Dear Scott,

Now the first story might be under the "urban legend" type:

I was once told the story of a historian who was driving through Ohio and
stopped at a gas station. He bought a Coke and was talking to the elderly
store owner. A mutual love of history was established and the owner said,
"Let me show you something." He opened up a trunk and there, neatly folded
and clean, was a militia uniform from the French and Indian War. On top was
a handwritten note from Col. George Washington thanking the store owner's
ancestor for lending him a suit of clothes after Washington had fallen in a
stream and gotten this uniform wet. Washington promised to pick up the dress
uniform on his way back, however, he returned by another route and failed to
pick up his "cleaning."  A couple of years later the historian stopped back
at the gas station. A young woman was behind the counter and when asked
about the old man, answered, "Oh, he died and we bought the station."  When
he questioned her about 'any old clothes in a trunk,' she said she threw
most of the old clothing out and gave some to the high school drama
department.  Could happen.

This one is true. As a curator I was told that the President of a local
historical society received a phone call one Monday evening. The President
was informed by the lady caller that, "yes, she would indeed take the other
two chairs."  The President was a little confused as there was no sale
taking place and asked, "what chairs?" She was told that the buyer wanted
the other two chairs of the set she had purchased from the caretaker of the
society's historic house that weekend.

After firing the caretaker, this same house allowed children to wander
through by themselves. The volunteer docent would remain on the first floor
when the kids were touring on the second.  She caught two young men passing
muskets from the second floor out of the window to accomplices on the ground
below. Bars were put on the windows to stop these thefts. And then the rest
of the weapon collection was taken home by a volunteer who was to clean and
restore them and he immediately moved out west with them.

This is also true. I became interested in an American Revolutionary war unit
that was massacred by the British nearby. The site was "dug" by the county.
The archaeologist found a silver stock buckle, and it was traced back to the
individual soldier who had lost it during the massacre. Exciting stuff! I
did my thesis on the unit and asked about the whereabouts of this stock
buckle. I was told that the buckle had been taken from a locked room and was
missing as were the rest of the artifacts from the dig.

My first position in a museum was to set up a 200 year old house that had
just been restored. The furniture and collection from the house had been
stored in a neighboring museum building. While taking my items out of the
attic, I came upon a couple of boxes from the archaeological dig that I had
researched. Seems the archaeologist took some pieces home, had forgotten
about them, placed them in his cellar, and now was getting divorced. When
selling his home he had to get these "buttons and bones" out of the house.
It was years too late to turn them over to the proper authorities so the
archaeologist and his director friend put them in the storage room in this
museum. They were going to bring them out someday but kind of forgot about
them for fifteen years. Only because I had done so much research on the
items did I recognize them. So, at least a partial collection of the
artifacts were recovered. (Thinking as a museum curator, I immediately
notified the proper authorities and asked if I could display the relics
before I returned them!!)

The lesson is that artifacts, the collection in general, do not go home with
anyone.

Bill Maurer
Director
Gomez Foundation for Mill House
www.gomez.org