So I discovered a section of the Metropolitan Museum's website that includes more arms and armor pictures than their arms and armor gallery, it seems. In addition, it includes a couple of basic but useful essays - prime stuff to redirect newcomers to to dispel some of the basic myths and set the stage to learn about historic arms and armor. Especially this FAQ on common misconceptions:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aams/hd_aams.htm

If there was ever an appeal to authority that total strangers to the field could recognize and likely respect, I'd imagine this would be an excellent one.

-GLL

Very nice! Thanks Gabriel for posting that one.

Cheers,

Gordon

Yeah, that's a good link. Thanks, Gabriel!