The year 2022 marks the 25th anniversary year of my firm, Peachstate Historical Consulting, Inc.

 

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With the approach of Peachstate's "Silver Anniversary", this website is now a retrospective of achievements spanning the last quarter-century via press releases. Simply click on each press release window below, and you will be connected to its full story page.

 

 

Many friends, clientele, and associates have asked that I share some personal feelings and recollections at this "Silver Anniversary". Well, simply put, I have been an accidental tourist on a quarter-century journey essentially unprecedented for a single individual in human history.

 

 

That, in one moment, might place me in a 17th century London print shop watching Shakespeare folios being printed. And, in the next, at the "Little White House Historic Site" in Warm Springs, Georgia. As I reunite Madame Elizabeth Shoumatoff's original studies of "The Unfinished Portrait" with the actual "Unfinished Portrait", for the first time since being painted there together in April, 1945. 

 

 

Or perhaps set me on the Moon, and in the footprints of the first humans to ever stand upon and explore another world.  Inconceivable to essentially every human being who has ever lived. Yet it does seem that I was bestowed with a rather unique distinction in all of human history.

 

 

 

 

The distinction of having personally evaluated, cataloged, and appraised more Apollo artifacts ever returned from the Moon to date than apparently anyone else in history!

 

 

 

 

Thousands of artifacts, from complete lunar checklists (appraised page by page) hand-annotated on the moon to lunar maps, used aboard the first "rovers" ever driven there. Metal "core tube sockets" literally hammered into the moon's surface to draw forth lunar "soil".  "Moon rock manifests", hand-annotated on the moon with the weights of rocks picked-up after each moonwalk. Lunar "Direct Ascent Charts" used to plot in real time liftoff from the lunar surface, and return to lunar orbit.

 

 

Or how about "Lunar Bibles", "Lunar Communion Chalice Bags", "Lunar Backpack Straps", "Lunar Checklist Bags", or "Lunar Over-Gloves" stained black with lunar dust. Lunar spacesuit mission patches likewise stained in lunar dust. Like photography? Then how about "Lunar Module Mauer Sequence Cameras"? Like video games? Then how about a few "Lunar Module Hand Controllers" used to fly (and land) the lunar modules on the moon. The ultimate "joy stick"!

 

 

Or perhaps unused "Lunar Module Food Packets" returned from the lunar surface are more to your taste! Along, of course, with a "Lunar Module Water Gun" to rehydrate them. And where would we be without "Lunar Module Sunglasses" for those sunny days on the moon!

 

 

Launch noise from a Saturn V bothering you? Then how about a pair of "Launch Earplugs" to wear under your helmet. And never ride a Saturn V without a pair of "Boot Stirrups"! Can't sleep in the Command Module on your way to the Moon. Then try some "Command Module Sleeping Goggles". Need to relieve yourself while walking on the moon? Well, then, how about the "Lunar Jock Strap" worn by the last man on the moon, appropriately covered in lunar dust.

 

 

Are you a golf nut? Great, then you may appreciate that I appraised the "Lunar Six Iron" used by Alan Shepard to golf on the moon for the "USGA Museum"! And then reunited it for the first time with Shepard's lunar "Golf Caddy",

Dr. Edgar Mitchell, at the "Cosmosphere" in Kansas.

 

 

And as one who, along with the rest of mankind, once gazed at an untouchable moon, I have literally had my fingers covered for days in its abrasive lunar dust. And know quite well its burned smell that is perhaps the true smell of creation. Gunpowder! So much, then, for the "untouchable" moon! The day that I first literally touched it was the day that all things became possible for me!

 

 

Now let me show you how through the power of imagination all things did become possible for me!

