Old firearms museum in Strasburg Pa

Years ago there was a very nice firearms museum in an old mill on the west side of Strasburg Pa, which had an amazing collection of flintlock and other old firearms.

Does anyone know what happened to the collection?

Going to have to ride over that way and check it out.Any better location?

wheres the place your talking about? I live near Lewistown in Pa. Might take a little ride on my Harley and take a look.

You wouldn't by any chance be thinking about this would you?

http://nra.nationalfirearms.museum/default.asp?Search=PA

The museum you're talking about isn't there any more. The gentleman who owned it passed away about 8 or 10 years ago. The entire collection was sold at auction.

It may have been the Eagle Museum. I haven't been over that way since the mid 80's but I was thinking it was SE of Strausburg by more than a half dozen miles, probably wrong. It was susposed to house a very large collection of long rifles and I understood that the collection was sold off years ago (more than 8 or 9?).

I was afraid something like that might have happened. Was the collection broken up or bought in whole? I recall it being on Rt741 next to the Pequea Creek located in an old mill. The mill is still standing a few years ago when we visited the area.

I was not interested in black powder shooting when I visited a few times 20 years ago but it was very impressive display non the less.
Thanks for your help.

:hmm: Sadly I have to concur the Museum is no longer in existence. After the owner passed away the collection was bunched up and sold. Never have been able to check on where most of it went---but it was immense, to say the least.It's been, at least ten years or more if my memory doesn't fail me. Too bad that something of that magnitude slipped away into the secret confines of very wealthy collectors. How much could have been learned from that collection. :hatsoff:

----EAGLE MUSEUM--was run buy VINCENT NOLT--his one nephew got some of the guns----I'd like to know how valuable articles can be donated to a museum then sold to the public-----

I suppose if the Museum is a privately owned place, all of the guns become the property of the owner even if they were donated.

When the owner dies and the folks who inherit his stuff don't give a damn about keeping or preserving it they simply call an auction house and put it up for sale.

As has been said by folks smarter than me, "Life is very unfair."

It all depends on the State laws where the museum is located, and on what state of " Legal " being the museum is. If its a propretorship- individually own, or a partnership, " donating " anything to the " Museum " is simply a gift, and becomes the private property of the owner(s). If its a Corporation, the museum may be also a Tax Exempt organization under Section 501(c) of the IRS CODE, or it can simply be a " nonprofit " institution, without tax exempt status. Usually, most states require that any Nonprofit corporation provide that the assets of the corporation, on dissolution or termination, MUST be donated to some similar nonprofit association. With your 501(c) application, the Tax Code requires that the taxpayer designate some alternate qualified " charitable, etc" institution or group to receive the assets.

If you seek to make a gift of any property to a museum, you need to find out if they have a tax exempt status( so that you qualify to deduct the value of the gift from your own estate!) If they don't you may still want to "Loan" the gun to the museum or collection for public Display.

I have a friend who has Loaned a few guns to the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va., run by the NRA. I don't think he wants to give those guns to that museum, but that could change. In many museums, there will be signs indicating that a particular exhibit piece is " donated " by so-and-so, or is on LOAN from another museum or private collector. That is the reason for those signs. A good museum curator wants to protect his collection from any claims that he is stealing an item from someone, and by putting up signs with the exhibit, he alerts his successors as to which items the Museum owns outright, and which it does not own. That then steers his successor to go to the bookwork maintained by the curator during his term in office.

Curators who take that kind of care of donated, and loaned pieces are more likely to see such items "GIFTED" to the museum when the owners die, and many collectors are great supporters of public and private museums. They like the idea of their collection being shown to the public, without the expense and headaches of providing the security and access to their collection in their own homes, or storage areas.

The museum would be legally able to auction off the guns that it owns, but not the guns on loan to the museum, without the owner's specific authorization. The money may be then transferred to the Charitable, educational, etc. entity listed in its bylaws, and filed with the State or with IRS.

My BP club has in its by-laws a provision that upon dissolution and payment of all legal debts, its money will be donated to the NMLRA. Another club provides that its assets will go to the NRA.

Thank you again all your input. When I posted this I was hoping the collection had been moved to another location in Lancaster County.
I was a very impressive collection of long rifles.
Shoot safely.

Yes, this is the Eagle Museum owned by Vincent Nolt. He was a very good friend and mentor. An original in the KRA. I still have the catalog of the sale of his stuff in 1983, and the prices. I was just starting at the time and could afford nothing and just ate my heart out. Nothing was donated. At most maybe some of the displays. This is baloney. Who made this up? Heresaydotell. He was simply an early collector like Joe Kindig.

I was just at the NRA museum in Virginia in Feb. It's worth a visit if you ever get that way, way more MLers than I would have expected. And it's free for every one, not just NRA members.

My daughter and I had a couple hours to kill before a funeral, and it was only a few miles away so we went. Even my daughter who likes to shoot shotgun and rim fire but is not a hunter or die hard gun lover really enjoyed it. She told me after she just went cause I wanted to go and there was nothing else to do but that she found it very interesting. As we went through the displays and I told her about some some of the things she was looking at I could see her interest grow. Well worth your time if you happen to be in the area.

I've got her new husband out shooting BP when I go and he has time, maybe I will be able to get her out with us one of these days.

I visited the museum about 10 years ago, when attending a Gun Rights Policy Conference at Alexandria, VA. My brother lived in Fairfax, Va. at the time, and we toured the museum together. It is a terrific display of firearms history, and the collection expands every year. I would no sooner pass up an opportunity to visit it, than I would miss out on the Winchester museum at Cody, Wyoming, or The Museum of the Fur Trade, in Western Nebraska. Sadly, with Williamsburg closing down its gunsmith shop either permanently, or to limited hours,( depending on what story you hear) the collection at Williamsburg may not be available to the public for viewing. I am told that the Springfield Armory museum in Connecticutt(?) is also worth the visit. Now, if you can just figure out how to drive to Connecticutt without going through New York City....... There is a museum up at Rock Island, here in Illinois, that I have never visited, and I want to make that trip, too.

The Williamsburg Gunsmith shop has been relocated to the foundry building behind the Getty Silver shop. Two of the master gunsmiths lost their positions but two remain with regular hours at the shop. The shop itself only had a few guns for 'show & tell' & for the visitors to handle. The gun displays at the Dewitt Museum are still intact and open for viewing. As with many tourist destinations, Williamsburg has seen a drop in visitors & revenue.