membership has increased over the past ten years including 

a larger share of museums outside of Europe and America. 

Also some so-called Battlefield Museums are members of 

this international contact group. 

ICOMAM is directed by an International ruling body 

called the Executive Board. The ICOMAM approach to the 

conservation and study of relevant artefacts is scientific, 

dispassionate, objective and humanistic. It aims to assess 

the importance of weaponry in world history as a major 

sociological phenomenon touching on all the aspects of 

politics, economics and social behaviour including its 

artistic spin-offs and its relationship with our cultural 

heritage and its interpretation in the world today. 

http://www.klm-mra.be/icomam/ 

ICOM is the international organisation of museums and 

museum professionals which is committed to the 

conservation, continuation and communication to society of 

the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and 

future, tangible and intangible. 

http://icom.museum/ 

© Individual authors, Institutions 

and ICOMAM, 2011 

Published by 

in association with ICOMAM 

Hawthorne Cottage 

Moorfield Road 

LEEDS 

LS12 3SE 

UK 

smithbrown@basiliscoe.fsnet.co.uk 

Design by Dazeye

04 13 26 

Welcome to the sixth edition of 

MAGAZINE – the newsletter of 

ICOMAM, the International 

Committee of Museums of Arms 

and Military History, published to 

inform members of its activities 

and publicize these to the wider 

world. 

Technology, especially computers 

and the internet, is moving 

forward at such a pace today that 

it is hard for many of us to keep up 

with. It is difficult to believe how 

quickly the new social media have 

become embedded in so many 

areas of our lives, including 

museums. For this edition of the 

ICOMAM Magazine, our sixth, we 

have featured the ways that 

different museums are using both 

older, and newer, technologies, 

from the now more traditional e- 

mail to Twitter and Facebook. 

Among a range of news, 

articles and publications, we also 

have a reminder of this year’s 

ICOMAM conference in Graz – 

details are included. Our next 

edition will be in October 2011 

Robert Douglas Smith 

Ruth Rhynas Brown 

EDITORS 

Contents 

News ......................04 

04 Foreword ICOMAM Chairman 

05 ICOMAM News 

06 Conference Graz 2011 

10 ICOM Shanghai 

12 Curators Stockholm 

13 Camouflage Brussels 

14 Tower of London 

15 National Treasures 

18 Call for Papers 

19 National Museum of The United 

States Airforce 

Exhibitions ..............21 

20 Wives and Sweethearts 

National Army Museum 

22 National Army Museum Listings 

24 National Army Museum 

25 The Unknown Warrior 

Royal Engineers Museum 

26 Army Museum Stockholm 

Publications............29 

29 Arms and Armour of Knights and 

Landsknechts 

in the Netherlands Army Museum 

30 The Army Museum, Stockholm 

New publications 

30 Book Sale 

Dutch Army Museum 

Feature ...................32 

32 New technologies and their effects 

on the museum 

Articles ...................45 

45 Art of the possible: Transforming 

the permanent displays at the 

Higgins Armory Museum 

47 Early Engineers Showcased 

49 Wealden cannon in Oman 

55 The ‘Secret’ Shuvalov Howitzer 

57 A secret weapon in the collection 

of the Rijksmuseum 

58 Archaeologists seeking input to 

research on pirate sword 

ISSUE 06 MAGAZINE 3

News 

ICOMAM NEWS 

Welcome 

Piet De Gryse 

Senior Curator, Royal Military 

Museum, Brussels 

ICOMAM Chairman 

Although the Board elections took place now almost one 

year ago, I have - for a number of reasons - not yet been 

able to express my gratitude for the confidence put in me. I 

also seize this opportunity to salute Graeme Rimer who ran 

for chairman as well. The two of us have always been 

actively involved both in the former IAMAM and the present 

ICOMAM. Each and every one of us agrees upon Graeme 

Rimer’s enormous merits and everybody recognizes the 

value of the institution he works for. The Royal Armouries 

indeed are a beacon of knowledge and craftsmanship in the 

museum landscape of arms and armour. The ICOMAM 

members were therefore faced with a terrible choice. 

Graeme and I luckily did not turn the election neither into a 

joust nor into a race (although we share the same passion 

for motorbikes!), but quite serenely awaited the elections. As 

the results came in, they elicited a double feeling. On the 

one hand I was grateful for the confidence put in me, but on 

the other hand, I acutely felt a heavy responsibility resting 

on my shoulders. But this last feeling faded away as I 

realise that being chairman of such an international 

association is not only a challenge but even so an enormous 

and exceptional privilege. 

2010 was not easy on me, in more ways than one. I was 

faced with an unexpectedly long period of inactivity for 

urgent medical reasons. Those serious health problems are 

now under control and the prospects are positive. I returned 

to the Museum a few weeks ago and everything is pretty 

much back to normal. 

Over the last few years, ICOMAM has managed to make 

quite some headway and that is of course the result of the 

time and energy my predecessor Guy Wilson put into the 

organisation. As often is the case, this happened far from 

the spotlights. But the results are definitely tangible: new 

financial means have been made available, our 50th 

anniversary in 2007 was celebrated with all due splendour 

and did not go unnoticed with the ICOM international Board, 

symposiums were regularly organised. Moreover, the ICOM 

Board acknowledged ICOMAM’s remarkable independence 

of mind, its sense of compromise and its knack for solutionminded 

approaches. The magazine you are currently 

reading is another example of ICOMAM’s uniqueness. We 

will of course continue to invest in it and not only because it 

is a tool many other ICOM international committees look 

upon with envy. 

However, the challenges we have to face are not to be 

underestimated either. For instance, we wish to increase our 

visibility in the enormous field of interest that is ours. Not 

necessarily by organising symposiums, but rather by coorganising 

short study days, workshops or discussions and 

through association with activities set up by museums in our 

sector. We are not yet quite clear on how to bring this about. 

We also have to expand our members’ corps. Not only in 

developing countries but also in regions and continents 

traditionally less-well represented in our association: Africa, 

the Far East, the Middle East, and South America. Efforts 

have already been made in that area, as we were present in 

Korea (2004) and in Shanghai (2010). We organised a 

4 MAGAZINE ISSUE 06

News 

congress in Rio de Janeiro in 2008 and will return to Rio, as 

this city will welcome the entire museum community in 2013 

for the General Assembly and the three-yearly ICOM 

congress. Other forms of membership or new ways of 

adhering to ICOMAM might bring some kind of answer. We 

will also have to strengthen our bonds with museums 

traditionally favourable to our objectives but recently a bit 

less involved. This usually concerns large entities 

safeguarding important collections and consequently 

generating enormous amounts of scientific or museological 

knowledge. These institutions understandably create 

parallel networks. Nevertheless, they also have a 

responsibility towards smaller actors and towards the 

heritage community in general. This is all too easily 

forgotten, be it unconsciously. ICOMAM undoubtedly 

constitutes an added value for these institutions. It is 

strange to see that in spite of globalization and user-friendly 

communication tools (such as e-mail and the new social 

media) real contact is making itself scarce. We mail and 

chat with countless people worldwide and the world really 

seems to have shrunk. But hardly any time is set aside for 

live contact and looking one another in the eye. I am a great 

fan of direct and efficient communication; e-mail 

sometimes indeed seems god-sent when organising events 

or getting down to business. (I am not (yet) on Facebook 

though.) But I do realize that hearing a voice, shaking a hand 

or having an animated conversation around a table indeed 

contain dimensions simply disappearing in electronic traffic. 

I am a firm believer in the power of meetings. I believe in the 

élan and optimism one feels when coming home from an 

international gathering and putting one’s nose to the 

grindstone again. That is just one of the reasons why 

ICOMAM constitutes a platform par excellence for the 

Executive Board changes 

ICOM held its General Assembly in Shanghai in November 

2010 (see report on page 6) and from then the new chair of 

the Executive Board of ICOMAM is Piet de Gryse of the Royal 

Military Museum in Brussels. 

sharing of knowledge, for networking, for getting 

inspiration, for kick-starting cooperation. We have to 

establish how and to what extent ICOMAM can stimulate this 

sharing of knowledge. The success of our 50-year jubilee 

book and our very own Magazine should push us to start 

considering which part we can play in the field of classic 

publications, perhaps in combination with e-publishing and 

e-zines. 

These are just a few random thoughts, popping up when 

I reflect upon the role and the importance of ICOMAM. 

Possibilities galore, in other words, and the best part of it all 

is that these ideas could possibly be realized in 

collaboration with the other ICOMAM Board members, 

some of whom have now just started their first mandate. 

But back to basics. I have the pleasure of inviting you to 

our upcoming symposium. The Joanneummuseum team, 

headed by Dr Wolfgang Muchitis, will welcome us in Graz, a 

lively city of the arts also housing a fantastic 17th century 

arsenal, undoubtedly with huge amounts of Austrian 

Gemütlichkeit and hospitality. Under the inspiring theme, 

‘Does War belong to Museums’ we will consider war and 

weaponry, the place of armament and conflicts in museums 

and whether or not they can, freed from their purely military 

dimension, tell an enticing story. The (almost) completed 

program is to be found in this issue of The Magazine or on 

our website www.icomam.icom.museum. I don’t take any 

risks when stating that the keynote address by Jay Winter is 

not to be missed! Registrations and hotel reservations are 

now open. 

I hope you will enjoy this inspiring issue. I will round off 

with a special word of thanks to Bob Smith, the advisor to 

the Board for publication-related matters. 

See you in Graz! 

Conference 2011 

This year’s conference will be held at the Styrian Armoury 

in Graz, in association with the Museum Academy. The 

theme for the conference will be ‘Does war belong in 

museums’ though, as is our usual practice, papers on all 

aspects of the work of ICOMAM are always welcome. See 

page 6 for details. 

The ICOMAM website 

I 

COMAM’s website is hosted by the Royal Armouries in 

Brussels and includes details of ICOMAM’s activities. We 

are always trying to widen and increase our readership and 

impact and want to encourage all our member museums to 

include a link on their website or Facebook pages. Also 

please tell your Museum Friends about us and where to get 

hold of the MAGAZINE 

See http://www.klm-mra.be/icomam 


News 

Conference: Does war belong in museums 

A joint event of the Styrian Armoury, the Museum Academy and 

ICOMAM - The International Council of Museums and Collections of 

Arms and Military History 

21 – 23 September 2011, Graz, Austria 


News 

In 2011, the Universalmuseum Joanneum will be 

celebrating its 200th anniversary. The Landeszeughaus is 

one of the oldest and historically most interesting 

collections in the Joanneum, with the greatest appeal to a 

broad public. In its bicentennial year, the Landeszeughaus is 

organizing a conference where discussion will focus on the 

way war and violence are featured in museums generally, 

but also on the Landeszeughaus itself, which is looking for 

new, analytical and discursive modes of interaction for its 

‘depository’ and historical exhibits. 

Presentations of war and violence in museums generally 

oscillate between the fascination of terror and its 

instruments and the didactic urge to explain violence and, by 

analysing it, make it easier to handle and prevent. The 

museums concerned also have to face up to these basic 

issues about the social and institutional handling of war and 

violence. 

Does war really belong in museums And if it does, what 

objectives and means are involved Can museums avoid 

trivializing and aestheticising war, transforming violence, 

injury, death and trauma into tourist sights What images of 

shock or identification does one generate – and what 

images would be desirable Can anything of the dialectic of 

friend and foe be made accessible 

Is it ultimately about frightening off, warning, pondering, 

shocking, emotional manipulation, comparing, historicizing 

and learning, about keeping a sense of detachment in 

museums, defusing 

The expectations of visitors, the effects that such a 

literally weapon-heavy collection has, but also the views of 

curators of the collections and museums concerned will 

also be discussed. 

Information & application 

Museumsakademie Joanneum 

Schloss Eggenberg, Eggenberger Allee 90, 8020 Graz. mail 

to: http://www.museumsakademie-joanneum.at 

Please quote your ICOMAM-Membership! 

Information about Graz 

www.graztourismus.at 

Information about Universalmuseum Joanneum 

www.museum-joanneum.at 

Information about Ljubljana 

www.visitljubljana.si 

Information about Narodni Muzej Slovenije 

www.nms.si 

Conference language 

English 

Conference location 

Kunsthaus Graz, Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz, 

www.museum-joanneum.at 

Costs & fees 

Registration Fee for ICOMAM-Members 

EUR 140,- including an exclusive dinner 

Late Registration Fee for ICOMAM-Members 

EUR 160,-(after July 1st 2011) 

Excursion Castle Stainz 

EUR 40,- including the visit to a Styrian ‘Buschenschank’ 

Post Conference 

EUR 250,- 

Including Hotel, Coach and Entrance Fees. 

Minimum 10 Participants. 

Registration required until July 31st. 

Hotels 

Please make a confirmed reservation until 27th July 2011 

indicating the password ’ICOMAM’ to get the reduced fares 

as mentioned above. 

40 Rooms are reserved in following hotels: 

Hotel Weitzer 

Grieskai 12-16 

8020 Graz 

www.hotelweitzer.com 

P: +43/316/703-0 

E: hotel@weitzer.com 

15 Rooms ‘Comfort’ 

EUR 81, single occupancy 

EUR 93, double occupancy 

Hotel Daniel 

Europaplatz 1 

8020 Graz 

www.hoteldaniel.com 

P: +43/316/703-0 

E: hotel@weitzer.com 

25 Rooms ‘smart’ 

EUR 68, single occupancy 

EUR 77, double occupancy 


News 

Programme 

Wednesday, 21st September 2011 

10:00 ICOMAM Board Meeting 

13:00 Registration 

14:00-15:00 Wolfgang Muchitsch (A) & Piet de Gryse (BE) 

Welcome 

Jay Winter (USA) Key Note Lecture 

15:00-15:30 Coffee Break 

15:30-17:00 If War Does Belong to Museums: How 

Peter Armstrong (GB) ‘What’s The Point - 

Glorifying Violence or Keeping People Safe’ 

Christine Beil (D) ‘Violence on display: 

Presentations of war in museum exhibitions’ 

Barton C. Hacker (USA) ‘Military 

Museums and Social History’ 

17:15-18:00 Panel 

Peter Armstrong (GB), Christine Beil (D), 

Barton C. Hacker (USA), Jay Winter (USA) 

Moderation: Nina Gorgus (D) 

19:00 Reception 

Thursday, 22nd September 2011 

09:00-10:30 Displaying War 

Gorch Pieken (D) ‘Military History on display: 

Militärhistorisches Museums der 

Bundeswehr, Dresden (D)’ 

Ralf Raths (D) ’From technical showroom 

to full-fledged museum: 

The German Tank Museum Munster’ 

Vladimir Ivanovich Zabarovskiy (RUS) ‘Factor 

accents of historical memory in museum 

expositions about the history of the Second 

world war’ 


11:00-12:00 Panel 

Gorch Pieken (D), Ralf Raths (D), 

Vladimir Ivanovich Zabarovskiy (RUS) 

M. Christian Ortner (A) 

Moderation: Wolfgang Muchitsch (A) 

12:00-13:30 Lunch Break 

13:30-15:00 The Beauty of War and the 

Attractivity of Violence 

Carol Nater (CH) ‘Concept for a new 

permanent exhibition at the Museum 

Altes Zeughaus’ 

Sandrine Place, Sandra Verhulst, Christine 

Van Everbroeck (BE) ‘A pedagogical and 

educational approach to the two world wars 

at the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces 

and of Military History in Brussels 

Per Björn Rekdal (NOR) ‘About the beauty of 

war and the attractive violence – an exhibition 

about ambiguity’ 

Susanne Hagemann (D) ‘Die Repräsentation des 

Krieges am Beispiel von Dauerausstellungen in 

deutschen Stadtmuseen’ 


15:30-16:30 Panel 

Susanne Hagemann (D), Carol Nater (CH), 

Sandrine Place (BE), Per Björn Rekdal (NOR), 

Sandra Verhulst (BE), Christine Van 

Everbroeck (BE) 


17:00 Excursion – Hunting Museum in Schloss 

Stainz followed by a visit of a traditional 

Styrian ‘Buschenschank’ 


News 

Friday, 23rd September 2011 

09:00-10:30 The Trauma of War and the Limits of Media 

Robert M. Ehrenreich (USA) ‘War in Context: 

Let the Artifacts speak’ 

Alexandra Bounia (GR) ‘War Museums and 

Photography’ 

Werner Fenz (A) ‘Bollwerk gegen den Osten’ 


11:00-12:00 Panel 

Alexandra Bounia (CY), Robert M. Ehrenreich 

(USA), Werner Fenz (A) 


12:00-13:30 Lunch Break 

13:30-15:00 Military History, War Museums 

and National Identity 

Kristiane Janeke (BLR) ‘Krieg und Museum – 

Geschichtspolitik auf belarussisch’ 

Thomas Cauvin (I) ‘Representing war during 

the peace process Commemorative 

exhibition in Northern Ireland 1990-1998’ 

Patrizia Kern (D) ‘Framing the military nation. 

