Chapter I

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 18-19
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 19

Colt Revolver with Damascene Embellishments, Inspired by Eusebio Zuloaga, Master of Cold Damascene and Inlay

The deluxe arms of Eusebio Zuloaga, Spanish artisan and specialist in sculpted steel, as well as gold inlaying and gold damascening, were displayed prominently at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Although Samuel Colt showed engraved firearms at that international event, none was as deluxe as those shown by such masters as Zuloaga.

Colt’s inspiration to prepare much more elaborately decorated arms than he exhibited in London, 1851, is believed to have led to his hiring artist-engravers the likes of Gustave Young, to create a collection of superb Colts, enriched with gold and highly detailed engravings.

Indeed, both Gustave Young and Eusebio Zuloaga attended the Great Exhibition. Undoubtedly Colt met both master artisans at that time.

A listing of the firearms makers at the Exhibition presents Samuel Colt and Eusebio Zuloaga on the same page.

Listing of Firearms Makers

The impact of Colt’s displays and his presence at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was enormous. It cannot be doubted that Colt and Eusebio Zuloaga became acquainted during that landmark event, of unique significance in the history of manufacturing, art, decorative arts, culture, international trade and so much more. Colt is likely to have visited each gunmaker at the exhibition, as is likely the case with Eusebio Zuloaga.

Colt Third Model Dragoon revolver No. 529, made in London of parts built and fitted in Hartford, and with special features such as “in the white” and the cylinder without roll engraved scene, was given over to a master of damascene embellishments, as yet unidentified. Superbly embellished, No. 529 would have been for Samuel Colt’s own used as a sample and exhibition piece. Date of its production is c. 1853. Extensive data on this collaboration is presented in a detailed letter by coauthor R.L. Wilson.

Also of importance in establishing this revolver’s history is the richly illustrated and detailed work of reference, published as the result of a major Zuloaga exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, England; 1997): The Art and Tradition of the Zuloagas: Spanish Damascene from the Khalili Collection.

The Art and Tradition of the Zuloagas

J.M. Ney & Co., Suppliers of Gold to the Colt Factory

Link to data on J.M. Ney & Co., suppliers of gold, known to have dealt with the Colt company, one evidence of which is on page 220 of The Colt Engraving Book, vol. I. An additional cite from the Colt Engraving book (1992), page 140, is an invoice to the Colt Co., from Ney, of 1866: “Paul A. Lemire, Educational Director, Dental Sales Division, advised the author that the 1866 billing remains the earliest recorded invoice by Ney, and Colt’s purchase was indeed for the inlaying of deluxe firearms.”

In the Ellsworth Grant book, The J.M. Ney Company, 1812-1987, he mentions the Colt Company, accessible via the following link.

J.M. Ney Company

The following link gives information on the company known today as Deringer-Ney.

Deringer-Ney

The historic firm became J.M. Ney Co. in 1866. Prior to 1866 the firm was called Ashmead & Hurlbut. The business may have been started by Marcus Bull (1812) but was taken over by William Johnson, then James Ashmead succeeded him. It is presently unknown to the authors whether any records exist of Ashmead & Hurlbut doing business with Samuel Colt or the Colt company.

Ashmead & Hurlbut (partnered 1846) were located at 3 Gold Street in Hartford, approximately one block from Pearl Street, and a short distance from Colt’s Grove Street factory.

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 20-21
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 20

Colonel Colt visiting Turkey, and Meeting the “Sultan”

For a specific reference to Colonel Samuel Colt having visited Turkey, and having met the Sultan, see the Baltimore Sun (Maryland), January 21st 1850, volume XXVI, issue no. 54, page one. Quoting excerpts from the article:

“The English and French fleets still remain at anchor, the former at Beshica Bay, (at the mouth of the Dardanells,) and the latter at Ourlao. The Egyptian fleet is cruising between the Islands of Samos and Rhodes. The Russian government continues its warlike armament at Sovastopol, and is still levying recruits in the interior of South Russia.

“The Turkish fleet will not enter into the harbor this winter, but will occupy its summer position in the Bosphorus, extending itself between Seraglio Point and the Sultan’s new palace of Charagan.

“The newly appointed Minister, Mr. Marsh, had not yet reached his post, but was daily expected.

“Mr. Samuel Colt, the inventor of revolving pistols, & c., was there [Charagan palace]. He had been presented to his Highness the Sultan, Abd-du-Mejid, and the members of the Court, by all of whom he had received a most flattering reception.”

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 22-23
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 22

The Paris Exhibition, 1855 and Colonel Colt

Link via Google Books to The Exhibition in Paris, 1855, where Samuel Colt received a silver medal, for “revolvers.” Cited in The Plough The Loom and The Anvil. Farmer and Mechanic, Volume VIII, published in New York City, 1856 (page 414).

The Plough, The Loom and the Anvil. Farmer and Mechanic

Life’s Eliot Elisofon Photographs of Colt Firearms at
“Samuel Colt Presents” Exhibition, 1961

Link to the Life magazine photography site, which includes most of the images in color by Eliot Elisofon, for the article “Colt Pistols,” in that publication’s issue of March 4, 1962. These photographs (4×5 color transparencies) were taken at the Wadsworth Atheneum by Elisofon, who was a friend of the Atheneum’s director, Charles C. Cunningham. An additional image was made, showing the Abraham Lincoln presidential diplomatic gifts of Model 1860 Army gold-inlaid revolvers, to King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway, and King Frederick VII of Denmark. The revolvers were arranged as pairs, without their respective cases, with Abraham Lincoln’s portrait photograph serving as the background.

Life Magazine Colt Pistols

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 26-27
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 27

Wood Engraving of Thomas Henry Seymour’s Funeral

Link to the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic, illustrating wood engraving of Thomas Henry Seymour’s funeral, Hartford, September 7th 1868. Print from The Connecticut Historical Society collections.

Wood Engraving

Sydenham Crystal Palace

Background information on the Sydenham Crystal Palace exhibition of 1853, enhanced by another link, which presents impressive images of displays. The following link is from Wikipedia.

Crystal Palace on Wikipedia

The Rebuilding at Sydenham, 1852-1854

Information Regarding the Rebuilding at Sydenham

Views of the Interiors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace

There are, on various sections of this website link, dozens of views of the interiors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace, of 1853, in London. None of those images seem to document any industrial objects, all images seem to suggest that the Sydenham Palace concentrated on art and architecture. Egyptology and so forth.

Views of Interiors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 28-29
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 28

Dispute Between Colonel Colt and Russia

From The Pittsfield Sun, October 22nd 1857, volume LVIII, issue no. 2979, page 1, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the following article in regard to a dispute between Colonel Colt and the government of Russia:

“[pointing hand motif] The arbitration between the Emperor of Russia and Col. Samuel Colt has been decided against the latter, for the want, it is said, of some proof not to be had on this side of the water. The contract was to furnish Minie Rifles at certain points in Russia, during the Crimean war, which was not completed, as the Colonel says, for the want of no effort of his. As the referees were all Yankees, the Emperor will no doubt be satisfied that justice has been done in the premises.
–Boston Post.”

Colonel Colt and Associations with Russia

Links via Google Books which list intriguing references on Samuel Colt and his association with Russia, including sales of firearms. Among the references, in the volume Guide to Materials for American History in Russian Archives, by Frank Alfred Golder, et. al.:  “May 3/15. No. 113. Colt is sending revolvers to Russia and has hidden them in bales of cotton. 3 pp.”:

Google Book with References to Samuel Colt

Google Book with References to Samuel Colt

Souvenirs of Colonel Colt’s Visits to Russia

Souvenirs of Colonel Colt’s excursions to Russia, the following article is quoted from the New Hampshire Sentinel, published as the New-Hampshire Sentinel, August 31st 1855; vol. LVII, issue no. 35, page 1, Keene, New Hampshire:

“A RUSSIAN GIFT. – Ward, the jeweler, has subject to the inspection of the curious, two of the most magnificent rings we have ever seen. The rings were presented by the Emperor and Empress of Russia, to Col. Samuel Colt, of this city. One of the rings contains diamonds worth $3,000-each contains the ciphers of the imperial personages Alexander and his wife, set with very minute diamonds in enamel. The shank of one of the rings glitter with numerous petite diamonds, and the whole affair makes a gift worthy of one emperor to another chip of the same block.
—Hartford Courant.”

One of these rings is pictured on page 116 of Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt A Memorial. To quote from the description on that page:

“One of the rings was the munificence of the Russian Grand Duke Alexander, in 1854. In the centre, on a dark-blue ground-work, is his imperial cipher surmounted by the crown, both in tiny diamonds, the whole surrounded by six brilliants of goodly size and the first water, while a fluted band of plain gold finishes the circlet.”

Colt Company Employee with Gold-Inlaid Dragoon Revolver

From the Corbis collection of images, this link includes a photograph of a Colt employee holding serial no. 15821/. Third Model Dragoon, richly gold-inlaid, and posing with the carved walnut rampant colt finial from the deluxe case made for exhibition purposes by the Colt company, in the 19th century.

Corbis Collection of Images

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 30-31
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 30

Gift by President Abraham Lincoln to King Frederick VII of Denmark

A reference to the presentation gold-inlaid and silver-mounted Model 1860 revolvers presented by President Abraham Lincoln to King Frederick VII of Denmark is in the following link to the Sturgis Library website, Barnstable, Massachusetts. The article is listed in the “News Summary” for October 28th 1862, and can be accessed by entering the keywords “gold-inlaid.”

To quote:

“President Lincoln has on his own private account recently presented to the King of Denmark a pair [of] Colt’s revolvers, covered with gold-inlaid in beautiful arabesque.”

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 34-35
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 34

Elisha K. Root, Forging and the ‘American System’

A search through Google Docs, and JSTOR (a paid library service), and via the Johns Hopkins University Press “SHOT” site, will provide the important scholarly article by Paul Uselding, from Technology and Culture, volume 15, no. 4 (October 1974), pp. 543-568, “Elisha K. Root, Forging, and the ‘American System.'”

Link to Article

CHAPTER 1 PAGE 42-43
CHAPTER 1 PAGE 42

Inventor “Carbine” Williams with Colt’s President

These links show the famed inventor “Carbine” Williams with Colt President B. Franklin Conner, firing Colt arms then in the company’s collection. Note that the revolver held by Conner is a Texas Paterson, undoubtedly serial no. 64.

Showing Colt Arms From the Company’s Collection

Showing Colt Arms From the Company’s Collection

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 52-53
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 53

On the Application of Machinery to the Manufacture of Rotating Chambered-Breech Fire-Arms and their Peculiarities

Two links via Google Books to publication of Samuel Colt’s “On the Application of Machinery to the Manufacture of Rotating Chambered-Breech Fire-Arms and Their Peculiarities,” third edition, 1855 (London, printed by William Clowes and Sons; copyright, the Institution of Civil Engineers):

The first of these links is in English, the second (and more detailed, with important appendix), in French (date of publication, 1854):

Google Book on Article in English

Google Book on Article in French

The illustrations for the English edition on page 55 provided through courtesy of Douglas Donnelly, president and founder, U.S. Firearms Company, Hartford.

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 54-55
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 54

Facade of  Wm. H. Horstmann & Sons

Link to ImPAC, The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, through which access can be made to a richly detailed lithograph by John Taylor French, 1822-1852, of the facade of Wm. H. Horstmann & Sons, 51, North Third Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. August 1846.  The firm was at this rather elegant location from 1830 to 1857. Visit the link below and enter the search terms “Wm. H. Horstmann & Sons and press the search button.

ImPac

Image of the John Krider Gun Shop

Link to ImPAC, The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, through which access can be made to an image of the John Krider gun shop, one of the distributors and dealers of Colt firearms. Although the date of the photograph is c. 1871, the firm was in business well before the Colt Paterson period, advertising as established 1836.

Once you have accessed ImPAC, The Library Company of Philadelphia, with the following link, then enter “John Krider” to locate the shop photographs.

ImPac

Frederick Hanson, “Paterson’s Old Gunsmith”

Link via rootsweb.com and ancestry.com/community, to article on Frederick Hanson, “Paterson’s Old Gunsmith” from the Passaic City Herald, New Jersey, May 10th 1888. The article specifically refers to Hanson’s working for Samuel Colt, in the Paterson period.

Article on Frederick Hanson

Frederick Hanson and his Association with Samuel Colt

Link via Google Books to the History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, New Jersey, with reference to Frederick Hanson and his association with Samuel Colt, and the Patent Arms Mfg. Co., Paterson.

Google Book

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 64-65
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 64

Review of the John C. Colt Trial

Approximately 85-page detailed review, and quotations of some of the testimony, to the John C. Colt Trial, from Remarkable Trials of All Countries Particularly of the United States, Great Britain, Ireland and France: with Notes and Speeches of Counsel Containing Thrilling Narratives of Fact from the Court Room, Also Historical Reminiscences of Wonderful Events. Compiled by Thomas Dunphy and Thomas J. Cummins, New York, 1870. Testimony of Samuel Colt and “Dr. Zabrisky,” formerly manager of the Patent Arms Mfg. Co., store, Broadway, New York, both presented.

Google Book on John C. Colt Trial

Samuel Colt’s Testimony

Article on Samuel Colt’s Testimony in the 1842 Trial Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume 13, issue 78 (November 1856), “Editor’s Drawer” with article on Samuel Colt’s testimony in the 1842 trial, page 859.

Article on Samuel Colt’s Testimony

Period Drawings on the Trial of John Caldwell Colt

Link with period drawings pertaining to the trial of John Caldwell Colt, from the American Antiquarian Society, Massachusetts:

Period Drawings

John Caldwell Colt, Convicted Murder: A Cartoon Image

Links via the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, to a cartoon image of convicted murderer John Caldwell Colt, incarcerated at The Tombs. Note reference to William H. Seward, who had been a recipient of a cased pair of Holster or Texas Paterson revolvers (serial nos. 934 and 957), as pictured in Samuel Colt Presents, page 17, and presented in several other texts. The revolvers are in the Colt Collection, of the Raymond Baldwin Museum of History, Hartford.

Cartoon Image of Convicted Murderer John Caldwell Colt

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 70-71
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 71

Pre-Paterson Colt Prototypes
Engraver John Medairy and Gunmaker John Pearson

Link via Google to rare reference via “America’s Historical Newspapers” in the Baltimore Patriot, July 8th 1834, volume XLIII, issue no. 6, page 3, referencing John Medairy, engraver, known to have worked with gunmaker John Pearson, in building prototypes of the Colt revolver, for Samuel Colt.

America’s Historical Newspapers

The advertisement reads as follows:

THE FUNERAL PROCESSION. – Suitable Badges for the funeral procession of Gen LAFAYETTE, may be had on application to Mr. Medairy, Engraver, North Calvert street, basement story of the Farmers’ & Merchants’ Bank. Jy7 d3t*

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 74-75
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 75

155 Broadway, New York City
Address for Patent Arms Mfg. Co. Agency

Link revealing a period image of New York City’s Broadway, including no. 155, site of the Patent Arms Mfg. Co. showroom. The building is the third panel down from the top, right from the corner between Liberty and Cortlandt. The building is of a yellowish color. No. 155 is the left side of the yellow building, as that structure used three addresses.

Period Image of New York City’s Broadway

Extensive Article on Colt’s Patent Arms Manufacturing Co. Revolvers

Extensive article on the Colt’s patent, Patent Arms Manufacturing Co., revolvers, in Spirit of the Times, New York, July 7, 1838. Headlined “Colt’s Repeating Fire-Arms,” the three-column piece presented a history of Colt’s invention. The history, however, did not mention the idea coming to him while a young seaman. Instead the Spirit of the Times reported:

Very few mechanical improvements within [sic.] the last few years, have excited a greater degree of interest than the patent Fire-arms of Mr. COLT, and still fewer are there, likely to be productive of results so important. As some history of the original invention, and the progressive improvement made upon it, will be new to many of our readers, and interesting to all, we have no hesitancy in devoting to it all the space at our command. The annexed extract is from a communication in the “Journal of the American Institute:”-

The thought of the repeating arms originated with a citizen of Connecticut, Samuel Colt; at the time of its first dawning upon him, a mere boy; for even now, he is not over four-and-twenty. Dr. Johnson says, “genius is the accidental direction of all the faculties of the mind to one point;” and it has also been observed, that “genius is a great aptitude to patience.” We shall see presently, how both these definitions have been realized in the history of Mr. Colt and his invention.

Mr. Colt happened to be near the scene of a sanguinary insurrection of negro slaves, in the southern district of Virginia. He was startled to think against what fearful odds the white planter must ever contend, thus surrounded by a swarming population of slaves. What defence could there be in one shot, when opposed to multitudes, even though multitudes of the unarmed! The master and his family were certain to be massacred. Was there no way, thought Mr. Colt, of enabling the planter to repose in peace! No longer to feel that to be attacked, was to be at once and inevitably destroyed! That no resistance could avail, were the negroes once spirited up to revolt! As yet he knew little of mechanics; in firearms, he was aware of nothing more efficient than the ordinary double barreled pistol and fowling-piece. But even loading and re-loading these, involved a most perilous loss of time. Could no mode be hit upon of obviating the danger of such delay!

