View of exhibit area showing a German MG34 machine gun (left) and other weapons used during WWII.

"WORLD CLASS" EXHIBIT AT OLD IDAHO PENITENTIARY

A new museum exhibit featuring one of the nation's largest collections of historic arms and military memorabilia opened at the Old Idaho Penitentiary on Memorial Day, 2002.

The extraordinary collection was donated to the Idaho State Historical Society in late 1999. It includes artifacts dating as far back as 3500 B.C. that were accumulated over some 60 years by the late J. Curtis Earl, a part-time Boise resident who passed away a few months after finalizing the donation.

"The collection represents an opportunity to visually follow the history and evolution of arms over a period of some 5,500 years," said Steve Guerber, Executive Director of the Idaho State Historical Society. Located in a 5,000-square-foot building inside the walls of the Old Idaho Penitentiary, preparation for the exhibit's opening has encompassed more than two years of planning, cataloguing, interpretation and construction work by the Idaho Historical Museum staff. In addition to the artifacts, with an estimated value in excess of $5 million, Earl donated nearly $600,000 to fund renovation of facilities to display and safeguard the collection. He also committed to create a permanent endowment in the Idaho Community Foundation that will provide for ongoing maintenance and periodic updates to items on display.

Luristan bronze knives.

Admission to the Old Idaho Penitentiary complex includes access to the J. Curtis Earl Memorial Exhibit. Cost of admittance to the historic site is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $3 for children from 6-12 years old. Children under age 6 are admitted free.

Ken Swanson, administrator of the Idaho Historical Museum, calls the exhibit "world class" in both its content and its documentation of the evolution of arms from the Bronze Age to those used today for sport, law enforcement, and military purposes. The Luristan Bronze segment of the collection dates to 3500 B.C. and is believed to be the largest of its kind in the United States. Daggers and arrow points date from the Bronze age to the Roman period.

The collection also features Medieval arms and armor, Revolutionary War firearms and swords, Civil War artifacts, and an 1883 Gatling gun on its original carriage. Pistols and rifles of the type used extensively in the West by settlers and lawmen in the nineteenth century, along with rifles, pistols, machine guns, mortars, and cannon from many of the countries involved in World War I and II (U.S., Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan) are included.

The Earl donation has been supplemented by artifacts held in the collection of the

The M1A1 75mm-pack howitzer, adopted in 1927, was light and highly mobile. The Marines relied heavily on the 75's in their amphibious operations in the Pacific during WWII. Close-in firepower was needed against heavily fortified Japanese bunkers and artillery.

Idaho State Historical Society, including a special display of items from U.S. prisoners captured at Wake Island and held by the Japanese.

Included in the donation to the Idaho State Historical Society is a MiG-15 jet, which is being scheduled to tour Idaho airports late this year to promote the J. Curtis Earl Memorial Exhibit in conjunction with its being flown from Phoenix to a permanent home in Boise.

In making his donation, Earl asked that the exhibit be dedicated to "the memory of all those who served and fought, and especially those who paid the supreme sacrifice, in the defense of our great country in order to preserve our freedom and ideals and a free people."

Summer hours at the Old Idaho Penitentiary are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

About J. Curtis Earl
J. Curtis Earl was born in Fielding, Utah where he lived during his early life. After he graduated from Utah State University with a degree in wildlife management, he went to work for the Missouri Conservation Commission. He moved to Phoenix in 1951 to work for the Department of Fish & Game, then on to work for Air Research and the Del E. Webb Corporation. Eventually, he began a full-time career as an antique weapons dealer. He thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors and was a licensed pilot. He established the Curtis Earl Idaho Aviation Foundation in 1998 t o fund the construction and maintenance of back country air-strips so that others could access remote areas and enjoy the wilderness. Mr. Earl's passion for antique weapons was triggered when he found a flint arrowhead at the age of seven. Throughout his life he actively collected becoming a widely-known authority on guns, swords and armor. His gift to the ISHS includes a number of rare artifacts unlikely to be found outside the possible holdings of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.