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Personal Property and Peace of Mind

In 2014, Consumer Reports published a handy flow chart outlining the process of dealing with personal property, or what they called “stuff.” And at the very top, directly beneath the first item, what do we find? “Get an appraisal.” Seems…
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Comet Hunter David Levy’s Observing Logs at the Linda Hall Library

After finishing an appraisal inspection in midtown Kansas City a last month, I stopped by the Linda Hall Library of Science and Engineering on the UMKC campus. Opened in 1946, the library is privately funded and is “the world’s foremost…
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The German Military Connections of Rudolf the Victorious in H.G. Wells’s “Things to Come”

In the mid 1930’s, noted writer, historian, and social commentator H.G. Wells, among the world’s most famous men of letters of the day, teamed up with producer Alexander Korda and director William Cameron Menzies to produce what would become the…
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Mystery Soviet Headgear from the Ethio-Somali War, 1977-1978?

My late father collected international police and law enforcement related headgear, and by the time of his death in April 2015, had amassed a respectable collection. His most exotic examples were a Baden Police spike helmet (circa 1900), a plumed…
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