The boy’s ingenuity was from that moment on the alert. He felt sure that this great object could in some way be gained, but in what way! He thought he himself might gain it, but he knew he should be laughed at as presumptuous and visionary, were he to whisper his hopes. He meditated in secret; and after repeated trials, he effected a movement of six distinct barrels on an arbor running through their centre, in such a manner that by every operation of cocking the lock, a loaded barrel would be brought to a line with the hammer, and there held firmly until discharged.

Here was a most exciting triumph. Young Colt, at the first experiment, imagined he had reached the goal. But presently he found that the weapon was complex, and would be cumbersome. He was determined not to make the scheme known, until he could bring it into a form more simple, and more manageable. Plan upon plan hurried his fancy onward, until it was wearied with the rapid variety of its own conceptions. But the delight of invention, so fascinating to the projector, at length gave way to the soberness of calculation. Mr. Colt saw numberless and startling instances in which the genius for mechanical improvements had become the ruin of its possessor. He determined no longer to give way to his own day-dreams, by which he had been already so fruitlessly beguiled. He would not even permit himself to hear a new invention of any description spoken of.

While in this state of mind, he had occasion to travel through a part of the country in which the protection of firearms was indispensable. He had no weapon but his own six barrel pistol. On one occasion this did him such valuable service, that his mind again involuntarily reverted to its earliest ambition. He suddenly asked himself, “Why may there not as well be only one barrel and one lock, and between them a rotary receiver for the charges! Could this point be gained, the weapon would be compact and light enough. It would be scarcely heavier than an ordinary single one. Then would there remain nothing to be desired.”

Continuing the narrative, part of the history made detailed reference to Colt’s secrecy with his invention:

He plodded on unremittingly till he affected his object. No person was intrusted [sic.] with his secret. His first rude efforts, especially at the time when he had intended to abandon the undertaking, had leaked out; and other persons had wrought upon the hint, and with feeble and unavailable imitations, had puffed themselves into notice.

But Mr. Colt felt satisfied that the imperfectness of the copy would prevent its doing him any ultimate injury; and he was resolved to profit by experience, and keep his final improvements to himself, until his right to the entire discovery should be secured to him by patent abroad, as well as at home. He did not even disclose his patent to his own father, till he had laid his plan to depart. He went to Europe. He became favorably known at all the patent offices, and placed his interest beyond dispute, under the protection of the laws of the various countries which he visited.

Back to explaining the development of the revolver, Spirit of the Times described Colt’s turning to private investor’s to create a company, and establish a factory:

Aware of the difficulty of bringing our government to entertain the idea of any change in the implements of warfare, unless spurred on by the necessities of actual service, Mr. Colt resolved to look exclusively to the spirit of private enterprise for giving efficacy to his invention. He obtained a charter from the legislature of New Jersey, for a Patent Arms Manufacturing Company, with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars. The stock has been taken by several of our wealthiest citizens. An armory is already built at Paterson, N.J. When all its arrangements are complete, this armory will employ five hundred artisans. Upwards of one hundred are now constantly at work there, not only during the entire day, but even through a portion of the night.

Displays of samples at the American Institute, New York City, were noted as the text continued:

At the recent fair of the American Institute, specimens of these ingenious weapons were exhibited in public for the first time. They attracted universal admiration. A committee of learned and practical mechanics pronounced upon their merits. After the most rigid scrutiny, they were accorded the highest and unqualified praise. The inventor was elected a member of the Institute. He was also presented with the greatest distinction in the power of the Institute to bestow, a golden medal.

The article then describes the Paterson Colt, identifies parts, and explains the function. Although two revolvers are pictured, with early features such as the squareback configuration to the cylinders, the repeating rifle (known to collectors as the Ring Lever) is also noted, with standard barrel of 32-inches, “the standard length adopted by the British Government, after repeated experiments and long experience.”

An indication that production then was concentrating on the medium or No. 2 and No. 3 size revolvers, was the statement: “The longest Pistol barrels are six inches, the shortest four.”

Suggesting that at that stage, all the production was put up in cases was the statement: “Each rifle and pistol is accompanied with an extra Receiver [cylinder]. The equipments consisting of Charger, Bullet-moulds, Cap-primer, Cleaning-rod, Lever, Belt, etc., are put up in handsome mahogany cases.”

As to finish and quality: “Both the Rifles and Pistols are finished in the most exquisite style, with black walnut stocks, and blue steel mountings…”

As to available product: “The Company have recently established a Depot for the sale of their Fire arms at 155 Broadway, immediately beneath this office, under the direction of Dr. C.B. ZABRISKIE, and we have no hesitation in apprising our readers, that orders directed to him will be promptly attended to, and every endeavor made to give perfect satisfaction. By the by, should ‘any dear friend of Ceaser’s desire a rifle or pistol manufactured to suit any particular fancy of his own, if he will confide the order to us, we will take care to see it fulfilled “according to Gunter,’ and forwarded.”

The writer discussed target shooting and “some targets made with Mr. Colt’s Rifle and Pistol,” as well as a “quantity of these Rifles, purchased by Gen. JESSUP, are now in use by the corps of Dragoons in Florida, under the immediate command of Col. HARNEY… The report of the Officers appointed to test them is now before us, and presents undoubted evidence of their infinite superiority over all others. To the various experiments made with them at Washington, West Point, and other places, we may refer hereafter; we can find room only for the following, made at Castle Garden, in this city, on the 4th of January last, in presence of a Committee of the American Institute, and a large number of gentlemen and amateurs, who were invited to witness the exhibition.” The test shooting was with the Ring Lever rifle.

The next four paragraphs described in detail shooting, which was held in New York, to test accuracy, “celerity with which the piece could be loaded and discharged,” the “principle of safety,” and “the force of the instrument.”

The Spirit of the Times article closed with the ringing endorsement:

It will be recollected that at the last fair of the American Institute, a medal was awarded to Mr. Colt for the specimen of ingenuity and skill, as displayed in this beautiful rifle. The object in the above exhibition was to illustrate its practical utility, and to bring it advantageously before the public. Inspection will satisfy any one of the superior finish of the inside of the barrel; and if pointed accurately at the time of firing, it must perform as well as the barrels of other rifles of similar interior finish.

Engraved View of Broadway Including No. 155

From the New York Public Library, an engraved view of Broadway, which included No. 155. This scene dates from c. 1835, and was engraved by Samuel Davenport (Van Vleck & Davenport; then Davenport & Wood; then Dewitt & Davenport). Van Vleck & Davenport, and Davenport & Wood occupied at likely the same time as Colt, a site at 155 Broadway. They were bookbinders and stationers.

If anyone would include 155 Broadway in a print, Samuel Davenport would be that person, since he worked there. Using an 1830s map, one should be able to ascertain the correct building in the print via the address so listed on the map.

Engraved View of Broadway

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 76-77
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 76

John R. Hegeman, Jr., Pioneer Colt Collector

Data on pioneer Colt collector, John R. Hegeman, Jr., including a rare photograph.

Rare Photograph of John R. Hegeman, Jr.

John R Hegeman Jr. Collection of Special Colts

The site, that of Sam Lisker’s Coltautos.com, also presents information on the Kimball Arms Company sales from Hegeman’s Colt Collection, 1940.

Information on Kimball Arms Company

Colt Factory Display at the New York Sportsman’s Show

The Colt factory display at the New York Sportsman’s Show, 1895, the first show, held at Madison Square Garden, March 1895. Note that in A History of the Colt Revolver, by Charles T. Haven and Frank A. Belden, page 425 (article continues to p. 426) reproduces a photograph taken of the elaborate Colt exhibit. The illustration and text are from Shooting and Fishing magazine, issue of May 16th 1895. Besides a Gatling gun, the new Browning belt-fed machine gun (both on mounts), and a small display cabinet with longarms and handguns, a large cabinet from the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 dominates the scene. The firearms arranged in that cabinet are quite in contrast to that from the 1876 exhibition. At center, a framed photograph of Colonel Colt, presently in the collection of Colt’s Manufacturing Co. A framed display of medals awarded since the percussion period, for the excellence of Colt arms, is also within the 1876 cabinet.

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 77

Colt Museum Curator, A.L. Ulrich

From Yahoo’s Flickr site, a colorized photograph of Colt Museum Curator A.L. Ulrich, holding the Holster Model Paterson revolver, serial no. 64, then in the Colt Collection of Firearms, at the Hartford factory office. Before him, the cased and accessories, containing that revolver, the mate to it, no. 17, having previously left the collection, and becoming property of J.R. Hegeman, Jr.

Photograph of Arthur L. Ulrich

Photos of Curator Ulrich

Also from Yahoo’s Flickr site, the following link shows Curator Ulrich standing in front of a display case, with several rare firearms from the Colt Collection, then still at Colt’s. Among the revolvers, a Walker Colt which was later stolen in broad daylight, from the exhibits at the Connecticut State Library Museum.

Photo of Curator Ulrich

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 82-83
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 82

Advertisement by Medairy & Bannerman

Link to advertisement by “Medairy & Bannerman” via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers site, the Baltimore Patriot, June 17th 1830, volume XXXV, issue no. 144, page 4:

Advertisement

The 1830 advertisement reading as follows:

ENGRAVING OFFICE REMOVED.
MEDAIRY & BANNERMAN respectfully inform their friends, and the public generally, that they have removed their office to the Basement Story of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, North Calvert street, where they are pre pared to execute ENGRAVING in all its various branches. Their connection in business comprises HISTORICAL LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT AND MISCELLANEOUS ENGRAVING. Lakes’ and Gentlemen’s VISITING CARDS

Engraved and Printed in the neatest manner.

N.B. COPPER-PLATE PRINTING executed in the best style. M. & B. tender their thanks to their friends and the public, for the encouragement they have received, and solicit a continuance of their favours at their new establishment. June 9  eo4t

Bannerman’s Island, New York, in the Hudson River

For data on Bannerman’s Island consult the following links.

Data on Bannerman’s Island

For organizing a tour of the island.

Organize a Tour of the Island

More images of Bannerman’s Island.

Images of Bannerman’s Island

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 83

Catlin Prints

Day & Sons, London – Lithographers of George Catlin Print Series for Colonel Colt. Link by Google Books to The Railway News, January 28th 1865, pertaining to Day & Sons, Lithographers to the Queen, London, who were printers of the set of colored lithographs commissioned by Samuel Colt of George Catlin.

Book of Catlin Prints

More on Catlin’s History

Catlin History

Note: On the Catlin prints done for Samuel Colt, the reference to the lithographer is to Day & Son, not Day & Sons, but the company is the same.

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 88-89
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 88

John R. Hegeman, Jr., Pioneer Arms Collector Specializing in Colts

Pioneer Colt collector John R. Hegeman not only was born into a well-to-do Yankee family, and was keen on the refinements of the East, but knew the thrill and exhilaration of riding the range in the great American West. A friend of Buffalo Bill Cody, Hegeman saw the Colt revolver as symbolic of adventure and as a treasure of Americana. He set out to put together a grand collection, and to this day few can compete with his remarkable success.

On his death Hegeman was saluted by the following obituary, published in a New York newspaper:

MAJOR JOHN R. HEGEMAN, son of the late President John R. Hegeman, and a former Assistant Secretary of the Company, died at his summer home, Sheffield, Mass., on the morning of Thursday, October 25th. He had been ill a long while and his death had been expected.

Major Hegeman was for many years an Officer of the Company [Metropolitan Life Insurance]. He entered its service on January 4, 1892, was appointed Assistant Secretary January 28, 1902 and resigned May 1, 1921. Prior to the reorganization of the Company and at the time of mutualization, he was a Director.

In his position as Assistant Secretary he had wide acquaintance in the Home Office and he was interested in many activities outside of the Company. For many years he was a member of the New York National Guard, having joined the Seventh Regiment in 1892, within a comparatively short time attaining the rank of Major. It was one of his fads to be a fire buff and he also took a personal interest in the work of the police of the city. He attended many of the fires and at times participated in rescues, offering his services to the various heads of the Fire Department in any capacity in which they saw fit to use him. Some years ago he went to the northwest and for a time engaged in ranching, owning a tract next to Buffalo Bill’s in Montana.

Major Hegeman was particularly interested in the artillery branch of the National Guard and was an expert in the theory and use of small arms of all sizes. He had a rare collection of small arms and it was his boast that in his collection, he had every model, with a single exception, ever turned out by the Colt Company. He served the State of New York as an inspector of artillery at one time. He was a member of the Sons of the Revolution and of the Society of Colonial Wars. Major Hegeman was trice married. A widow, Grace Evelyn Carey, and a son by a former wife survive him.

The funeral was held Monday afternoon, October 29th in the chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue and 51st Street. It was conducted by the Rev. Richard Cobden, for many years Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Larchmont. Many beautiful flowers were near the coffin, among them a large wreath from Metropolitan Officers.

The initials JRH are occasionally found stamped on an antique firearm; careful examination of arms bearing the mark shows that Hegeman used that means of identifying some of his own pieces. Of further interest, at least a half dozen copies of catalogues of his collection have been located. These contain photographs of firearms from his holdings, and descriptions penned onto individual catalogue pages. Anyone with a piece from Hegeman’s collection can suspicion that the item may well have once been part of the Colt factory arms collection, or that Hegeman obtained it through other due diligence, he was an example of the early, well-connected, dogged and determined enthusiast.

New York State Artillery, First Division

First Division, New York State Artillery: Color lithograph of the First Division, New York State Artillery, c. 1844. Eno Collection of New York City views, New York Public Library.

Color Lithograph

CHAPTER 2 PAGE 106-107
CHAPTER 2 PAGE 106

John E. Parsons Samuel Colt’s Medals from the American Institute

John E. Parson’s article in The New-York Historical Society journal (New York Historical Society Journal, July 1949, vol. XXXIII, No. 3, pp. 188 to 201, “Samuel Colt’s Medals from the American Institute.”) mentions that for the first time Colt showed his revolvers at the Tenth Annual Fair of the American Institute, held at (William) Niblo’s Gardens in 1836 (discussed in greater detail on p. 190 of that article).

Perhaps the best image of Niblo’s Garden in that year is in the following link (Niblo’s Garden in the distant background).

Image of Niblo’s Garden

Image of Niblo’s Garden

CHAPTER 3

PAGE 114

Blake Family Papers Including Members of the Whitney Family

Link to site at Orbis Yale University Library Catalog, with 23 boxes of Blake Family Papers, which includes members of the Whitney family, among them Eli Whitney (three generations with that name), Eli Whitney Blake, and others related to firearms manufacture. Some of the data related to the Walker Colt revolver.

Blake Family Papers

Eli Whitney Blake

Links to Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, with references to Eli Whitney and to Eli Whitney Blake.

Eli Whitney, (Jr.)

Eli Whitney Blake

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 116-117
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 116

Site of the E. Whitney Factory

Site of the production, in 1847, of the Walker Colt revolvers, the Whitney Armory, at Whitneyville, Connecticut.

Image of Whitney Armory

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 117

Joshua Stevens, Early Collaborator with Samuel Colt

Link to data from Western Field magazine, on an early collaborator with Samuel Colt, Joshua Stevens. Obituary tributes, however, do not always contain information which is entirely accurate. But this source from Google Books is nevertheless of interest.

Obituary

Moore & Baker

Links to sources related to Moore & Baker, an early ally to Colt in the marketing of his percussion revolvers, beginning as early as 1847. The company was founded as early as 1837.

Moore & Baker Sources

Moore & Baker Sources

Debt of Samuel Colt to Texas and to Texans

The debt of Samuel Colt to Texas and to Texans was explored by historian and writer Walter Prescott Webb, in “The American Revolver and the West,” Scribner’s Magazine, February 1927, volume 81, p. 178.

Scribner’s Magazine Article

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 126-127
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 126

Military Interests and Service of James Janeway Van Syckel

The military interests and service of prominent Philadelphian and Second Model Colt Dragoon owner James Janeway Van Syckel are partially documented in the following link, to the by-laws, muster-roll and papers from the archives of the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, accessed via Google Books.

Archives & Papers of the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry

Further related to the renowned James Janeway Van Syckel cased set of deluxe Second Model Dragoon revolvers is recent research revealing that Van Syckel’s brother Robert S. Van Syckel, sailed on the steamship Baltic, in late 1851, possibly in order to attend the Great Exhibition in London of that year. On that occasion, it may be speculated that Van Syckel surely met the famous Samuel Colt.

