I didn't intend to trigger a rant - and I can't claim any understanding of what's actually going on in Salem - but I certainly sympathize with Schoonerbum's basic sentiments. I no longer go near the joint where I used to work (in Newport News, Virginia). My wife is convinced that my blood pressure goes up every time we even drive by the place.
Another institution that worries me in this context is the Smithsonian. Those of us with fairly long memories can recall the military history section on the third floor of the National Museum of American History. In tems of exhibition techniques, graphics, interactive exhibits, etc. it didn't amount to much; military historians complained for years that the Smithsonian wasn't doing justice to the armed forces. I think those critics were right. But one thing that old gallery did have going for it was a fine collection of ship models. Whenever I went to Washington I made it a point to stop by and admire Bob Bruckshaw's Revolutionary War frigates, the big commissioned Constitution and Constellation, and those wonderful old "builders' models" of late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century warships. That 1/48-scale Missouri, complete with the surrender table and chairs, blew my socks off the first time I saw it and continued to impress me twenty years later.
A few months ago I took a tour of the Smithsonian's new, state-of-the-art, permanent exhibition "The Price of Freedom: The History of America's Wars." From my standpoint as a military historian and an instructor of museum studies courses I regard that exhibition as excellent in almost every respect. It covers the topic about as comprehensively as the available space would permit, contains some real blockbuster artifacts, and manages to address some contoversial topics intelligently without taking political positions on them. (I believe it's the first major exhibition in the U.S. to undertake a comprehensive overview of the Vietnam War - and to my notion does a good job of it.) And the designers did an outstanding job of presenting the artifacts in interesting and unusual ways. (Who else would have thought of hanging a WWII Jeep from the ceiling?) But almost all the ship models are gone. The exhibition design profession is extremely sensitive to trends and fads - and it seems ship models just aren't "in" at the moment.
Down on the ground floor of the same building is the "Hall of Maritime Enterprise," which covers the civilian aspects of maritime history. I recall when that one opened - in the late seventies, if I remember correctly. It's looking a little long in the tooth these days, but, again, it contains a fine model collection (though just a fraction of the total number of models the late, great Howard I. Chapelle collected and commissioned during his tenure at the Smithsonian). Standing at the entrance of the gallery, as of last June, was a sign annoucing that the whole thing is slated for a major renovation within the next year or two. I do wonder what it will look like when the new generation of designers and curators gets done with it. Anybody who's interested in the Smithsonian's model collection would be well advised to look at it ASAP, before any more of the models get consigned to the storerooms.
There's another side to the coin, a drive of less than an hour from DC. Anybody with any interest whatever in ship models needs to take a trip to Annapolis and visit the (relatively) new ship model gallery in the basement of the Naval Academy Museum. On exhibition there is one of the two or three finest collections of contemporary seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ship models in the world. The exhibit facility, in terms of lighting, cases, etc., is outstanding. There's even a big plate glass window through which the visitor can watch the conservator working on the models. That's one museum that still understands the value and beauty of ship models.