means a lot to me. nancy s family has a history of military service going back to the revolutionary war. this is one of dozens of firearms in a huge cache of war relics left by nancy s father when he died in 2010. born in 1922 in a small town along new york s hudson river, art, an intense scholarly boy, rose up fantasizing with his friends about military adventures. we have pictures of him in makeshift world war i uniforms. i understand from a friend of my dad s they were called and my dad was always in charge. art s reenacting is encouraged by his mother who buys him odds and ends at garage sales. she had interest in history, and i think that he got some of that from her. here he is all dressed up in
for a while artillery teaches military at louisiana state and writes scholarly papers on civil war artifacts, but during this period trouble develops on the homefront as art s wife, janet starts showing signs of bipolar disorder. there were weeks that she wouldn t get out of bed. so here s dad working full-time, and you know, he is doing laundry and everything else. your dad had so much to handle at home. do you think collecting became an escape? somebody else would pick april book or watch a movie but for him it was his collection. he keeps receepts for just about everything. for a few hundred dollars he buys a rare rising breach made for the confederate army. using his skills as a military historian art is able to turn the serial numbers on the weapons to the stories behind them. it was like a good mystery novel that he had to know the
in san diego in 2010 nancy is looking to unload her strange inherit wrans. she s long considered it just a sprawling hoard of firearms, uniforms, and she knew they were important to her dad. but the records showed she paid $7. if you went by that, you wouldn t know the significant tans significance of the collection. he wanted a comprehensive collection that encompassed virtually every aspect of u.s. military life. nothing underscores that more than a bullet-riddled log art bought in the 1960s, he carted
to sit down with my dad finally and actually go through the garage. i had about 200 items between guns swords bayonettes, handguns. as nancy bonds with her dad, art asked her, his heldest child, to be the ones who deals with his stuff when he is gone. he names nancy terroristee of his estate. he was saying good-bye. you could tell how much he cared about his items. they were almost like children. in june of 2010 art dies at the age of 87. in a military ceremony, he is buried in military monterey outfitted in his blue uniform. the last time i saw him i