Not that my family is a group of hoarders or anything like that, but cleaning up around the house on Christmas vacation, I came across a few items I had forgotten about. Here are some artifacts of history I own:

signed baseball from Cal Hubbard (meet him when I was a kid)
Amelia Earhart autograph
flintlock musket made it 1835 converted to caplock for Mexican-American war
softball size meteorite found by my great-grandpa
a couple of colonial era masks from west Africa (Senufo, Dogon, & Yoruba)
carbide coal miners headlamp

Who else has something interesting laying around the house?

(01-01-2016 10:27 PM)BEARCATDALE Wrote:  Not that my family is a group of hoarders or anything like that, but cleaning up around the house on Christmas vacation, I came across a few items I had forgotten about. Here are some artifacts of history I own:

signed baseball from Cal Hubbard (meet him when I was a kid)
Amelia Earhart autograph
flintlock musket made it 1835 converted to caplock for Mexican-American war
softball size meteorite found by my great-grandpa
a couple of colonial era masks from west Africa (Senufo, Dogon, & Yoruba)
carbide coal miners headlamp

Who else has something interesting laying around the house?

I've got Special Order #9, issued by General Lee telling the troops that the war was over. There were about a dozen signed by Lee, but officers, realizing the significance took those orders and wrote out a copy for themselves. Mine isn't one of the former, but one of the latter. My Great-Great Grandfather was a major in the Quarter Master corp of the Army of Northern Virginia.

My brother and I now share, after my Mother's passing, a portrait of one of our ancestors from 1790. She was the granddaughter of Colonial Virginia Governor Spotswood.

I also have a chest full of family letters from the antebellum through reconstruction eras. Fortunately my uncles and mother organized and categorized all of them.

I have several items from my Grandfather's service in WWI, including his helmet, gas mask, coat, and letters back and forth between he and his girlfriend that later became his wife.

I have a collection of old Presidential campaign buttons from my grandfather and father. Teddy R, Truman, FDR, Ike, Nixon, Goldwater..ect about 30 all together.

I have several signed baseballs....Clemente is my favorite. I got it from a friend of my Uncle who knew him when I was a kid. It is in poor condition unfortunately. Too bad I did not keep it pristine. It would be worth 10 grand or so now.

I have a metal horse that some little kid in Tunisia during the Roman Empire used to play with. It's pretty cool. Although, I am sure it is lead.

Other than that, I have a 16 gauge shotgun my great grandfather won in a card game. It was made for the Belgian army in 1916 and carries the markings for the Belgian infantry regiment it was made by F.N. for.

While not strictly historical, I also have a signed copy of the Green Book.

Oh, and my grandfather has a model of the IAR 80 his brother had from working in the factory in Romania in the second world war.

I have a lot of various family civil war stuff, sword, pistol, buttons. The family member that served in the Civil War was in the engineering service and we have his original Confederate manufactured dress buttons bearing the letter E. Apparently they are exceedingly rare.

Probably the coolest thing I have is my Grandfather's journal from WWII. He started it while in basic training and it records every step of his journey from Camp Croft in Spartanburg, SC to Meiningen, Austria and everywhere in between. One of the coolest parts was during the push back of German forces during the Battle of the Bulge they were having logistics problems due to weather. The infantry unit they were supporting had captured intact a German 88mm artillery battery complete with several horse drawn wagons of ammo. After determining that the Nazis had not spiked the guns or sabotaged the ammo they trained on using the German guns and planned to take them along when they advanced in case their battery ran out of ammunition for their guns. They ended up getting resupplied and destroyed both the guns and ammunition but he wrote that his crew was impressed with the quality and accuracy of the 88.

A few years ago for Christmas I purchased some large laminated world wall maps and had them cut down to just show the US and Europe. I made markers and decals noting the location and dates he was there for every entry in his journal and any pertinent information. I re-laminated them. built some picture frames out of some crown molding I had found at a yard sale for cheap and had stuck in the garage and gave them to his children for Christmas. My only regret is I only made enough for them and not one for myself.