Bartholomew Sculptures and Van Syckel’s Return

Returning to the subject of the Bartholomew sculptures, according to steamship sailing records accessed in the research of Conor FitzGerald, the following data covers Van Syckel’s return to the United States, with arrival date of August 2nd 1858:

J J Vansyckle. Arrival Date: 2 Aug 1858 [he died Oct. 27th, he was likely sick even in August] Estimated birth year: abt 1820 Age: 38 Gender: Male; Port of Departure: Le Havre, France and Southampton, England; Destination: United States of America; Place of Origin: United States of America; Ethnicity/Race/Nationality: American; Ship Name: Vanderbilt; His daughter Miss [Mary] J[ane] Vansyckle is listed right after him, aged 18. Note that the interpretation of spellings from documents are erratic in their reading by technological means.

An advertisement was run in Philadelphia, for the sale of James Janeway Van Syckel’s collections, by C.J. Wolbert & Co., Auctioneers on December 8th 1859. “Articles of vertu, costly Furniture, Fire Arms, & c.,” as well as “Bas reliefs by Bartholomew” are also noted in this advertisement. It is reasonable to speculate that Colonel Colt, who with his wife was already collecting art, may have sent an agent to attend this sale.

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 130-131
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 131

Gold Rush Daguerreotype from Calisphere

Link to California Gold Rush daguerreotype from the University of California site, “Calisphere,” miner with an early Dragoon revolver, tucked into his waist. From the Bancroft Library:

Daguerreotype

The daguerreotype on page 131 is of a similar period to the “Calisphere” miner image cited above.

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 136-137
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 136

The Wealthy Philadelphian James J. Van Syckel

The subject of arms enthusiast, the wealthy Philadelphian James Janeway Van Syckel is important to note in this era. His cased set of Second Model Colt Dragoon revolvers (nos. 8154 and 8913) is well known, and has been published in numerous Colt texts (including Wilsons, The Colt Engraving Book, Volume I, pages 32-35). An open letter of condolences, dated May of 1858, concerned the early death of Edward Sheffield Bartholomew, distinguished American sculptor, while in Rome. James J. Van Syckel signed the open letter, and, ironically, he died in the same year. Among other signatures were Randolph Rogers, who made the sculpture adorning Colt’s Hartford Memorial, which had been designed by James Goodwin Batterson. Edward S. Bartholomew was from Connecticut, and for a time (1845-48) served as director of the Wadsworth Atheneum. An article in Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia says Bartholomew was for a short time a dentist in Hartford.

Wikipedia Article

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 140-141
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 140

Catlin the Artist

P 140. “Catlin the Artist Shooting Buffaloes with Colt’s Revolving Pistol.”  “I have five shots to the right and left, four of which were fatal to the heart, and all in less than half a minute.”

Painted in 1855, the scene captured experiences of Catlin from the period of early in the 1830s, on the north fork of the Platte River. Since Colt Dragoon revolvers were not manufactured until 1847, the subject is an example of Catlin’s use of artist’s license. Of all the scenes by Catlin, the buffalo hunt is the most often reproduced, and cited. While the artist is killing one buffalo after another with his Colt revolver, the Indians, with their bows and arrows, have failed to fell a single buffalo, and are chasing them, relatively obscurely, off up a hill to the distant upper left.

The Illustrated London News of April 11, 1857, described the scene, noting that “In a buffalo chase which took place on the north fork of the Platte River, out of five shots which Catlin fired right and left in immediate succession while at the full gallop, four were successful in bringing down unwieldy buffaloes. Hence the highest metaphor expressive of excellence was applied to Colt’s revolver by the Indians; and to this day it is called, in the language of that district, “the medicine gun.”

Writing in Art, Arms, and Invention, Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser maintains that “Catlin is seated on a rearing horse, and Colt had by this time adopted the symbol of a rampant colt for himself and his firearms company, using it at every opportunity to define his business.”

“Catlin the Celebrated Indian Traveller and Artist, Firing His Colt’s Repeating Rifle Before a Tribe of Carib Indians in South America”

Quoting the artist:

It having been reported by one of my party that I had a Medicine Gun, which would fire all day without reloading, the Men, Women & Children, assembled in front of the Chief’s Lodge to get a sight of it, when I found it necessary to make an exhibition, and arranged a target at a suitable distance where I took my position in front of the crowd rapidly discharging all the chambers, and cocked the piece for a continuation, but the Chief advanced and assured me they were all satisfied, and I had better save my powder and balls, as I might want them on a very long journey.

What may be the final communication from Catlin to his friend Colt was on March 1, 1860, telling of returning from a “long and laborious tour of South America,” and claiming “I know of no one whose good heart I can appeal to with the same Confidence as to yours.” Catlin requested a loan, security for which was to be “three Vols. of drawings by my own hand, Containing every painting in the N. Am. Collection with those gathered in my recent Tour of the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains to the Russian Possessions and Kamskata…about the size of the oil paintings I made for you & are the best works I have ever produced or ever shall produced. And there is not, nor can there be any duplicate of it on earth. And I know of no other man on earth in whose hands I would place it for keeping till my return.”

The long and mutually satisfying and productive association of Catlin and Colt is revealing of the generosity and insights of Colt, and the ingenuity and artistic talents of Catlin. At the same time, to quote Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser,  “The Colt firearms paintings and prints capture the power, novelty, and aesthetic qualities of Colt guns in a vivid and compelling narrative series and represent one of the most fascinating collaborations in the history of American art and industry.”

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 144-145
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 144

Artist’s Rendering Armed with a Colt Dragoon

Artist’s rendering lithograph (1858) in which a fighter is armed with what appears to be a Colt Dragoon revolver; Siege of Lucknow, from the British Library.

Artist’s Rendering

Yet another print, from The Campaign in India 1857-58, during the Great Mutiny, published 1859; from the British Library. Revolver likely the artist’s interpretation of a Colt Dragoon.

Artist’s Interpretation of a Colt Dragoon

CHAPTER 3 PAGE 146-147
CHAPTER 3 PAGE 146

Scene of New York in the Style of a Banknote Engraver

A scene of New York City created much like the style of a banknote engraver, with almost a cylinder-scene character. From the New York Public Library print collections.

Scene of New York City

CHAPTER 4

PAGE 151

Modern View of Historic Collins Company

Link picturing a modern-day view of the historic Collins Company site, Collinsville, Connecticut, from which firm Samuel Colt hired Elisha King Root, in 1848.

Modern-Day View of Historic Collins Company Site

Table of Trips by Samuel Colt

Follows is a table of trips by Samuel Colt and others, related to the 1850s. Although the data is incomplete, the importance of the European and British markets to Samuel Colt are obvious. In the Internet searches through early records, it is important to note that sometimes scanning or attempting to translate hand-writing is imperfect. Note references, e.g., to “Cal S Colt,” rather than “Col S Colt.” These citations were gathered by use of keyword searches, and come from passport and shipping records, and other sources.

Cal S Colt	13 Feb 1852	abt 1810	Liverpool, England	American	Pacific
Mr. Colt	3 May 1852	abt 1812	Liverpool, England	American	Pacific
Mr. Colt	9 Aug 1852	abt 1814	Liverpool, England	American	Pacific
Saml Colt	27 Jun 1853	abt 1813	Liverpool, England	American	Pacific
Saml Colt	8 Aug 1855	abt 1815	Liverpool, England	American	Pacific
Samuel Colt	12 Jan 1855	abt 1816	Liverpool, England	American	Baltic
Mrs. Colt w/ Colonel Colt	25 Nov 1856	abt 1818	Liverpool, England	American	Persia
This trip is the return to the U.S. of the Samuel and Elizabeth Colt honeymoon. Colonel Colt is listed here with his new wife.
Cal Jameel Colt	30 Mar 1861	abt 1811	Havana, Cuba		Quaker City
This is Col. Samuel Colt and he is listed as traveling with Mrs. Colt and two "Miss Colts" one aged 20.

Uncle of Samuel Colt, John Oliver Colt

John Oliver Colt, Col. Colt’s uncle, authored an important letter to his wife Eliza Boudinot, from Long’s Hotel, New Bond Street, London, in 1851. The link to a December 18th 1851 letter from Samuel Colt (then also staying at Long’s Hotel) to “JR” (believed to be Lord John Russell) is as follows (collection of The National Archives, London).

Important Letter

The same link to the National Archives, London, can also be used to access the John Colt letter, of October 27th 1851, to his wife Eliza Boudinot:

Mr. John Colt	27 Oct 1851	abt 1791	Liverpool, England	American	Pacific
John Colt's trip to London which he describes in the above-noted letter to his wife Eliza Boudinot.
J O Colt	8 Nov 1856	abt 1818	Cowes, England and Le Havre, France	American	Fulton
Here John Oliver Colt, Sam's uncle must have been in London at the same time as his nephew's honeymoon, as the dates of return to New York City appear so very close.

Passport Applications Discovered to Date

Samuel Colt			12 Aug 1835
John O Colt			23 Sep 1836
John Craig Colt			30 Sep 1836
John Craig Colt			3 Oct 1836
This may be the brother involved in the Adam's murder trial, 1842, in New York City, but seems less likely so.
John O Colt			26 Sep 1836
Samuel Colt			28 Feb 1839
John Oliver Colt			17 Nov 1842
John Colt			9 Aug 1851
John O Colt		Baltimore, MD	29 Sep 1851
Thomas Oliver Colt			8 May 1852
John O Colt	11 Sep 1817	Baltimore, MD	20 Nov 1854
Samuel Colt			17 Jan 1854
James Craig Colt	10 Oct 1819	Baltimore, MD	10 Sep 1856
Samuel Colt			1856
James D Colt			7 May 1857
James D Colt			14 May 1857
Alex Thuer			24 Jul 1862

Passports of Samuel Colt

Link to information and illustrations from The Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, on passports of Samuel Colt, in that institution’s collections. The site entitled: “Connecticut Historical Society Manuscripts Blog” (access via Google’s cache of the site).

Information and Illustrations on Passports of Samuel Colt

Passports listed are 1849 (2), 1851, and 1855. The 1855 passport indicates “that Colt was traveling with a servant.” The passports indicate that “Colt traveled to France, Belgium, Germany, Prussia, and Austria. A 1856 passport, separated from its wallet and included with the political papers, indicates he also traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia…”

Boudinot L Colt	13 Jul 1842	abt 1821	Le Havre, France	Ville de Lyon	Pacific
Here this Colt is listed as a Manufacturer
Egt Colt	20 May 1850	abt 1822	Le Havre, France		Carack
Here this isn't "Egt" but it is hard to read exactly what it is; several other Colts were on this vessel.
John A Colt	15 Nov 1852	abt 1822	Liverpool, England	American	Atlantic
Document does say "A" but may in fact be "O" for John Oliver Colt. This is the trip which led to Capt. James West's presentation Colt Model 1849 Pocket and Model 1851 Navy revolvers. See Fine Colts The Dr. Joseph A. Murphy Collection, pages 74-81
H Colt	5 Dec 1856	abt 1813	Cowes, England and Le Havre, France	American	Aragon
This is J C. (John Craig?) Colt then H Colt

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 152-153
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 152

Data on Revolutionary Leader Lajos (Louis) Kossuth

Data on the revolutionary leader, Lajos (Louis) Kossuth, one of the international figures known to have received firearms from Colonel Colt.

Wikipedia on Louis Kossuth

The Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia site identifies a painting which shows the revolutionary leader Louis Kossuth when he arrived in New York City, after the Great Exhibition of 1851 London. The Astor House hotel appears in the picture. Thus, on his way “up town” the renowned Hungarian would have passed by 155 Broadway and other sites familiar to Samuel Colt.

Samuel Colt Letter to Elisha Colt

Further consideration based on the Samuel Colt letter of July 18, 1849, to Elisha Colt:

“Buhl” (quoting Samuel Colt) is variously spelled as: Bühl (with an Umlaut over the u) Buehl (correct English version without German umlaut) Buell (variant)

The “Buhl” letter to Elisha Colt documents that Colt bought this style of pistol cases in Austria in that period, and was traveling in Europe at that time.

Buhl inlay work is the German or English name for work by, or in the manner of: Andre-Charles Boulle; see:

Wikipedia on André-Charles Boulle

In fact, it would not be unreasonable to say that the “buhl-inlaid” boxes Colt ordered in Austria in 1849, directly influenced his move to “gold-inlaid” revolvers c. 1853, the next step as it were in decoration, i.e.: ordering inlaid boxes was an inspiration contributing to the inlaid revolvers, a natural progression.

See Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser (ed.), Samuel Colt Arms, Art, and Invention, pp. 110-114, for illustration of a Buhl case from the 1849 order in which a selection of Samuel Colt’s exhibition medals were kept.

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 153

Panoramic View of the New York Harbor

Link to a panoramic view of the New York harbor, summer of 1851, in which the U.S. Mail Steamship Baltic is shown. Courtesy of Doyle Gallery, New York City. At the right, Castle Garden.

Image of Bay of New York

Colt Firearms Exhibited at Castle Garden

Samuel Colt is known to have exhibited his firearms at Castle Garden, in New York City. This and several other views from the following are from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. Several images of this site, which help to present a feel for the New York which was so well known to the inventor and entrepreneur, are as follows:

Image c. 1848  Another Image c. 1848

Exterior View Image, c. 1845-1850

Image c. 1850  An interior view, c. 1850

Another Interior View, c. 1850

Jenny Lind at Castle Garden 1850.

In his many New York City visits, Colt could well have attended such a performance.

An 1853 Engraving of the Crystal Palace

With Castle Garden in lower panel. The print has a banknote quality, with scrollwork of a simple, vine-like, style.

Exceptional 1851 hand-colored lithograph “Souvenir of New York,” with detailed birds-eye view. Note the Astor House (lower left). Importantly the view on lower left of Astor House would show, if however poorly, the Colt Paterson address at 155 Broadway, and the great detail in the larger section overall would show it as well. I.N. Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, New York Public Library.

Hand-Colored Lithograph “Souvenir of New York”

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 154-155
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 154

Colt’s Inspiration for Dragoon Presented to Edmund Burke

Colt’s inspiration for the cased and presentation-inscribed Pocket Model (“Baby Dragoon”) revolver, given by the inventor to Edmund Burke, must be considered in the reading of the following article, from the New-Hampshire Gazette, published as The New-Hampshire Gazette and Republican Union, February 1st 1848, volume XCIV, issue no. 5, page 3, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The article is quoted in its entirety:

PATENT OFFICE, Jan. 21, 1848.

ON the petition of SAMUEL COLT, of Hartford, Connecticut, praying for the extension of a patent granted to said Samuel Colt for an improvement in fire-arms for seven years from the expiration of said patent, which takes place on the 25th day of February, 1850–

It is ordered that the said petition be heard at the Patent Office, on the third Monday in February, at 12 o’clock, M.; and all persons are notified to appear and show cause, if any they have, why said petition ought not to be granted.

Ordered, also, that this notice be published in the Union and National Demokrat, Washington; Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia; Sun, New York; Post, Boston; Gazette and Republican Union, Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Times, Hartford, Connecticut, once a week for three successive weeks previous to the third Monday in February next.

EDMUND BURKE

Commissioner of Patents.

P.S. – Editors of the above papers will please copy, and send their bills to the Patent Office with a paper containg this notice,

Feb. 1-3w.

Edmund Burke on Wikipedia

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 160-161
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 160

Reference from the Dublin Exhibition Article

A link with information and a rare photograph, of the Dublin Exhibition (Ireland), 1858, at which Colt firearms were displayed.

Information and Rare Photograph

Serial Numbers in Percussion Period Colt Advertising

Data regarding serial numbers in Percussion Period Colt advertising, including serial no. 12329 Baby Dragoon or Old Model Pocket Revolver

The following Colt firearms are presently known to have been depicted in period advertising or in various period publications, identifiable by serial number:

• Holster Model Pistol, engraved Third Model Dragoon, serial no. 12397
  (see page 145, chapter III).
• Engraved Pocket Pistol, Model 1849, serial no. 33611 (see page 18, chapter I).
• Colt advertisement from the London factory enterprise, 14 Pall Mall, c. 1855. Illustrating engraved Pocket Pistol, Model 1849, serial no. 9251, of London manufacture (see page 186, chapter IV).
• Plain Navy or Belt Pistol, in Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Man’f’g Co. “Reduced Prices” 1859 broadside. On cylinder, serial no. 4000 (see page 231, chapter V).
• Colonel Colt advertisement of c. 1855 announcing the New Pocket Pistol, showing left view of octagonal barrel revolver, with serial number 710 on cylinder (see page 215, chapter V).
• New Model Pocket (Sidehammer) Pistol, in Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Man’f’g Co. “Reduced Prices” 1859 broadside. On cylinder, serial no. 710 (see page 231, chapter V). Also appearing in other period advertising, including accompanied by two marksmen aiming Colt’s New Model revolving longarms.

