V ISCERAL TOT EMS OF
A
Bru aL WAR
I
f you were to take a tour of the Museum’s collections storage vault, you may find yourself staring into a long drawer packed with what look for all the world like Medieval pikes. “What are those doing here?” you might ask. If you are a knowledgeable student of the American Civil War, you could answer your own question.
2 2 FALL 2021
“Those must be some of those pikes that John Brown ordered for his raid on Harper’s Ferry!” Indeed, the Museum has in its collections three “John Brown pikes.” If your tour of the Museum also included the flagship exhibit, A People’s Contest, you would have seen three John Brown pikes on display in the pre-gallery case. If all the Museum’s John Brown pikes
PHOTO BY ROBERT HAN C OCK
BY J O H N M . C O S K I
