History being destroyed

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

Interestingly, back in the 80s the Smithsonian did cut up some pieces and sell them in displays at their gift shops. My dad purchased one that supposedly was the piece of an airplane that Amelia Earhart piloted.

Yes, that's how they funded some of the restorations. When original fabric was removed from a cloth covered plane they made small pieces from the better looking areas and framed them with a picture. Big sectons of the original cloth were retained as reference materials.

Their restorations are incredibly detailed. The airplane cloth had to be specially made for each plane, matching fiber type,thread size, threads/inch and weaveing pattern. The same detail went onto all the rest as well. Perfect, but very expensive.

The US Constitution had done the same at times. Rotted wood that gets replaced is sometimes sold. But then, there's very little original ship left.
I did a job there once and they had two masts laying on the dock. When I asked about them they said they were mistakes, new replacement masts that had been made a few feet too short.

Chopping up bats is a bit different.

Steve B