Serial numbers referred to specifically in publications of the period include the following:

“A Day at the Armory of Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, Hartford, Connecticut,” United States Magazine, March 1857. The text specifically identifies serial no. 42 Paterson revolver: “…in some cases individuals yet prefer Colt’s first to any arm that was ever manufactured. As an example, G.W. Kendall, Esq., well known as the editor of the New Orleans Picayune, is the possessor of No. 42, the most ancient of Colt’s pistols, which he unhesitatingly pronounces the acme of excellence for the purposes designed.” As cited on page 194 of P.R. Phillips and R.L. Wilsons Paterson Colt Pistol Variations, “Kendall’s revolver was either the No. 1 Pocket Model, the No. 2 or No. 3 Belt Model, the No. 5 Holster Model, or perhaps the Fourth or Fifth Models Ehlers…”

Also from “A Day at the Armory of Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, Hartford, Connecticut,” United States Magazine, March 1857: The text specifically identifies serial no. 138565, Navy or Belt Model Revolver and follows that revolver through the manufacturing stages after the number has been stamped on major parts.

To date, from the above listings, only the contemporary illustration of Pocket Pistol no. 12329 is represented today by the actual revolver, known to the coauthors.

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 166-167
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 166

Barnum’s Panorama of the Crystal Palace

Link via Google Books to The Opal, volume 2, by the State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, New York, to “Our Visit to Barnum’s Panorama of the Crystal Palace.” The brief article discusses Barnum’s Panorama “of the Crystal Palace and the display of the grand industrial exhibition, or the World’s Fair in the City of London…at every turn of the splendid scenes the great family [from the Asylum] were lead away into such a succession of interests as to entirely abstract the minds of the audience from themselves and their sorrows.”

Google Book

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 167

Samuel Colt’s Presentation to H.R.H. Prince Albert

Perhaps the following incident was instrumental in leading to Colonel Samuel Colt’s presentation to H.R.H. Prince Albert of a Second Model Dragoon and Model 1851 Navy revolvers, in the Buhl style deluxe casing.

Article on Queen Victoria Assassination Attempt

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 168-169
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 168

The Home of  Waldemar de Bodisco, Russian Diplomat

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog link to the de Bodisco House, Washington, D.C., an historic site which it can be reasonably speculated had been visited and was known to Samuel Colt. For a Model 1851 Navy revolver inscribed and presented to de Bodisco, see Samuel Colt Presents, page 115, serial no. 34600/., inscribed on the left side of the barrel: Presented to Waldemar de Bodisco, Attache a la Legation Imperiale de Russie/by the Inventor. de Bodisco was also involved with Samuel Colt as early as the Paterson period. Note reference in description of this house to Francis Colt de Wolf, who was related to Samuel Colt and to Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry. Clicking on the icons will reveal images and other material.

Images of the de Bodisco House

Van Syckel Signator of Open Letter

Van Syckel was a signator of that open letter. Samuel Colt had played a pivotal role in bringing back Bartholomew’s sculptures, to Hartford, in 1858, Van Syckel had been in Rome at the time of Bartholomew’s death. Among the artist’s patrons were Samuel and Elizabeth Colt (see William Hosley, Sam and Elizabeth Colt The Making of an American Legend, pp 168-169).

Colt and Van Syckel may well have been acquainted. It may be speculated that it was Van Syckel who served as Colt’s agent in returning Bartholomew’s collection of sculpture to Hartford.

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 170-171
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 171

Anson Chase, Early Gunmaker for Young Samuel Colt

Advertisement from the Connecticut Gazette, published as the New London Gazette, December 4th 1839, volume LXXVII, issue 3969, page 3, advertising “Guns & Pistols” from Anson Chase, as presented by America’s Historical Newspapers.

Advertisement

Link to advertisement by Anson Chase (Samuel Colt’s gunsmith for his earliest firearm prototypes) via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers, the Connecticut Courant, September 4th 1832, volume LXVIII, issue no. 3528, page 1, Hartford.

Advertisement

The advertisement reads as follows:

GUN MANUFACTORY.

ANSON CHASE, RESPECTFULLY informs the Sportsmen of the City of Hartford and its vicinity, that he continues GUN-MAKING in its various branches, in Temple-street, a few rods North-west of the Market, where he will be happy to supply his customers with Guns of every description.

GUNS TO HIRE OUT. All kinds of Job Work in his line of business done with dispatch. Gun Stocking, or Percussion Locks substituted for old ones when desired. Also, an assortment of Gun Furniture, Door Locks Repaired, Keys fitted, &c. Orders will receive prompt attention.

Hartford, August 21. 26

Additional Advertisements Placed by Anson Chase: Connecticut Courant, Gazette and the New London Morning News

Link via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers, for advertisement by Anson Chase in the Connecticut Courant, October 14th 1833, volume LXIX, issue no. 3586, page 3, Hartford.

Advertisement

To quote:

ANSON CHASE, GUN-MAKER, RESPECTFULLY informs his customers and the public, that he still continues the Gun Manufacturing Business in its various branches, ten rods south of the State-House, in the rear of the Universalist Church. Job work done to order. Stocking, and Percussion Locks substituted for old ones, when desired. Also, Door Locks repaired, Keys fitted, &c. He keeps on hand Rifles, Fowling Pieces, Muskets, Pistols, Gun Locks, Mountain Powder, Flasks, Shot Pouches, Patent double and single cap and single Wormers, Percussion Caps, Flints, Rifle Powder, Shot, Lead, and Bullet Moulds. Hartford, October 14. 86

Link via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers, for advertisement by Anson Chase in the Connecticut Gazette, published as the New London Gazette, December 4th 1839, volume LXXVII, issue no. 3969, page 3, New London.

Advertisement

To quote:

GUNS & PISTOLS,

GUNS, equipages, Sporting Powder, Shot, Caps &c., the best assortment ever offered in this city, for sale by ANSON CHASE, Corner of Golden and Green sts. Nov 27, 1839  3w08

Immediately below, Chase ran another advertisement:

GUN SMITH, REPAIRING done with much neatness and punctually attended to by Nov 27, 1839 – 3w08  ANSON CHASE

Link via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers, for yet another advertisement by Anson Chase, in the Connecticut Gazette published as the New London Gazette, July 8th 1840, volume LXXVII, issue no. 3999, page 3, New London.

Advertisement

To quote:

FOWLING GUNS, Rifles, Pistols, POWDER, Shot & Caps, Shot Pouches, Powder Flasks, Pocket Knives, Keys, &c, cheap as they can be bought in New York, at the Corner of Golden and Green Sts. ANSON CHASE

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Link to advertisement by Anson Chase, via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers, the New London Morning News, March 21, 1846, volume LXXVII, issue no. 3969, page 3.

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CHAPTER 4 PAGE 172-173
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 173

Letter from Samuel Colt to Edward N. Dickerson

Link to a letter from Samuel Colt to Edward N. Dickerson, related to a Whittier revolving firearm patent, as well as to the forthcoming Colt vs. Massachusetts Arms Co. trial. Autograph letter signed, dated Hartford, March 18, 1851. Note salutation to “My dear Ned.” From the site of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Access to the site images requires account registration.

Letter

Correspondence on the Colt vs. Massachusetts Arms Co. Trial of 1851

These are cited from the manuscript collections of The New Jersey Historical Society, Newark (Manuscript Group No. 13, Box 7, Folder 13). One letter responds to the other and each is a secretarial transcription. These were transcribed as best or exactly as the page is written by Conor FitzGerald:

Copy

Boston, Feb 14, 1851

Dear Sir, In answer to a letter from Mr. Dickerson, I have to say that no specification of defence has been filed in your case and [if, here this word is crossed-out] we have no means of compelling the Defc to file one [?] 30 days before the trial. I believe one cannot get a trial before May, but I will see what I can do to obtain one earlier and write to Mr. D on the subject.

Your obt Servt

signed B. R.[identity unknown]

Sam Colt, Esqr
Washington
D.C.

(over)

Hartford Feb 9 1851

Dear Sir, I wish your immediate attention to the business alluded to in the foregoing letter. I will be in New York Thursday, or Friday this week and expect to have printed copies of all my patents ready for use if needed. When will you be in New York, and when will you go to Washington, Drop me a line at the Astor Hotel.

Yours Truly, Sam Colt pr. S. P. Sargeant Edwd N Dickerson Esqr.

Paterson
New Jersey

The Dickerson Presentation Set Cited from The Gun Collector Magazine

A popular source for serious arms collectors in the 1950s and ’60s was The Gun Collector, a periodical edited by G. Charter Harrison, Jr., of Madison, Wisconsin. Among this talented arms enthusiast’s circle of writers were John E. Parsons, Lewis Winant, and Samuel E. Smith.

And among the most eagerly read articles were those that dealt with fresh discoveries. Thus on page 716 of issue no. 41 (August 1952) was a single-page essay on “The Dickerson Pistols.” Illustrated on the top of the diminutive 5 1/4 – x 8 ¼-inch page was the Dickerson cased set, beneath which was a quotation from the Colt vs. Massachusetts Arms Co. trial transcript, a statement to the jury from Colt’s lead attorney, Dickerson himself:

“You are all peaceful citizens of Massachusetts; perhaps not one of you has ever owned a pistol. I never did, excepting that I had it as counsel.”

The article’s text starts off with a statement with which the authors entirely agree:

The Edward N. Dickerson pistols in the collection of Philip R. Phillips. In point of historical association, these are probably the most valuable Colt items in existence.

The article continues by noting that “Whether these are the pistols referred to by attorney Dickerson in addressing the Jury…is not known. It is quite possible that these were a larger presentation commemorating the victory. Curiously enough, the case seems to have no provision for balls and caps. As cartridges were not then produced at Hartford, it appears there was no way to shoot these guns, and we wonder if astute Dickerson had ever fired a gun in his life!”

At the end of the article was a reference expressing appreciation to “William B. Edwards for drawing our attention to the existence of these important pieces as well as preparing the notes on them.”

Edwards’ The Story of Colt’s Revolver used the same illustration as Harrison, on page 273, with the caption noting: “These two pistols are probably the most important pair of Colt arms which exist, for without Dickerson to prosecute the Mass. Arms Co., Colt would almost certainly have lost the case, and the myriad imitators and competitors might well have driven him from the scene. Commemorating the successful outcome of the trial, the small pistol is engraved with the figure of Justice (blind), while the Navy pistol bears the Colt arms on one side and a portrait of Sam Colt on the other…”

Trial Excerpts and Commentary Published by Harrison

Harrison then presented selected excerpts from the Colt vs. Massachusetts Arms Co. trial, under the title “Samuel Colt vs The Mass. Arms Company,” with a note at the top: “We would have to work it d—-d cunning to catch an old fox.” Pages 717-745 of The Gun Collector present the most fascinating of all testimony and proceedings, and pages 745-747 offer a legal note by John E. Parsons, himself an attorney at law, and one of the most expert of authorities on antique American firearms of the day.

Parsons commentary is as follows:

“It is a little known fact, not revealed by the published report, that the decision in Colt vs. Mass Arms Co. was appealed by the defendant to the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Levi Woodbury who on circuit had presided over the trial in Boston, died suddenly two months later, his place on the high bench being taken by Benjamin R. Curtis of Boston, a brother and partner of the Curtis listed in the report as one of Colt’s counsel. Their relationship disqualified the new judge from sitting on the appeal, which was due to come before a Supreme Court just as divided and unpredictable as it is today [c. 1952]. Thus Colt was doubly deprived of a vote likely to be favorable to him in a tribunal where contrary views might run strong.”

These hazards were not lost on the astute Edward N. Dickerson, Colt’s chief counsel and his representative at home while the Colonel was in England setting up the London factory. In a letter of February 17, 1853, to his client abroad (quoted through the courtesy of the Connecticut History Society) Dickerson set forth the situation as follows:

“The writ of error to Washington is also settled. The Supreme Court this winter has been playing the mischief with patents. This results from the fact that there are only 8 judges and Curtis has been of counsel with all the good patents so that he cannot sit on the cases that come up…There were two cases before ours, the lead pipe case from N. York, and Morse’s telegraph patent from Ohio. In both Curtis had been of counsel, & could not sit. The consequence was that the four judges, Taney, McLean, Daniel & Catron, killed the lead pipe patent against the dissent of Grier, Nelson and Wayne. If Curtis could have sat in the case it would have been saved. This was the first shock that patents got, but that case did not contain any point which is contained in ours. The next case was the Morse telegraph. Campbell argued for Morse very ably. That case contains the point whether Morse can claim to be protected against infringers of his patent who use other means of recording than he does; which is exactly the question whether you can be protected against other persons who use different mechanical contrivances for rotating, locking, etc. The law on this subject is well settled in England, and in this Country it has been so decided on Circuit always but the case never has gone to the Sup. Court before. Its settlement now is looked to with the greatest anxiety for it makes or ruins half the patents in the Country. If poor old Morse can be cheated out of his rights because some fellow contrives a different recording machine, what are patents worth? Strange as it may seem the same majority of four (Curtis not sitting) are of the opinion that Morse cannot claim anything but the particular machine, while the other three hold the law as it is, and always ought to be, that the inventor of a new principle shall be protected against by infringement of it by any means…

“Under these circumstances and in conjunction with them there happened a very fortunate state of things in the Mass. Arms Co. That Co. became entirely insolvent and Smith, apprehensive least he should be called on to pay this and other liabilities of the Co., kept urging the directors to a settlement. Every day that Co. was running they lost money and Smith was very uneasy. He had offered $5,000 and then $10,000, both of which I had rejected. The Co. itself was adverse from paying anything and was advised that the Sup. Court would reverse the decision below. Smith however pressed them very hard, and after the decision of the lead pipe case I thought it better to take $15,000 than to run the risk of prosecuting the matter further. By this the decision below is affirmed and the Patents stand good in Court until someone else takes it to Washington which cannot be done in less than three years so as to get it heard in the present state of the calendar. This amt. of $15,000 cash is between $4 & $5. for every arm manufactured by the company, and when it is considered that they lost money which they did to the extent of nearly $50,000 and that their sales never interfered with ours, and that the result is to secure the title and shut up all infringers, it is very well.

“I do not know what measure of damages the Court would have given us if it had gone to final hearing which would not have been had for a year more in Mass., for in this Country that question is still unsettled. If they would have given us the profit made by the Deft. we have rec’d much more than we would have done for they made nothing. If the Court would have given us the profit we could have made had the Deft. not made arms we would have not rec’d anything for we sold all we could make, but if the Court would give us the profit we might have had we the arms to sell, then we would have rec’d $30,000. Which is the true measure of damages I dont know although it ought to be the last. The Supreme Court will probably settle that question this winter. This is the largest amt. that has been secured for damages in this Country except in one case where $16,500 were recovered.

The cost of the trial was –

Counsel fee E N D[ickerson] $3000.00

Curtis 1000.00

C L Wood[bury] 500.00

Cost of preparation & of law bills – 1750.00

Witness fees – paid – 1700.00

Miscellaneous expenses 1500.00

$9450.00

Which leaves a nett [sic.] balance of about $5,000. over and above the cost, and maintains the patent.”

Dickerson’s settlement with Horace Smith turned out to be a fortunate one for Colt. At the trial the question of damages had been deferred until determination of the issue of infringement. With the damages agreed on, the appeal from the verdict sustaining the patent was necessarily abandoned. Not long afterward the Supreme Court, by a divided vote (Curtis not sitting), upheld only part of Morse’s patent, disallowing his general claim based on principle and not on specific machinery (O’Reilly v. Morse, 15 How.62). The majority opinion relied on the previous decision in the lead pipe case (LeRoy v. Tatham, 14 Ho. 156), with the same three judges dissenting. But the broad claims of Colt’s patent had already been validated and it met with no further challenge in court until final expiration in 1857.

End of citation and data from The Gun Collector magazine, reference Edward N. Dickerson.

Colonel Colt Investigated by the U.S. Congress

A challenge to Colt, which was partially dealt with by the Colonel leaving the country to avoid his being tainted, is covered in congressional documents and other records, including some intriguing correspondence. Having won his suit against the Massachusetts Arms Co., Colt also sought another victory: extension of his U.S. patents on the revolver. An excellent analysis of this scandal was published in The Gun Collector, issue no. 43, January 1953 (pp. 777-784). The article is so well done that it is quoted here in its entirety:

Congressional Investigation of Mr. Samuel Colt

Despite his triumph in the Colt vs. Mass. Arms Company patent suit of 1851, the troubles of Samuel Colt were not quite over. ‘Colt’s Extension Bill’, for yet another renewal of his patent, was before Congress and apparently progressing favorably when in 1854 he was confronted with a Congressional investigation to determine what “outside means of an illegal or improper character had been employed by the applicants, their agents, or attorneys, to secure the success of their several schemes.”