War museums and their changing 

representational practices in contemporary 

Turkey’ 


15:30-16:30 Panel 

Kristiane Janeke (BLR), Thomas Cauvin (I), 

Patrizia Kern (D) 

Moderation: Helmut Konrad 

16:30-17:30 ICOMAM General Assembly 

18:00 Guided Tour I – Landeszeughaus 

Guided Tour II – Museum im Palais 

Guided Tour III – Kriminalmuseum 

Guided Tour IV – Bollwerk gegen den Osten 

19:30 ICOMAM-Dinner 

Justus Lipsius Award 

Information & application 

Museumsakademie Joanneum 

Schloss Eggenberg, Eggenberger Allee 90, 8020 Graz. Mail 

to: http://www.museumsakademie-joanneum.at 

Post-conference programme 

(Draft) 

Saturday, 24th September 

07:00 Departure from Graz 

09:30 Arrival in Ljubljana 

Narodni Muzej Slovenije - 

Metelkova (www.nms.si) 

09:30-10:00 Reception & Coffee Break 

10:00-10:30 Introduction 

10:30-13:00 Guided Tour through the Museum 

Depot Visit & Hands-On Arms & Armour 

(in two groups) 

13:00-14:30 Lunch 

14:30-17:30 Guided City Tour 

Narodni Muzej Slovenije - 

Prešernova (www.nms.si) 

17:30-19:30 Guided Tour through the Museum 

Depot Visit & Hands-On Arms & Armour 

(in two groups) 

20:00 Dinner 

Sunday, 25th September 2011 

07:00 Departure from Ljubljana 

08:00 Otočec (Grad na void) 

08:30 Departure from Otočec 

10:30 Arrival in Varaždin 

10:30 Guided Tour through Stari grad & 

Gradski Muzej Varaždin 

13:30 Lunch 

15:00 City Walk 

16:30 Departure to Graz 

19:00 Arrival in Graz 

http://www.klm-mra.be/icomam/icomam/graz- 

2011/Conference%20Programme%20and%20Information.pdf 


News 

ICOM Shanghai 

Guy Wilson 

Six members of ICOMAM attended the ICOM General 

Conference in Shanghai last November. Although we 

could not field a bigger team and despite general concerns 

beforehand about the numbers who would make the trip the 

conference was well attended and was generally felt to be a 

considerable success. There had been some grave 

concerns expressed beforehand about issues relating to the 

governance of ICOM and these were also discussed in 

Shanghai. Although these issues were not all directly 

tackled and resolved, an entirely new Executive Council was 

elected pledging to bring more transparency, accountability 

and democracy to the inevitably sometimes byzantine 

workings of the increasingly large and complex family that is 

ICOM. We should wish them all well in their endeavours. 

Those ICOMAM members who attended joined with the 

Professional Committee for Weapon and Military History of 

the Chinese Association of Museums in a two day 

conference where, despite the lack of Chinese to English 

translation we managed to learn a good deal about the 

current prodigious growth and development of museums in 

China and about some of the amazing things they have in 

their collections. For instance, had you heard of or seen 

Chinese stone cannon Not cannon firing stone projectiles, 

but guns hewn from rock Well, they have been found, 

defending a part of the Great Wall built in the late 16th 

Above: Modern Shanghai - the view from the Bund across the 

Huangpu river 

Below: Old Shanghai - the Yu Garden 


News 

Left: The main conference auditorium 

Below: Ken Smith Christmas and guides in front of the Chinese 

Pavilion at World Expo 2010, Shanghai 

century. We encouraged our colleagues in China to consider 

publishing the papers in Chinese and English as a 

permanent record, have since offered advice and assistance, 

and now await their decision with fingers crossed. As our 

contribution to the conference, Ken Smith Christmas gave 

two papers - on the Kentucky rifle and the Marine Corps 

Museum at Quantico, Serge Bernier spoke about how the 

Canadian Government organises its military history and 

heritage, and Christian Ortner and Mathieu Willemsen gave 

short, impromptu introductions to their respective 

museums. I had been asked to give an introduction to the 

work of ICOMAM, which I did, encouraging them to get 

involved with our work and concluding with the following 

personal remarks: 

What have I gained from the ICOMAM experience 

I have gained the inestimable delight of many dear friends 

around the world 

I have gained an increased conviction of the importance of 

the work of arms and military museums 

I have gained an increased dedication to a rigorous pursuit 

of the truth and a questioning of every piece of received 

lore. 

And, in active retirement I have gained an influx of energy 

that has taken me, for instance, as a volunteer to Nepal 

helping the Gurkhas to establish their own museum in 

Pokhara. 

I would not for the world have missed the ICOMAM 

experience and I would encourage you all to try it for 

yourselves. 

That seemed to be well received and I was subsequently 

appointed as consultant to their Committee. At the 

conclusion of our conference the Committee most 

generously treated us to a banquet with wines provided by 

the new China Wine Museum that is being established in 

Shanghai to introduce more Chinese people to the delights 

of fine wine. 

The whole ICOM conference was held in the World Expo 

Center immediately after the end of World Expo 2010. 

Buses were provided to take us from our hotels to the Expo 

site, and woe betide those who missed them as they were 

infrequent and taxis invariably dropped off at the wrong 

gate, requiring a long walk to the right one, with frequent 

stops to ask directions. Once arrived at the right gate, and 

despite the fact that the whole park was becoming a 

demolition site as pavilions were removed, everyone had to 

endure full airport-type security checks and those who had 

forgotten their conference badges had to go back to square 

one and start again. Once inside there was another bus ride 

to the Center itself. This had both a restaurant and a café, 

but unfortunately we drank them dry of beer before the end. 

Shanghai is an amazing city, very clean and very safe 

and a mixture of old Chinese, colonial and ultra-modern. 

There are plenty of museums and other cultural attractions, 

though nothing other than very early weapons in the 

Shanghai Museum to set our pulses racing. It is a city 

where you can wine and dine extremely well on a tight 

budget. All that makes it a very attractive tourist 

destination. It is changing and growing at a phenomenal 

rate and, if it has a downside for people like me who live in 

the quiet of rural Yorkshire it is that it is just too big. But 

then I wouldn’t like to live in New York, either! One day of 

the conference was, as usual, devoted to trips out of the city 

to a variety of the many interesting and historic towns and 

cities in the vicinity. I had opted, for no particular reason to 

go to Hang Zhou, and was intrigued by the National Tea 

Museum, the National Silk Museum and the Imperial Kiln 

Museum. 

All in all it was a fascinating and instructive visit. 

However, looking ahead I do wonder whether such lavish 

General Conferences held every three years are either 


News 

A weaving demonstration at the National Silk Museum, Hang Zhou 

necessary or sustainable. Now that ICOM transacts its 

business at annual General Assemblies in Paris, why not 

hold a Conference once every five years, say, even though it 

would mean either altering the format of elections or the 

length of service of the President, Treasurer and Executive 

Council. That would surely allow more of us to attend more 

regularly and would help all International Committees in 

planning their own programmes of meetings. If that could 

be agreed perhaps, also less time could be allocated to our 

individual conferences and more to working sessions across 

The Army 

Museum, Stockholm 

New Curators 

Mathieu Wilhemsen, Serge Bernier and Ken Smith Christmas at 

work during the General Assembly 

the normal boundaries within ICOM. Since I have been 

attending every conference seems to start with a speech 

saying what a wonderful opportunity this is for a real 

interchange if ideas between people from around the world 

but then the format and timetable shuts us up for most of 

the time with people we know which, nice as it may be, 

could be done elsewhere and at another time and actually 

prevents us from discussing issues of mutual concern with 

those we do not know. I suspect that some such change is 

inevitable, but in my lifetime 

We have also started a trainee program for new staff 

members and we send them to other museums to 

learn and get references. Andreas will be at the Royal Army 

Museum in Brussels for a fortnight in April this year and we 

are hoping that we can continue this with other museums in 

other countries. 

Aron Erstorp: Firearms and other weapons before 1900. 

Andreas Ohlsson: Firearms after 1900 and 20th century material 


News 

Camouflage takes 

centre stage 

F 

rom 13–15 October 2010, the Royal Museum of the Armed 

Forces and of Military History (RMM) in Brussels, in 

cooperation with the International Council of Museums 

(ICOM), organised and hosted a very successful symposium 

about camouflage. Some twenty specialists, from both Europe 

and the US, gave presentations about the latest developments 

in both military and other forms of camouflage including 

fashion specialists from New York and Paris 


News 

Tower of London - 

Power behind the throne 

A fabulous ‘bejewelled’ dragon – 

standing 3m high and specially 

commissioned by the Royal 

Armouries – will create a 

guaranteed ‘wow factor’ at a 

compelling new exhibition 

opening at the Tower of London 

this Spring. 

Discover the stories and personalities behind the major 

organisations of state, who took care of Royal business 

from within the mighty Tower of London’s walls from 1100 to 

the present day. 

Power House - the new permanent exhibition opening 

on the White Tower’s top floor on April 2 in partnership with 

Historic Royal Palaces – showcases the roles of the major 

organisations that provided the bedrock of England’s power 

throughout the centuries. 

Great institutions include the Ordnance Office, Ordnance 

Survey, the Royal Mint, Record Office, the Jewel House, 

Menagerie and Royal Observatory. The exhibition will also 

put the spotlight on other Tower of London functions, 

ranging from royal residence to state prison. 

Royal Armouries’ Head of Creative Programmes Karen 

Whitting said, “The Tower has been home to many important 

national institutions for over 900 years and was viewed as a 

fortress and symbol of England’s might. 

“Close to the seat of Royal power at Westminster, the 

Tower became England’s ultimate Power House – and the 

functions it housed were vital to whether successive 

monarchs kept or lost control of the kingdom. 

“There are some fascinating stories to be told – 

including the tale of William Foxley, potmaker for the Royal 

Mint, who fell asleep for 14 days and 15 nights. The poor 

soul was was viewed as a curiosity and was prodded, poked 

and even burned in an effort to rouse him. Even King Henry 

VIII visited the Tower, to witness the ‘spectacle’ for himself.” 

To create a stunning welcome to visitors, the Royal 

Armouries is creating a mighty dragon, a modern trophy, 

made up of components from of each of the great 

institutions of State. The design is still being finalised but 

the majestic beast could include: 

• Ordnance Office – armour, swords, firearms and cannon 

to create the back legs and body 

• Menagerie – a cage for the ribcage 

• Prison – chains to create the tail 

• The Royal Mint – coins to represent the dragon’s fire 

• The Observatory – telescopes for front legs 

• The Records Office and Ordnance Survey - parchments 

and maps for wings 

• The Jewel House – fake diamonds and rubies for the 

dragon’s eyes 

Power House will also include interactive opportunities 

from the Royal Armouries’ popular Hands on History 

experience. 

For more information regarding the Royal Armouries – 

Britain’s oldest museum - visit: www.royalarmouries.org 

www.royalarmouries.org/newsletter 

www.twitter.com/royal_armouries 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leeds-United- 

Kingdom/Royal-Armouries/215812575369ref=ts 


News 

National Treasures 

From arms and armour – 

to machine guns and munitions – 

Britain’s oldest museum has something to appeal to everyone. 

The Royal Armouries has three museums in the UK – 

Leeds, the White Tower at the Tower of London, and Fort 

Nelson in Hampshire. 

The multi-million pound purpose-built museum in 

Leeds houses a large part of the national collection of arms 

and armour, and displays over 8,500 objects throughout its 

five themed galleries – War, Tournament, Self Defence, 

Hunting and Oriental. The museum provides the opportunity 

to explore the world of the warrior from medieval knights to 

modern-day soldiers. 

Tudor Treasures 

Building on the record-breaking success of the 2009/10 

Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill exhibition at the White Tower, the 

Royal Armouries Tudor treasures are now displayed in all 

their glory in the newly refurbished Tournament Gallery in 

Leeds. 

The gallery displays the thrills and spills of dangerously 

entertaining tournament sports – and the armours specially 

developed to protect competitors from thrashing swords, 

lances and axes. 

Hands on History 

Special arms and armour handling sessions let you get 

close to history as well as the many interactive displays plus 

don’t miss trying your skill on the crossbow range. 

Bringing History to Life 

Throughout the year history comes alive at a series of 

themed events to mark major events in the UK’s long and 

illustrious history. 

Family Fun 

During school holidays there’s always something fun going 

on at the museum. Visit the Jester’s Yard – our new play 

area specially designed for children up to 10 years old. Kids 

can learn to juggle, have-a-go at crafts, dressing up, 

colouring in, puzzles, games and lots, lots more. 

Opening at the Tower on April 2 is a new permanent 

exhibition – Power House - featuring a fabulous ‘bejewelled’ 

dragon – standing 3m high and specially commissioned by 

the Royal Armouries. 

Power House - in partnership with Historic Royal 

Palaces – showcases the roles of the major organisations 


News 

that provided the bedrock of England’s power throughout 

the centuries. 

Great institutions include the Ordnance Office, Ordnance 

Survey, the Royal Mint, Record Office, the Jewel House, 

Menagerie and Royal Observatory. The exhibition will also 

put the spotlight on other Tower of London functions, 

ranging from royal residence to state prison. 

The Royal Armouries’ third UK site – Fort Nelson in 

Hampshire which houses the nation’s big gun collection, is 

currently being redeveloped in a £3.5m project, in 

conjunction with the Heritage Lottery Fund. Opening in 

summer 2011, it will include a new visitor centre and car 

park, an impressive glass gallery displaying the biggest and 

most famous objects in the collection, and galleries telling 

the story of Fort Nelson. 

This 19-acre restored Victorian fortress is home to the 

national collection of historic cannon and big guns. 

The Royal Armouries also provides an ongoing Academic 

Programme of conferences and History in Your Hands 

Seminars. Upcoming conferences include ‘The War of the 

Roses: Society at War in the 15th Century’ bringing together 

some of the leading historians of the later middle ages who 

will re-evaluate our current thinking into different aspects of 

the conflict. Also ‘Interpreting Battlefield Finds: Making the 

Most of Museums’ examining the process of interpreting 

pieces recovered from battlefield sites and especially how to 

tap in to the wealth of expert knowledge in the field of the 

study of arms and armour. 

Our seminars incorporate expert presentations and the 

chance for deligates to get hands-on with items from our 

fascinating collection. Current seminar topics include the 

Battle of Towton – the bloodiest battle of the War of the 

Roses, Fakes, Forgeries and Replicas - arms and armour 

made to deceive, dupe and enjoy and Ahlspeiss to Zahgnal - 

an introduction to staff weapons from East and West. 


News 

Upcoming conferences 

The Wars of the Roses: Society 

at War in the 15th Century 

26 March 2011 at Tower of London 

This conference has now SOLD OUT. 

‘I will stir up in England some black storm, 

Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell’ 

(Richard, Duke of York, Henry VI Part 2, Act III Scene I) 

Ever since William Shakespeare wrote his cycle of history 

plays the characters and events of the Wars of the Roses 

have gripped the popular imagination. This inter-disciplinary 

conference commemorates the 550th anniversary of the 

battle of Towton, the bloodiest and most violent encounter 

between the opposing Lancastrian and Yorkist armies. 

The conference will bring together some of the leading 

historians of the later middle ages who will re-evaluate our 

current thinking into different aspects of the conflict. 

Interpreting Battlefield Finds: 

Making the Most of Museums 

11 June 2011 at Royal Armouries, Leeds. All day 

Royal Armouries Conference in association with The 

Battlefields Trust 

Venue: Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds 

Date: Saturday 11 June 2011 

Tickets: £35 (including lunch), £25 (without lunch) 

Concessions: (60+ and students): £20 (including lunch), £10 

(without lunch) 

This interactive study day will examine the process of 

interpreting pieces recovered from battlefield sites and 

especially how to tap in to the wealth of expert knowledge in 

the field of the study of arms and armour. 

It will highlight the range of assistance that museum 

curators and arms and armour specialists can offer 

archaeologists, military historians and indeed anyone who 

has an interest in interpreting material discovered through 

battlefield excavations. 

Archaeologists and historians eminent in the field of the 

study of battlefields and related sites will discuss aspects of 

the role which can be played by museum collections and 

staff in helping interpret objects recovered from them. They 

will tackle a wide variety of fascinating topics covering the 

period from the Norman Conquest to World War One and 

sites including the battles of Fulford (1066) and Towton 

(1461), an Elizabethan wreck off Alderney and The Somme. 

The conference will also offer a unique opportunity to 

examine and discuss battlefield related pieces from the 

Royal Armouries collections. 

http://www.royalarmouries.org/assetsuploaded/documents/Conference_registration_form.pdf 

registration form is available to download as a PDF or you 

can book your place by telephoning 0113 220 1888. 

Upcoming Seminars: 

The Battle of Towton 

Saturday 9 April 

550 years ago, on 29 March 1461 the largest and bloodiest 

battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought about 12 miles 

southwest of York, between the villages of Towton and 

Saxton. According to the chroniclers more than 50,000 

soldiers from the Houses of York and Lancaster fought in 

blizzard conditions on that Palm Sunday 550 years ago. Join 

us for this anniversary History In Your Hands seminar to 

learn more about the arms and armour of the period, find 

out how the battle unfolded and handle contemporary 

pieces from the Royal Armouries' collections. 

Fakes, Forgeries and Replicas 

Saturday 21 May 

Arms and armour made to deceive, dupe and enjoy! 

