Armed & Dangerous

Ever since studying medieval history in the fifth grade, I’ve been fascinated with the concept of catapults. On the playground, we’d launch each other from the seesaw until a teacher, horrified at our tiny bodies soaring through the air, would put an end to the stunt. We weren’t trying to hurt anyone, of course; we felt invincible.

 

While colossal deadly slingshots are nowhere to be found at the Berkshire Museum’s new exhibit Armed & Dangerous: Art of the Arsenal (on view through June 6), there are a number of other fascinating implements that were once used to inflict serious damage.

 

I stopped by for a tour—and ended up walking through the evolution of weaponry. From war clubs (glorified sticks, straight out of the caveman era, left) to mace to swords to early firearms, the artifacts display a veritable progression of innovation. A wall of horned animal skulls in the first gallery underscores the fact: man borrowed from animals in crafting their tools of intimidation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the exhibit was culled from the museum’s permanent collection, as an intern with a penchant for the macabre kept uncovering blades and bludgeoning devices in the depths of storage last summer. Supplemental items—like some Japanese relics, including traditional battle garb from the Edo era and a ten-foot long red Samurai sword that must weigh upward of seventy pounds—are on loan from the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Mass.

 

 

A case lined with early muskets and revolvers prefaces the modern portion of the exhibit, which features a fascinating series of body-art-meets-background-art photography installations by Aussie Emma Hack; cheeky yet historically accurate cat helmets and mouse suits of armor; and an entire room of vintage posters spanning both World Wars and in-your-face advertisements addressing our predicament overseas today.

 

 

Kids—well, most people who like fighting stuff, but kids especially—will enjoy the exhibit’s interactive stations, at which visitors can test replicas of battle helmets or don a poncho and “disappear” in front of a camouflage wall.

 

And though all of the other stuff sounds like a parent’s worst nightmare, rest assured: everything that could potentially cause harm is tucked safely under glass.