One might suspect that attorney Dickerson did not have complete confidence in Colt’s ability to handle himself on the witness stand. In answer to, “Will you state what means have been employed by you in prosecuting your application now pending for renewal of your patent?” Colt gave the following remarkable statement:

“As a general answer to the questions, I desire to submit a paper which I hold in my hand, in the following words, viz: The application for the extension of my patent was made by Mr. Dickerson, who is my confidential counsel, at a time when I was in Europe. I directed the application to be made, and authorized Mr. Dickerson to take such steps as were proper in prosecuting it. I was in Europe from the time the application was made until about two months since when I returned. Since my return, I have been constantly engaged at Hartford, and have never been in Washington, nor held any communication with any members of Congress, until I was summered by telegraph on Friday last…”

There are those who might reflect how easy things were in the days when contempt of Congress was an attitude more lightly taken than at present. Observe the simple beauty of the above. All Colt knew about the case was what Dickerson had told him which was only hear say. On the other hand, Dickerson as “confidential” attorney could not be forced to betray his client’s affairs.

The committee was not entirely pleased about it. The Hon. John Letcher, chairman of the Select Committee, commented:

“Why do Dickerson, Colt, and Joslin, all of who, or at least two of whom, know the facts, carefully and studiously withhold them from this committee and from the country? If all were fair and above-board, if money had only been used properly and for legitimate purposes, can it be supposed for an instant that Mr. Dickerson, who has been an active agent of Colt, and who knows how every dollar has been applied, would have declined, as he has done, to give the committee full and satisfactory information on a point of so much consequence and importance to his principal? Can it be supposed that Colt himself has received no information from Dickerson as to the manner in which the money has been used, or the objects to which it has been applied? According to the testimony of Joslin, Mr. Colt manages his business most carefully, so carefully and closely as to deny all descretion to his confidential book-keeper except in very small and unimportant matters, and under the most inexorable necessity. This is clear from the testimony of Joslin himself, who states that his power and authority are so limited and restricted, that he could only purchase an occasional cart-load of coal, or do some act of no greater importance…”

Regarding procedures in general, Mr. Letcher went on to say:

“The ladies, having first been duly impressed with the importance of Colt’s patent extension by presents of Parisian gloves, are invited to these entertainments; and evidence shows that, while there, members of Congress as appealed to by them in favor of this particular measure. In the language of a witness, “a dead set” was made at the Hon. Gilbert Dean to induce him to ‘go for the renewal of Colt’s patent.’ Whether the same sort of social influence and appliance was brought to bear upon others who were invited to dine or sup at that handsome establishment, we have no means of ascertaining, as Mr. Dickerson has not given us the names of his guests, and has not therefore furnished us with the means of getting at the facts. Mr. Dickerson seems to have adopted the rule that– ‘To reach the heart or get the vote, The surest way is down the throat'”

Whatever the villainies of Samuel Colt, attorney Dickerson produced one of those amazing Washington characters who, by contrast, managed to impart a roselike aura to his client. Horace H. Day, a “letter-writer” as reporters were then called, had contacted Dickerson and assured him “…that he had under his control the great part of the letter-writers and the press; that unless I yielded to his demands he should let all loose upon Colonel Colt and me, and would at once destroy all prospects of success. He stated he knew how to control the Herald, and that when I satisfied him and his friends he would show me a way to do it. He named several letter-writers in Washington who would do his bidding, as they had done heretofore. He told me I had made a great mistake in not having secured the “outsiders,” as he called them, and that no matter how good a case I had they could destroy it. The first question which naturally came to my lips was: ‘What right had Day to attack Colonel Colt. What had Colt done to him?’ His reply was, that he did not care for Colt, but that he meant to use Colt’s application for his own purpose. I asked him what he wanted to do. He said that he and his friends wanted $15,000 when the bill passed, and that they would then insure its passage…”

Dickerson then introduced a letter by H.H. Day as printed in the New York Herald of January 17, 1854, which is an interesting sample of his work:

“EDITOR HERALD: It may be that the public will yet, through your patriotic and independent journal, arrive at the conclusion that Jefferson Davis’s visit to Hartford last summer, and to Colt’s pistol factory, where the hands all joined in a great hurrah for the patriot soldier, had something to do with the known interest which General Armstrong’s Liverpool mission had when Colt was first establishing his operations in England, and Jeremiah Clemen’s was seen in his letter to the “hards” of Philadelphia. All these may yet appear transparent, when so elegant a scheme as making among the party some four or five millions out of one pistol patent, which, being fired off, rightly combined, and backed up and supported by the entire lobby interest of railroads, patent extensions, Sloo and Garay grants, & c., would guaranty five hundred millions.

Poor Pierce–he has nothing to do with the swindling. Harris, son-in-law of General Armstrong, the Sloo grant, and the Garay grant, want support. The pistol folks claim they can give it. In return, the Union is constrained to help. I hoped it would be seen and felt by Congress and not be seen by the country. With Jeremiah Clemens, deep in the interests of Colt’s, and the Lord knows what not, it was the supposition that he might be of the cabinet…

Poor Pierce–his head is not large enough, and he will not let his heart govern him. But for your journal the plunderers would have had Pierce and the Democratic party ruined before the people before the 1st May, 1854…

Fancying that, like yourself, I am capable of yearning desires which mere money, dollars, cannot influence, I have jotted down a few thoughts in great haste. I am on the spot, and to some extent, if not one of the movers on the chess-board, at least a close observer and very curious.

In my estimation, our journal, and it alone, has, within the past two weeks, saved the people millions upon millions, and possibly the country a terrible calamity…

With great respect,

HORACE H. DAY

When the Hon. Jere. Clemens “deep in the interest of Colt’s, and the Lord knows what not” was questioned regarding the presentation of Colt revolvers, he explained that “I have myself presented several pistols to members of Congress, and should be glad to present one to every member if I had them here, in order that they might see the mechanism of the weapon, test its usefulness, and understand its value; but I never supposed that a pistol of the value of some eighteen dollars would bias any man unduly, and presented them for no such purpose…the persons, as well as I can recollect, were Messrs. Ewing, Shower, Richardson, and McCullen…”

The parties so honored, in the mink-coat scandal of its day, were quick to explain and did so by letter. Presley Ewin pointed out that Clemens was a second cousin and intimate friend and that he did not know he had any connection with Colt’s application for patent extension. Jacob Shower admitted he was presented with a pistol, but did not know whether it was manufactured by Colt or someone else. F. McMullen had hesitated to accept so valuable a present and did so only after he got a note, “Presented to Hon. F. McMullen, by his friend Jere. Clemens.” The Hon. W.A. Richardson had asked Colonel Colt for the loan of a pistol which the Colonel said he might keep.

Others explained how they came to receive their Colt pistols. The Hon. Wm. Collum had gotten one from his friend, the Hon. Jere. Clemens. The Hon. Daniel Mace was presented one of Colt’s small revolvers cased in a small box by General James, senator from Rhode Island, for his son, Tom. Regarding this presentation, the Hon. T.L. Clingman testified that the Hon. Mr. Mace had told him, “Now, said he, I have a little son, only eleven or twelve years of age, to whom I am of course much attached. I was not aware that these parties knew I had such a son, but the other morning some one sent around a handsome Colt pistol, as a present to the little boy. How cunning and shrewd, said Mr. Mace, these fellows are in finding out everything.”

David August Wright, of New York City, testified, “I was sitting, two or three months ago, in the piazza of the National Hotel, with a person said to be the brother of Colonel Samuel Colt, and a conversation sprung up in regard to a duel that Judge Colt had in St. Louis. We passed from that subject to that of dueling weapons, and he wound up by asking me if I had a pistol, and I told him I had not; and then he said, if you want one come up to my room and get it. Nothing was said about the Colt patent. I did not go to his room. Some conversation of a gossiping character then took place between us three in relation to the probable amount that had been expended in feasts, presents, & c. in aid of Colt’s bill, and I think I said the gossip was, that the amount was $60,000 or $70,000, but I do not pretend to the slightest knowledge on the subject because I have not the slightest knowledge.”

While nothing came of the Congressional investigation itself, which “adjoined to a day not designated,” it was a material victory for the Colt opposition. As Samuel Colt represented in a petition to the Committee, “no proposition has ever been made to raise a committee of investigation until the day when the vote on the bill was expected to be taken, and that the effect of raising that committee has already been to delay the action of the House, as a time when the session is drawing to a close, and then delay is almost as bad as defeat.” The charges of “fraud, corruption, and bribery,” whether true or not, made Colt’s Extension Bill too controversial for any further action to be taken on it.

The most important part of the testimony at the Congressional investigation is that which gives a clue to the parties behind the Colt opposition. George W. Brega had testified “…Mr. Horace H. Day called upon me twice previous to my asking Mr. Dickerson anything about the matter. He abused Dickerson, Colt and Goodyear. He said he was going to write to persons interested in the manufacture of pistols for the purpose of getting up a fund to oppose the Colt patent. He said Dickerson was a fool not to have bought up all the correspondents and letter-writers here, at a thousand dollars a head for the purpose of writing the matter up; he made the remark that Dickerson was a mere boy, but that he (Day) understood how to manage matters here…”

According to subsequent testimony, Day apparently was able to enlist in the opposition and claimed that he was sent to Washington on the behalf of the Ames Manufacturing Company. “They have an office in Broadway, in New York. They have a factory in Connecticut or Massachusetts. I learned subsequently that that company had another agent or agents here already.”

This is not the first appearance of the Ames name in opposition to Colt. The reader will recall that in the testimony at the Colt vs. Mass. Arms Company trial, Thomas Warner of that company was asked whether he had anything to do with the pistols said to have been taken to Washington by Mr. Jas. T. Ames. This is not the only evidence of some interest of the Ames Manufacturing Company in the Mass. Arms Co. James T. Ames appears as one of the directors and the Mass. Arms Company plant at Chicopee Falls was purchased from the Ames Manufacturing Co.

Jack Rohan in Yankee Arms Maker claims that Colt suspected Eli Whitney, Jr. was the backer of the Mass. Arms Company, but it seems that Colt, or more probably Rohan, was mistaken.

The more you think of it, the less likely was Whitney as an active opponent to Colt. While Eli Whitney had been a pioneer in the industrial revolution and one of the first to develop the use of interchangeable parts, that had all been fifty years before. The original advantage of interchangeable parts had been that it permitted each worker to become proficient in one operation, a considerable saving over making his gun by the lock, stock and barrel method. Colt, too, was a pioneer gut in a different phase of the same industrial movement.

The use of interchangeable parts need involve no mechanical device beyond filing to template. The construction of machine tools to perform individual operations in gun making was another step in the revolution. Its effect on costs was startling enough so that Colt could furnish a complex mechanism, such as the revolver was, in competition to simple pistols made by hand, even though the latter may also have used interchangeable parts.

The Colt Opposition

1. The relationship between the Ames Mfg. Co. and the Boston partnership of J.K. Mills & Co. was revealed in Felicia Johnson Deyrup’s, Arms Makers of the Connecticut Valley, p. 125.
2. The first realization of some interest of the Ames Mfg. Co. in the affairs of the Mass. Arms Co. came in the Colt vs. Mass. Arms Co. patent suit, when Thomas Warner was asked whether he had anything to do with the revolvers said to have been taken to Washington by Jas. T. Ames. See Issue 41, p. 747.
3. In a note regarding the cover illustration of Issue 41, John E. Parsons gave James T. Amesas among the founders of the Mass. Arms Co.
4. The above source also reveals that the Mass. Arms Co. purchased their Chicopee Falls plant from the Ames Manufacturing Company.
5. In the Congressional Investigation of Mr. Samuel Colt, Horace H. Day testified that he had been sent to Washington to oppose Colt’s patent extension by the Ames Mfg. Co., see page 782, this issue.
6. Patent suit, Colt vs. Mass. Arms Co., June 30, 1851. See Issue 41.
7. Patent suit, Colt vs. Young & Leavitt. There is no known relationship between Francis Leavitt and Daniel Leavitt of Wesson & Leavitt.
8. The Ames Company is a more likely suspect, particularly after one has read the account of this company’s activity as given by Felicia Johnson Deyrup, in her outstanding work, Arms Makers of the Connecticut Valley. Here the extent of this company’s operation was revealed and also their affiliation with J. K. Mills & Co, a Boston partnership which promoted many activities. From such sources could come power enough to provide serious opposition for Colt.

The problem which remains to be answered is why, having broken Colt’s patent, did not a competitor appear openly to challenge his position as premier revolver maker. A variety of factors might explain the failure of the victor to claim his spoils. For one thing, the London Exposition of 1851 had created a great interest in American arms and particularly in the machinery for making them. With the demand for machinery to make arms and other products, both here and abroad, it is likely that the Mills-Ames group were too busy to take their prize.

The traditional Colt imitators such as Manhattan, Metropolitan and Cooper, do not seem to have appeared until after the expiration of Colt’s patent. Manhattans bear the patent date December 27, 1859 which was issued to Gruley & Rebetey and assigned to the Manhattan Firearms Manufacturing Co. of New York. Readers will recall that this patent date is also found on pistols made by “The London Pistol Company” which was the basis for Sam E. Smith’s important article in Issue 5 proving these pistols to be American and not the product of the English company of this name which is supposed to have taken over a surplus of Colt parts after his London factory ceased operations in 1857.

We have no information as to any patent dates appearing on the Metropolitan. The Cooper revolvers, however, bear a variety of patent dates. The earliest, Jan. 5, 1851, was for a patent issued to Stanhope W. Marston, “a native of England but resident of the city and State of New York” for a pepperbox, this being reissued and assigned to James M. Cooper on July 26, 1859. The April 25, 1854 date is not known definitely, although it might be for the patent issued to Charles Buss of Marlboro, New Hampshire on that date. Although the date August 1, 1854 does not appear, this was a patent issued to Josiah Ells of Pittsburgh assigned to Wm. S. Laveley and James M. Cooper. The patent for Sept. 4, 1860 was issued to J. Maslin Cooper, No. 29,864. Cooper’s earlier patent, No. 27,526 of March 20, 1860 does not appear on the guns. We have no information on the patents of Sept. 1 and Sept. 2, 1863 which dates are found on the Cooper revolvers.

End of Colonel Colt Investigation by Congress

A 45-page memorial tribute to Edward Nicoll Dickerson, L.L. D., was published by the Bar of the City of New York, December 16, 1889.

The citation for this publication (also available on microfilm) is:

Title: Edward Nicoll Dickerson, L.L. D., born February 11, 1824, died December 12,

1889 [microform] : memorial addresses before the Bar of the City of New York,

December 16, 1889. Physical Description: 45 p. : port. ; 26 cm. Series: Pamphlets in American History. Biography ; B 601. Publisher/ Date: [S.l. : s.n.], 1890 (New York : De Vinne Press) Library of Congress Subjects: Dickerson, E. N. (Edward Nicoll), 1824-1889. Lawyers –United States –Biography. Added Entries: Bar of the City of New York. Material Type: Book

Edward N. Dickerson and Frank Leslie

Edward N. Dickerson evidently was acquainted with Frank Leslie, judging by the fact that Dickerson was one of two witnesses to Leslie’s will. For an article on this subject, from The New York Times, January 16th 1880, “Frank Leslie’s Will. A Carefully-Prepared Document – All His Publications Left to His Wife,” see this link:

Article on Frank Leslie’s Will

Details on Frank Leslie and his publications appear in the following link to Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Details on Edward N. Dickerson and His Family Ancestry

An important article on Edward N. Dickerson and his family ancestry appears in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York, NY), dated August 11th 1877; page 393 issue no 1,141.

The article notes the Colt vs. Massachusetts Arms Co. trial of 1851, as well as Dickerson’s travels in Russia, likely when he was accompanying Samuel Colt:

“The first important case in which he won a reputation as a young man, was the suit of How against Law under the California Mail contract. It was tried in the United States Circuit Court before Judges Wilson and Balls. George Wood, Charles O’Conor and Francis B. Cutting were opposed to him. Soon after this he was engaged in a suit which established the Colt patent, and laid the foundation of Sam Colt’s great fortune. This suit was before a jury, and lasted three weeks, ending in sustaining the patent and securing injunctions against all infringers. The opposing counsel was Rufus Choate… It is doubtful if there is in the English language anything finer, stronger, or more eloquent than the description he gives of the true engineer, which has been largely copied both at home and in the journals of Europe. Notwithstanding his great success at the Bar, an inherent love of scientific studies induced Mr. Dickerson to give up active practice for a time, and devote himself to travel and investigation. He made a comprehensive tour in Europe, staying some time in Russia, where he was favored with many interviews with the Emperor Nicholas, who, in parting, presented him with a ring in which the Imperial initial was set in diamonds. After a sojourn in Europe he traveled in Central and South America, getting knowledge wherever he went, and on returning home devoted himself to scientific studies that soon developed into invention. Many valuable improvements in steam were the result. The engines of the Bristol, Providence, and Rhode Island, are built under his patent, which is also in use in China.”

The article concludes with the following spirited tribute:

“In the grand array of talent engaged on the case [Western Union versus Atlantic Telegraph companies, presiding Judge Sanford] – of course every man was on his metal on both sides – it is doubtful if keener wit, more subtle argument or finer eloquence have, for many a year, been opposed in a New York court. It was, indeed, a great intellectual conflict, in which the subject of our sketch astonished even his most ardent admirers.