Ahlspeiss to Zahgnal 

Saturday 25 June 

An introduction to staff weapons from East and West. 

For more details or to book please email us at 

educate.leeds@armouries.org.uk 

or telephone 0113 220 1888 

For more information regarding the Royal Armouries – 

Britain’s oldest museum - visit: www.royalarmouries.org 

www.royalarmouries.org/newsletter 

www.twitter.com/royal_armouries 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leeds-United- 

Kingdom/Royal-Armouries/215812575369ref=ts 


News 

Call for papers 

Mobilisation into the 

Wehrmacht in the annexed 

lands of the Third Reich 

International conference to 

be held at the National 

Museum of Contemporary 

History, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 20–21 October 2011. 

The study and research of the mobilisation of Slovenians 

into the Wehrmacht has been going on since 1991. In 

August 1941 an outline of the contract of citizenship in the 

liberated territories of Styria, Carinthia and Crain was 

prepared in Berlin and the ministry board published the 

decree in October 1941. Citizens on probation were treated 

as German citizens, and they were called to do military 

service and state labour service. It is believed that over 

50,000 Slovenian men, born between 1906 and 1927, fought 

in different German units around Europe. Nearly 12.000 

were killed and 15.000 injured. 

In many other European countries young men joined the 

German Army. They came from the occupied territories of 

Europe. The Nazi military apparatus included them in their 

own groups, so they became soldiers and victims 

simultaneously. Mobilisation covered almost the entire 

active male population and the numbers of those forcibly 

mobilised were very high. 

The aim of this conference is to bring together scholars 

and those engaged in research on similar topics and 

themes in their countries, stimulate the exchange of data on 

mobilisation among nations, identify the common historic 

moment and improve our knowledge of specific themes. 

It is intended to publish a book of summaries and a CD 

with all papers. 

We especially welcome research in: 

• The situation in particular countries of origin and the 

starting point of mobilisation 

• The numbers mobilised 

• Battlefields and units where the mobilised fought 

• Injured and killed 

• Desertion 

• Joining other military formations 

• End of war-prisoner camps 

• Returning home 

• Testimonies 

• Trauma 

• Memory 

• Veteran organisations and their organisation and status 

The language of the conference will be English. 

You are cordially invited to send an abstract of 250-300 

words and a brief CV in English by 31 May 2011 to: 

Monika Kokalj Kočevar, email: monika@muzej-nz.si 

All proposals will be subject to a review process. 

For further informations contact: 

Monika Kokalj Kočevar, M.A,. 

National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia 

Celovška 23, Ljubljana, Slovenia 

Email: monika@muzej-nz.si 

or visit: http://www.muzej-nz.si 


News 

News from the National Museum 

of the United States Air Force 

Dayton, Ohio 

Ninth jet world masters 

championship competition to be 

held at National Museum of the 

US Air Force 

The Jet World Masters championship competition will 

take place in the United States for the first time July 24 – 

August 6 at the National Museum of the United States Air 

Force. 

Up to 100 pilots from over 50 different countries could 

compete during this two week event, which is free and open 

to the public. 

The event features scale models with real turbine 

powered jets, detailed to exactly replicate full-size aircraft. 

Each pilot will perform 10 maneuvers typical of a full-scale 

plane in three or four sessions. The planes will be judged 

on their accuracy by a team of six international judges with 

a flying speed up to 200 mph. 

Food and radio-controlled aircraft merchandise will also 

be available for sale. Additional details will be announced 

leading up to the event. 

Since 1995, this international event has been hosted in 

various countries every two years. The last competition was 

held in Israel in 2009. 

The National Museum of the United States Air Force, 

located near Dayton, Ohio, is the oldest and largest military 

aviation museum in the world, with more than 360 

aerospace vehicles and missiles on display, amid more than 

17 acres of indoor exhibit space. 

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is 

located on Springfield Street, six miles northeast of 

downtown Dayton. 

It is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

(closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day). 

Admission and parking are free. 

Virtual tour wins air force 

award and are now fully 

viewable online 

The US Air Force recently recognized the National 

Museum of the US Air Force Virtual Tour with its 2010 

Best Innovative Program Award in Public Affairs. The award 

followed feedback and requests from online visitors which 

prompted staff to move forward with uploading panoramic 

photos of all galleries, making the museum fully virtual. The 

tour is located at http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com 

‘All 92 high-definition panoramic ‘nodes’ are now online,’ 

said Lt. Gen. (Ret) John L. Hudson, museum director. ‘With 

all the photos uploaded, visitors can now better experience 

the museum while at home or on the go.’ 

When the Virtual Tour launched in November 2010, each 

gallery was initially scheduled to roll-out in phases. As staff 

received feedback, it became evident that online visitors 

were impressed with the tour’s navigation, content and 

quality. Out of those who took the survey and have not 

physically visited the museum, 82 percent have said they 

would now visit. 

‘The responses on the Virtual Tour were more than we 

could have hoped. Not only have we extended our reach to a 

global audience, we have provided a service for people who 

cannot physically be here,’ said Terry Aitken, senior curator 

for the museum. 

The museum offers online visitors various ways to obtain 

this information, with the podcasts available via iTunes and 

the panoramas built not only for computers, but also for 

Smartphones and iPads. Each node eventually will contain 

clickable images to the aircraft and artifacts, which will be 

hyperlinked to factsheets, supplemental information and 

educational tools. 

As the museum continues to expand on this new 

technology, individuals are invited to take a short survey in 

order to help us provide the end-user the best virtual 

experience possible. The survey is located at: 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/93S93FD. 


Exhibitions 

Wives and Sweethearts Exhibition 

At The National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, 

Chelsea, London, SW3 4HT 

Using touching letters from the front line alongside a 

selection of images and love tokens, Wives & 

Sweethearts looks at the effect of Army life on the personal 

relationships of soldiers and their partners and families. 

Included are fascinating items from the Napoleonic, 

Crimean and World War conflicts as well as modern day 

content exploring the ongoing challenges of love on the front 

line. 

Opens 9 February until 30 July. 

Free entry. 

Four key themes of the exhibition: 

• Courtship and Engagement explores the beginnings of 

soldiers' partnerships. The section focusing on weddings 

highlights the immense contrast between wartime and 

peacetime marriage ceremonies, especially in the 20th 

century 

• Women of the Regiment looks at the roles of women in 

the Army during the 19th century 

• Separation forms the largest part of the exhibition looks 

at what is perhaps the hardest aspect of life with a 

soldier; the long periods of separation it often entails 

• Reunion takes into account the fact that soldiers' return 

to their loved ones, although usually joyful in the long 

run, can often be painful and difficult at first. 

Key exhibition items from Napoleonic, Crimean, Boer, First 

and Second World Wars, the Korean War, the Falklands 

War and the Gulf War: 

• Love token sent to his wife from an soldier at Waterloo 

• Roger Fenton photographs of ‘Women of the Regiment’ 

during the Crimean War 

• A Boer War letter sent with a pressed flower 

• Embroidered postcards from the First World War 

• Diamond-encrusted sweetheart brooch from the Second 

World War 

• Letters and photographs from the Falklands, Korean, 

and Gulf Wars 

• Oral histories from current soldier’s wives and 

sweethearts 

Lucy Denyer – Writer, The Times correspondent and an 

Army wife - 2011 

“Falling in love with someone in the Army is like falling 

in love with anyone else. But when it comes to having a 

relationship with that person, there are certain issues to 

face. For the enlisted soldier, the Army is not a regular 9-5 

job, it is a 24/7 commitment, and unfortunately, for the 

majority of the time, if the Army calls - whether for a 3am 

parade or a six-month deployment - the solider or officer 

must go, regardless of what is happening at home. Being 

married to someone in that situation can make one feel like 

something of a chattel, sent to wherever is convenient and 

ordered to get on with life. This is hard if you never signed 

up to the military yourself - if you're married to someone in 

the Army, it does tend to take over your existence as well, 

which can seem very unfair. Plus a 10-year job in the Army 

doesn't mean living in the same place for 10 years, which 

makes it hard to get on with your own career and make 

plans - unless one is prepared to potentially separate the 

family yet further. On the plus side, there are unexpected 

perks to having a soldier for a husband. Random bouts of 

leave which can allow for adventurous travel, the 

opportunity to live in far-flung places, the help the Army 

gives to families, including schooling and welfare support. 

And of course the ready-made camaraderie it presents: no 

matter how much you might resist being a 'trailing spouse', 

there is comfort in meeting others in the same situation, 

with the same frustrations. 

How to deal with it all Communication is key - that and 

accepting that this is the way it is, for now. And not letting 

yourself become a doormat either. So what if your soldier 

husband is sent to Afghanistan for half a year - that doesn't 

mean you have to put your own life on hold for the same 

amount of time. It's difficult, but not impossible.” 

Soldier’s letter written by L/Cpl David Banham, HM 94th 

Regiment of Foot, from Moulmein, Burma to England, 1 

Aug 1845 

I think of all the lives of misery in this world a married 

soldiers is the worst. Would to God my poor deluded 

countrywomen who are continually marring soldiers, could 

picture to themselves one half of the misery and 

degradation which must follow such such a step. 

If I had my mind no man beneath a commission should 

be allowed to bring a wife into the army. I have seen simple 

country girls turn out such low detestable characters under 


Exhibitions 

the mame of soldiers wives, that I have often found myself 

upon the verge of cursing the whole sex. “it is indeed most 

awful”. 

Love letter sent from Mrs Jean Leonard, Great Britain, to 

to her husband, Sgt Ivor Leonard, in Burma, Nov 1943. 

Double rate, to 82 LAA A/Tk Regiment, India Command; 

redirected on arrival, franked 2/6 green cancelled m/c 

‘SWINDON’, 10/11/1943 with Indian ‘FPO [Field Post Office] 

No82’, 19 Feb 1944, located Tidim, Burma. 

With much love & kisses 

I remain 

Your devoted hubbie, 

Will 

Six manuscript letters from Maj Gen Walter Newman to 

Miss Emma Brown, apparently of October - November 

1860, written mainly from Portsmouth: love letters to his 

future wife. 

Emma Browne – 13 Oct 1860 

Would that it were my privilege to address you in any but 

in this cold and formal manner! to obtain this privilege is 

the object of my letter. It may be, I fear great presumption 

on my part to think that you can care for me but I venture to 

hope so and stake my happiness on a favourable decision. 

You will find in me one who will love you tenderly one to 

whom to make you comfortable and happy would be the 

object of his life. 

Emma Browne – 18 Oct 1860 

How happy I am that there is no obstacle to me offering 

you my hand and whole heart. 

It cost me a bitter pang to have to write as I wrote 

yesterday to your dear father to have to suppose that my 

offer might be unacceptable to your family by reason of my 

father’s profession. 

If ever in after life I should attempt to thwart a wish of 

yours; if ever I should show a sign of jealousy or want of 

trust; if ever an angry word should cross my lips, keep this 

letter as a rebuke to me. the single mindedness and 

simplicity of the letter which I received from you in its 

undertone of true feeling quite won me. 

Billong – 27 July 1805 

Since I left England in which case I think it very hard that 

I cant get a letter from one of them to give me a little 

satisfaction 

I ham (sic) in want of nothing at all except you take the 

first opportunity of sending me a wife out in your next letter 

as there is nothing but ones in this part of the world for men 

Love letter sent from Mrs Jean Leonard, Great Britain, to 

to her husband, Sgt Ivor Leonard, in Burma, Nov 1943. 

Double rate, to 82 LAA A/Tk Regiment, India Command; 

redirected on arrival, franked 2/6 green cancelled m/c 

‘SWINDON’, 10/11/1943 with Indian ‘FPO [Field Post Office] 

No82’, 19 Feb 1944, located Tidim, Burma. 

it is so grand to be able to look forward to the lovely 

future, I do hope that this old war will soon be over and that 

you will soon be home. 

All my love and xxxxxxxxxx Ever your very own xxxxxxx 

wife Jean xxxxx I do miss you so very much 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Letter from Marianne in Chabrac to Lt William Lee,16th 

Queen’s Light Dragoons, in Strasbourg, 18 May 1787. 

Marianne is asking for money as she is pregnant by Lt Lee, 

although she is living with another lover. 

Lt Lee served with the 16th Queen’s Light Dragoons from 

1787-1792. 

But that would not prevent me from leaving the old man 

and flying to you if you love me and intend to live with me. 

I have the doctor saying that I am pregnant and that 

going in a carriage harmed me. But that does not prevent 

me from being pregnant and that is from you and nobody 

else. Yes, my dear friend, I will make you a dear little Lee 

who will be charming and nice like his father. 

Letter from Zinette Desincourt, an actress in Paris, to Lt 

William Lee, 16th Queen’s Light Dragoons, at Brunswick 31 

May 1788. Lt Lee served with the 16th Queen’s Light 

Dragoons from 1787-1792. 

5 May 1788 

Write to me very often, you cannot imagine how much I 

like to read your letters. 

Farewell, my friend, I kiss you with all my soul and I am 

yours for life, 

Your Linette 

Postcard, 16 Jun or Jul 1918. Sent by Pte Charlie Cole, 

prisoner of war at Stendal, Germany, to his wife. 

Postcard is about how Pte Cole is missing her and the 

children and is looking forward to seeing them. 

Written in pencil. One of 23 documents relating to Pte 

Charlie Cole, 7th Bn the Buffs, 1914 (c)-1920. 

Pte Cole was a prisoner of war in Stendal Prisoner of War 

Camp and died in a prisoner of war hospital, 17 Sep 1918. 

From the collection of the former Buffs Regimental 

Museum. 1918 

My Dear Wife I am longing for the time to come to see 

you all once again and I know you are my dear dear Wife I 

shall be glad to get home to have a nice meal with you again 

so will close with all my love to you my dear Wife and 

goodbye or a little while longer from you ever loving 

Husband Charley xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Embroidered postcard, without text, 1916 (c). 

Sent to Ada from Pte Christmas, Machine Gun Corps. 

Manufactured in France, 1916 (c). 

Envelope style postcard with flowers and foliage. 

Contains a printed card, 'To my dear Sweetheart', signed 

from 'Tootoo'. 

Inscribed on verson in pencil, 'The letter for you is not 


Exhibitions 

written yet, and it is only delaying this one, so will send it 

separate. your Boy.'. 

Addressed to 'My own darling ada With tons of love and 

kisses from your Holly.'. 

Associated with World War One, Western Front (1914- 

1918). 

My Darling Sweetheart. 

May every joy attend you this xmas 

With fondest love and kisses from one only absent in 

person. 

Your only Boy Holly 

Manuscript air mail letter from L/Cpl John Rhodes, 3rd 

Carabiniers, to his fiancee, Joan, from Burma, 27 Feb 1945. 

The content of the letter is mainly personal, and 

particularly concerns his joy at coming home on leave. 

One of twenty one letters written by L/Cpl John Rhodes, 

3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) to 

Joan, his future wife, who served with the Auxiliary 

Territorial Service. 

Associated with World War Two, Far East. 

You see – I love you – more than ever, maybe I told you 

that before, I don’t remember – do you 

Write to me at home to await arrival won’t you I must 

have a letter from you waiting for me because I’m missing 

your letters so much now. 

Letter from Valerie Erskine Howe to Anthony Ryshworth- 

Hill, dated Salisbury Plain, April 1944. 

With photographs of Valerie Erskine Howe stuck to the 

paper. From a collection of letters sent by Valerie 

Ryshworth-Hill, nee Erskine-Howe, to Lt Col Anthony 

Ryshworth-Hill, while serving in the ATS, 1942-1945. 

Associated with World War Two, Home Front (1939-1945). 

1944 

Darling I love you so much – I love the silly hat you’re 

wearing and I love all your expressions – and well, I’ve 

always loved every little bit of you, since, I believe, possibly 

since the pyramids were built or perhaps a couple of years 

before- 

Anthony Husband 

Letter from Maj Ryshworth-Hill to Valerie Erskine-Howe, 

16 Jun 1944. From a collection of personal letters, notes 

and ephemera belonging to Capt (later Lt Col) Anthony G 

Ryshworth-Hill MC. Ryshworth-Hill served in North Africa 

and Italy during World War Two and afterwards was a 

military attaché in Ghana and Turkey. He married Valerie 

Erskine-Howe in 1945 to whom most of the letters are 

addressed. Associated with World War Two, North Africa 

(1940-1943) and World War Two, Italy (1943-1945). 

Valerie, shall we become engaged in a sort of distant 

way so that we are sort of linked together until we next 

meet How would that suit you 

National Army 

Museum 

Exhibitions and Events 

Wives & Sweethearts 

Using touching letters from the front line alongside a 

selection of images and love tokens, Wives & 

Sweethearts looks at the effect of Army life on the personal 

relationships of soldiers and their partners and families. 

Included are fascinating items from the Napoleonic, 

Crimean and World War conflicts as well as modern day 

content exploring the ongoing challenges of love on the front 

line. Dates: Opens 9 February – 30 July 2011, 

Admission: Free 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/special-displays/wivessweethearts 

SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS 

National Service Display 

Covering eight conflicts in 20 years, this new display 

explores the contribution of Britain’s post-war national 

service conscripts as they moved from civilian to soldier. 

