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Old 13-08-17, 01:44 AM
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Guzzman Guzzman is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Nottingham
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Default Dodgy Royal Norfolk

I've found exactly the same lack of knowledge at both the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth. It never ceases to amaze me that the people responsible for our national collections of military and naval artefacts have so little knowledge and, often, very little interest. I have already commented elsewhere on the site about the way in which the National Maritime Museum's online collections of buttons and badges show many items familiar to collectors which are either listed as 'unknown' or simply misidentified. The larger the institution the more common this appears to be.

After I left the Navy I undertook an MA in Heritage Studies and applied for several positions at maritime museums. I soon realised that the major things against me were the fact that I had actually been to sea and that I had an interest in the subject, indeed that I collected items myself! I was even told that no museum would employ someone who actually collected naval memorabilia and was advised to say that I wasn't a collector. Whether this was because they were worried that I might steal all their artefacts to add to my own collection I don't know.

So I gave up on any career within maritime museums and applied to join the NHS as a hospital administrator - a job I knew nothing about at all and in which none of my previous knowledge or experience would be any use whatsoever. So they obviously gave me a job!

Pete
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