We have no room for the argument, the keen satire, flashes of wit, and even pathos of description that flashed through it from beginning to end with such force of eloquence that a spontaneous burst of applause followed the conclusion, which even the dignified and urbane judge seemed half reluctant to check.”

Edward N. Dickerson and Family

Link to The New Jersey Historical Society, for papers relating to Edward N. Dickerson, and family, with whom Samuel Colt had extensive dealings over the years.

Papers Relating to Edward Dickerson and Family

Further Data Relating to E.N. Dickerson

Besides being mentioned in the New York City Social Registry, see Edward N. Dickerson in the following sources:

1. Canfield-Dickerson families papers, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark. Documents related to or by George Bayles, Frederick Canfield, Lewis Cass, Peter Colt, Edward Nicoll Dickerson, Jonathan Dickerson, Mahlon Dickerson, Philemon Dickerson, Jesse Duncan Elliott, Ezra Halsey, William Inglis, Andrew Jackson, Louis McLane, Joseph P. Musgrave, Cortlandt Parker, Matthew Calbraith Perry, Joel Roberts Poinsett, David Porter, Elias Theodore Schenck, William Shupe, John Stevens, Joel Barlow Sutherland, David Thomas, Alfred Vail, Samuel Vail, Martin Van Buren, Jacob Vanatta, Canfield family, Dickerson family, Clinton Manufacturing Company (Paterson, N.J.), Ferro & Monte Railroad, Succasunny Mining Company (Morris County, N.J.) – Family-owned business enterprises. Correspondence, diaries, financial records, and legal papers, of allied families of Morris County, N.J.

2. Dickerson & Dickinson Descendants of Philemon Dickerson of Southold, Long [Island] by Wesley Logan Baker. Reference, 1978- 831 pages. Page 418 Gov Philemon’s son Edward Nicoll Dickerson, was a noted patent attorney…His most important court cases involved the Colt revolver & Bell telephone.

3. Dickerson family history: Edward E. & Albert Bixby Dickerson- Page 119 by Wilton H. Dickerson, Dickerson Family Association. Reference, 199 – 302 pages Harry Dickerson helped a neighbor haul grain to town. After selling the grain…When needed, a Colt 44 would appear from a fold in her dress.

Additional Notes provided by Conor FitzGerald

Also mentioned in an article about Princeton University, and noting Dickerson, is a Judge Bennet Van Syckel (NJ), probably a relative of deluxe Colt Dragoon revolver cased set, James Janeway Van Syckel (Philadelphia PA; nos. 8154 and 8913). Dickerson and Elias Boudinot Colt (of Paterson and Samuel Colt’s 2nd cousin) were classmates at Princeton University in 1841 (Juniors), Roswell Colt was a Princeton trustee then. Elias Boudinot’s grandfather was painted by Charles Willson Peale (E.B. Colt was Samuel Colt’s grand uncle). Edward N. Dickerson’s uncle Mahlon Dickerson was twice Secretary of the Navy and approved Titian Peale’s participation in an expedition of 1828-30. Titian Peale was Deputy Commissioner of Patents in the U.S. Patent Office, 1850-1855, right when Dickerson was defending Colt in the Massachusetts Arms Co. trial. Mahlon Dickerson never married, but was a “close friend” of Merriwether Lewis when in Philadelphia before 1810. Per Commodore M.C. Perry he was the 4th cousin of powder and cartridge maker Col. Hazard, they knew each other very well. Samuel Pomeroy Colt was the son of Christopher Colt and Theodora De Wolf, Linden Place in Bristol (where Perry was from) became S.P. Colt’s home, and is still standing. The De Wolf’s married into the Perry’s thus Colt by some distance was related to Commodore M.C. Perry.

The Multi-Talented and Inventive Edward N. Dickerson

Further information on Edward N. Dickerson appears in the following piece from The New York Times, April 17th 1860, authored by Dickerson and a partner, Sickles.

Times Article

The William Trent House

The William Trent House, Trenton, New Jersey, purchased by Philemon Dickerson, in 1835. Philemon was Edward N. Dickerson’s father. The family lived in this house through the Paterson Colt period, and the property was sold by Philemon, c. 1854. Link from the William Trent House Museum site.

William Trent House

The New York City House of Edward N. Dickerson

Link to details on the New York City house of Edward N. Dickerson, “one of the triumphs of both a new and admirable system of ventilation, and of internal decoration of a high order.” From Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume 65, October, 1882, “Certain New York Houses.”

Google Book

The Wave Crest Home

Link relevant to the home, Wave Crest, in which Edward N. Dickerson died.

Wave Crest Home

The Dickerson Houses

Link to The New York Times article “Streetscapes: The Dickerson Houses; By McKim, Mead &…Who?” by Christopher Gray, published June 9, 1991. The article was based on an exhibition at The New-York Historical Society, covering the firm’s “great works, among them the Villard Houses of 1884, the colossal Penn Station of 1906 and the Fifth Avenue wings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

New York Times Article

Dickerson Building

Link to Commercial Real Estate Deal News, crefeed.com, announcing sale of the “Dickerson” building, 62-64 East 34th Street: “According to [the above-noted] 1991 New York Times article, the building dates back to 1879 and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.”

Dickerson Building

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 174-175
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 174

Colt Revolver Presented to Lewis D. Campbell

Reference to a presentation Colt percussion revolver, inscribed from the inventor to Lewis D. Campbell. These links to Frederick Woodward Skiff’s Adventures in Americana Recollections of Forty Years Collecting Books (1935), via Google Books.

Google Book

Note reference to the presentation revolver, noting its inscription.

Google Book

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 176-177
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 176

Purser Levi D. Slamm; Recipient of Cased, Engraved and Inscribed Colt

Link via Google Books to Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, volume 12, by Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight, referencing Purser Levi D. Slamm, U.S. Navy, who was recipient of cased, engraved and inscribed Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver no. 8786/. from Colonel Colt, as pictured in The Colt Engraving Book, Volume I, page 61.

Google Book

Menu from City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut

Link from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery to a menu from dinner, 1851, at the City Hotel, Hartford. Samuel Colt is known to have used this facility.

Menu

Amin Bey

Amin Bey’s visit to the Colt factory, hosted by Colonel Colt himself, was the subject of the article, “Amin Bey,” in the Hartford Daily Courant, April 2nd 1851.

Amin Bey from Google Books

Additional data on Amin Bey, from The New York Times, January 27, 1858; may require Adobe Acrobat Reader to access.

Additional Data

Data on Amin Bey, from Google Books, including references to Bey and Louis Kossuth.

Data on Amin Bey and Louis Kossuth

Link from Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, with data relevant to the Turkish envoy to the U.S., Amin Bey, who, on a visit in 1850 toured the Colt Hartford factory. Likely Bey was presented with a Colt revolver on that occasion.

Data on the Turkish Envoy to the US

Link to various references from Google Books, providing more information on Amin Bey, his 1851 visit to the U.S., during which time he toured the Colt Armory, and more.

Google Book

This is a paid site that requires a username and password to access their media.

Captain Amin Bey

Link to article on Amin Bey, noting his naval rank, from Vermont Phoenix, September 20th 1850, as cited on America’s Historical Newspapers site.

Article

Crystal Palace Exhibition

Link to Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, provides illustrations and information on the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1853, in New York City. Colonel Colt was a prominent participant at this event, as evidenced by the image showing his exhibit case, with admiring spectators, as published on page 176 of Volume I.

Wikipedia

New York Crystal Palace

Data related to the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition, 1853-54, known as the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations. Under Jury E, Class I, “Naval Architecture, Military Engineering, Ordnance, Armor and Accoutrements,” the jurors were:

Lt. Col. Sir James E. Alexander, A.D.C., Canada, Chairman.

Capt. Chas. H. Bell, U.S. Navy.

E. K. Collins, Esq. New York.

Captain George Washington Cullum, Corp. of Engineers

Col. Augustus George Hazard, Enfield, Connecticut.

Major A. Mordecai, U. S. Ordnance Dept., Reporter.

Col. Jas. Page, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

F. Tellinghaus, Esq., New York.

A Silver Medal was awarded to Samuel Colt, Hartford, “for various kinds of Revolving Fire Arms. The wide-spread reputation and extended use of these arms, entitle the inventor, in opinion of the jury, to the highest distinction they can award. The arms presented at the Exhibition are of superior workmanship and finish.”

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 180-181
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 180

Display by F. Grote & Co. Ivory Source

Link to a display by F. Grote & Co., a significant ivory source to Colt’s, from the Free Library of Philadelphia site. Grote’s exhibition was at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, but the company’s history dates back to the period of Samuel Colt, as early as the 1850s.

Display

Contested Will Cases

Data from The New York Times, February 3rd 1882, “Contested Will Cases,” on the will of the late James Stokes, is related also to ivory source F. Grote & Co. (and senior member of the firm, Frederick Grote). Access via ProQuest Historical Newspapers New York Times (1851-2006) w/ Index (1851-1993), p. 3.

Yet another New York Times article appears February 8, 1888, “An Ivory Firm Confesses Judgment.” The article states the business F. Grote & Co. “was established in 1847 by Frederick Grote, who died in 1881. He was successful and amassed a small fortune…” The article notes that “at times [the company] employed 250 hands, and have carried as high as $200,000 in stock. The firm has placed its affairs in the hands of the creditors who have selected William Steinway, the piano manufacturer, as chairman.”

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 194-195
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 194

Engraved Presentation Recipient H.A.G. Pomeroy

Link to Google Books data on H.A.G. Pomeroy, recipient of extraordinary cased and engraved set of shoulder stocked Model 1851 Navy revolver (no. 69640) and Model 1855 Sidehammer revolver (no. 4473), from Colonel Colt. The deluxe set has been pictured in numerous texts, including in The Colt Engraving Book, Volume I, page 128:

Google Book

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 200-201
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 200

British Royal Navy Colt Revolver Orders

An article on the British Royal Navy ordering Colt revolvers can be accessed from the Omnium Gatherum, April 25th 1854, by using the keyword: “Samuel Colt.” Access is via the Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts. Find the newspaper and article date and click to open.

Newspaper Article

Photos of Samuel Colt Presents

Time, Inc. photo files from Life magazine includes a color photograph made by Life Magazine photographer Eliot Elisofon, in the fall of 1961, at the “Samuel Colt Presents” exhibition, at the Wadsworth Atheneum which relates to London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. A cased set of Dragoon and Squareback Model 1851 Navy revolvers are pictured as a double page spread in Life’s issue of March 2, 1962, entitled “Colt’s Pistols.” These revolvers were form the cased set presented to H.R.H. Prince Albert. The Baby Dragoon was presented to H.R.H. Edward, Prince of Wales. The set of London Navy revolvers had been made for Emperor Napoleon III of France.

Colt Revolvers and “Chinese Insurgents”

Link to the Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts for an article on Colt revolvers from the London factory, for “Chinese Insurgents.” Enter: “Col. Colt” and find the article under “Omnium Gatherum.” The date of publication, June 6th 1854.

Article

[pointing hand motif] Among the latest orders sent to Col. Colt’s armory in London, is one for 1000 revolving pistols to be distributed among the Chinese insurgents.

The Colt London Agency

For decades, the most important international agency for the Colt Company was that in London. The first address listed for Colt in that quite international city was as of December 1851, at 1 Spring Gardens, off Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square. As stated in Joseph G. Rosa’s book, Col. Colt London (page 30), “It was only a small place, but it was central enough to keep [Colonel Colt] in contact with Government departments and the Board of Ordnance, a short distance away in Pall Mall.”

As stated further by Rosa (page 36), “Colt’s London sales office continued to accept and execute orders as fast as arms could be obtained. Indeed, Spring Gardens remained in use until 31st March 1855, when Colt obtained larger and better premises at 14 Pall Mall, ‘opposite the Reform Club’, where the office was to remain for almost sixty years.”

The Pall Mall address was replaced c. 1891-92 by 26 Glasshouse Street, Piccadilly. Then in 1904 the address was moved to 15A Pall Mall, where it would be through 1913, prior to the beginning of World War I.

In 1976 Rosa interviewed Norah Goodbody, the daughter of longtime Colt agent, James Goodbody. Miss Goodbody was then 90, having been born c. 1886. Quoting Rosa: “She remembered ‘The Baron’ as they all called von Oppen, although until I told her she did not realize it was just a name since he was not a baron. She recalled coming home from school one day to be met by a friend who told her that Buffalo Bill was in her house, and, indeed he was. Cody had arrived asking her father to repair one of his pistols. That would have been c. 1892. Miss Goodbody was a lovely old lady and I could have spent hours chatting to her about the agency.”

Charles Dickens’ Household Words Publication

Charles Dickens’ Household Words publication carried the famed author’s description of a tour he made of Colonel Colt’s London factory. The Google Books link which follows did not present that article in its entirety, but as a reprint accompanying the Institution of Civil Engineers presentation of Colt’s lecture of November 25, 1851. That lecture, and paper, was entitled: “On the Application of Machinery to the Manufacture of Rotating Chambered-Breech Fire-Arms, and Their Peculiarities” The lecture was noted as by “Colonel Samuel Colt, Assoc. Inst. C.E. (To Whom a Telford Medal Was Awarded, Session 1851-52) with an Abstract of the Discussion Upon the Paper. Edited by Charles Manby, F.R.S., M. Inst. C.E. Secretary. Third Edition.” The date listed on the title page for the reprint is 1855, and the printing was by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross, London.

The date of publication of Dickens’ Household Words personal tour was originally on May 27th 1854. Present at the beginning of that original article were three lengthy paragraphs, and present at the end was the following paragraph: “My companion has nothing more to show me except the baths and the reading room, supplied chiefly with newspapers, for the benefit of the workmen; so I bid him good day, and go out of the smell of hot rank oil, to enjoy more keenly the cool breeze that is blowing from the river.”

Reprint Edition

For the complete article, see Household Words, no. 218, May 27th 1854, page 354. The website link listed below, British Periodicals, requires paid registration to access their archives.

Complete Article

Colt’s London Operations

From The Manchester Guardian, December 10th 1851, in a detailed article about a dinner honoring R.J. Walker, “late secretary to the treasury of the United States, having accepted an invitation to dine with the merchants of Manchester, the dinner was held, last evening, at the Albion Hotel, Piccadilly [London], when about 120 gentlemen sat down…” Among the guests, and at the head table, was Colonel Colt.

Colonel Colt and his London Factory

Extensive coverage on Col. Colt and his factory in London, and the proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee, appeared in The Observer of London, April 23rd 1854.

Colonel Colt’s Plans to Export to the Cape of Good Hope

The Manchester Guardian of January 17th 1852, publishers of an article about Colonel Colt’s plans to “export to the Cape of Good Hope, certain cases containing about four hundred and fifty revolving fire-arms of various sizes, with the bullet moulds, & c., complete, now in the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, the same being intended for the use of officers serving in that colony.“

“Christmas Dinner to the Poor”

The reader should consult the article “Christmas Dinner to the Poor,” from The Observer, January 9th 1853, revealing of the donation to that event, by Colonel Colt “an American gentleman.

CHAPTER 4 PAGE 202-203
CHAPTER 4 PAGE 203

Artist’s Rendering of the Colt London Factory

An artist’s rendering of the Colt London factory appeared in The Espositor of October 29th 1853, a journal published in London.

Link to Garwood & Voigt Gallery, London, England, with print showing Colt factory site at center right, to left of spired church on East river bank. Compare to image of Colt’s factory in The Espositor of October 29th 1853. This birds-eye view in the Garwood & Voigt Gallery, The Illustrated London News, 1859.

Garwood & Voigt Gallery Image

CHAPTER 5

PAGE 205

Samuel Colt’s Exhibition at the Fair at the Maryland Institute

Reference to Samuel Colt’s exhibition of arms at the Fair at the Maryland Institute, Baltimore, was published in The Sun, November 2nd 1857, volume XLI, issue no. 148, page 1. Quoting the citation to Colt, from the detailed listing of “Awards of Premiums”:

“CLASS No. 40.- Samuel Colt, Hartford, Conn., for pistols and rifles, deposited yesterday by Merrill Latrobe & Thomas, certificate of gold medal; John Stokes, for case of guns, diploma.”

Among other winners of awards was Steinway & Sons, N.Y. “for grand piano, gold medal”.

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 206-207
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 206

Chestnut Street Theatre c. 1855

In this link the Free Library of Philadelphia, access can be made to an image of the Chestnut Street Theatre, c. 1855. A shooting gallery is at the upper right in the photograph, adjacent to a depiction of a shooter firing a handgun.

Photograph

The Industrial Revolution in Hartford

Link to the Hog River Journal site, with the Ellsworth Grant article, “The Miracle on Capital Avenue,” dealing with the industrial revolution, in Hartford. Note the relationships between Samuel Colt, his company, and other firms in the city, “one of the wealthiest per capita in America” and “transformed the nature of work for the average laborer.”

