Last month you may remember a story hit the news about an individual who stole a large group of antique arms from museums and historical societies during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He had taken at least fifty pieces from a variety of sites spanning from New England to Alabama!
Four years ago, I was contacted by a police officer in Pennsylvania about a musket he wanted to know more about. He had found me through the Museum of the American Revolution (MoAR) in Philadelphia, and they told the officer to contact me. The gun was marked “J:BARRETT” and was assembled by a Concord, Massachusetts maker I was researching. I almost freaked out when I saw the musket as there was only one other known in existence. I wrote up all the information I knew on the gun and sent it to the officer. They said the gun had been stolen and was a part of an investigation, but nothing else. A year later, I drove down to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and studied it more closely. I hoped to write an article about the musket but had to wait until the case was closed.
Fast forward to this past February. I received a call from the police to say the case was over, and that they discovered the thief had stolen fifty antique arms over the years! He invited me to come to the Museum of the American Revolution for a repatriation ceremony, where all the stolen goods would be returned to their rightful owners. I quickly said “Yes!” and decided to drive down to Philadelphia. I was also asked if I would give a few short words about the musket.
The FBI Art Crime Team had also been involved with the investigation, and they ran the ceremony. I arrived at a room packed with police, FBI, district attorneys, press, museum curators, and MoAR staff. All the stolen objects were laid out on tables so you could walk around and see all the guns, powder horns, and other items of historical military significance. I was obviously quite excited about the gun I was talking about, but there were some other very cool objects too. These included a Colt Model 1847 Walker revolver with Texas markings (which had been stolen from the Connecticut State Library and is a super rare gun), and a Model 1842 pistol made by Springfield Armory (to be sent to the contractors when they were producing the pistol, and very few were ever produced).
Each museum was asked to speak, and I got up to say a few words about the Barrett gun and how excited I was for it to be found and help us understand the arms that were being assembled in 1775. After the ceremony, I had a wonderful tour around the museum and looked at some cool things in their collections storage before heading to a local pub for a few celebratory beers with friends.
For me, it was really cool to be a very small part of this and to be able to study this wonderful historic musket from the start of the American Revolution!
