The 2016 summer meeting of the Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America (SPAAMFAA) was held in Middletown, New York, recently. SPAAMFAA exists “to serve as a place where people having an interest in antique fire apparatus can gather to share that interest and to further the preservation of antique fire apparatus,” according to its mission statement. Founded in 1958, it has steadily grown to become an organization of more than three thousand members from countries around the globe. As with every summer meeting, there were many rigs displayed by the various members in attendance, some noticeably “antique,” others much more modern in appearance. T
As we described in a recent blog post, this past spring the Fire Museum of Maryland received a significant donation from the McLaughlin Company Insurance Agency. In order to showcase this donation, we have been hard at work renovating one of our galleries. These changes will allow us to more adequately display some of the lithographs and fire-related toys that are part of this donation, and the renovation work also provides us with an opportunity to reinvigorate a space that had become outdated. Read on to find out a bit more about what goes in to creating a new exhibit…. Whenever we design a new exhibit, we pose several important questions to ourselves: What do we want the public to learn?
