RedMaestro2 Wrote:Ed, what are the stories of these two collections? (Were they award collections?)
The ANS (American Numismatic Society) started their collection of ODM in the late 19th century, but expanded substantially after The Great War, when Americans discovered Europe. All of this was being done as an adjunct to their primary mandated focus as a numismatic society. They continued to add to the collection, almost entirely from contributions from members, through the late 1970s, by which time numismatics and phaleistics had pretty much undergone their divergent evolution. Several years back, the ANS deaccessioned and sold off their entire non-US ODM holdings (they might have sold the US stuff too, but political concerns and the legal question as to how much of the US material they could legally sell -- even overseas, where such sales are legal -- stopped them). Their entire collection was sold through three sales with Morton & Eden (and I know several of the donors who were none too happy). It was a pretty good collection, especially rich in South and Central America and in Chinese imperial and warlord awards (and, in fact, the M&E catalogues still serve as major reference sources in those and other fields).
The McKay (or was it MacKay? -- I met him once when he looked like he was 400 years old) was an individual collection, assembled in the pre- and post-WWII period and focused on pretty things, though it was pretty much all European, especially rich in French orders (including several orders that were awarded to Ney and Napoleon). He gifted it to the Smithsonian Institution, thinking they'd have an interest in it. The Naval and Military History Section and the Numismatic Section bounced it back and forth as neither really wanted it but the SI was stuck with it (it is virtually impossible for them to deaccession and sell ANYTHING). It wasn't US MILITARY and the numismatic section was (and, I think, still is) dominated by table medals with US (only) coins tolerated of necessity. The naval and military boys resented any medals anyway (I worked there as an intern back when Moses had zits -- you would weep, as I did, to see how they mistreated Pershing's awards). For a while, the numismatic section had a few of the McKay items on display, mostly mislabled, as eye-candy, but they went back into their crammed metal drawers that eat ridbons and have remained there for the best part for two decades. They were persuaded to get a few items out and onto very temporary display the last time the OMSA held their meetings in DC.
Many museums just don't care. This has cursed several friends whose families gave away ancestral medals to British regimental museums (over my friends' protests). These medals were later lost, sold/stolen without notification, and in at least two cases simply thrown away.
As far as I am concerned, when the time comes to forge a new link in the chain of custody, I want my babies to go to comptent and loving homes, which means to the phaleristic community.
