There are some awesome collections out there. At the Jenks Aquarium, there is a whole section of the place that is a fishing tackle museum. I am pretty sure that the museum is made up of one or maybe two collections that have been donated. there is some amazing stuff there if you like to look at old stuff. The first trolling motor, first gas engine, that sort of stuff too. And every type of lure you can imagine and they're pretty much 99% in the original boxes.
My Uncle Bill was the forst person I knew that actually had a well stocked tackle box and good equipment. I remember him fishing with baitcasters that were like wenches and had thick green dacron line on them. And the lures he had were amazing. All kept in a big metal tacklebox. My cousin (his son) and I were not allowed to go near any of his stuff. We had a pretty poor track record for tearing stuff up I'll have to admit. But we lived in a fishing heaven. His parents had an old gas station/grocery store/house that was like a compound. They had a beauty shop in one outbuilding, an ice house, a lift and tool shed/garage, and a bait building that was a quonset hut made of wire that was covered in honeysuckle vine. Inside were two minnow vats and a fridge where the crawlers were stored. We fished across the highway in Morris Creek and many of our catches were kept alive for a number of days in one of the minnow vats that didn't he didn't have going with bait. We seined ponds for minnows with my Uncle Bill as he hated to pay the prices that the 'minnow man' charged.
anyway, sorry for the scattershooting, but thinking about that old tackle got me to reminiscing. I miss my Uncle Bill.

BKB