Please forgive my ignorance ... I was going to power wash it to clean is up a little bit to see if there might be some words etched into the drum somewhere. Should I just leave it as it until I find out more about it? I’m pretty sure it’s from the 1920 - 1930 time period - if it’s authentic, that is.
Once it's validity is established, the museum will take it off your hands, and then a professional restoration expert can clean it up. Any amateur attempts at "cleaning it up" might reduce its value! Put it in a safe dry place!
Good luck.
NOooooooooo don’t power wash or scrape at all !
BTTT
Let us know what you discover about its history if ya have time an more info.
I’d keep it dry and find an expert ... it seems to be OK where it has been stored to have deteriorated that slowly .. you could put it in a giant plastic bag with some dessicant but that’s the farthest I’d go...
NEVER CLEAN AN ANTIQUE!
At least not one you just found. You don’t know how much of the value you could be removing along with the dirt. For example, I have an old Remington rifle with most of the blueing gone. I could have it stripped and re-blued, but that would destroy the collector’s value.