Article

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 208-209
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 208

The Dedication of Charter Oak Hall

The complete period monograph, “Proceedings at the Dedication of Charter Oak Hall Upon the South Meadow Grounds of Col. Samuel Colt. With the Addresses on the Occasion by Messrs. Hamersley, Stuart, and Deming.” Edited by J. Deane Alden, listed within as Colonel Colt’s Private Secretary. Note reference to H.A.G. Pomeroy as Colt’s Engineer.

Google Books

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 216-217
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 216

Artisan Christian J. Deyhle

Artisan Christian J. Deyhle is another talented carver known to have embellished ivory grips for Samuel Colt. Identifying positively the carver of wooden grips in the percussion period at Colts has yet to be determined. Might this also have been the gifted Deyhle?

Christian Deyhle came to the U.S. from Germany, in 1848, brought by Colt to carve ivory grips. Quoting from Volume I of The Colt Engraving Book, p. 77: “The set of silver-mounted Charter Oak and ivory lamp shades in the Wadsworth Atheneum, depicting patriotic motifs, the Colt factory, and other subjects, are signed by Deyhle. As noted in William Hosley’s Colt The Making of an American Legend, pages 135-137 “…one shade represented American liberty, and the other Colt’s empire, the former a not infrequent subject celebrated in the often richly carved ivory grips for Colt percussion revolvers.”

Christian Deyhle, 1880 United States Federal Census

Name: Christian Deyhle
Home in 1880: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age: 60
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1820
Birthplace: Wurttemberg
Relation to Head of Household: Father-in-law
Father’s birthplace: Wurttemberg
Mother’s birthplace: Wurttemberg
Neighbors: View others on page
Occupation: Ivory Turner
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Cannot read/write:

Household Members

Name	Age
Jacob L. Rothman	24
Minnie Rothman	23
Laura Rothman	2
Chas. L. Rothman	1
Christian Deyhle	60
Laura Deyhle	20
Charles Deyhle	16

New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

Name: Christian Deyhle
Arrival Date: 17 Apr 1855
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1821
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Port of Departure: Le Havre, France
Ship Name: “F.A. Palmer”

Search Ship Database: Search the “FA Palmer” in the “Passenger Ships and Images”

Port of Arrival: New York
Line: 24
Microfilm Serial: M237
Microfilm Roll: M237_151
List Number: 214
Port Arrival State: New York
Port Arrival Country: United States

PATENTS: See Google Patents: Christian J. Deyhle

Naturalization: Nov. 22nd, 1858 New York Court of Common Pleas
Christian J. Deyhle died March 8th 1891, at age 70, of consumption.

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 220-221
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 220

Delmonico’s Restaurant

Established in New York City, 1837, Delmonico’s restaurant continues to this day, represented by the following website link. As one of the foremost restaurants of its day, the firm’s fare was available to dignitaries keen on the best the city could offer, such as the likes of Samuel Colt.

Delmonico’s Restaurant

Developing the South Meadows Property

For data on Colonel Colt’s $6,000 expenditure for purchase of land in Hartford, in his intent to develop the South Meadows property, site of his proposed new factory complex, see the Hartford Daily Courant, August 30th 1852.

Charter Oak Carvings

A Dwight H. Buell of Hartford, a jeweler, had a connection to Mark Twain and a man named James W. Paige who may have worked at Colt’s.

Buell, with a Miss Mary H. Wells, is listed in an 1864 (U.S. Sanitary Fair, Chicago) publication as each having made Charter Oak articles. This connection to the Charter Oak calls for further research.

Google Book

Dwight H. Buell

Later Census records show Dwight H. Buell as having been born in Connecticut, to Connecticut-born parents.

Might Buell have carved Charter Oak items for Samuel Colt? Buell’s craftsmanship is in addition to the work already known on Charter Oak creations, by John H. Most.

Additional Information on the Charter Oak

Extensive information on the Charter Oak is presented via this link to the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic.

Digital Mosaic

Inspirations of the Charter Oak

Link from the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic, which demonstrates the many inspirations of the Charter Oak. Note the reference to the Colt factory in Hartford, as the site of the Charter Oak Lawn Mower’s manufacture, c. 1884-1886.

Images of Charter Oak

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 224-225
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 225

Photograph of the Charter Oak Tree

Link to the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic, illustrating a photograph of the Charter Oak, before it fell. From The Connecticut Historical Society collections, predating the fall, on August 21, 1856. Other photographs of the tree, still standing, can also be found on this website. One was printed from a negative made in 1855.

Digital Mosaic

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 228-229
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 229

Exchange Corner on State Street

Link to the University of Connecticut University Libraries Digital Mosaic, with image of the Exchange Corner, on State Street, in Hartford, where at the time Gustave Young had a shop. Note at right center, above the second floor: “G. YOUNG-ENGRAVER.” From The Connecticut Historical Society’s Samuel Taylor Collection; the Mosaic description suggesting the date at c. 1866-67.

Photo of Exchange Corner

Travels of Gustave Young

Information regarding the travels of Gustave Young, leading to what is likely the first meeting of Young with Samuel Colt, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, London: Note 2/3rds the way down the page of “A List of Aliens,” the signature “Gustav Jung”, and the notation under “Profession” of “fabricant” and his “Native Country” as “Prussia.” Young had traveled to London via Ostend, on September 13 1851, sailing on the Triton. On Young’s arrival in the United States, the entry records also list him as Gustav Jung.

To view the entry ledger recording this visit, for a nominal fee one can access the website, ancestry.com and request the page of the Triton’s arrival list in London (via Ostend), which sailed on September 13th 1851. Young’s name on the page listing appears to be “Gustav Tung,” and the request may need to be made using that spelling.

CHAPTER 5 PAGE 230-231
CHAPTER 5 PAGE 230

Rare Lithograph of Philadelphia Schutzen-Verein

Link to ImPAC, The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, which will enable locating rare C.P. & A.J. Tholey lithograph of the Philadelphia Schutzen-Verein, 1869. Once ImPAC has been accessed, then enter search keyword “Philadelphia Schutzen-Verein” to locate image. Note the portrait nature of each man’s image, as well as presence of several single shot Schutzen rifles. The Colt company had marksmen in its employ, several of whom were Germans. For single shot rifles in percussion and in breechloading configurations, see The Book of Colt Firearms, pages 207-208 and 475-479 (the Berdan).

Lithograph

Aaron Wolff’s Old Wine Store

Link to ImPAC The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, by which can be accessed a photograph of Aaron Wolff’s old wine store, by F. De B. Richards, photographer, April 1859. Fourth floor windows show targets, of rifle and pistol gallery of Mahlon Warne. Once you have accessed The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, enter in keywords “Aaron Wolff’s old wine store. ”

Photo

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 234-235
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 235

Note Signed by Samuel Colt

Link for the intriguing $50 interest-bearing three-year note, issued under the Act of 1861, and signed by Samuel Colt.

Image

Pay to the order of Col. Samuel Colt can be seen on the right side of the face of the bill, and Colt’s signature is on the reverse.

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 236-237
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 236

Armand Soubie, New Orleans Arms Dealer

Link to New Orleans arms dealer Armand Soubie (including reference to P. Bouron, Successor to Soubie) in sites of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the University of North Carolina Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.

Digital Collection

Hartford Daily Courant Article by Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War

Reference is made to an article in the Hartford Daily Courant, September 6th 1853, by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, some eight years later, President of the Confederate States of America. “He reached this city, in sufficient season yesterday morning to inspect the establishment of Col. Colt.” Davis had been a guest of Col. Hazard of Enfield, prior to the visit to Hartford.

The Civil War: Colt’s Loyalty to the Union & Dealings with the South

Questions involved Colonel Colt’s loyalty to the Union, and shipments to the South prior to, and allegedly during, the Civil War were first dealt with factually by John E. Parsons, in “New Light on Old Colts,” in The Texas Gun Collector magazine, later reprinted by the study’s author. Thoroughly examining four serial number record books which had been discovered in a factory attic by Louis Hafner from the firm’s patent department, Parsons answered many questions about post-1860 production, and was the first to draw up serial number-by-year tables for handgun models from 1861 through 1873, and the end of that era.

On the question of Civil War sales, Parsons’ concluded that Colt, though having many Confederate officers and leaders who were either friends or acquaintances, acted responsibly. To quote:

“Among the significant facts revealed by the ledgers is the volume of sales made by Colt in the Southern States just prior to the Civil War. Legend has it that the Colonel was not averse to doing business with both sides; certainly his arms were in demand everywhere. Yet the amount of factory shipments south of the Mason Dixon line was relatively small, and they ceased altogether on April 15, 1861. This was four days after the firing on Fort Sumter and the day President Lincoln called for troops. The largest consignment of all, 1100 Army pistols, went to Kittredge & Folsom in New Orleans between March 28th and April 9th This firm was of Northern origin but its customers undoubtedly had Confederate sympathies. The last shipment, 500 Army pistols, went by express to Peter Williams & Co., Richmond, Virginia, April 15th. Previously J.R. Anderson of the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond had obtained 250 Navy revolvers on February 6th. Other military arms shipped south were 300 Army pistols to Georgia December 27, 1860; 60 Navy to South Carolina January 3, 1861; 70 Navy to Gravely & Pringle and 50 Army to William M. Sage, Charleston, S.C., January 15th; 72 Navy to James Conning, Mobile, Alabama, same date; 160 Army (with 80 attachable breech stocks) to William T. Martin, Natchez, Mississippi, January 17th; 100 Navy (with 50 cavalry sabers) to P.A. Peale & Co., Vicksburg, Mississippi, January 21st; and 50 Navy to H.D. Norton & Bros., San Antonio, Texas, March 29th.”

During the same period there were numerous case lot shipments to Colt’s New York agency at 240 Broadway and to dealers such as Joseph C. Grubb & Co. of Philadelphia, B. Kittredge & Co. of Cincinnati, A.W. Spies & Co., Schuyler, Hartley & Graham, John P. Moore’s Sons, Cooper & Pond and Smith, Crane & Co. of New York, William Read & Sons of Boston, F.B. Loney & Co. of Baltimore and Child, Pratt and Fox of St. Louis. Undoubtedly some of these arms found their way south before the commencement of hostilities.

Procurement of military size Colts in the North went much slower. Before April, 1861, the ledgers reflect no deliveries to governmental agencies, unless through dealers’ consignments just mentioned. On April 4th 300 Army revolvers were shipped to the United States Quartermaster in New York, and on April 19th T.J. Stead, Quartermaster General in Providence, R.I., received 50 revolvers of the old dragoon pattern. Large quantities of Navy pistols were shipped to various dealers through April, but not until May 9th was there a consignment of 250 Army size to the United States Navy Yard, New York. On May 21st a lot of 500 Army revolvers was shipped to Major William A. Thornton, New York Arsenal, and on the next day 250 to the Boston Navy Yard. The next delivery of 500 Army pistols occurred June 4th to Capt. R.W.K. Whitely, United States Arsenal, Governor’s Island. The Boston Navy Yard received another 250 Army pistols June 8th, and on June 11th Mayor Hath of Cincinnati was shipped two cases of Navy revolvers (100) “for the C;F.V.” Not until June 14th did William Dennison of Ohio receive 500 Army revolvers which he had ordered the previous November and December.

Col. Colt was quite impartial between North and South in making presentations. The first ledger notes on January 30, 1861 that a dozen pistol cases were sent through the New York office to Maj. W.H. Emory, Capt. J.W. Davidson, Col. C.A. May, Col. J.E. Johnston, Capt. Wm. Manadier, Maj. Ben McCullough, Mr. And Mrs. Jacob Thompson, Hon. and Mrs. Howell Cobb, Gov. and Mrs. John B. Floyd. Each case contained a .36 calibre pistol, six of them having 5-1/2 inch barrels and the others 4-1/2 inch. The first five officers mentioned had recently been members of Army ordnance boards passing favorably on Colt arms. McCullough was a long-time enthusiast for Colts since his days in the Texas Rangers. Thompson of Mississippi, Cobb of Georgia and Floyd of Virginia had all been members of President Buchanan’s cabinet, the latter as Secretary of War. Johnston and the last four named were to serve prominently in the Confederacy, others for the Union.

The only entry found of an actual presentation inscription relates to a new model Army .44 calibre revolver with a 6-inch barrel “Engraved to Lieut. Nelson U.S. Navy from Col. Colt.” It was sent via the New York office March 15, 1861. But on the same day two Army pistols with eight inch barrels in mahogany cases were dispatched to Major William A. Thornton care D.D. Tompkins, Assistant Quartermaster General, New York. Major Thornton, a well known ordnance officer who had often inspected Colt arms, obtained four more cased Army revolvers on June 8th for friends in the 2nd United States Artillery: O.D. Greene, J.H. Carlisle, B.H Hill and J.M. Wilson. It does not appear whether these pistols were inscribed. Previously a pair of 8-inch Army revolvers went to “Col. Craig U.S.A. Comdg. Ordnance Corps from Colt’s P.F.A. Mfg. Co.,” and perhaps were so inscribed. Colonel Craig retired April 23, 1861.

Two Southern officers who ordered for themselves cased Army revolvers of the new model were Col. William Wing Loring and Capt. Dabney H. Maury. Both soon resigned from the U.S. Mounted Rifles, in which they had served since the Mexican War, to join the Confederate Army and become eventually major generals. Captain Maury was a nephew of the naval hydrographer Matthew Fontaine Maury, in whose care the pistol was directed to be sent. After the war, Col. Loring served in the Egyptian Army and rose to the honorary status of pasha.

As an added observation on Civil War sales, James L. Mitchell’s Colt A Collection of Letters and Photographs About the Man, the Arms, the Company, in a folio of illustrations between pages 128-129 pictures an order dated April 18, 1861, on the letterhead of the “Confederate States of America, Navy Department. Montgomery.” The request, also published in the text (p. 77) was expressed “Can you furnish this Department with two hundred Navy revolvers…If so, send them…by express here, or if not then to Anderson & Co., Tredegar Works, Richmond, with orders to forward, or ship to Savannah or Charleston or New Orleans – with a hundred rounds of ammunition for each.” The order is signed by S.R. Mallory, Secretary of the [Confederate] Navy.

Significantly, the original letter bears on the reverse side the simple hand-written notation, “not sent.”

James L. Mitchell’s book reflects the anger directed at Colt, from those who felt he was selling to the South (p. 78):

Springfield
April 15, 1861
Colonel Samuel Colt

Dear Sir:

It is gathered from reliable sources that you are manufacturing and shipping ARMS SOUTH in response to orders from the traitors. Now Sir, I am able to inform you that if you fulfill any more orders or ship further supplies South from this date, your establishment will be most thoroughly cleaned out. Yours with respect due a traitor.

(s) Member of V.C. (Vigilance Committee)

To pursue the subject of Colt and the South further, see Mitchell’s chapter “Southern Sales,” and “Southern Armories.”

For a letter relevant to Colt and the Civil War, and the South, see page 541 of Volume II.

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 238-239
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 239

Swiss Chalet Style Worker Houses

From the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic, illustrated photograph of nine Swiss Chalet style worker houses, originally constructed to house employees of the Willow-Ware Manufacturing Co., at Potsdam Village, Coltsville. Photograph c. 1890-1909.

Photograph

William Hosley Quotes

The back cover of the paperback edition of William Hosley’s Colt The Making of an American Legend states that the Colt revolver was “the first truly global manufacturing export in U.S. History.”

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 244-245
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 244

General Benjamin F. Butler

Among the diners at Delmonico’s, an acquaintance of Samuel Colt, and owner of Colt revolvers, General Benjamin F. Butler (depicted in 1874), from this New York Public Library Digital Gallery link.

Lithograph

Presentation Colt to Parson Brownlow

Link to the Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts for an article on a presentation Colt to Parson Brownlow. Once reaching the site, enter “Presentation Pistol”, and look for the publication date, June 24th 1862. Although the article does not mention Colt, see The Colt Engraving Book, volume I, pages 174-175, for what is likely to be that revolver, a cased, engraved and inscribed Model 1861 Navy, serial no. 5727/., from the Colt’s Armory workman, June 1862.

Publication

Parson Brownlow Wikipedia Page

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 250-251
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 251

Eustace Barron and Family

Link to background data on Eustace Barron and his family, from Appleton’s annual cyclopedia and register of important events, via Google Books.

Google Book

Further Data on Eustace Barron

Link to further data on Eustace Barron, provided via Google Books. Eustace Barron’s father was important to California, before and after the Mexican War. As British Counsel to Mexico, he was also well positioned to oversee a thriving business.

Google Book

Eustace Barron & Railroading

More on Eustace Barron, this time in railroading, from a Google Books link.

Google Book

More Tales of Eustace Barron

Eustace Barron, owner of the gold-finished deluxe set of shoulder stocked and cased Colt Model 1860 Army revolvers:

From The Brisbane Courier, Friday, February 22nd 1867

“News By The Mail From Our Own Correspondent.”

