In one of our collection rooms, the room is arranged to where the cabinets are
 in rows with the walkway down one side of the room.  At the time the room was
created and cabinets aquired, our department was also looking at how to store
spears and like artifacts.  Not really having enough room to put shelves on
the wall, the collections manager at the time had a lip of ethafoam board
built to raise the spears off the ground and then ran a strip of velcro at the
average halfway point of the spears to create a WALL-O'-SPEARS.  Previously
thespears had been stashed in a small cabinet (envision a Marx brothers comedy
routine trying to find anything.)  The spears are now visible leading toward
less manhandling (although most had already lost feathers, etc.)  Things to
watch:isthe space better than where they were before (yes in our case although
we have questions about paint, etc.), what kinds of air currents move through
the room (and will it increase feather loss), etc.
 
Above the spears we have built a WALL-O'-CANES, ARROWS, and PARASOLS.
 
Got any ideals for swords?
 
Sally Baulch
Texas Memorial Museum, History/Anthropology Division
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