KY History Museum: Part 3

These last two guns were unique in some way and didn't quite fot into the time line, so I thought I'd give them their own post.

First up, a pistol found during excavations at the old capitol building.  They have done several excavations of the privy areas and found quite a variety of items, including a woman's wedding ring.  This pistol was also found.
 

The one in the box, laying flat, is the actual found pistol.  The top, upright, on is a similar pistol to show what it should look like.





Next up is the cane gun!  This cane belonged to one of Kentucky's former governors.  It has a reed outer case and has a 28" barrel.  More info and a better picture can be found here.

  
And that concludes your photo tour of the firearms of the Ky History Museum.  I hope you've enjoyed the ride.  I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area and interested in history.  There's lots more to see than just the guns.  I'm sure husband and I will go back before long, if only to visit the Military History Museum.  Stay tuned!

KY History Museum: Part 2

The museum was designed to be very interactive, there were drawers to pull open to leanr more about certain artifacts or answer questions.  There were rooms set up to replicate buildings and camps and such from the time depicted.  I had quite a bit of fun checking corners and doors and drawers to be sure I didn't miss anything.  I was playing around like a kid!

These are som of the items I found in those hidden nooks.  Not as much info on the plaques about them, but I enjoyed the game of hide and seek.

KY History Museum: Part 1

The museum is laid out as a time line, and most of the weapons we was were in the first half or so.  My understanding is that the more modern firearms are housed in the Military museum.

My apologies in advance for the blurriness and bad light on some of these, taking pictures of things behind glass is not my forte.  Honestly I was surprised that no one ever came up and told me we couldn't take pictures.

If you want better pictures and more detail, plus items that weren't on display, you can search the museum's object collection here.

Spur of the Moment Trip

Sorry for the unscheduled break.  Research has had me  a bit crazy.  I had a week at work that required two overnight at the farm with my steers.  Thus, I gave myself a half-day this past Friday.  I had to run out to the farm briefly and the husband offered to keep my company.  Since we were half way there, we opted to head into Frankfort and do something touristy.  No real plan, just whatever looked interesting.  On the way in we passed a sign for the Center for Kentucky History.  "Well," we said to ourselves "we like history, let's see what that's about."


Good call.  For a mere $3 each we spent more than 3 hours wandering around a very well done series of exhibits depicting aspects of life and history in Kentucky from prehistoric time to the modern day.  We even got a guided tour of the Old State Capitol building.  I didn't even know there was an old and new capitol before the tour. 

The Old Capitol Building.  Built in the 1820 in the same location as two previous capitol building which burned.  The building was used as the state capitol until 1910.  It has a free standing stone staircase in the center, an amazing piece of architecture!

This was the architects first ever building and he did a fabulous job.  I somehow failed to get a picture of the freestanding staircase, but suffice to say it was amazing and cool!  The prison warden at the time invented a steam powered saw to precisely cut the stone for it.

Picture from KY Division of Historic Properties (http://historicproperties.ky.gov/)

 

What you may be asking yourself does this have to do with shooting?  Well, nothing really.  But the history exhibits did include several firearms, and I got pictures to share!  The old me would have looked at the guns and moved on to "more exciting" things.  But this time I found myself reading about them and looking more closely.  I still don't know all the ins and outs of the differences, especially in the old flintlocks that were there.  But they were fun to see.  


Pictures to come in the following few days as I get them sorted and sized.  I took quite a few!

Also, consider this fair warning that I ma disappear again next week as I have more overnight stays at the farm.  Woo!




Our admission also included access to the Military History Museum, but we just ran out of time.  We will definitely be back to see that though.  Well worth paying $6 again if it's half as good as what we saw this time!