A Lifelong Pursuit of History: The Robert G. Paulsen Civil War Collection

Robert G. Paulsen (Rob or Bob to his friends) was born in Illinois in 1944 and from an early age was intrigued by the American Civil War. When he was 10 or 11 years old, he saw a Civil War musket in an antique shop and unsuccessfully begged his father to buy it for him. When a neighbor heard the story, he presented Rob with a beat-up old musket and thus began a lifelong fascination with all of the things related to the American Civil War.

Lot 2170 | Very Rare Suhl Contract US Model 1861 Rifle Musket by Christian Funk, American Civil War

His next acquisition was a US Model 1855 Rifle Musket that his grandmother gave to him for Christmas, and which he took to school to show to his eighth-grade history class. Albert (Bud) Lindert, a friend of Rob’s father, took the young collector under his wing and taught him a lot about Civil War weapons. Bud inspired Rob’s dream to own all of the US Model 1861 “Springfield” Contract Rifle Musket variants. Rob’s passion for the history and the items that were part of that history motivated him and his wife of 53 years Linda, to travel to a wide array of Civil War historical sites and battlefields, and of course to numerous Civil War relic shows. They were regular attendees at the Middle Tennessee Civil War Show held in Franklin, TN each December, always searching the tables for some new artifact to take home and add to the continually growing collection. At the show Rob was known to hand out “fun sized” candy to the dealers that were his friends and would often take their photos and include those snapshots in Christmas cards he would send to them later that month.

Bob retired from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2005 and in 2011 Rob and Linda relocated to the Atlanta area, which brought Rob closer to many of his favorite Civil War sites and museums. Over the years Rob regularly invited co-workers and neighbors to view his collection where he would share his passion for the material culture of the Civil War and teach them about model variations, cartouches and inspector marks. In particular he liked to show them his Model 1855 Joslyn “Monkey Tail” carbine, which was one of the acquisitions that he was proudest of. He hoped that by sharing his collection and knowledge with others he might inspire some, particularly younger people, to become collectors as well. Rob’s collection covered a wide array of Civil War items, primarily concentrating on the rifle musket variations and long arms used by the Union Infantry and Cavalry.

In addition to collecting rifles, muskets and carbines, he acquired accessories for those arms, including bayonets, tools and accoutrements. He also assembled a truly impressive collection of Civil War gun locks for rifles and muskets. Later in life his collecting interests expanded, and he added US martial handguns, Civil War artillery projectiles and edged weapons and even some arms from post-Civil War US conflicts to his collection. Even when Rob’s health prevented him from attending shows during his final years, he continued to collect passionately. He was still buying items online to add to his collection until just weeks before his passing.

We at Cowan’s are very proud to bring Rob’s collection to market. We know that he would be pleased to see these pieces being distributed to the collections of other collectors who have the same passion for American Civil War history that he did.