Personal stories of endless drilling and grueling inspections 

are contrasted with detail on how such a range of difficult 

commitments sent these young men to far-flung corners of 

the world. Dates: Opening 22 October – permanent, 


http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/special-displays/nationalservice 

The Road to Kabul: British Armies in Afghanistan, 1839 – 1919 

Since the early 19th century, Britain’s military intervention in 

Afghanistan has been the cause of debate and controversy. 

Examine the history and legacies of the First, Second and 

Third Afghan Wars and explore dramatic personal stories of 

the people involved. Paintings of the current conflict by war 

artist Matthew Cook bring the exhibition up to date. Dates: 

Opening 9 September – permanent, Admission: Free 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/special-displays/roadkabul-british-armies-afghanistan-1839-1919 

Korea 1950 – 53: The Cold War’s Hot War 

Marking the 60th Anniversary since the outbreak of the 

Korean War, this new display examines the role of the 

British Army during the first and only UN war to date. Mixing 

personal objects and artefacts from the Museum’s 

collection with contemporary media reports, the display will 

explore both the personal experience of soldiers and the 

far-reaching legacy of the conflict. Dates: Permanent, 



Exhibitions 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/special-displays/korea- 

1950-53-cold-wars-hot-war 

Conflicts of Interest 

This major new gallery examines over four decades of action 

on the world stage by the modern British Army. Looking 

beyond the media headlines, it explores the conflicting 

interests of enforcing peace through a violent means, 

balancing global security with the needs of vulnerable 

communities and the demands of the job on the personal 

lives of our troops. Dates: Permanent 


http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/permanentgalleries/conflicts-interest-1969-present 

PERMANENT GALLERIES 

The Making of Britain, 1066 - 1783 

From foreign invasion to contests for the crown, from civil 

war at home to rebellion in the Colonies, this gallery 

investigates the Army’s role in creating and defending the 

nation state of Great Britain we know today. 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/permanentgalleries/making-britain-1066-1783 

Changing the World 1784 – 1904 - 

This gallery examines the British Army’s role in the 

expansion and defence of British trade, political interest, 

and empire, and its effect on the shape of Britain and the 

world today. 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/permanentgalleries/changing-world-1784-1904 

World Wars, 1905-1945 

This gallery explores the role of the British 

Commonwealth's civilian armies and their defence of 

democracy during the First and Second World Wars, the era 

of 'Total War'. 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/permanentgalleries/world-wars-1905-1945 

ADULT EVENTS 

Britain’s Greatest Generals – 5 x talks 

What makes a great commander Join some of the 

country's most eminent historians in a series of talks to 

decide. Is it Wellington or Cromwell, Haig, Marlborough or 

Slim Each speaker will make his case and at the end of the 

day...you decide. 

The National Army Museum is running a public vote 

where YOU get to decide who is Britain's Greatest General. 

Visit our http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/britains-greatest-general 

online exhibition to 

cast your vote. 

Date and time: 9 April 2011, 10.30am - 5.30pm 

Admission: £20:00 – Standard, £17.50 - Concessions 

(SOFNAM/ Students/ Seniors/ Service Personnel). 

Concession tickets can be booked over the phone but must 

be collected on the day of the event with proof of ID. 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/whats-on/targeted-talks/britainsgreatest-general 

Elite Forces Celebrity Speaker Day 5 x talks 

Paul Lincoln, Gordon Stevens, Soldier I, Rusty Firmin 

Leading authors and soldiers are joining rank to offer an 

exclusive day of talks on the elite warriors of the Special 

Forces. 

Discover the inner workings of Britain’s most covert 

operational force with a series of individual talks which 

chart their early beginnings in the Long Range Desert Group 

and the Chindits in the Second World War to the explosive 

emergence of the SAS during the Iranian embassy siege. 

Date and time: 7 May 2011, 10.15am - 5.30pm 

Admission: £15.00 – Standard, £12.50 – Concessions 



be collected on the day of the event with proof of ID 

http://www.nam.ac.uk/whats-on/targeted-talks/elite-forcescelebrity-speaker-day 

CELEBRITY SPEAKERS 

Rory Stewart – The Legacy of Lawrence of Arabia 

MP Rory Stewart is a former soldier, diplomat and deputy 

governor of a province of occupied Iraq. He has spent a 

number of years living and working in Iraq and Afghanistan 

and has long been fascinated by T.E. Lawrence. In this talk, 

Rory will examine the military life of T.E. Lawrence, drawing 

parallels with British and American interventions in Iraq and 

Afghanistan today. 

Date and time:10 March, 7.00pm 

Admission: £10.00 – Standard, £7.50 – Concessions 




James Fergusson - Taliban 

Following the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan the 

country was in chaos. In October 1994 a small group of 

religious students decided to take matters into their own 

hands. The Taliban, as they called themselves, fought with a 

religious zeal that the warring Mujaheddin could not match. 

By February 1995, they had become a national movement; 18 

months later Kabul fell and the country was effectively theirs. 

Fergusson's fascinating account of this extraordinary 

story is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the 

current situation in Afghanistan. 

Date and time: 28 April 2011, 7.00pm 

Admission: £7.50 – Standard, £5.00 - Concessions 





Exhibitions 

Ian Knight – Zulu Rising 

The battle of Isandlwana was the most destructive incident 

in the history of British colonisation of South Africa. In a 

staggering defeat for Britain over 1,300 British and allied 

troops and at least 2,000 Zulus were killed. 

For the first time, Ian Knight gives full focus to the Zulu 

experience. Based on new research, including unpublished 

material, Zulu oral history and new archaeological evidence, 

this is the definitive account of a battle that has shaped the 

political fortunes of the Zulu people to this day. 

Date and time: 5 May 2011, 7.00pm 

Admission: £7.50 – Standard, £5.00 - 

Concessions (SOFNAM/ Students/ Seniors/ Service 

Personnel). Concession tickets can be booked over the 

phone but must be collected on the day of the event with 

proof of ID. 

TICKETS CAN BE BOOKED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS: 

Online at http://www.nam.ac.uk 

Use the booking form on this page or 

http://shop.national-army-museum.ac.uk/ 

visit the Museum Shop 

Telephone: 020 7881 6600 

At the Museum: Visit the Museum Shop 

LUNCHTIME LECTURES 

Free Lunchtime lectures take place every Thursday at 

12.30pm. 

Please see website for further details 

http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk 

FAMILY EVENTS 

Victorian Soldier Action Zone 

Are you a drummer boy, an infantryman or a cavalry officer 

Find out in the Museum’s interactive Victorian Action Zone. 

Quizzes, games and hands-on activities help you learn about 

life as a Victorian Soldier and the part they played in the 

shaping of Britain’s Empire. 

Admission: Free Location: Changing the World gallery 

The World’s Army – Empire, Commonwealth and Dominion 

Soldiers, 1914- 45 Action Zone 

Explore the lives of people from around the world involved in 

the First and Second World Wars and the great advance 

made in technologies of warfare in our family interactive 

zone. Admission: Free, Location: World Wars gallery 

Kids’ Zone 

Learn what it is to be a soldier. Live in a soldier’s tent in an 

army camp, look after all the king’s horses and defend your 

castle against invaders! The Kids’ Zone is a free interactive 

learning and play space, so bring all your troops – the Zone 

is tailored for under 10s and includes a soft play area for 

babies. Admission: Free 

National Army 

Museum 

Since its conception by Field 

Marshal Sir Gerald Templer in 1959, 

the National Army Museum has developed an 

unparalleled Collection, which charts the history 

and influence of the British Army in Britain and 

abroad. 

O 

ver 50 years on, the Museum is producing a packed 

programme of new exhibitions to complement its 

permanent galleries and remarkable collections. From 

February the Museum celebrates the soldiers’ lives and 

loves in its Wives and Sweethearts exhibition, the art and 

history of the war comic is explored this September with 

Draw Your Weapons: The art of Commando Comics, and our 

major exhibition War Horse: Fact and Fiction, launches in 

October to document the vital role of horses in war. 

2011 sees the Museum face its greatest challenge, the 

conservation and consolidation of its remarkable Collection, 

currently stored at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, to 

new outstation in Stevenage. To facilitate this major 

inventory check of its Collection, National Army Museum is 

using iPad and iPod Touch with Filemaker Go software. This 

initiative allows live remote access to the National Army 

Museum’s central collections database, facilitating the 

physical location and auditing of objects in previously 

problematic areas of storage. Easily customised Filemaker 

interfaces allow a variety of tasks to be completed effectively 

and efficiently. This process has been enhanced by the 

introduction of the latest versions of Filemaker, which allow 

the replacement of standard file sharing protocols with 

Hypertext Transfer Protocol to deliver digital assets to 

users. Further development using the new generation of 

mobile devices will incorporate new bar-code reading 

applications, which will allow swift auditing and the effective 

tracking of objects in transit. Initial evaluation and feedback 

from users has been very positive and the Museum is 

already looking at the development of specific applications 

for these devices as well as other practical uses in its 

galleries and exhibitions to add to a raft of ‘backroom’ tasks. 

An inventory check of a Collection the breadth and size 

of the National Army Museum is an epic task, but by 

investing in new technology and software we hope to make 

this undertaking as easy and efficient as possible; 

preserving the finite recourses of the Collection team and 

ensuring items are accounted and available for the public to 

continue to enjoy, challenge and learn from. Admission to 

the National Army Museum is free and the Museum is open 

everyday from 10am to 5:30pm. 

To learn more about the National Army Museum and its 

remarkable Collections, please visit: www.nam.ac.uk 


Exhibitions 

‘The Unknown Warrior’ 

Royal Engineers Museum, 11 

January – 1 March 2011 

The Royal Engineers Museum is hosting a touring 

exhibition entitled ‘The Unknown Warrior’. It tells the 

story of the Unknown Soldier and other soldiers killed in the 

First World War who lived along the route that brought the 

Unknown Soldier home. Two of the soldiers were from 

Dover, two were from Chatham, and two were from London; 

when the exhibition arrives here in Chatham this touring 

exhibition will have been to all three places. 

The exhibition’s key exhibit is a 6 foot high stained glass 

window. The stained glass window features a lone soldier 

looking out to sea to see the arrival of HMS Verdun and the 

Unknown Soldier, in 1920, with other panels dedicated to 

the other soldiers of the project. One of the soldiers is Sgt 

Richard Monty Daniel, a shipwright from Chatham Dockyard 

who was killed in 1916 whilst serving with the Royal East 

Kent regiment. The other soldier is Private James Brill, a 

member of the Royal Marine Light Infantry Chatham 

battalion. 

The exhibition demonstrates the importance of a 

national focus of grief after the Great War – a global conflict 

on a scale never before seen by the world, where the bodies 

of the fallen were never brought home to their families. The 

importance and relevance of the Unknown Soldier, and the 

sacrifice he represents, remains undiminished today. 

For more information, contact: 

Dominique Bignall, Deputy Curator 

01634 822221 

deputycurator@re-museum.co.uk 


Exhibitions 

The Army Museum, Stockholm 

The Army Museum in Stockholm is putting on a whole range of 

exhibitions this Spring including: Uniforms; Bits and Pieces; 

Breaking the Silence and Body Armour 

Russian, early 19th century, photo: Torkel Edenborg 

Uniforms 

Starting last year, we instituted a project to display our 

wonderful collections of uniforms. For years, they lived a 

life in store, in locked areas and were not known at all to the 

public. Our concept is to change the objects on display every 

six months. The first exhibition was called Tough and Cool – 

including things like motor cycle jackets etc. The next was 

17 Shades of Grey. Here we found out that pure grey uniform 

of our imagination, just doesn’t exist – they are all very 

different and to me this was a minimalistic elegant exposé 

where the modern design of the catwalk and the greyish 

jackets really looked superb. 

This year, on 16 February, we opened the third part of 

our plan, Uniform – Foreign. Now the colors explode all 

around you. Intense red and blue jackets face the visitors as 

they enter our museum. A famous Swedish fashion designer 

declared the Army Museum to be the best fashion museum 

in Stockholm. We are now reaching a whole new type of 

visitor: seamstresses, designers and people interested in 

textile history. The project is very successful as we have 

managed to reach a new type of visitor who now know their 

way to the Army Museum - this was also the purpose of the 

project. At the opening we had invited all the foreign military 

attachés in Stockholm from the countries that appeared in 

the exhibition. We arranged a fashion show where the 

attachés from Russia, Austria, England and Italy were the 

models on show during the opening ceremony. Instead of a 

bride at the end of the show a very lost foreigner turned up 

dressed way out of time. But as he was a foreigner, he got a 

lot of cheering and thanks as he cut the ribbon with his 

sword. You can see him on the photo – if you wish to follow 

how he actually managed to cut the ribbon you have to sign 

up on facebook/armemuseum. 


Exhibitions 

US milk. These were found in Poland in an old military camp from 

former Soviet Union. Photo: Lennart Durehed 

Bits and Pieces 

Afew days later, on 22 February, our travelling exhibition, 

Bits and pieces between life and death, was opened in 

Oslo by the Swedish Ambassador to Norway. This exhibition, 

which featured in the last edition of the Magazine (Number 

5, page 20) has now begun its tour around Europe. We are 

hoping that the next stop will be Brussels and are currently 

in negotiations with the Belgium Royal Army Museum. As 

the exhibition includes 66 showcases we call it Route 66 for 

the tour and we are actively looking for partners to take it 

over the coming years. The exhibition includes more than 

one thousand objects from many countries including the US, 

Great Britain, France, Japan, Germany and Sweden. The 

oldest are from the 18th century and the newest are still in 

use. Even war can be routine - soldiers have to eat, drink, 

wash and shave. In the midst of tedium or fear, soldiers find 

diversion in cigarettes, chewing gum, card-games, music or 

a drink. Injuries are cared for, shattered nerves healed. 

There are families to keep in touch with and news to keep up 

with. Survival depends not only on weaponry but also on 

binoculars, compasses, spades and language dictionaries. 

Commonplace objects blot out memories of war. This 

exhibition is international and the layout is similar to a 

cemetery for soldiers where all gravestones are alike, so are 

the showcases. If you are interested then please get in touch 

with the curator Karin Tetteris at: 

karin.tetteris@armemuseum.se 

Breaking the Silence 

Between the 4 and 20 March we have the exhibition, 

Breaking the Silence– a photo exhibition of Israeli 

soldiers in Hebron – in the museum. The exhibition 

includes more than 2500 hours of interviews from over 700 

soldiers as well as photographs and parts of the interviews 

mounted on large panels. The show also includes two 

soldiers who will be in the museum during the whole two 

weeks. They will give tours for the visitors every hour. 

Breaking the Silence has been in other countries before but 

this is the first time it has been hosted by an Army Museum. 

In Sweden both the newspapers and television are very 

eager to know more and we hope to get a lot of publicity. But 

of course we also wish that visitors will take the opportunity 

to make their own picture from this conflict. It is always true 

that media often tells a very simple story when reality is so 

much more complicated. 


Exhibitions 

Body Armour 

This is an art project from the Army Museum in Oslo, who 

started this as they had an artist in residence, Morten 

Traavik, last year. This project focus on the question whether 

weapons are part of the soldiers body or not Peter the 

Great and his Kunstkammer in St Petersburg with unborn 

babies in glass boxes, (see for example, 

http://www.kunstkamera.ru/kunstcatalogue/index.seamc=RUYSH 

and the Rifleman’s creed 

from the US Marin corps are the inspiration for the artist. 

Weapons are dressed in “skin and bones” and made to look 

human. Our model makers have created a unique work as 

they have made skin for an old weapon and for a young one 

and for a child weapon. We want to make visitors reflect and 

discuss this issue. We plan to arrange a seminar Are the 

weapons or the people dangerous And what has an artist 

to say in a military museum A museum is, as you all know, 

a mirror in which we see the public heritage and our 

memories – but who decides how to make the mirror and 

what to be seen in it Mirrors can make images bigger and 

also shrink things we don’t wish to see. Morten Traaviks 

sculptures are quite unpleasant and maybe this is what war 

is – unpleasant. 

A River and its past 

The river Ljubiana that runs thorough Slovenia has a 

treasury in its bottom and for many years excavations 

have been going on to explore its riches. Last year a big 

exhibition was held in the National Museum of Slovenia 

where 2000 items were put on display. This year The Army 

Museum in Stockholm is very proud to be the first museum 

outside Slovenia to display their treasuries. About 700 

objects are to be on show from 25 May 2011 to mid January 

2012. We will show things that are 5000 years old and up to 

the mid-1950s. What can be found in a river and what do 

these objects tell us about past times We are working on 

this project right now and I can promise you a splendid 

exhibition and I really hope some of you will come to Sweden 

for the one and only reason to visit this exhibition. Slovenia 

celebrates its 20 years of independence and the exhibition 

will be opened by the Slovenian Minister of Culture on 25 

May. As part of this 20 years celebration a lot of events are 

taking place this year. The Slovenian ski championship was 

held in Stockholm and, of course, the Army Museum 

managed to present a team for downhill ski competitions. 

The photo shows the most famous of all Swedish ski stars 

Ingemar Stenmark (in the middle) and Christina Tengner 

(master of arms) and Aron Erstorp (master of the river) both 

from the Army Museum. Neither fell during the competition. 

