South Coast Antiques & Gallery visits The GI Museum in Gautier, MS

 

Doug Mansfield
Owner & Operator of
The GI Museum

Today we went to the The GI Museum located at 5796 Ritcher Road in Gautier, MS. We were very fortunate to have Doug Mansfield the owner & operator to give us a personal tour of the museum today. This wonderful Museum aims to preserve memorabilia representing the generations of Americans who have served our country so that we can remain free today.  The museum does this through many thoughtfully and carefully arranged displays and by means of a number of educational programs. This collection has items from WWI all the way through the current era. The museums goal is to make sure we never forget the sacrifices that the men and woman of our country have made as civilians and military during war time service.

Very rare combat photographer's field kit WWII era

This is not simply an arry of militay equipment, but a exhibition of the everyday things that were used by the the average military member and supporting civilians. They feature a lot of items that were extremely common when new 70 years ago, but have become quite rare over the years. I was thrilled to see a package of Wings brand cigarettes! We saw a WWII era Russian Maxim machine gun. They have some rare Flying Tigers memorabilia. And to top it all off, Mister Mansfield had so much great information to share. It was a truly enjoyable and educational experiance! I know that The GI Museum will be a repeat destination for us in the future!

Field radio set up with military bugle and issued phonograph WWII era

The GI Museum also sponsars the WKFK TV show Local Heroes. On this locally televised show Doug Mansfield interviews military veterns about their military experiances
 

For further information check out The GI Museum

Russian Maxim Gun WWII era

Various WWII era Marine personal affects

Assorted WWII era Men's and Women's Uniforms

WWII civilian war effort, related items

Flying Tigers memorabilia

WWI era uniforms

Every day personnal items that would have been

used by WWII military personnel

Meissen Putto Figurine Stolen from South Coast Antiques, Ocean Springs, MS

Today when I went into the shop I had a surprise waiting for me. I was opening up and I noticed a small aesthetic movement bowl that I had sitting out on a counter toward the back of the shop was missing. I called my business partner  and asked him if he had moved it somewhere and he said that he had not. He said that he would be in straight away. I looked around the shop to see if some one had maybe picked it up and sit it some where else in the shop. I was absolutely stunned to find out that the person that apparently took the dish had also opened one of our cases that was not locked and taken my little Meissen Putto making chocolate figurine. I have had this little Meissen treasure for a number of years now and it was one of my all time favorite figurines. I have frequently used it as a teaching aid to show people what a high quality porcelain figurine is supposed to look like. Every so often someone will bring in some type of imitation figurine stating that their grand mother received it from their grand mother and that it is Meissen. I was able to show them this piece and they could easily see what I was talking about. I just can not imagine what kind of person would do such a thing. I could go into a rant and rave session at this point, but there is no real reason to do so. It is gone and I will never see it again. If by any chance anyone out there looking at this blog knows its whereabouts please contact us.