Community Corner
Local Historian Has Vast Collection of 'Little Toy Soldiers'
Robert Gennette has a very unique hobby of collecting toy soldiers and using them to creat historic reenactments.
Robert Gennette has a very unique hobby of collecting toy soldiers and using them to creat historic reenactments. Gennette is a professor of Stregety and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College and is considered a bibliophile and historian.Â
He has been collecting these miniatures for several years from all over the world. With the cooperation of his wife Judith, Gennette converted their pool room and pool table into a historian’s playground depicting battle scenes throughout history. Each soldier is made of metal and they are sized at approximately 1:30 scale, which is about the length of your thumb. They are hand painted and the details are remarkable. Many of them appear to be looking right at you and you could even tell that one soldier was yelling. Â
Gennette has done an amazing task of studying history and then re-creating it with these toy soldiers. Many of his props are made by him with the help of Michael’s, model train shops and rocks from his own back yard in Mt. Helix. You might even recognize a few historical figures such as George Washington crossing the Delaware, Napoleon, and General Patton.