Historiography
The subject I have chosen for my topic is one which is hard to pinpoint exactly when it started to be studied. Weapons and armor has always been a staple of museums everywhere. The collection of Lorenzo de’ Medici n 15th century Florence was the first time the word museum was used to describe a private collection but true museums as people today would understand them did not appear for another few hundred years. The first modern museum was the collection of John Tradescant, which was transferred to the University of Oxford in 1675 where a special building was constructed to house the collection. Museums as an institution appeared in the 18th century and weapons and armor have always been a part of their collections. Curators have always implemented exhibits to show weapons and armor from ages long gone. The revival of archaeology in the 19th century and early 20th century, especially in Egypt, gained museums new attractions. Some of these included a few surviving weapons and armor (although few were in good condition).
The modern communities surrounding weapons and armor have grown significantly over the last few years and are quickly continuing to grow. There is even a meme which is exclusive to this community which has gained enough traction to have appeared in a few video games as a nod to the community. This resulted from a mistranslation which meant to say “end them swiftly” but instead read as “end them rightly” which made people laugh. The HEMA community is one of the largest communities dedicated to studying historical weapons and armor, but also the European martial arts which were used at the time.