Please follow the River exhibition on our website as we soon 

will have nice photos on show. The Army Museum is most 

grateful to the Slovenian National Museum for lending us 

this exhibition and for support and good friendship. 

The dollmakers make body armour 

Ski Slovenia Cup 2011 


Publications 

Arms and Armour of Knights 

and Landsknechts in the 

Netherlands Army Museum 

(Wapens van ridders en 

landsknechten in het 

Nederlands Legermuseum) 

Jan Piet Puype and Harm Stevens 

Legermuseum, Korte Geer 1, 2611 CA Delft, 

The Netherlands. 

2010, in English and Dutch, 366 pages, 59.00 euro 

The Army Museum in Delft is the only dedicated arms and 

armour museum in the Netherlands and possesses a 

collection of just over a hundred pieces of arms and armour 

dating to the period 1100 to 1550 and these form the basis 

for this new, beautifully designed and produced, catalogue. 

A short introduction outlines the history of the collection 

and states the methodology of the catalogue. It is divided 

into six sections: helmets, armour, shields and equestrian 

equipment (21); swords (19); daggers (33); polearms (27); 

cannon (5); and crossbows and crossbow bolts (4). Following 

a short introduction to each section, every object is 

illustrated with at least one overall photograph, although 

many have more showing details and marks. Every item has 

a full description, with discussions and remarks, 

provenance and literature sources. 

Catalogues of museum collections are, for the historian, 

curator, researcher, a prime source of information. All too 

often though, getting information about museum collections 

is not easy, though the situation is improving with the 

development of internet resources and web-based 

databases. A comprehensive catalogue of a museum 

collection, even one as small as this, is very much to be 

welcomed. The illustrations, complemented with drawings, 

are of high quality and in colour. 

As the authors themselves explain, the title is, perhaps, 

a little controversial. In the strict sense of the words in the 

title, knight and landsknechts, it is probable that many of 

the objects fall outside those names. However if the name 

knight is taken to include mercenaries and professional 

soldiers then it is perhaps appropriate. 

The authors are able to draw on their years of 

experience and knowledge of Dutch history and collections 

to produce this important catalogue. Although the collection 

of the Army Museum in Delft is relatively small, this 

catalogue is a very welcome addition to the study of arms 

and armour and it should be on all serious students’ 

bookshelves 


Publications 

The Dutch Army 

Museum Books on sale 

The Dutch Army Museum has a long tradition of 

producing attractive, well-designed books on various 

areas in its collection. Several of these publications are also 

available in English and a few of these publications are now 

on sale, exclusively for the readers of Magazine. You can 

order the books by sending an e-mail to: 

winkel@legermuseum.nl. 

Please mention the following information: the book(s) you 

would like to order, your name, address, phone number and 

the code “Newsletter Icomam”. You will receive an invoice. 

Please do not send cheques or money in advance. As soon 

as you have paid, the books will be sent to you. Please note: 

all prices exclude postage costs. 

The Army Museum, 

Stockholm 

New publications 

The Army Museum – on war and people 

A guide to the Army Museum – in English and Russian 

Uniform 

Catalogue of our exhibition, nice photos, elegant design – in 

English 

Bits and pieces between life and death 

Catalogue of the exhibition – a very attractive book for 

anyone that likes museum objects – in English 

No more war 

Catalogue of the exhibition shown last year from the 

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum – in English 

All books can be ordered from: butik@armemuseum.se 

Robert D. Smith 

Heavy metal. Focus on 

European Armour 

Reduced from 19,90 to 

9,90 euro 

What was armour really 

like Why was it worn Who 

wore it Who made it How 

was it made and how much 

did it cost How well did it 

work How much did it 

weigh Where was it 

made How did you put it 

on Everything you always 

wanted to know about 

armour but were afraid to ask. 79 pages 

Mark van Hattem 

In the wake of Napoleon. 

The Dutch in time of war 

1792-1815 


9,90 euro 

In the Wake of Napoleon 

paints a picture of the lives 

of some of the people 

involved in the events of the 

day. The extraordinary mix 

of stories and unique 

objects together elucidate 

the experiences of the Dutch in time of war. 128 pages 


Publications 

Martin Roemers 

Kabul, Dutch troops in 

Afghanistan 

Reduced from 9,90 to 4,90 

euro 

The Dutch Army Museum 

commissioned the 

photographer Martin 

Roemers to make a series 

of photographs about 

Dutch troops in 

Afghanistan. A selection of 

these photos subsequently 

won first prize in the 

Foreign News section of 

the Dutch Silver Camera competition, 2002. 48 pages 

Kalashnikov. 

Rifle without borders 


15,00 euro 

This book consists of four 

essays, one of them by war 

journalist Arnold Karskens, 

and a catalogue of all 

Kalashnikovs in the 

collection of the Dutch 

Army Museum. 120 pages 

J.P. Puype and 

R. de Stürler Boekwijt 

Klewang, Catalogue of the 

Dutch Army Museum 


15,00 euro 

Catalogue on the 140 

klewangs in the collection 

of the museum. Illustrated 

in black and white, 344 

pages 

Presenting the unpresentable 

Free with each order 

Renewing presentations in museums of military history, 

proceedings pf a conference held in 2002, with essays by 

Guy Wilson, Patrick Lefèvre, Laurie Milner and Johan 

Engström. 

Farewell to arms. 

Studies on the history of 

arms and armour 


19,90 euro 

Beautifully illustrated with 

articles on armour and 

arms, in the broadest 

sense of the word. The 

articles cover such areas 

as Swedish snaphance 

locks, Military Binoculars, 

an unknown Vikingsword 

from Russia, Two Dutch 

firearms in the Frazier 

Historical Arms Museum and many more. 194 pages 

Harm Stevens 

Crossbows in the Royal 

Netherlands Army 

Museum 


35,00 euro 

A complete overview of the 

crossbow collection of the 

Royal Netherlands Army 

Museum includes a history 

of the development of this 

popular weapon and richly 

illustrated descriptions of 

individual objects, ranging 

from medieval to early 

twentieth century European crossbow types. A brief 

introduction to the technical aspects of historical crossbows 

is followed by a catalogue section presenting the individual 

objects. The list of crossbow makers and their marks will be 

of particular interest to collectors and museum experts. 384 

pages 

J.P. Puype and 

Harm Stevens 

Arms and Armour 

New 59.00 euro 

This book presents over 

100 objects of arms and 

armour from 1100-1550 in 

the Royal Netherlands 

Army Museum. Technical 

descriptions and 

discussions detailed form, 

material, construction, 

dating and tactical use. 

Each object is illustrated 

and drawings clarify 

terminology, construction and use. 366 pages 


Feature 

New technologies and their effects on the museum 

Imperial War Museum London 

The speed of change of technology today quite takes one’s 

breath away – just as we all got used to e-mails and 

blogs, along comes YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and all the 

other social networking sites. Computer speeds and the 

enormous storage capacity now possible mean that digital 

imaging is no longer a problem – databases of tens of 

thousands of images can be searched in seconds instead of 

the hours it used to take. Web-based systems now mean 

that we can share knowledge and information about our 

collections with the entire world. We are now in the position 

where the limit to what we can do is no longer technological 

but our imaginations – if you can imagine it then it is 

probably possible! 

For this issue of MAGAZINE we asked a number of our 

colleagues to write about new technologies in their 

museums, what and how they are being used, how effective 

they are and what they have learned from the experience. 

Riding the Wave: 

Embracing social media in 

military museums 

David Wilson 

As you have no doubt witnessed, the internet is clearly 

evolving. In addition to being a repository of information 

and a source of entertainment, more and more people are 

viewing it as a place to meet and to socialise.1 There have 

always been various ways with which to make contact with 

other people on the Web in the form of e-mails, blogs, 

discussion boards and chat rooms. However, typically, these 

are only able to support ad hoc interaction or focussed 

discussions on a particular topic. 2 On the other hand, social 

networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube 3 and 

Flickr take things a step further, bringing another 



dimension to the Web that allows for the creation of links 

between people and places, developing online communities 

in which people are able to interact in a number of new 

ways. At its simplest, social networking sites allow users to 

share media (images, video and audio can be shared at the 

click of a button) and facilitate discussion by allowing 

groups of users to develop what is known as ‘user 

generated content’ through the use of groups, discussion 

boards, threads and blogs. It also offers a good way of 

keeping in touch with friends: instant messaging allows you 

to chat with people you know who are online at the same 

time as you; a messaging service can act as an alternative 

to e-mail amongst people you know; and things like tagging, 

liking, sharing and commenting all help to create an 

environment in which you can freely converse and interact 

with other people. There are even Facebook games which 

allow even newer ways with which to socialize. The rise in 

popularity and widespread use of the Smartphone further 

increases the opportunities to use this new media, giving 

people the ability to access social networks while on the 

move. 

I myself started using social media in October 2005 

when I created a Facebook account having just started 

studying history at the University of Leeds. When I began 

using it, Facebook was still very much in its infancy in the 

UK, but it was not long before it and other social networking 

sites which emerged, became a regular feature of modern 

day life. 

According to the Ofcom International Communications 

Market Report 2010 (Ofcom Report 2010) ‘social networking 

continues to grow at a fantastic rate, driven by high take up 

among the younger population’. 4 Indeed this so called 

‘networked generation’ (of young adults) is leading a radical 

shift in the consumption of media, favouring online services 

at the expense of newspapers, television and radio. 5 A look 

at the latest Ofcom statistics in Fig. 1 show that of the 17 

comparator countries considered in the market report a 

social network site was the number one Google search term 

in all but four countries (Japan, Brazil, Russia and India), 

and even in these social networking came somewhere in the 

top three. 6 Furthermore the Ofcom survey data (Fig. 2) 

demonstrates a growth in social networking since 2008 in 

all but one of the comparator countries, that of Japan, 

where lack of growth may have been caused by ‘well 

established alternative means of social communication, 

such as instant messaging and e-mail via mobile phones, 

and a lower use of PC’s and laptops to access the internet’. 7 

Social networking is increasingly becoming a major part of 

many people’s online world. A look at Fig. 3 shows how 

globally social networks are more and more part of people’s 

everyday lives, occupying the second and third mostcommonly 

cited weekly activities for internet use in most 

countries. 8 

Clearly then, embracing this relatively new medium is 

increasingly becoming a necessary step for museums 

around the world. Indeed, many museums have already 

Figure 1. Most searched terms on Google in the last 12 months 

(Ofcom 2010) 

Figure 2. Use of the Internet to visit social network sites 

(Ofcom 2010) 

Figure 3. Main reasons for using the internet (Ofcom 2010) 

done so, adopting social media to achieve a wider level of 

engagement and participation by appealing to new and 

young audiences. Social media offer ways to promote future 

and current events and news, and through blogs and 

discussion rooms successfully ‘democratise’ people’s ability 

to express their opinion, allow open ended dialogue between 

museum and visitor, enable users to add to the museums 

content, and create an environment in which visitors and 

professionals can work collaboratively. What is more the use 

of social media is a cost-effective way to engage with 

audiences and does not require huge resources to achieve 

success. 



Figure 4 The Imperial War Museum’s social media campaign 

achieving international publicity on the BBC website. 

Like all museums, military museums are faced with the 

ever increasing need to make the most of the opportunities 

which being part of the social networking world has to offer 

as a means of actively engaging with audiences online. The 

rest of this article looks at two very different military 

institutions in the UK, explores how they have embraced and 

utilised social media to their own specific purposes, and 

considers the benefits and drawbacks that both have 

encountered. One, the Imperial War Museum, is a major 

multi-branch national museum comprising the IWM 

London, Duxford and North, as well as HMS Belfast and the 

Churchill War Rooms. The other, the Royal Engineers 

Museum in Gillingham, is a small Corps museum which 

faces considerable financial challenges, cannot employ as 

many staff as it might wish, and is visited by only around 10, 

000 visitors a year. Both of these museums have embraced 

social media, and are examples of how social networking is 

a tool that can be used in different ways to suit the 

individuals’ needs and available resources. 

The Imperial War Museum is very active on social 

networking sites, and has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, 

Flickr, Youtube and FourSquare. In the run up to the 

Outbreak 1939 exhibition at the IWM London in 2009, ‘real 

time tweets’ of the events leading up to Britain’s declaration 

of War on 3 September 1939 were posted on Twitter, which 

were picked up by Sky News which put this Twitter feed on 

the front page of its website for the day. Furthermore this 

past summer the IWM set up separate Twitter accounts to 

tweet entries from the Battle of Britain log books at the IWM 

Duxford, and the BBC ran an article about this use of 

Twitter. 9 This is evidence of the publicity benefits that 

institutions can gain from creative and imaginative use of 

social media. Jesse Alter who manages the majority of the 

IWM’s social media channels notes that ‘this approach to 

history proved to be popular’, allowing for a direct insight 

into the history of both the outbreak of war in 1939 and the 

Battle of Britain showing the build up of momentum and 

developments of both as they happened. Her view is that, 

whilst each social media channel functions in a different 

way and to different rules, ‘on the whole social media allow 

you to interact directly with your audience and get a better 

idea of what they’re interested in.’ Statistics such as 

Facebook ‘likes’, YouTube views and URL click throughs are 

monitored, which has allowed the IWM over time to develop 

a better sense of what their online audience might find 

interesting. Jesse emphasised that ‘from time to time we 

also use Facebook and Twitter to ask our followers exactly 

what they’re interested in and what they want to see more of 

from us’, and has found that their users are quite happy to 

give their feedback and make suggestions, and are clearly 

appreciative of being asked for their input. The IWM has also 

had good experiences with Flickr and YouTube, drawing on 

archival material and creating short videos in-house, all of 

which has helped these channels to grow. In terms of 

disadvantages Jesse Alter points to the issues of the time 

required to get the best out of these media, and estimates 

that she estimates that she spends at the very least a full 

working day every week devoted to social media – checking 

stats, updating content, adding followers etc. ‘By starting a 

Twitter account or a Facebook page’, she says, ‘you’re 

entering into a relationship with your audience base, and 

you really do need to devote time in order to develop a 

relationship with your followers and get them to trust you’. 

Clearly the amount of time you are able to dedicate is 

very important when engaging on a social media voyage of 

this scale, and indeed it is not surprising that the more you 

put in the more benefits you receive back. However social 

media use at this level will not be appropriate for all 

museums, the majority of whom simply do not have the 

necessary resources of time and personnel. Nevertheless 

much can be achieved for a more modest input as the 

second example makes clear. 

The Royal Engineers Museum began using Facebook 

before most other museums really began to explore the 

medium. The Education Officer Jeremy Kimmel who mainly 

deals with their Facebook page notes that being able to 

interact with people in a fast-paced way, coupled with the 

fact that events and picture can be added, and that a 

dialogue can be established with visitors, made Facebook a 

great medium for advertising and for fostering and 

responding to visitor comments and suggestions. The Royal 

Engineers has favoured Facebook over other social media 

as it is more suited to their demands, with ‘more of a 

platform to build up information’ and ‘lots of interaction 

between you and your fans’. As Jeremy Kimmel notes ‘there 

is also the viral marketing aspect’. When one person joins a 

group on Facebook, all of their friends are able to see that 

they have joined, and are presented with an option to join 

themselves. ‘Realistically’ he says ‘it’s something everybody 

should be doing at this point’. Even though on a far smaller 

scale than at a national museum where the opportunities 

and advantages may seem at their most obvious, the 

creative use of social media by smaller intuitions can still 

produce positive effects, and while there may be an 

overwhelming number of ways to engage with online 

audiences, it is clear that they can be successfully used both 

together and independently. For these smaller institutions it 



Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham, Kent. 

is clearly important to select whatever platform they feel is 

right for them, as the Royal Engineers did with Facebook, 

and even if it is an online ‘fad’ and may not be here a few 

years down the line, as Jeremy Kimmel remarks, ‘it isn’t 

costing them anything, and they might be surprised at the 

benefits that looking at your Facebook page once a week 

can give.’ 

Both these examples show the way in which social 

media can be effectively adapted to different needs and 

requirements in two very different military museums, as 

well as indicating the sorts of benefits this brings. Whilst 

they are both examples of museums in the United Kingdom, 

the rise of social networking on an international level as 

shown by Fig. 2 reveals that their experience is likely to have 

considerable relevance outside of Britain. Indeed the growth 

in social networking since 2008 was highest in France (+ 

115%) and Italy (+106%), and when taking into account that 

Facebook has been available in English for five years as 

opposed to two years for most other languages, it is clear 

that this represents a internationally growing market which 

all museums should endeavour to become a part of. 

There are still some within the sector who fear that 

social media will threaten curatorial authority by requiring 

museums to deliberately lessen control over how objects 

might be used, exhibited and interpreted. However the 

rewards that the world of social media offer through 

enabling countless dialogues between museums and their 

publics are only beginning to be realised. Deeper levels of 

trust and collaboration can be achieved through creating 

environments which allow users to interact with a museum 

and directly affect museum content, and this could not only 

increase audience engagement, but enhance knowledge, 

improve learning and stimulate creativity. 10 While there may 

be fears and apprehensions when approaching how best 

military museums can utilise social media, it is certainly a 

bandwagon worth jumping on. It is free, relatively easy to set 

up, and given the necessary time and enthusiasm can be 

successfully used by a range of institutions to give 

significant benefits in areas as diverse as publicity, audience 

development, and public involvement. 