(01-01-2016 11:10 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Probably the coolest thing I have is my Grandfather's journal from WWII. He started it while in basic training and it records every step of his journey from Camp Croft in Spartanburg, SC to Meiningen, Austria and everywhere in between. One of the coolest parts was during the push back of German forces during the Battle of the Bulge they were having logistics problems due to weather. The infantry unit they were supporting had captured intact a German 88mm artillery battery complete with several horse drawn wagons of ammo. After determining that the Nazis had not spiked the guns or sabotaged the ammo they trained on using the German guns and planned to take them along when they advanced in case their battery ran out of ammunition for their guns. They ended up getting resupplied and destroyed both the guns and ammunition but he wrote that his crew was impressed with the quality and accuracy of the 88.

A few years ago for Christmas I purchased some large laminated world wall maps and had them cut down to just show the US and Europe. I made markers and decals noting the location and dates he was there for every entry in his journal and any pertinent information. I re-laminated them. built some picture frames out of some crown molding I had found at a yard sale for cheap and had stuck in the garage and gave them to his children for Christmas. My only regret is I only made enough for them and not one for myself.

That is some interesting stuff. Have you shared the journal with the state archives or anything like that?

I've got a Walther P38 that has all the Nazi markings still on it (most in circulation were scrubbed by the importers), so it's pretty cool. Pretty creepy at the same time.

(01-01-2016 11:16 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  

(01-01-2016 11:10 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Probably the coolest thing I have is my Grandfather's journal from WWII. He started it while in basic training and it records every step of his journey from Camp Croft in Spartanburg, SC to Meiningen, Austria and everywhere in between. One of the coolest parts was during the push back of German forces during the Battle of the Bulge they were having logistics problems due to weather. The infantry unit they were supporting had captured intact a German 88mm artillery battery complete with several horse drawn wagons of ammo. After determining that the Nazis had not spiked the guns or sabotaged the ammo they trained on using the German guns and planned to take them along when they advanced in case their battery ran out of ammunition for their guns. They ended up getting resupplied and destroyed both the guns and ammunition but he wrote that his crew was impressed with the quality and accuracy of the 88.

A few years ago for Christmas I purchased some large laminated world wall maps and had them cut down to just show the US and Europe. I made markers and decals noting the location and dates he was there for every entry in his journal and any pertinent information. I re-laminated them. built some picture frames out of some crown molding I had found at a yard sale for cheap and had stuck in the garage and gave them to his children for Christmas. My only regret is I only made enough for them and not one for myself.

That is some interesting stuff. Have you shared the journal with the state archives or anything like that?

I know that he made copies to give the SC Military museum but I couldn't tell you if they are in a display or not. He ended up staying in the SC National Guard after the war and retired as a First Sergeant and the curator at the time was one of his former soldiers.

My inheritance will include tens of thousands of dollars of paintings by famous Indonesian artists, including some that if donated to the Indonesian government would almost certainly be displayed in their national art museums.....

I've told this story before, but a friend of mines father had his library fireplace mantle made from an oak tree that was on the field of battle at Gettysburg. It's almost electric to the touch and I am always in awe when I see it. I'd rather run my hand along it than touch a beautiful woman.

Really the only historic item my family has is a liquor cabinet and some rocks glasses and beer mugs from a speakeasy owned by Al Capone. Family history says that Al Capone himself had to give the Ok to give the items away but as time goes on, the less anyone thinks that is true. It came from a notorious speakeasy that is undeniable, but I doubt Al Capone had to sign off. My greatgrandfather got it in partial trade for work done on refurbishing a church organ on Chicago's South Side back in the 1920s. At the time, my greatgrandfather was the last full time church organ repair professional in Illinois and maybe even in the entire country. Last of a dead breed.

