Springfield Armory National Historic Site - Special Exhibits (U.S. National Park Service)

Detail of a 1787 American political cartoon describing the turmoil of the year 1787

"The Looking Glass of 1787," Library of Congress

Shays's Rebellion and the Storming of Springfield Arsenal, January 25th, 1787

The year 1787 threatened ruin to the new United States from internal turmoil. It ended with the promise of greater union and strength in a new Constitution.

The exhibit

For centuries individuals have collected weapons: firearms, swords and bayonets, military accoutrements, and even cartridges. Today, it is a hobby, interest, or vocation that fascinates thousands of persons. Each has his or her own reasons for collecting – historical associations, rarity, the excitement of testing one’s marksmanship with reproduction weapons, or as investments.

*******************************

An ambrotype of Pvt. John Chase, 6th Vermont, shortly after enlisting in the fall of 1862.

Springfield Armory NHS, US NPS

This exhibit was displayed at the Museum in 2002 and may be revisited by entering the image above.

A Springfield Rifle-Musket:
From War to Peace
***
A Vermont Civil War Soldier's Story