 

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Do you want to graduate from U.S. Air Force Officer Training School in the top 10% of your class?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to solo a Cessna at age 17, and then fly yourself through the sound barrier in an Air Force jet at age 22?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to help build a world-class rare book collection at a major university?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to ability to make a few calls, and then get a million dollars in flown lunar artifacts personally donated to that university by the very men who returned them from the moon?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to receive an honorary degree alongside the tenth man to walk on the moon?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to become a Freemason, and have your Masonic petition signed by the sixth man to walk on the moon? And then work on the most intimate terms with Masonic Grand Masters?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to view the moon in the night sky literally standing alongside men who walked on it?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to literally look over the shoulder of the first artist who ever walked on the moon, and watch him paint his recollections of it in his home studio?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to discover the lost "Apollo 1" archive of documents that got man to the moon sitting in a basement? And then arrange for its donation to the American people, but only after you first personally study, spreadsheet, and finally appraise over a thousand pages in that archive?

 

 

Then imagine it!

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Do you want to personally appraise the original Mercury flight logs of Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom (filled-out by each after their flights) for the Kennedy Space Center?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to be the first of your generation to discover and then document the first Bibles (and books) to ever land on another celestial world? And then write the first book telling that story?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to help pioneer and evolve an entirely new field of collecting into an industry? And transform the contents of cardboard boxes in astronaut's basements into tens of millions of dollars?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to then help save that industry decades later by uniting the pioneer astronaut core, and help make their case leading to unique federal legislation reaffirming title to their flown artifacts?    

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

And then watch the value of collector's holdings skyrocket to the present day thanks to your efforts? 

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to take an imperfect 1632 "Second Folio of Shakespeare", and from it create the world's first Shakespeare edition comprising the greatest Shakespearean quotations on original folio pages?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you then want to go on "National Public Radio" to publicize it, and use your edition to create a unique fundraiser that quickly raises over $50,000.00 for the "Atlanta Shakespeare Company"?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to then use extra 1632 folio leaves from that same folio to create the first "17th Century Folio Lending Library" in the world at their new "Shakespeare Academy"?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to see Shakespeare performed by actors on stage while reading from your original 17th century folio material, and likely for the first time in the history of theater thanks to your own edition?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want the opportunity to casually invite the public over to your home to examine multiple original Gutenberg Bible leaves at a surreal "Show and Tell"?

 

 

Then imagine it!

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Do you want to buy Madame Shoumatoff's three original studies painted with FDR at Warm Springs in 1945, and from which sprang the "Unfinished Portrait" on April 12th that he died while sitting for?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to then reunite your "Unfinished Portrait" studies with the "Unfinished Portrait" itself at the "Little White House", during the 75th anniversary year of when they were painted there together?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to personally redesign the exhibition room at the "Little White House", and then put your Shoumatoff paintings on long-term loan there where they are seen by 100,000 people annually?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

Do you want to re-frame the "Unfinished Portrait" itself using modern conservation techniques? And then view what may be Man's most tragic work of art naked before you as few people ever will?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

And, finally, do you want to personally evaluate, catalog, and appraise more Apollo artifacts returned from the moon than anyone else in history for the astronauts, their families, and the government?

 

 

Then imagine it!

 

 

 

 

 

My friends, this is only a small glimpse of what I have been up to during the last quarter-century! And, I would add, an illustration of what the power of imagination has done for me and can do for you!

 

 

I am often asked when I will "write my first book", and my answer to all interested parties is "Never".

 

 

I believe that the confidences I was entrusted with don't come with expiration dates! I traveled through the "Rabbit Hole" at the highest levels because it was known I could do so, and then lose my tongue.

 

 

This said, my biggest fear is that one day I will awaken, and realize that this was all only an illusion wrapped within a dream. And that, for the last 25 years, I was in a "Matrix" of my own making.

 

 

If that is so, then I can only say that I have lived the most beautiful of all illusions! And will always be profoundly grateful to everyone who made this unprecedented journey possible for me!

 

 

To conclude, let me say this.

 

 

Shoot for the stars and you might get the moon. I did. Literally. Now set your imagination free, and tell me what you will do tomorrow?

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Ad Astra!