Loitering around Chattanooga

[butlersrangers]

With about 7,000 firearm related items, only about 150 items are on public display at branches of the Smithsonian or 'affiliates'.
Most items are in secure storage at the 'National Firearms Collection' facility, not open to the general public, but possibly open to some gun scholars.

Professor Ben E. Nicholson, (Art Institute of Chicago), author of a monumental work on the Collier revolvers, has posted articles about leading U.S. gun museums and collections.
This link will get you to some of his links:

https://bennicholson.com/guns/National- ... onian.html

https://bennicholson.com/guns/Gun-Museu ... e-USA.html

attached photos show: patent models of Rider Rolling-Block, 1848 Sharp's Conversion, and Erickson (Monitor designer) cannon design. This kind of stuff is housed 'out of public view'.

A wealth of US Patent Office models were given to the Smithsonian Institution.

[waterman]

The mention of Prof. Ben Nicholson and the link to his article on gun museums rang a bell. BR's link did not work for me, but Googling "Ben Nicholson and Art Institute of Chicago" connected. In 2016, he published an article ".44 or .45?", still on line if you hunt for it. We exchanged many e-mails over his earlier drafts and he gave me full credit in the footnotes. If you dig through the footnotes, there are 2 Krag references.

https://bennicholson.com/guns/44-45.html

[butlersrangers]

I redid the links. They seem to work now.