SmokeEaterPilot
Active Member
- Jun 3, 2011
- 525
Hey Guys,
Been working on a few things from the National Archives. Earlier this month I made a trip out to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site at Oyster Bay NY.
I just finished uploading these to my website so I thought I'd post them on here.
For a 1903 fan, these rifles need little introduction. When Theodore Roosevelt was President and the Office of Chief of Ordnance began transitioning away from the Krag and towards the iconic Springfield 1903, President Roosevelt requested Springfield Armory had one made for him to his specifications. I have attached a scan of his letter.
The story is well known, and you may have read about it in a book before. But the difference is, many books and articles will reference the story, but they don't actually show copies of the documentation. Sagamore Hill had not seen the documentation themselves, mainly because it was at the archives and not at their museum.
If you read the files, you will notice specific modifications made to his Sporting 1903 and the correspondence among Springfield Armory personnel concerning this project. (My personal favorite, after the project was completed, they would prefer not to undertake it again, not even for the President of the United States.)
What I like to do is throw out primary documentation and let people draw their own conclusions. With books, articles, etc. Accomplished authors and historians will travel to the archives to data mine primary documentation, compile it and write up their interpretation of the data for a book, thesis etc. The difference is, they are doing the majority of the interpretation for you. Which isn't bad at all. Far more organized than at the archives.
Perhaps you will get a different interpretation from a document than another collector, author or historian will. Not to mention traveling to the archives takes time and money.
So for those of you familiar with the story, here's a chance to read the raw data versus a summary an author has compiled for you. See if you notice a piece of information not mentioned before in a published works. This particular story is a bit straight forward, but there are countless other documents out there that require a great deal of interpretation.
I tried to get close ups of the particular components of each rifle. Especially if it was mentioned in the correspondence. I apologize that I am not a professional photographer. Fortunately, a local professional photographer caught wind of this project and is a firearms enthusiast and requested to be included in the next project. So the next products should be more pleasing to the eye. A couple more projects similar to this in nature at in the works at a couple other museums.
Been working on a few things from the National Archives. Earlier this month I made a trip out to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site at Oyster Bay NY.
I just finished uploading these to my website so I thought I'd post them on here.
For a 1903 fan, these rifles need little introduction. When Theodore Roosevelt was President and the Office of Chief of Ordnance began transitioning away from the Krag and towards the iconic Springfield 1903, President Roosevelt requested Springfield Armory had one made for him to his specifications. I have attached a scan of his letter.
The story is well known, and you may have read about it in a book before. But the difference is, many books and articles will reference the story, but they don't actually show copies of the documentation. Sagamore Hill had not seen the documentation themselves, mainly because it was at the archives and not at their museum.
If you read the files, you will notice specific modifications made to his Sporting 1903 and the correspondence among Springfield Armory personnel concerning this project. (My personal favorite, after the project was completed, they would prefer not to undertake it again, not even for the President of the United States.)
What I like to do is throw out primary documentation and let people draw their own conclusions. With books, articles, etc. Accomplished authors and historians will travel to the archives to data mine primary documentation, compile it and write up their interpretation of the data for a book, thesis etc. The difference is, they are doing the majority of the interpretation for you. Which isn't bad at all. Far more organized than at the archives.
Perhaps you will get a different interpretation from a document than another collector, author or historian will. Not to mention traveling to the archives takes time and money.
So for those of you familiar with the story, here's a chance to read the raw data versus a summary an author has compiled for you. See if you notice a piece of information not mentioned before in a published works. This particular story is a bit straight forward, but there are countless other documents out there that require a great deal of interpretation.
I tried to get close ups of the particular components of each rifle. Especially if it was mentioned in the correspondence. I apologize that I am not a professional photographer. Fortunately, a local professional photographer caught wind of this project and is a firearms enthusiast and requested to be included in the next project. So the next products should be more pleasing to the eye. A couple more projects similar to this in nature at in the works at a couple other museums.