(01-01-2016 11:22 PM)Kronke Wrote:  I've got a Walther P38 that has all the Nazi markings still on it (most in circulation were scrubbed by the importers), so it's pretty cool. Pretty creepy at the same time.

One of my uncles inherited my Grandfathers P38. He's told me it's in his will to go to me because he has two daughters and he hates both son-in-laws. LOL

My Grandfather's also has all the Nazi markings. Chances are yours is like mine and was smuggled in the country in the bottom of a duffle bag, or in the case of mine wrapped in a GI sock, stuck in a spare set of boots and stuffed in the bottom of a duffle bag.

I have a piece of barb wire from the Korean DMZ and a chunk of the Berlin Wall.

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My father was born in Germany and our surname is unmistakably German. He worked in the production scheduling office of a steel mill during WWII and at that time, all communications were done by telegraph. He would receive messages throughout the day, addressed to him, and as a result, the top management at the company sent him a telegram ordering him to Anglicize his last name.

I have the original telegram, as well as his naturalization papers. I guess I should be happy that this was the worst thing that happened as I could have been born in one of the internment camps had we been Japanese.

I've got an autographed '58 Henry Aaron and a Win with Willkie button.

Several campaign buttons, but that one's my favorite.

Unfortunately I have nothing. Amazing considering my family can trace its roots to the U.S. all the way back to the late 1600s.

My family has mostly been poor simpletons forever though, so they probably didn't have much worth saving anyway. With much of the last 200 years being spent in west Virginia, they weren't highly involved in the civil war and they seemed to luck out with the timing of having children as few were of age during the major conflicts of the 20th century. I had one uncle out of 16 serve in vietnam. One was drafted for Korea, but the war ended before he ever made it there.

We are a boring family.

I've told this story before, but a friend of mines father had his library fireplace mantle made from an oak tree that was on the field of battle at Gettysburg. It's almost electric to the touch and I am always in awe when I see it. I'd rather run my hand along it than touch a beautiful woman.

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I've heard of tree huggers but this is ridiculous.


Mine aren't that old but they do have historical significance. I have all of the old time NASA shoulder patches like Gemini, Apollo, Mercury, etc, etc. and newer ones like the joint American-Soviet space flight patches. I have a pin and hat and pictures of the ill-fated space flight that resulted in everyone including the first teacher in space deaths.I also have about 200 photographs of NASA space flights along with autographed pictures of the older astronauts signed to me. I don't know who to give them too in my will. I have a silver dollar sized commemorative medal with the actual metal of the space ship that went to the moon. And so on and so on.

This is interesting: I have a 1930 high school yearbook of Huntington H.S. and a few very old El Paso high school yearbooks. No, I didn't graduate then. LOL

2 '54 mint Ted Williams, 2 '54 mint Jackies.......pure pride....love the history of Baseball.....the purest of sport it is....

the Original Taylor made metal wood (with the allen nut in the sole)

collected beer cans as a tyke in StL.....sold the collection for a bill in '75 once I made it to missippy

little did I know what that meant back then

collectibles are hit or miss in dollars....sentimental thingys are cool

kudos to the collectors....I have some odd art that means only something to me....

IMO, that's all that matters when it comes to satisfaction.....you'll never see me on an episode of pawn stars......

The more modern stuff I have include a book of Townes Van Zandt lyrics that is signed by him. A book signed by Jimmy Carter. A rare EP that was the first commercial release by Steve Earle and the Dukes. 78s from Hank Williams, The Stoneman, Elmore James, Kay Kaiser and several other artists.

I found a 1957 dollar silver certificate in my wallet a year ago. I would guess it is pretty rare to still find one in circulation.

(01-02-2016 10:47 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  I found a 1957 dollar silver certificate in my wallet a year ago. I would guess it is pretty rare to still find one in circulation.

Funny, I was just about to post about the Silver certificate that I found a few years ago


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Some cool stuff in this thread.