[Archers] Grayson Archery Collection

[Groff, Garth (ggg9y)]

Noble friends of the Bow,

Last night I was watching a rerun of American Pickers. The boys bought a bow and some arrows, and needed an expert to value them. The expert was supplied by the University of Missouri, and was a curator of the Grayson Archery Collection. She claimed this was the largest collection of archery equipment in the U.S. Wow!

Since then I've been experimenting with their sites:

Main site: http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/grayson/grayson.shtml . Note that the illustrations below are hot links to various sub-collection photo galleries.

Secondary site: http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/grayson/graysonold.shtml . This appears to be an older version of their home page.

Wilson Family Archery: http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/minigalleries/wilsonfamily/intro.shtml

Archers' Thumb Rings: http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/online/thumbring/thumbring.shtml

Their searchable database: http://database.coas.missouri.edu/fmi/iwp/cgi?-db=Grayson%20Objects&-loadframes . This is a bit tricky to get working. You enter a search term in one of the various blocks, then click "perform find" in the toolbar. The number of requests found will show under "Find Requests" in the upper left. There is a slider here, but it is really touchy to use if you have more than four or five hits. Instead you can type in the find number in the white block above the slider and hit return to advance to the next record. To clear your buffer, click "New Request" on the toolbar. Some of the objects will have photographs. I was amazed at how many steel bows are in the collection, and how many different manufacturers there were (well four or five, but this is a lost part of archery lore that interests me). I was also amazed that they have a York/Woodcraft bow similar to the one retired recently from our loaner collection (it has a hinge). I've long wanted to know more about these early fiberglass composite bows.

There is enough stuff here to keep you busy for hours during the Christmas break.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge


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