Dogs, Old Dudes and War History
If I am being honest not a whole lot is going on at the Maryland Military Museum, between my boss getting sick, snow, vaccines and a family funeral the months of February and March blurred into one long categorizing and digitizing dream. I will say I had a few highlights these two months, first of all, Lucy, the Belgium Malonois dog finally stopped barking at me every time I stepped into the armory. That's a major win for me. Secondly I met some other volunteers, primarily older veterans who like to remind me how very little I know about history. Talking with them about their passion projects reminded me why I love history in the first place, COVID and online learning have been making feel a little disconnected from my interests and hearing about other's book projects and independent research endeavors felt like an EPI pen to my soul.
I finally got a chance to see that actual museum, crazy I had been nerding out in the room adjacent and never seen the museum I was archiving for. The museum made me sad. It's self guided tour system was outdated and confusing, it's mannequins were creepy, and I could tell looking at the guestbook there had not been any foot traffic. How do museums with no visitors stay open? Since the MMA is part of the armory, it is funded by the state, I imagine donations come from veterans if at all. I am happy to hear the museum is planning on hiring a curator, I would love to see the space brought into the twenty first century. After my tour of the museum it was back to the Witte Library where Lucy and I try not to rip 70 year old pieces of paper by accident. After coming across a perfect condition hardback book with the names and ID numbers of every life lost in the 27th regiment, I started thinking about what the museum seemed to be lacking. There it was right in front of me in the names of men who dies with the same last name as I do, emotion. The museum was emotionless. The further I dug into the archives the more I found things I felt the museum was missing, the museum talked about triumph and glory, but here I was holding a huge file on how some soldiers and their superiors were involved in the creation of a personal use prostitution ring while stationed in Germany. It seemed clear to me people did not want to talk about that side of the regiment, but honestly I think that's what makes them more real.Aside from finding really cool stuff and scandals involving sex work, abuse of power, and what not. I'm learning a lot about archiving, dealing with other museums, coding and how to talk to veterans about their experiences so that's pretty cool. Someone should do an oral history on them while they're still around, maybe that person will be me,
