Have you ever donated historical items?

A safe and a box came in from UPS this past Spring.
It was from my mother-in-law.

My young wifes dad was a high ranking Coast Guard Officer in WW2 and had passed away recently. The box had some things he wanted me to have.
I'll get back to the box.

Here in our home is where he died quietly in bed.
His young daughter, my wife, is a RN and we made him as comfortable as she possibly could,, if ya know what I mean.

I couldn't help but look at him during he last few hours of life and think of the old country tune "These Old Eyes have seen it all".

The box had a safe in it and my mother in law e mailed us the combo.
It contained a big stack of old silver certificate $2 bills, some historical documents, and a few gold coins.

Other than the safe their was an old gunny sack.
A gunny sack as a common thing, you younger peeps may not know about them but they are a 30 gallon bag made outta a twine kinda material.

In the gunny sack were 18 really cool, dark green clocks each having 4 thumbscrews, and German writing.
Some burnt, some the dial face are stained.

I had no idea about them so I called my mother in law. She told me:

My wife's uncle was a crew chief on a Hellcat tank destroyer with Patton.
I remember hearing about Hellcats. They were mostly distinguished to the novice by their narrow tracks.

As her uncles crews blasted enemy tanks, then after the dust settled they'd take the dashboard clocks outta them as "scalps".

The stained clocks may be from the causalities blood ect.

So we're contacting the National WW2 museum if they want the story and the clocks/gunny sack,, less one clock I have over my workbench in the garage of course.

My Elks lodge friend Chic was with the 101st airborne in Normandy and has some things he wants to donate too.

Ya ever donate anything of historic value?

 

Nothing related to WW2, but I bought a silly picture at a yard sale once, because the frame was interesting. On taking it apart, I found a picture of a group of Canadian WW1 officers, with their names in ink.

The photo got stuck in a drawer, and each Nov. 11th, and every time I ran across it, I would think that the photo deserved better. It would get lost again, and I would think of it again.

Finally with a bit of research, I found out the group came from the Peel region, near Toronto, and found a group there that was grateful for the donation to their museum.