Jump to content

The Motherload of M-1917's


Bugme
 Share

Recommended Posts

This is my garage, the day after I found nearly 150 M-1917's which had come out of the attic at the Kohler Wisconsin Town Hall shortly before it was demolished.  These had been there since the violent Kohler Mfg. strike in 1934. I have since sold them all but, it is my all time greatest helmet find.

20210503_111847.jpg

20210503_111818.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This all happened around 2010... was a exciting find. I sold them with a letter detailing the find, the history of the strike, of the Ohio National Guard which was called in along with a picture of their numbered helmet. Sadly, within a year, sellers on eBay were selling these as WWI Navy and Costal Defense helmets, it was so annoying.

post-1726-0-18803900-1392221455.jpg

post-1726-0-00178800-1392221193.jpg

post-1885-0-97660700-1392236559.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Radio Operator

Reminds me of the post from last month of all those M1's sitting in a field, an amazing find! I like the helmet with the painted insignia on the top left of picture 4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Radio Operator said:

Reminds me of the post from last month of all those M1's sitting in a field, an amazing find! I like the helmet with the painted insignia on the top left of picture 4.

Actually, that was a reverse swatika, the native American good luck sign. It was scratched into the paint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember that- that was awesome!  I should have gotten one for WI history sake- but at the time I limited myself to WW2's

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nickman983

Wow, you weren't kidding when you said the motherload of m1917s.

 

It's fantastic that they were saved instead of being scrapped or trash but it's a shame to hear how people were misrepresenting them on resale. I can't imagine what it must have been like to find a stockpile like this.

 

Thanks for sharing the story.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i happen to purchase one from you, i still own it, its just buried in the sea of stuff, have not seen it since i purchased. i will find it by year end

Link to comment
Share on other sites

M24 Chaffee

Wow! With all of that steel you could have built an armored car to park in that garage!

 

Frank

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So glad I got one Scott. The liner and chin strap were mint. Whoever it was issued it to had taken a local newspaper which headlined the strike, rolled it up and stuffed it inside the liner, a nice surprise!

 

Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/4/2021 at 7:47 PM, patches said:

Wow!

 

How bout liners and chin straps. are most present?

All had intact and nearly pristine oil cloth liners and leather chinstraps

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, LarryM3 said:

So glad I got one Scott. The liner and chin strap were mint. Whoever it was issued it to had taken a local newspaper which headlined the strike, rolled it up and stuffed it inside the liner, a nice surprise!

 

Larry

There were several like that Larry. I kept a helmet that had the badge and arm band with it along with a newspaper in it also. I wish I had kept that one but, other things came along that seemed to tickle my inner raccoon and it got sold to buy that newest sparkly one.

20181130_064948.jpg

20181130_065520.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting that some of them were overpainted red lines? What percentage would you say were like that Scott? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AustinO said:

Interesting that some of them were overpainted red lines? What percentage would you say were like that Scott? 

Probably 30 of them had the red rejection line and hole in the brim. I am guessing that these were given to the Kohler authorities from stockpiles which were intended for training, not combat. What is also interesting is that they were all painted blue, as you can see. Some dark blue, some medium blue and some bright blue, not sure why all the shades. But, I am pretty sure that the blue was used to signify that the National Guardsman were there as "special" police and not as U.S. soldiers against the people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Bugme said:

Probably 30 of them had the red rejection line and hole in the brim. I am guessing that these were given to the Kohler authorities from stockpiles which were intended for training, not combat. What is also interesting is that they were all painted blue, as you can see. Some dark blue, some medium blue and some bright blue, not sure why all the shades. But, I am pretty sure that the blue was used to signify that the National Guardsman were there as "special" police and not as U.S. soldiers against the people.

 

A weird mix for sure, with even some Brit Brodies in there too.  I would probably hypothesize that the differences in blue was due to the specific paint can - or who was actually painting them.  But probably the only way to dig into that would be based off of the sequential numbers painted on the rims (and that ship has sailed)! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AustinO said:

 

A weird mix for sure, with even some Brit Brodies in there too.  I would probably hypothesize that the differences in blue was due to the specific paint can - or who was actually painting them.  But probably the only way to dig into that would be based off of the sequential numbers painted on the rims (and that ship has sailed)! 

 

Yup, those ships are gone. But the numbers were weird. Anywhere from the 20's to 800 and missing large groups in between. I think I found maybe 6 that were sequential. Otherwise,  they were sporadic. God only knows where all the rest went.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Very nice! I loved the way you had them all stacked up. I have 140 of these helmets, and had them stacked similarly, however I have since moved mine to storage bins. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...