References 

1 ‘ Ofcom International Communications Market Report 2010’, 

available at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/marketdata/communications-market-reports/cmr10/international 

, p. 

233. 

2 Gottfried Vossen & Stephan Hagemann, Unleashing Web 2.0: 

From Concepts to Creativity, (Burlington, 2007), p. 59. 

3 With its added functionality such as subscribing to other 

members’ channels, ‘friending’, messaging and video response, 

YouTube shows many of the characteristics which would 

classify it as a social network in its own right, rather than 

simply a video sharing website. 

4 ‘Ofcom 2010’, p. 222. 

5 ‘Ofcom Office of Communications Market Report 2006’, 

available at 

www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2006/08/nr_20060810 

6 ‘Ofcom 2010’, p. 234. 

7 ‘Ofcom 2010’, p. 238. 

8 ‘Ofcom 2010’, p 234. 

9 This can be found at 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8617621.stm. 

10 Matthew MacArthur, ‘Can Museums Allow Online Users to 

Become Participants’, The Digital Museum: A Think Guide, ed. 

Herminia Din and Phyllis Hecht (Washington, 2007), p. 64. 



Trezorix 

The Dutch Army Museum 

collection on the semantic web. 

The ‘Allied Collections’ project 

Annet Ruseler, Army Museum, Delft. and 

Hans Nederbragt, Trezorix, Delft. 

Everyone is online these days. We share knowledge, 

information, pictures and videos. Museums are also 

promoting themselves on the internet in many different 

ways. Museums are aware of the fact that they should 

actively communicate with the world outside and become 

part of the knowledge chain by making their collections 

available online. This is why the Army Museum has a Hyves 

page, it uploads photos to Flickr and Facebook and videos to 

YouTube and it is experimenting with Twitter as well. The 

eMuseum continues to grow in importance, serving as an 

interactive knowledge platform as well as providing such 

services as an online organiser for planning a visit. The 

museum not only presents itself on its general website 

www.legermuseum.nl but also reaches out to new users by 

making its collection and knowledge accessible in several 

other places, e.g. in portals and databases. It is important, 

therefore, that the collection and knowledge on the 

collection are opened up in such a way that they can be 

found. 

The project 

In 2010 the Army Museum launched a project that aimed to 

offer end users an attractive way to access and search 

various integrated electronic collections. The name of the 

project is ‘Allied Collections’, for which Trezorix provides the 

technical support. The project is subsidised by the 

government as part of its Digitaliseren met Beleid 

digitisation programme. 

This project stems from the fact that the museum has 

invested a great deal of time and money in digitising large 

parts of its collection over the last few years. This has given 

the museum an electronic goldmine of resources which can 

provide online visitors with a complete overview of Dutch 

military history. 



The project brings together and opens up nine collections: 

• The so-called Hoefer (the first director of the Army 

Museum in 1913) catalogue with approximately 11,000 

cards with entries, descriptions, and often also 

depictions of military terms from the beginning of the 

previous century. 

• The 1861 Landolt military dictionary with approximately 

3,600 entries and descriptions. 

• The Glossarium Armorum, an illustrated thesaurus with 

approximately 700 terms and depictions of armour 

(defensive weapons) in several languages. 

• Articles from the Army Museum’s Armamentaria year 

book about various military-historical subjects and the 

museum’s collection. 

• The famous ‘Visser collection’ of 175 historical hand-guns. 

• A thesaurus on uniforms with links to parts of the 

collection with more than 900 entries and scope notes. 

• 9,000 prints of uniforms of various armed services with 

descriptions from the collection of books on uniforms 

from the museum’s military history library. 

• A thesaurus of the Dutch armed services. 

• Military vehicles with 90 descriptions and depictions. 

• Official orders before 1940, approximately 1,200. 

Until recently, only a small portion of this digitised 

material was available online. It was also not very easy to 

visualise the links between the various collections. The 

Allied Collections project changes this by collating data that 

is relevant to findability in an online findability layer. 

The architecture 

This findability layer is part of an infrastructure that is based 

on what is known as RNA architecture. RNA stands for 

Reference Networks Architecture, and is a web-based 

architecture that seeks to link sources of knowledge to or via 

the web and make the various types of content in those 

sources findable in a simple and straightforward manner. 

The working method 

The Teylers Museum in Haarlem, the Netherlands’ oldest 

museum, carried out a similar project. In that context, the 

challenge facing the Army Museum was aptly described by 

Marco Streefkerk of Digital Heritage Netherlands: ‘With the 

problem of five collections, each with their own knowledge 

domain, laid down in knowledge systems with differing data 

structures and managed in collection administration 

systems with different software and suppliers, the museum 

represents a miniature version of the heritage universe. 

Traditionally, we resolve that by exporting all the different 

metadata to one uniform format (generally XML) and 

converting the content (mapping) to the greatest common 

denominator, mostly a variation of Dublin Core. The 

museum has skipped this traditional approach and chosen 

directly for the semantic web.’ 

The same approach applies to the Army Museums’ nine 

collections. To collate this miscellaneous data in the 

findability layer, a number of things have to happen. In 

short, data from the collection that is important for 

findability in the middle layer is brought together in the form 

of small sets called content items. A content item can refer 

to objects from the collection, to people, types of material, 

historical periods, etc. These content items are laid down in 

a computer readable format (RDF) and linked together via 

their properties. A content item of the ‘book’-type can be 

linked via the property ‘has author’ to a particular person, 

i.e. the author. 

Clean and standard data is required to be able to 

connect the content items. Museum staff have spent a great 

deal of time on the project aligning the data. Collaborative 

projects in the field of terminology are underway with other 

museums such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the 

Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History 

in Brussels (Belgium). 

Three layers have been differentiated: 

There is a data layer at the bottom, which consists of 

databases, file systems, web pages and other sources. This 

data is available via the internet. This layer represents the 

information offering. 

The top layer is the one with applications or e-services 

that want to utilise the information offering in the bottom 

layer. Demand is determined in this application layer. End 

users use the applications to access the data. 

A third layer between these two layers links them 

together. This layer contains the network of references and 

consists of linked metadata from the data layer and 

hierarchically arranged structures in which this metadata is 

given a place. This is the actual findability layer or reference 

layer. It serves as a sort of broker between the demand and 

supply sides, by linking high-quality access functionality to a 

detailed overview of the available data. 

Figure 1 shows the RNA architecture according to the Cultural 

Heritage Agency. The Army Museum has applied this set-up for 

constructing an extensive semantic network for military cultural 

heritage. 



Language technology 

Standard tools such as MS Excel were used during the 

project as well as more bespoke specialised tools based on 

language technology, for example. 

Language technology was used because the museum 

has many old text materials and catalogues with fairly 

diverse differences in language and spelling. Natural 

language processing was used to actually be able to 

efficiently integrate this content into the findability layer. 

Facet determination 

The museum is also introducing a new technology called 

facet determination to respond to the growing demand for 

military genealogy. This will enable visitors to independently 

identify uniforms in family portraits in a straightforward 

manner by excluding the characteristics in uniforms and 

armed services and in doing so determine in which of the 

armed services their ancestors served. 

The perspective 

The Army Museum is currently designing a separate website 

to host ‘Allied Collections’, http://www.alliedcollection.org 

which includes new technologies such as social media, 

where users collaborate via the internet. Visitors can tag 

objects with information or add comments and can also 

collect and save favourite objects together. 

At this point in time, the website still only contains the 

Army Museum’s collection, but this should change in the 

future. The technology is ready for the future. The Army 

Museum’s data can easily be exchanged with other 

institutes. Given the multilingual terms employed, some 

collections lend themselves perfectly for comparison with 

and linking to collections from foreign heritage institutes. 

This project is a best practice project for setting up a 

flexible online information environment that other 

organisations can easily link into and for integrating 

miscellaneous collections. By offering the collection in 

these new ways, the museum is seeking to prepare for the 

future. As Dirk Houtgraaf, Section Head of Knowledge 

Exchange at the Cultural Heritage Agency so nicely put it: 

‘We will soon no longer be a museum with a network, but a 

network with a museum’. The digital offering of knowledge 

and information on the collection, i.e. the museum’s 

electronic platform, will become more and more important 

for the museums’ future existence. 

If, after reading this article, you still have questions or 

are interested in possibly participating in this project, please 

contact Annet Ruseler, Head of Collection Information, Army 

Museum, Delft, the Netherlands 

(a.ruseler@legermuseum.nl). 

Digital images 

Robert Douglas Smith 

Back in the 1980s and 1990s Ruth Brown and I were 

conducting a survey of artillery around the world. This 

took the form of research trips to various countries to study, 

photograph, measure and record collections of cannon. In 

20 years or so we covered most of Europe’s major 

collections as well as many smaller ones. At each location 

we would use a standard format to record the cannon – take 

measurements, record inscriptions and marks, note any 

detail and finally take a set of pictures of each cannon. After 

an initial period we found that the best way to record a 

cannon barrel was to take a minimum of 4 pictures and then 

take close ups of any marks and decoration. Now even 

taking 4 pictures of each gun meant that we took a lot of 

images – especially when we were in Paris, at the Musée de 

l’Armée, or in Madrid, at the Ejercito. These collections have 

hundreds of pieces in their collection so we were faced with 

taking over 400 images. Now back in the ‘bad old days’ this 

meant rolls of film each with 36 frames on them. We once 

returned from a research trip to Switzerland with 32 rolls of 

film. We had no idea if the images they contained were in 

focus, were properly exposed or whether we had properly 

wound on the film (a problem with some cameras). Luckily 

we were very careful and almost all our images were fine 

though occasionally some did go wrong. 

This seems unimaginable today – especially to our 

younger colleagues. On a recent visit to study the walls and 

fortifications of the city of Rhodes, we took over 1500 images 

– and all of them usable. The digital camera has done away 

with almost all the problems and uncertainties of film. Now 

it is possible to check that each image is properly exposed 

and in focus immediately – no longer do we have to wait till 

we get home to find out. In addition it is possible to store, 

label and catalogue the images as we go along. Our trip to 

Rhodes took nearly a week and each day the images were 

downloaded, sorted and backed up. The only remaining 

problems were to remember to have plenty of storage space 

on the camera – buying several flash cards solves that one – 

and spare batteries. 

The other problem is that perhaps we take too many 

images and both storing and filing them in a coherent and 

accessible way is not always done properly. How to store 

them, keep them for the future are still problems we have to 

get to grips with – all our images are backed up onto 

external hard drives ad archived to DVDs. But of course 

there are still the problems of the long-term survival of 

digital images – and that is a real can of worms that is 

impossible to go into here. 

And finally, and not perhaps least, there is the problem 

of having to choose which images to use in the final report, 

book or article. Perhaps that is the next challenge. 



The database of the Armoury of 

the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa 

T 

he Armoury of the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa is a private 

collection that may be visited in the context of the 

museum of the House of Braganza. This collection is 

composed of nearly 4000 works from a variety of 

chronological (mainly 16th to 20th centuries) and 

geographical provenances, mostly related to Portuguese 

national history and, above all, the House of Braganza which 

reigned from 1640 to 1910. 

The variety and characteristics of the ensemble, largely 

dedicated to hunting and all the implements involved, 

demanded an information approach that would facilitate the 

museological management of the collection. Given the fact 

that this collection is only part of a much wider ensemble, 

the dilemma was to adopt the same inventory program 

developed to accommodate the needs of art collections, and 

so potentially deficient when it came to the specificities of 

the Armoury collections, or to invest in the construction of a 

new, specific database. 

The option chosen was to adopt what we would call a 

generalist program – In Arte. In close connection with the 

company that designed the program, we have identified the 

main specificities of the collection and built the thesaurus 

necessary to cover the wide range of objects and their 

characteristics. Occasionally there had to be compromise 



between the ideal solution and the general approach we had 

to keep in mind. In doing so, it became instrumental to 

define what the implementation of good practices 

demanded, namely the writing down of a manual of 

instructions to help cope with variety, quantity, specificity of 

the situations that arose. 

This new and very useful tool can only meet the 

demands if it is continually updated and all security rules 

are followed, however we at the museum are happy to say it 

became a most effective saver of time and energy, a 

procurer of research and new data, while it offers a world of 

new possibilities when it comes to the availability and 

sharing of information within the institution and with 

different publics. 

Museu-Biblioteca da Casa de Bragança, 

Paço Ducal de Vila Viçosa 

www.fcbraganca.pt 

Social media at the 

Royal Armouries 

For many museums, social media is rapidly reshaping 

how people may choose to find information. 

Visitors are no longer restricted to actively searching for 

information themselves by picking up a leaflet or by reading 

newspapers - instead the news may find them through 

social media. Updates can come directly through enews, 

Twitter, Facebook and increasingly on mobile devices 

through location-based social networks such as 

Foursquare. If practised correctly, social media can help to 

empower and inform museums, allowing a ‘real-time’ 

glimpse into visitor opinions and shaping the way we react. 

As a result, the Royal Armouries has recently increased 

its presence on social media platforms as part of our drive 

to engage effectively with the public. 

Firstly, we researched the social media landscape to see 

which platforms are right for our museum visitors. To do 

this, we looked closely at other museums, worldwide, to see 

what they are producing on their social media. This helped 

us to monitor best practice and how to maximise our 

resources online. From this, we initially focused on building 

our Twitter and Facebook profiles, quickly building up 

interactions from our online audience. 

By Tweeting topical facts relating to the museum’s 

collections - and by uploading images of the collection, from 

behind the scenes and of events - we have shown the 

breadth of the Royal Armouries’ activities and in ‘real time’ 

have tried to help the public to interact with current 

museum activity. 

The Royal Armouries has also recently launched a new 

blog. This acts as an extension to our enews stories and 

allows us to discuss topical news stories in more depth and 

in a less formal setting than on our website. Current stories 

include a monthly ‘Collections Up Close’ section from our 

Curatorial Department and a log of project developments – 

including the new Power House exhibition at the Tower of 

London. We have also teamed up with History to push our 

presence on Foursquare with our colleagues at the Tower of 

London - raising our visitor profile. 

Our key aim is to create compelling and engaging 

content. Simply posting press releases or sales information 

may prompt people to instantly switch off. We aim to 

encourage conversation and to create interactions between 

individuals. 

A relatively cost-effective marketing tool, social media 

hopefully helps to create wider networks of Royal 

Armouries’ advocates online. For it to work, we do not 

create social media content in isolation but aim to involve a 

wide variety of staff members from as many museum areas 

as possible. Having a team of dedicated contributors, with 

different areas of expertise, helps us to make our content 

more accurate and engaging. 

For social media to work, we have to be able to gauge its 

success. Statistics can be one measure but it is not just 

about the numbers of followers a museum obtains. We aim 

to encourage people who respond to our posts to spread the 

word to others about our museums and national collections 

and that can be harder to quantify. 

Looking ahead, we now plan to build on our success by 

including our popular YouTube channel with video content 

and we will also encourage the public to upload their Royal 

Armouries’ images to Flickr. 

Join us! 

Twitter 

Facebook 

Blog 

Newsletter 

Foursquare 

Flickr 

http://www.Twitter.com/Royal_Armouries 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Royal- 

Armouries/215812575369 

http://royalarmouries.wordpress.com/ 

http://www.royalarmouries.org/newsletter 

http://foursquare.com/venue/1089086 

In development 



The Basiliscoe Mercury 


Ican still remember a day, some time in the last century, 

when Bob came home from the Royal Armouries one 

evening and told me that David Starley had suggested I try a 

new search engine, called Google. That’s how revolutions 

occur. 

As a researcher, I was always coming across interesting 

sites and snippets of news on the internet and I would send 

these off to colleagues in Britain, Europe, North America. I 

was constantly struck both the quantity and quality of 

information available on the Internet and how grateful 

people were for it. So I kept sending out these websites and 

snippets. Now, Google opened up the web much more 

easily. 

Lists and blogs began. Someone, I thought, will do one 

for the arms and armour people, soon. And I kept sending 

individual messages out. 

Eventually I suggested to Bob when he attended IAMAM 

congress in Canada in 2005 if people would be interested in 

a fortnightly newsletter on arms and armour subjects. Bob 

was a little sceptical as to whether I could fill a whole 

newsletter, two a month, for more than a few months or 

perhaps half a year, but I knew there was a lot of interesting 

stuff out there, you just had to find it. 

So the first Basiliscoe Mercury went out on 2 August 

2005; it quickly settled down into the format it retains today. 

Half the newsletter is concerned with historical news, culled 

from papers, Google News, other lists and ICOMAM’s 

members; typical items here would be a mammoth story, a 

Roman fort, a castle being renovated and a mass grave 

being discovered. There are special sections on my 

particular interests, cannons and underwater news, which 

always seems to involve a U-boat. The next section relates 

to museums, with news, new displays, conservation, objects 

and interesting exhibitions. This is followed by diary dates 

with conferences, events and sales; publications - the 

increase in the availability of e-books means there is always 

now at least one online book in this section as well as new 

publications and specialist publishers. There a special part 

for popular arts - a new film, TV series or novel may drive 

visitors to a museum or create a new interest in a subject; 

this is an area I think we can learn from. The final section is 

a just a selection of useful sites I have come across or been 

sent. Normally this would involve a museum’s website, 

archaeological reports or a relevant club. 

