I am just back from Cody Firearms Museum's 2023 "Arsenals of
History" Symposium- hosted by the fine folks at Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Massachusetts.
Topics ranged from matchlocks to machine guns, and featured a diverse
group of presenters from Australia, England, Europe, and America who
presented lectures on firearms history, design, aesthetics, forensics,
economic/industrial perspectives as well as 3d modeling and printing. Although not solely focused on 18th century topics, there was plenty of content from that era.
Mathieu Willemsen of the Dutch National Military Museum presented a fantastic lecture on the evolution of Dutch Military Muskets from 1599-1795, Joel Bohy discussed bullet strikes and ballistics at sites from Lexington and Concord, Zac Distel highlighted a Pomeroy fowler from the SAR's collection, Erik Goldstein from Colonial Williamsburg shed new light on the arms of the 50th and 51st regiments in the French and Indian War, and Matt Keagle from Fort Ticonderoga had a spirited discussion on A Public History approach to early modern arms. My presentation discussed Carolina Guns: English Trade guns for the American South. I highly recommend this symposium for serious students of firearms history and associated museum professionals.