I interpret arms and armour quite widely - obvious topics 

such as arms and armour, fortifications, war, hunting, but 

additional material will creep in, because it has taken my 

fancy - whaling; anything to do with horses, strong women. 

Areas where I think my reach has been weak are medals 

and uniforms and I do try to search for these. Most of my 

searches are carried out in English, but I do include items in 

foreign languages. 

The Basiliscoe Mercury goes out twice a month and is 

hosted online at the ICOMAM main site. It is intended to 

appeal and be a service to the museum curator and 

conservator, the scholar, the collector. One of the delights of 

the Internet is that we can now sit at our desks anywhere in 

the world, and read about an exhibition or online catalogue 

in another continent which I hope adds to our sense of being 

a community. We can learn what our colleagues are up to, 

spotting trends in exhibitions and conferences. 

But it also intended to entertain; items may be included 

because, frankly, they are funny and this world is serious 

enough. And I do try and keep a light touch, to draw my 

readers in with the occasional intriguing or more acid 

comment. And I try and finish off on a light-hearted item. 

You can find past editions of the “Bazzy” at the ICOMAM 

website. And like so much internet items, we are interactive 

- you can e-mail me with your news and I will include it. 

It is there to be enjoyed. 

http://www.klmmra.be/icomam/icomam/basiliscoe_mercury/frame.html 



The National Museums 

of Scotland 

In the last two years National Museums Scotland has taken 

significant steps forward in how we utilise digital tools and 

technologies to help communicate what we do and 

encourage people to get involved with us. The creation of a 

specific Digital Media team in 2009 has meant an increased 

focus on how we use our own website, social media, other 

websites and mobile phones to give access to collections 

information, offer different forms of interpretation and 

engage with our audiences. 

National Museums Scotland has a highly diverse range 

of collections spanning five museums (the National 

Museums of War, Flight, Costume, Rural Life and our main 

location in Edinburgh, the National Museum of Scotland) 

across six curatorial departments ranging from World 

Cultures to Science & Technology. 

As with the curation of a ‘real’ display or exhibition there 

is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to showcasing museum 

objects on digital platforms. Our objects vary vastly in size, 

scale, origin and type; a tiny fossil, a medieval sword, a set 

of bagpipes, a WWII recruitment poster or Concorde! 

Thinking about how we demonstrate such variety online 

presents us with lots of opportunities, but there is a 

constant challenge of whether to focus on small amounts of 

in-depth content covering specific subject areas (our 

interactive resource on the Lewis Chessmen is a good 

example of this http://www.nms.ac.uk/chessmen or a more 

broad-brush approach, akin to a lot of museums’ online 

collections, where we try to feature as large a range of 

object records as possible. Presently we’re edging forward 

on both fronts, making sure we measure what’s working 

along the way. 

Telling the story behind-the-scenes of the Museum has 

proved to be a lively and popular way of increasing 

awareness of our work online. Our blog 

http://feastbowl.wordpress.com took a little time to get off 

the ground – generating enough intriguing stories and 

giving a sense of the range of activities we undertake meant 

working across a number of museum sites and internal 

departments. Explaining what we were trying to achieve and 

also familiarising staff with blogging style and tools was an 

important first step, and the blog has established a healthy 

audience in a relatively short space of time, and has been 

the source of some unexpected discussions! 

In 2010 we substantially overhauled our web presence. 

We redesigned the website http://www.nms.ac.uk with new 

navigation, big colourful images and took some important 

steps with the technology that underpins it. A key point in 

this regard is that we’re not only considering how people 

view the site using traditional PCs and laptops, but also how 

it can be viewed using mobile phones and new tablet devices 

(such as the Apple iPad). This is an important factor for 

anyone who is considering a new website, or is redeveloping 

their existing one – sales of smartphones recently overtook 

those of PCs for the first time and people are increasingly 

accessing the web through them. 

We’ve also made headway in setting up presences on 

social media websites. Social media is the collective term 

commonly given to websites and online tools which allow 

users to interact with each other in some way. We have 



active presences on Twitter and Flickr, and are beginning to 

gain some ground in our use of Facebook. We see use of 

these platforms as vital in connecting with audiences – 

evidence shows that potential audiences – particularly, but 

not exclusively younger people - are far more likely to be 

spending time here than on culture sector websites. As 

such, social media spaces are ideal places to share content 

and build conversations around our collections, exhibitions 

and events. As we move forward we’re keen to develop these 

conversations into more active participation and encourage 

people to contribute to our programming. 

We work closely with colleagues across the Museum 

including curators and exhibition programmers to get all the 

information we need to create content as well as to our 

marketing and communications teams to make sure we are 

coordinated in what we’re presenting to the public across 

the ever-increasing number of channels that we use. The 

Museum also uses more traditional electronic 

communication, including a popular monthly e-newsletter 

and the addition of some film footage to the website, which 

has been particularly useful in showing people what we’re 

doing with the major redevelopment of the National 

Museum of Scotland. As we count down to re-opening of the 

Museum on 29 July this year, we look forward to using new 

technology to communicate about the new offer to our 

audiences. 

There is, of course, a significant resource overhead to all 

of this activity so managing the flow of information and 

responding to queries and comments is factored into our 

planning. But there’s always an element of the unknown 

when it comes to digital technology as things move so fast – 

it’s important to be pragmatic, prepare for activities to fail as 

well as be resounding successes, and keep an eye out for 

what might be round the corner. 

For more: 

Website: http://www.nms.ac.uk 

Twitter: @ntlmuseumsscot 

Facebook: 

http://www.facebook.com/NationalMuseumsScotland 

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/nationalmuseumsscotland 

Blog: http://feastbowl.wordpress.com 

The Army Museum, Stockholm 

New technology in the Army 

Museum 

L 

ike many other military museums we have a section 

dedicated to peacekeeping operations. This is, today, an 

area of some 225 square meters where we show some 

scenes from Congo, Kosovo and Cyprus and a new section 

about Afghanistan – the intention is to change this exhibition 

every year. This year, 2011, we will show a barracks from the 

Swedish mission Camp Victoria in Kosovo, Pristina. The 

barracks is already outside the museum and work has 

started to redesign the exhibition to make the barracks fit. 

As far as technology I concerned we have developed a new 

kind of digital screen in the exhibition area. There are many 

possibilities to do different things on this screen, including 

films. However, the important thing is the blog written by 

Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan. Visitors, schoolchildren or 

anybody, can ask questions of the soldiers and both 

questions and answers are shown on the screen. You can 



also follow the blog from any computer, for example in 

schools or on the web. We have followed some interesting 

discussions between children and soldiers. We are just at 

the start of using this blog as a tool but I am sure that this is 

a very easy and good complement in the tours of the 

museum. 

Another new technology is Facebook. A year ago the 

Army Museum in Stockholm signed up for Facebook. For 

the first 6 months we hardly put any effort into our Facebook 

site – we wanted to see how it might develop first – whether 

we got any followers etc. We didn’t really know if Facebook 

was good or bad for us. The followers however, increased 

every week with a few new persons signing up. We began to 

publish some photos from courier trips, from conferences 

abroad and other behind the scene things that museum 

workers do. The followers could see how we folded a 16th 

century banner on the floor of the Hermitage in St 

Petersburg. Openings of exhibitions, releases and 

spectacular events in the museum were on show as soon as 

they happened. After 6 months one staff member, Olle 

Westerberg, was appointed to be in charge of the 

Facebook/Armemuseum. His responsibility is to make sure 

that members of staff who travel abroad or do interesting 

things take photographs and that they end up in the photo 

albums. We believe it is very important that Facebook is not 

another website or even worse – a copy of the Army 

Museum website. Facebook is more like a behind the scene 

introduction. It is a very simple way to tell what museum 

workers do. In December 2010 we had 1000 followers and 

this we celebrated with a Facebook party in the museum. 

Around 50 persons came, in the middle of Christmas 

preparations, and most of them had never been to the 

museum earlier. We had a simple meal and gave a guided 

tour of the museum and it was very appreciated by both staff 

and Facebook fans. To us, Facebook are the new kind of 

friends of the museum. At the same time our Friends 

Society shrink as the members get older and older. The 

average Facebook follower is a man aged between 35 and 

44. But we also have quite a few in the age down to 25 and 

up to 54. But only a small group is older or younger. These 

facts can be compared with the age of the Friends Society. I 

would say that 99% of our Friends of the museum are older 

than 54. The Friends had more than 1000 members a few 

years ago and today about 800. The Facebook fans increase 

all the time and as I write this in mid February 2011, we 

have 1150 followers. Since we started about 100 new 

persons sign up each mouth. The statistics from Facebook 

can easily give figures and statistics based on the activity on 

the site. What do we do that make people write comments 

The most active thing people do is just to fill in that they like 

statements or photos. But there are also people who write a 

few lines and sometimes others who answer. There have 

never been any bad comments and we have never edited or 

erased anything. All responses are positive so far. If anyone 

sign up for our Facebook they get invitations to openings of 

exhibitions. I think we, if we add all staff time, work on 

average 2 hours a week with Facebook. In the museum we 

are 32 employees, 5 of us have iPhones where we can easily 

be online. Then a few of us have cameras and mobile 

phones with cameras that you need to attach to a computer 

to load things into Facebook. But that is very easy. The 

photos are what we call snapshots, we don’t keep them in 

archives or document who took the picture. It is just to be 

looked upon as a little note from an event or conference. In 

my opinion it is a very good tool for spreading a brand mark 

and it is very cheap. We are also on Twitter and this is run 

by the same person. Twitter picks up things from Facebook, 

but a few of us send quick twitter messages and we have 

some followers there as well. But we focus on Facebook. 

Join us! Facebook/Armemuseum. 


Articles 

Art of the possible: Transforming the 

permanent displays at the Higgins Armory 

Museum, part 1 

Jeffrey Forgeng 

The permanent exhibits at the 

Higgins Armory in Worcester, 

Massachusetts, were installed in the 

1980s; they represented a major 

achievement for the institution at the 

time, but after a quarter of a century 

they are naturally in need of updating. 

Making this happen, here as 

elsewhere, is a challenge constrained 

by finances (in 2010 the museum had 

an exhibits budget of $0), display 

space (the museum’s medieval-style 

Great Hall is a spectacular setting to 

display suits of armor, but is less 

hospitable to individual armor 

elements), and of course the profile of 

the collections themselves. 

Beginning in 2009, the museum 

initiated a series of projects to revamp 

self-contained areas adjacent to the 

Great Hall with exhibits on Knights, 

Non-European Arms, and Swords. Two 

of these projects are complete, and 

the third will be finished within the 

next few months. While these new 

displays leave the main area of the 

Great Hall untouched, they are already 

having an impact on the visitor 

experience well beyond the space and 

money that were allocated to them. 

Visitors perceive the Higgins 

Armory as a ‘museum of knights’ and 

a ‘museum of the Middle Ages,’ a fact 

familiar to us anecdotally and 

confirmed by a series of visitor 

interviews undertaken at the outset of 

these projects to help determine their 

direction. Yet prior to 2009, our 

exhibits had virtually nothing to say 

about knights, and only a handful of 

our displayed objects were actually 

from the Middle Ages. We therefore 

decided to deinstall our four ‘Timeline 

of Armor’ vitrines and replace them 

with displays focusing on knights: 

‘Days of Knights’ (a chronology of 

knights), ‘Knight Life’ (chivalric and 

courtly life), ‘Cutting Edge’ (weapons), 

and ‘Dressed to Kill’ (armor). 

While each vitrine was organized to 

tell a coherent story, the display was 

designed in the knowledge that the 

visitor experience is chiefly organized 

around the objects themselves. This 

installation allowed us to display star 

pieces from the collection that had 

hitherto received little exposure in the 

harness-oriented environment of the 

Higgins, including a significantly 

increased number of medieval 

artifacts, as well as important objects 

acquired through the acquisitions 

program initiated by Walter Karcheski 

in the 1990s. 

Readers familiar with the Higgins 

may recall the rather mysterious 

alcoves between the Timeline vitrines. 

These had been built to house 

audiovisual content, but this plan had 


Articles 

been abandoned due to cost. However, 

AV has become far more accessible 

over the past 25 years: as part of the 

project, the museum rehabbed the 

physical installation to accommodate 3 

AV programs: a slideshow ‘arming of a 

knight,’ video footage of armor in 

action, and a touchscreen mini-quiz 

that answers common visitor 

questions in a simple yet compelling 

game format. 

Where the previous timeline 

display had clocked very little 

dwelltime with visitors, the new 

installation has become one of the 

museum’s most popular features. A 

large part of this is predictably due to 

the AV content, but this content does 

much more than entertain a 21stcentury 

‘YouTube’ audience: these 

Visitors perceive the 

Higgins Armory as a 

‘museum of knights’ and 

a ‘museum of the Middle 

Ages,’ a fact familiar to 

us anecdotally and 

confirmed by a series of 

visitor interviews 

undertaken at the outset 

of these projects 

installations address some of the most 

pressing visitor interests about how 

armor was actually worn and what it 

was like to wear. 

Perhaps the most striking feature 

of this exhibit was its total cash cost to 

the museum: $1683.33 (the largest 

line item was $511 for the 

touchscreen). This was possible 

thanks to creative collaborations 

between curatorial, exhibits, and 

building staff in rehabbing existing 

vitrines; strategical temporary exhibit 

planning that generated content for 

long-term use (such as the 

touchscreen miniquiz); recycling 

outdated computer hardware (old 

screens and computers are just fine 

for looping a video file); and access to 

AV and computer resources through 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute that 

allowed us to produce our AV content 

through staff and student work. 

The ‘Knights’ exhibit was 

completed in 2010; as of March 2011 

the Higgins has opened its new exhibit 

of Non-European Armor, which will be 

covered in the next article in this 

series. 


Articles 

Construction of the new 

displays began in March 

2011, and the brand new 

‘Early Engineers Gallery’ 

will open to the public in 

October 2011. 

Early Engineers Showcased 

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a grant of £46,000 for 

the “Early Engineers Gallery: From Roman Rochester to the 

Battle of Waterloo”, a brand new exhibition at the Royal 

Engineers Museum. 

The new galleries will highlight 

centuries of development of 

military engineering, leading to the 

Corps of Royal Engineers that we 

know today. New displays will include 

highly detailed models depicting the 

development of castles and 

fortifications both in Kent and around 

the world, items from the 18th Century 

Siege of Gibraltar, the oldest Royal 

Engineer Peninsular War Uniform in 

the Museum, and the Duke of 

Wellington’s map used at the Battle of 

Waterloo. 

The new galleries will also 

highlight the impact of the military 

heritage on the Medway Town’s 

physical and social landscape. Local 

residents will be invited to participate 

in the “Memories of Medway” oral 

history initiative, to record their 

experiences of life in Medway and to 

be used as part of the new displays. 

There will also be opportunities to 

have free guided tours of the historic 

Brompton Barracks- a symbol of 

Medway’s military importance for over 

200 years and today still the working 

barracks and training ground of the 

Royal Engineers. 

Construction of the new displays 

began in March 2011, and the brand 

new ‘Early Engineers Gallery’ will 

open to the public in October 2011. 


Articles 

New displays will 

include highly detailed 

models depicting the 

development of castles 

and fortifications both in 

Kent and around the 

world 

Commenting on the award, Deputy 

Curator, Dominique Bignall said, “The 

Heritage Lottery Fund’s Your Heritage 

scheme has enabled us to bring to life 

800 years of Royal Engineer history 

and display a never-before-seen side 

to the Corps.” 

For further information on the Early 

Engineers Gallery, the ‘Memories of 

Medway’ Oral History sessions, the 

guided tours of Brompton Barracks, 

and the associated Schools Activities 

please contact: 

Dominique Bignall, Deputy Curator, 

Royal Engineers Museum, Library & 

Archive 

Tel: 01634 822221 or 

deputycurator@re-museum.co.uk 


Articles 

Pieces of the Weald in Oman 


The visitor to the Sultanate of Oman 

will notice many recently 

remounted cannon displayed at 

castles, forts and museums in the 

country. Although these include old 

and beautiful bronze guns, there are 

also a number of cast-iron pieces 

dating from the 17th and 18th 

centuries which began life in the 

cannon furnaces of the Weald in the 

south of England. The iron guns have 

been exposed to extremes of weather 

– cyclones, monsoons and sandstorms 

– as well as the usual weathering from 

sea air or sea immersion. A number, 

as you will find in any society where 

seafaring is a way of life, have been reused 

as bollards, such as a 17th 

century gun now rescued and 

displayed at Nizwa. But how did these 

cannons end up so far from home, on 

the edge of the Indian Ocean 

By the 1650s, the gunfounding 

industry of the Weald in the south of 

England was recovering from near 

extinction. In the 1590s, half a dozen 

ironworks had produced cannons for 

export but, by mid-century it had been 

reduced to just one or two furnaces 

under the control of the Browne family 

in Kent. However a number of 

circumstances occurred which led to 

its re-vitalisation and the re-opening 

of old Sussex furnaces and the 

building of new works: Parliament 

embarked on a programme of building 

many new ships for its navy, which 

needed 100s of guns to arm them; the 

two old bronze gun foundries in 

London had closed by the late 1650s; 

and the government were suspicions 

of the Browne family’s loyalty, since 

they had been implicated in Royalist 

correspondence in the Civil War. 

However, the gunfounders knew 

that the demand of the English 

government for cannon would not be 

enough to keep the re-opened 

furnaces going, and that they needed 

more customers. In the preceding 

decades Swedish ironmasters had 

taken much of the trade in cast guns, 

particularly the Dutch markets, which 

had before been supplied from the 

Weald. English gunfounders and 

merchants had to look much further 

afield. 

Cromwell was not the only leader 

in the world, investing in a growing 

navy to maintain his country’s 

independence. Far away, the Oman’s 

Ruler was looking for allies in his 

attempts to removed European 

aggressors. Since the early 16th 

century Portugal had controlled 

Muscat, an important port on the 

Arabian coast which became a crucial 

link in their control of the East Indies 

spice trade. Throughout the 16th 

century there had been attempts by 

the Omanis to retake Muscat, but 

these had not had any long-term 

success. However Oman’s Ruler, a 

member of the Ya’ruba family, took up 

the task of driving out the Portuguese 

and, in 1646, signed a treaty with the 

English East India Company 

guaranteeing trading, religious and 

The iron guns have been 

exposed to extremes of 

weather – cyclones, 

monsoons and 

sandstorms – as well as 

the usual weathering 

from sea air or sea 

immersion. A number, 

as you will find in any 

society where seafaring 

is a way of life, have 

been re-used as 

bollards, such as a 17th 

century gun now 

rescued and displayed at 

Nizwa Fort. But how did 

these cannons end up so 

far from home, on the 

edge of the Indian 

Ocean 


Articles 

legal rights for English merchants in 

Oman. In exchange, the merchants 

brought in goods that the Omanis 

wanted, including cast-iron guns 

made in the Weald. 

The earliest surviving cast-iron 

cannons date from this period. There 

is a mid-17th century piece, part of the 

collection at Al Hazm, probably cast by 

the Browne family. It is unmarked 

except for the weight, 18-1-21, rudely 

engraved on it. There is another early 

gun on the ramparts of Nikhal Fort 

and a third at Jabreen Castle. Finally, 

there is a rose and crown gun, cast for 

the British government in the 1600s, 

on display in Nikhal Fort. 

Within a few years, Oman’s Ruler 

Sultan Bin Saif retook Muscat, 

expelling the Portuguese from their 

forts. The Ya’ruba then went on build 

up a formidable navy, which 

succeeded in defeating and capturing 

Portuguese ships and going on to take 

the former Portuguese colonies of 

Zanzibar and Pemba, on the East 

African coast, and Gwadar, in modern 

Pakistan. 

This is suggests another channel 

through which the cannons could have 

reached Oman. There are still a 

number of bronze Portuguese guns, 

taken from captured ships or forts on 

display there. Arms merchants, then 

as now, were happy to sell guns to 


Articles 

both sides of a war. Britain and 

Portugal had been allies since she had 

regained her independence from 

Hapsburg Spain, and for much of the 

time in the later 17th century the two 

countries worked together, against 

their then common enemy, the Dutch. 

Relations had become even closer 

following the marriage of Charles II to 

the Portuguese princess, Catherine of 

Braganza. In the 1660s English 

merchants exported hundreds of castiron 

guns to Lisbon for the service of 

the King of Portugal, guns which could 

later have been captured and used by 

the Omanis. 

Sultan died in 1679 and was 

succeeded by his son, the first in a 

hereditary succession. The Ya’ruba 

dynasty continued to build new ships 

which were known to be heavily 

armed, enabling them to seize 

Portuguese shipping and colonies. The 

captain of the French warship Legier 

reported he had been attacked by two 

Omani ships of 60 and 80 guns. In 

addition, guns were also needed for 

the many fortifications built round the 

country and coast. The British officer 

Alexander Hamilton described Muscat 

on his visit in 1715: ‘the Wall of the 

Town that faces the harbour , has a 

Battery of large Cannon, about 60 in 

Number, and there are 8 or 10 small 

Forts built on the adjacent Rocks or 

Mountains…’ 

There are still a number 

of bronze Portuguese 

guns, taken from 

captured ships or forts 

on display there. Arms 

merchants, then as now, 

were happy to sell guns 

to both sides of a war 

There also survive in Oman, a large 

number of pieces cast for export in the 

years around 1700, similar to the rose 

and crown guns made for British 

service at that time. These cannon 

were often of small calibre, light 

enough to be easily transported from 

ship or battery and cheap in price, 

usually plain, perhaps just with an 

engraved P or weight. They could be 

used on land and at sea. Such 

cannons can be found the length and 

breadth of Oman. There is a pair of 

17th century examples guarding the 

entrance to the Frankincense Museum 

at Dhofar in the south of the country. 

Another, dating from around 1700, 

engraved with its weight, 5-1-10, the 

centre keel marked across the 


Articles 

The first half of the 18th 

century continued to be 

a fruitful time for arms 

dealers in Oman. Not 

only was the struggle 

against the Portuguese 

entering its final phase, 

but the country was 

wracked by internal 

conflict between 

different branches of the 

Ya’ruba family, which the 

Persians then took 

advantage of 

trunnions and a possible damaged 

trunnion mark is housed at Nikhal 

fort. Other good examples can be seen 

at Bait Al Falaj and Al Hazm. 

The first half of the 18th century 

continued to be a fruitful time for 

arms dealers in Oman. Not only was 

the struggle against the Portuguese 

entering its final phase, but the 

country was wracked by internal 

conflict between different branches of 

the Ya’ruba family, which the Persians 

then took advantage of, seizing Muscat 

and Sohar in the north, and were not 

driven out until the 1740s. 

From this period is a cannon at 

Jabreen Castle cast at Robertsbridge 

in Sussex with an R on the right 

trunnion and the remains of the Royal 

cipher of King George on the barrel. 


Articles 

Another, in poorer condition intended 

for the merchant market may have 

been cast by Edward Raby; the 

trunnion appears to have a small 

letter R. Another gun, made for the 

civilian market, can be found in the 

collections at Al Hazm. This was cast 

at Sowley in Hampshire, probably by 

the Sone family, with an S cast onto 

the left trunnion. 

One of the products of the 

gunfounders in the later 18th century 

was a small calibre gun, usually a 4 or 

6 pounder, in a shorter length than the 

official government pattern, cast for 

ship-owners and landowners. In Oman 

there is a pair of short 6 pounders at 

Bait Al Zubiar Museum in Muscat. 

Another gun produced for the private 

market is at Nizwa castle; it may have 

an A for Ashburnham furnace on the 

trunnion. 


Articles 

One of the last guns from the 

Wealden furnaces in Oman is also one 

of the last gun to be cast in the Weald 

and does definitely come from 

Ashburnham. It is a 9 or 12 pounder 

gun, with the crowned P, dated 1790 

with the initials MM and the weight 23- 

1-0 all engraved on the barrel. The 

right trunnion has the A for 

Ashburnham. The date may refer to 

the proof rather than the manufacture, 

as it is unsure at what date casting of 

guns ceased at Ashburnham. The 

double MM probably refers to the John 

and Joseph Mangles, ships chandlers 

of Wapping, who occasionally had 

guns for the East India Company 

proofed at Woolwich – the crowned P 

refers to proof carried out at Woolwich 

which was normally limited to clients 

such as the east India Company or 

foreign governments. 

We do not know how this last 

product from a Wealden gun foundry 

got to Oman – when this gun was 

proofed, the world was about to 

change. In France revolution would 

lead to the armies of France and Great 

Britain fighting, not just in Europe, but 

in Egypt and India, too. It was also a 

time when the British government 

sought the friendship of the Imam of 

Oman against this common enemy. 

And in the Weald the last furnace still 

operating, Ashburnham, ceased to 

cast guns. 

Acknowledgement 

The visit to Oman was part of a larger 

project, sponsored by the Ministry of 

Tourism, whose support is gratefully 

acknowledged. 


Articles 

The ‘secret’ Shuvalov howitzer 

Captain Yuriy Kulikov 

An important period in the history of 

the Russian artillery is associated 

with the name of General Field 

Marshal Count Shuvalov. He was one 

of the most influential state and 

military figures in the reign of 

Empress Elizabeth. Being enterprising 

and ambitious he could not live 

without projects whatever he was 

engaged in. In 1756–62 he managed 

the Russian Artillery. His title General 

Feldzeugmeister (adopted by Peter the 

Great in 1699) corresponds to Grand 

Maitre d’Artillerie in France and 

Master-General of the Ordnance in 

Britain. He did his best to reorganize 

and improve artillery. Invention was 

not alien to him. In 1753 he presented 

before the Senate a design of a new 

‘secret’ howitzer with an ellipsoid 

widening towards the muzzle bore. 

Widening bores, though with a circular 

cross-section, had been already used 

in Russia in naval blunderbusses. The 

ellipsoid shape of the bore was 

thought to give better horizontal 

spread of case-shot. The Senate 

approved the project. The trials were 

considered satisfactory and the 

‘secret’ howitzer was adopted in 

artillery against enemy infantry and 

cavalry. When the guns were not in use 

the muzzles had to be locked with 

brass muzzle caps. 

In all some 70 of Shuvalov’s 

howitzers were manufactured. The 

howitzers of 1753 model were 

In all some 70 of 

Shuvalov’s howitzers 

were manufactured. The 

howitzers of 1753 model 

were produced with 

cylindrical loading 

chambers 

produced with cylindrical loading 

chambers. Earlier carriages had a 

wedge lifter but these were later 

replaced by ones with a screw lifter. 

Since 1758 howitzers were produced 

with conical loading chambers. 

Barrels were decorated with dolphins 

which looked like unicorns. This 

mythical creature decorated 

Shuvalov’s coat of arms. 

‘Secret’ howitzers were used in the 

1756–63 war against Prussia. After the 

victory over Frederick II at Gross- 

Jagersdorf in 1757 Field Marshal 

Apraksin reported about effectiveness 

of the ‘newly invented’ Shuvalov 

howitzers. However, later in the battle 

at Zorndorf in 1758 the Russians lost 

20 pieces because it took much time 

to recharge them and Prussian cavalry 

managed to capture them. Frederick II 

displayed the trophies in the streets of 

Berlin with an ironical plate ‘A Big 

Secret of the Russians’. 

Dimensions of ‘secret’ howitzers 

Year of production Calibre, mm Length, mm Weight, kg 

1753 95X207 1620 491 

1758 65X130 1000 142 

1758 70X175 995 147.4 

1758 120X235 1650 268.4 


Articles 

Further practice showed that the 

howitzer were a bit more effective than 

usual guns in firing case-shot, but 

normal guns could also fire grape and 

solid shot. Attempts to create a 

special oval shot (like a Rugby ball) 

failed. Nevertheless, Shuvalov had 

perfect confidence in his brainchild 

and they remained in the army up to 

his death in 1762. 

As far as I know, three Shuvalov 

howitzers can be seen; one in 

Sevastopol near the Black Sea Fleet 

Museum (by someone’s oversight 

cemented into the base upside down) 

and at least two pieces in the Museum 

of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps 

in St. Petersburg. One of them is 

inside the museum and the other in 

the open air. By the way, in the same 

place among a whole host of various 

ordnance, there is one more 

interesting gun with a rectangular 

bore. There are mottos on its barrel: 

‘PRO GLORIA ET PATRIA’ and ‘ULTIMA 

RATIO REGIS’ typical for Prussian 

guns of the reign of Frederick II. 

However, in the Russian sources I 

have not found any mention of 

Prussian ordnance with rectangular 

bore of that period. I will be grateful if 

someone share his opinion on this gun 

or let me know about other examples 

of Shuvalov howitzer. 

Please contact me on 

fort@optima.com.ua 


Articles 

A secret weapon in 

the collection of the 

Rijksmuseum 

Eveline Sint Nicolaas 

Curator of Arms and Armour, 

Rijksmuseum 

During the preparation and 

selection of material for the arms 

& armour room in the new 

Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, opening 

autumn 2013, I came across a 

wonderful object in our collection. It is 

a ring with a small flintlock clasped 

between two pieces of rock-crystal. 

The ring is summarily described in the 

museum inventory and has not been 

shown in the galleries for decades. A 

first investigation into the ring and 

possible comparable jewels has not 

yielded any result. I would therefore 

like to ask my colleagues for help with 

identifying this intriguing object. 

The date in the inventory says 

1700-1800, but looking at the shape of 

the lock plate it might be dated 

between 1650 and 1670. Perhaps this 

could even be pinned down if we would 

take apart the ring to see if the 

flintlock has a bridle. 

The quality of the lock makes me 

think that it was made to actually work. 

The mounting of the ring has a cutaway 

at the point of the sear-lever and 

one on top for the cock. This cut-away 

leads to the front but not the whole way 

till the mainspring. It has a small 

notch, of which the function is not 

The question is, are we 

dealing with a pure 

curiosity that the owner 

liked to show off, in 

other words a 

wunderkammer-object, 

or is the ring a secret 

weapon with a lethal 

character 

clear. One would expect a cutaway at 

the front to make it possible to fit a 

small barrel. In that case the owner 

could put on his ring, cock the lock 

with his other hand and subsequently 

shoot. I have no idea how dangerous 

such a shot would have been and it will 

certainly have depended on the load. 

But the problem is, there isn’t a 

possibility to attach a barrel at the level 

of the mainspring since the mounting 

is closed at this point of the ring. 

The finishing of the lock 

mechanism is done with great care. 

Parts of the lock plate have been 

blued and there is a small flint 

clasped in the cock. The suspicion that 

it is a very special object is underlined 

by its provenance. This goes back to 

the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, one of 

the predecessors of the Rijksmuseum. 

It probably goes back even further and 

is related to one of the Stadholders of 

the Republic in the 17th Century. 

Looking at the possible date of the 

ring there are several candidates: 

William II (1626–50), William III 

(1650–1702), Henry Casimir II 

(1657–96) and William Frederic of 

Nassau-Dietz (1613–64). Of all these 

members of the House of Orange- 

Nassau other personal belongings 

found their way to the Royal Cabinet of 

Curiosities. 

The question is, are we dealing 

with a pure curiosity that the owner 

liked to show off, in other words a 

wunderkammer-object, or is the ring a 

secret weapon with a lethal character 

Suggestions and reactions are very 

welcome and can be sent to: 

Eveline Sint Nicolaas, curator of Arms 

and Armour Rijksmuseum 

PO BOX 74888 

1070 DN Amsterdam 

The Netherlands 

+ 31 206747212 (tel) 

+ 31 20 6747001 (fax) 

e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl 

Inventory number of the ring: 

NG-NM-868 


Articles 

Archaeologists 

seeking input to 

research on 

pirate sword 

Wendy M. Welsh 

QAR Conservator/Lab Manager 

Archaeologists are seeking input 

from arms historians concerning 

the origins of the remnants of an 

edged weapon recovered from the 

shipwreck believed to be the pirate 

Blackbeard’s flagship Queen Anne’s 

Revenge (QAR) that ran aground 

entering Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina 

in 1718. The North Carolina 

Department of Cultural Resources’ 

Underwater Archaeology Branch 

(UAB) has managed the shipwreck site 

since its discovery in 1996 and 

oversees the excavation, conservation 

and research of artefacts. 

Fig 1 

The decorative quillon block with 

partial blade (figures 1 and 2) was 

recovered in 2008. The block is made 

of copper alloy and both sides are 

adorned with figures as well as 

decorative reliefs on the quillons. 

During the cleaning process it was 

observed that the block was originally 

gilded with a thin layer of gold of 

which only small amounts survived 

intact. The iron blade was totally 

corroded, but conservators were able 

to cast it with epoxy resin revealing a 

single-edged blade. Two years later 

the handle or grip (figure 3 and 4) was 

found approximately 35 feet (10 

metres) from where the quillon block 

was found on site. The grip is believed 

to be made of antler while the ferule 

and pommel are made of copper alloy, 

similar to that of the block. The 

pommel (figure 5) is decorated with 

two faces and two fleur de lys but 

conservators are still unsure if the 

surface is gilded. X-rays reveal the 

iron blade tang extending through the 

grip, but in a corroded state. 

These two artifacts were not found 

intact or together so it is not certain 

they are part of the same edged 

weapon, but are very similar in size, 

material and style. The decorative 

markings on both artifacts will 

hopefully provide some insight into a 

definitive identity of this weapon. 

Fig 5 

Researchers have reviewed images of 

the objects and hypothesize this 

weapon was a hunting hanger sword 

or cuttoe and possibly of English, 

French, Dutch or German 

manufacture. QAR archaeologists 

welcome input from other arms 

historians to help with identifying the 

origin of this sword. 

If you are willing to contribute an 

opinion and would like more 

information about the artifacts, please 

email Wendy Welsh at 

wendy.welsh@ncdcr.gov. Any help 

would be most appreciated as we try 

to provide the best possible 

interpretation and analysis of the QAR 

artifacts. 

Fig 3 Fig 4 

Fig 2

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