London, December, 1866: “One would hardly suppose that from all we have heard of the state of Mexico, its Emperor in a state of bankruptcy, its Empress mentally afflicted by her troubles, the country would be much given to displays of wealth and luxury, but it seems that though its Governments perish the motto of the Mexicans is toujours gai. An American gentleman gives an account of a ball costume there, which would have been memorable in even the most prosperous of cities. The dresses which, by-the-way, were all procured from Paris at, of course, a fabulous expense, were most splendid, and jewels of extraordinary brilliancy adorned many of the ladies. Mr. Eustace Barron, a wealthy banker, was the giver of this splendid entertainment, his sister, Madame Antonion Escandon, being the hostess. This lady was attired as “Fire;” her dress was of black and crimson velvet, with fiery flames embroidered on the skirt, and the real fire which flashed from the magnificent jewels she wore carried out the personification to perfection. Another lady represented “Air,” and one as “Night” commanded great admiration; but to give a description of every charming dress would take up my whole space; I can only therefore further tell you that on this occasion the Mexicans fairly vied with the Parisians.”

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 276-277
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 276

Colt Pocket Navy Depicted in Election Cartoon

Depiction of a Colt Pocket Navy revolver, in an election cartoon by Thomas Nast, January 1877, from The Granger Collection website. Artist’s license has the capping cutout and barrel lug loading cutout on the left side of the cocked revolver.

Cartoon

Evidently Thomas Nast owned a Pocket Navy Colt revolver, since a February 1877 election cartoon repeats the same revolver as used in the above-noted January 1877 election cartoon. Also from The Granger Collection website.

CHAPTER 6 PAGE 278-279
CHAPTER 6 PAGE 279

J.C. Grubb & Company

ImPAC, The Library Company of Philadelphia Digital Collections, will enable access to photograph of the J.C. Grubb & Co. store in Philadelphia. The firm was a major distributor and dealer in Colt firearms. Once ImPAC has been accessed, then enter in the keywords “J.C. Grubb & Co. store” or, a broader search using the term “Grubb” to view image.

Digital Collection

Lithograph Showing Gun Shop of Andrew Wurfflein, 1861

Link to ImPAC, The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, which will enable viewing of an 1861 lithograph showing the shop of Andrew Wurfflein, of Philadelphia, at the beginning of the Civil War. Print in the collections of the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent. Once the ImPAC site has been accessed, enter the keywords: “Andrew Wurfflein gun shop” or, use a broader search term “Andrew Wurfflein” and the image will be located.

Digital Collection

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 PAGE 282-283
CHAPTER 7 PAGE 283

Samuel Colt and Company

An interesting website including several references to Samuel Colt and the company, including a document listing primarily female employees in the Colt Cartridge Works (1855) is provided by the following link, to “Connecticut History on the Web.”

Connecticut History on the Web

CHAPTER 7 PAGE 286-287
CHAPTER 7 PAGE 286

The International Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA

Link to the Report of the Board on Behalf of United States Executive Departments at the International Exhibition Held at Philadelphia, PA., 1876, Under Acts of Congress of March 3, 1875, and May 1, 1876. In Two Volumes. Published by the Government Printing Office, 1884. Volume I includes numerous firearms, by a variety of makers, exhibited, several of which are Colts. From the Google Books site.

Google Book

Calcutta International Exhibition

Link from Google Books regarding the Calcutta International Exhibition, 1883-84, Volume II. Reference made to “Military Exhibits” and the Fort William Arsenal. A Paterson Colt holster model was included in the exhibition.

Google Book

Smith & Wesson, Colt, Allen’s XL and Remington Displays

In a link from Google Books, the Twelfth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, at Faneuil and Quincy Halls, Boston, September and October, 1874, and published in that year, lists a reference to display of a “Case containing samples of Smith & Wesson, Colt, Allen’s XL and Remington revolvers and pistols. Many of these were highly finished, being plated with gold, silver, and nickel, and having ivory and pearl handles.”

Google Book

War Department Exhibit at the Centennial Exposition

Google Books link which presents the Catalogue of the Exhibit of The War Department at the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 4 to October 27, 1888, printed in that year. Colt and many other makes of firearms were represented in this comprehensive event. Some of the Colt firearms were lent “From the Colt’s Arms Co.”

Google Book

Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876

Links to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, featuring the Laflin Orange Powder Co., and the Collins Company.

Laflin Orange Powder Co.

Collins Company

Placido Zuloaga at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition

Link to participation of Placido Zuloaga, son of renowned damascene and sculpted steel embellisher of Spain, to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Participants and attendants to the Colt company display would likely have also seen this display.

Photo

The Cotton States and International Exhibition, 1895

Link to yet another major exhibition in which the Colt company participated: The Cotton States and International Exhibition of 1895. Following is the official catalogue of the event, from Google Books. A number of firearms are listed on pages 170-173. Colt, Marlin, Savage and Winchester were among the exhibitors, in Group 50, see nos. 67-71.

Google Book

For further information on the Cotton States and International Exhibition, 1895, see the following link, to Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.

Wikipedia

Winchester Grand Prize, Cotton States and International Exhibition

In this link, a reference to Winchester having won the Grand Prize at the Cotton States and International Exhibition, 1895, one can view a Winchester advertisement, and just below that, a notice about the forthcoming Sportsman’s Exposition, at Madison Square Garden, New York City.

Google Book

Sportsman’s Exposition, 1897, Madison Square Garden

Link to the Sportsman’s Exposition of 1897, at Madison Square Garden, New York City, via Google Books. The source, The Sportsman’s Magazine, of April 1897, includes a photograph taken of the Colt company’s exhibit, and provides a general description of highlights from the firm’s displays.

Google Book

CHAPTER 7 PAGE 296-297
CHAPTER 7 PAGE 297

Gun Makers in Hartford, 1880

Partial tabulation of gunmakers in Hartford, 1880, put together by Conor FitzGerald, based on U.S. Census records, accessed on ancestry.com. Access directly to ancestry.com requires subscription by the user.

Partial Listing of Gun Makers in Hartford

From United States Census 1880

Name	Parent/Spouse Names	Home in 1880	Birth Year	Birthplace	Relation
Adam Brodmaun	Cathrine	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1822	Wurttemberg	Self (Head)
Chas. Halbricht	Louisa	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1825	Germany	Self (Head)
Alfred G. Herrington	Etta S.	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1830	New York	Self (Head)
Josiah Howe		Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1831	Massachusetts	Uncle
Emanuel Janks	Emma	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1823	England	Self (Head)
Charles Kutecher	Margaret	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1837	Prussia	Self (Head)
John Naer		Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1818	Pennsylvania	Self (Head)
Pat O'Hagan		Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1841	Ireland	Something other than a direct relationship (Other)
Chas. H. Saunders	Helen A.	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1841	Connecticut	Self (Head)
Paul F. Snyder	Terassa	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1841	Sax Cobury	Self (Head)
Marshall St. John	Bridget	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1829	Canada	Self (Head)
Chas. Statlinger	Johann	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1821	Germany	Self (Head)
David Watkinson	Sarah	Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1848	Connecticut	Self (Head)
Jas. W. Wood	Sarah A., Adelia	East Hartford, Connecticut	abt 1837	Massachusetts	Self (Head)

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 326-327
CHAPTER 9 PAGE 327

Quotation of Undetermined Source

The source of the following quotation has yet to be determined:

Be not afraid of any man,
No matter what his size.
Just call on me in time of need,
And I will equalize.

The earliest reference known to the authors has been located in the following source: Education and American Civilization, by George Sylvester Counts, Horace Mann-Lincoln Institute of School Experimentation (1952). In that 491-page volume the reference appears on page 79.

Fair Warning

From The Granger Collection website, movie still with actor checking his 4-3/4 inch Single Action Army revolver. Fair Warning, 1931, starred George O’Brien and Mitchell Harris.

Film Still

The Fighting Roosevelts

Another film still from The Granger Collection website: The Fighting Roosevelts, a silent made in 1919. 5-1/2 inch Single Action Army cocked and ready for action.

Film Still

William S. Hart’s Handgun Collection

Link via Google to the Time, Inc., Life magazine photograph archives, with c. 1945 images by Peter Stackpole, of William S. Hart, including his handgun collection. These pieces once “belonging to old time Western bandits and pioneers.” Single Action Army revolver at upper left of collection believed to be one that Hart had acquired, alleged to have belonged to Billy the Kid. Several other Hart images also shown.

Photograph

Draped in the American Flag, Pistol Aimed

Link to a classic patriotic image likely taken in the Sierra Nevadas. The photograph on the University of California site, Calisphere, from the Bancroft Library Portrait Collection, Berkeley. Photograph titled, Draped in the American Flag, Pistol Aimed, by Elisha Winchell (c. 1826-1913).

Photograph

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 334-335

Patent Drawing for Colt Automatic Ejection Revolver

Patent drawing needed for Colt automatic ejection revolver, serial no. 21203. Patent issued to: Stephen W. Wood, no. 178824, of June 13, 1876.

Patent PDF

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 340-341
CHAPTER 9 PAGE 340

The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition

Link to the Free Library of Philadelphia, with an image from the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The exquisite cabinetry often found in the finest promotions including by gunmakers like Colt’s. Wm. H. Horstmann & Sons was also known to have dealt in Colt firearms.

Image

John P. Lower, Sportsmen’s Depot

Link to the Denver Public Library, Digital Collections website, a photograph of the façade of J.P. Lowers shop, Sportsmen’s Depot, titled ‘John P. Lower, guns, rifles, pistols, ammunition sporting and fishing tackle, field and spy glasses, indian goods, &c. 381 Blake Street, Denver, Col.’ Lower was a dealer selling numerous Colt and other make firearms, ammunition and accessories.

Photograph

Sharps Rifle Co.

Note that the Sharps Rifle Co. has been given significant credit for the industrial excellence that was a hallmark of Hartford, Connecticut, beginning in the mid-19th century. To quote Ellsworth Grant’s “The Miracle on Capital Avenue,” on the Hog River Journal website: “Long before the building of the State Capitol, even before the completion of the Colt Armory, another entrepreneur was making rifles in the pasture land between Laurel and Broad streets parallel to the Little or Hog River. The success of Christian Sharps’ gun factory was responsible for the Rifle Avenue name and also the catalyst for a succession of businesses that made Hartford a center of metalworking, and renowned for the skill of its machinists, for a hundred years.”

Hog River Journal

Hartfords Industrial History

A quotation from Ellsworth Grant’s article is the following: “The invention of the sewing machine was the third stage in the evolution of mass production after the principles of interchangeability were applied to clocks and guns. The Weed Company played a major role in making Hartford one of three machine tool centers in New England and even outranked the Colt Armory in size if not fame. Weed eventually was the birthplace of both the bicycle and automobile industries.”

Note that eventually (1878) the name “Rifle Avenue” was replaced by what is today known as “Capitol Avenue,” in Hartford.

Grant closes his article with this statement: “Today, none of the incubators of the miracle on Capitol Avenue remain. They accounted for the progression of mass production from guns to sewing machines to machine tools to bicycles to automobiles and, finally, to jet aircraft engines. It would be hard to match that record of entrepreneurial ingenuity anywhere, at anytime.”

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 344-345
CHAPTER 9 PAGE 344

Abdullah Bey

From an Austrian site, this link reveals a period photograph of a horseman, Abdullah Bey, on the Graf Lanckoronskische Expedition (1883). Photograph credited to Karl Anton Graf (1848-1933), Bey appears to be armed with a Single Action Colt revolver, the grips likely of bone, ivory or pearl.

Photograph

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 358-359

Display Case Designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter

One of the most distinguished architects of the era, Edward Tuckerman Potter was first brought to Hartford by the recently widowed Mrs. Samuel Colt. She wished to carry on with memorializing her late husband, and sought the right designer of a private museum, which she termed a Cabinet of Memorials, for display at Armsmear.

In future years, Potter would serve as architect for several projects in Hartford, not the least of which was Mark Twain’s mansion and carriage house at Nook Farm on Farmington Avenue.

Potter also designed the Colt Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd (completed January 1869), as well as the Parish House, the latter in memory not only of Caldwell Colt, but of the Colonel and all of the children.

Within the concept of the Armsmear Memorial was a large wall cabinet, in which were displayed not only Colt firearms, but arms which represented the history of the revolver, miscellaneous souvenirs of European travel, and gifts to the Colonel.

When R.L. Wilson first came to the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1959, to interview for a curatorial internship for the summer following, he was shown the arms collection. The Colt wing was then closed to the public. The two-story structure, built with funds from Mrs. Colt’s bequest, and joining the original Atheneum building of 1842 with the J.P. Morgan Wing, was dusty and dirty; it was a hot, steamy day. Potter’s huge glass-fronted firearms display case was on the second floor. The arms collection was mounted therein, using fixtures exactly like those found on the Schuyler, Hartley & Graham display board. Some arms were rather precariously mounted, and the entire wing was in grave need of cleaning and renovation.

Night and day during the summer of 1960 Wilson worked in a makeshift office and studio on that second floor, the windows open to circulate a modicum of fresh air. Every piece was removed from the cabinet, and the arduous task was begun which would become, three years later, The Arms Collection of Colt book. That summer intern project also led to Wilson’s first book, Samuel Colt Presents, and to the ambitious loan exhibition which the book chronicled and catalogued.

In the course of cleaning and recording each piece, plans were laid for a re-exhibiting of the collection. Research showed that this was not just the arms collection of Colonel Colt, but also that of his wife. After his death, Mrs. Colt wished to have a representative display of the array of Colt and other-make arms in Armsmear, and what had been in the home c. 1862 was the basis for that presentation. However, since some models were not represented, largely a selection of the Colt company’s line at the time, these were brought to Armsmear.

In 1960-62 the Wadsworth Atheneum decided that the mammoth Potter cabinet was not the best means of displaying the arms, and it was de-accessioned. First going into the collection of Johnie Bassett, of Arkansas, and then, in time became a part of the Robert M. Lee Collection.

Only missing from the huge cabinet, measuring 131 x 54-inches (center cabinet) and 107-1/2 x 99-1/2 inches (each of the side cabinets), were the carved walnut rampant colt figures, at the right and left of the center exhibit space. The side wings had been primarily for hand and long arms, edged weapons, a presentation John Brown Pike, and other weaponry. The center cabinet held such treasures as the wood revolver model carved by Colt as a young seaman, and other items more memorabilia in nature.

On Friday evening, November 3, 1961, the Samuel Colt Presents exhibition opened, with throngs of collectors, museum trustees, and visiting dignitaries viewing the most ambitious display of Colt firearms, 1836-1873 in history. Opening that same evening was the exhibit of the Samuel (and Elizabeth Hart Jarvis) Colt collection, as well as a display of documents, drawings, watercolors, and memorabilia associated with the Colts. The huge case, then still on the second floor – was not open for public viewing, its contents having been removed, and set up downstairs in an elaborately carved room which had also been removed from Armsmear, in 1905.

One means of gauging the importance of the combined loan and Atheneum permanent exhibition is to note that the all-time single day and exhibition attendance figures for the Atheneum were broken, not to be matched for decades. Further, the exhibits became subject of a feature article in two of the foremost magazines of the day: Life (March 3, 1962) and True (June 1962).

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 360-361
CHAPTER 9 PAGE 360

Colt’s in Film

Fancy-gripped and likely engraved Bisley Colt in deluxe hand-tooled holster, from a silent film still on The Granger Collection website.

Silent Film Still

CHAPTER 9 PAGE 362-363
CHAPTER 9 PAGE 363

Von Lengerke & Detmold

Link including two images relevant to Von Lengerke & Detmold, during a 1912 Olympic Victors’ parade, in New York City. This firm ranked among the Colt company’s dealers for many decades, and was later absorbed by Abercrombie & Fitch.

Images

The firm’s main building is on the left of the arched entrance. A magnifying glass is needed to see the detail.

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 PAGE 370-371
CHAPTER 10 PAGE 370

William S. Hart

From the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library digital collections, Yale University, a posed still photograph of film star William S. Hart, armed with a double action Colt revolver.

Film Still

Colt .45

Actor Randolph Scott with Colt revolvers in the film, Colt .45.

Film Still

CHAPTER 10 PAGE 374-375
CHAPTER 10 PAGE 375

The Putnam Phalanx

Photograph of a member of the Putnam Phalanx, of Hartford, Major Horace Goodwin. From The Connecticut Historical Society collections. Photograph taken in 1860.

Photograph

Shooting Trophy

A shooting trophy, on which a set of Colt double action revolvers is the principal component.

Image

CHAPTER 10 PAGE 384-385
CHAPTER 10 PAGE 384

Improvements Required in Arming Police in New York City

Data which indicates improvements required in arming police in the City of New York, quoted from “Report of the Police Department of the City of New York for the Year ending December 31, 1896” (N.Y. Martin B. Brown Company, Printers & Stationers, Nos. 49 and 57 Park Place, 1897). Cited from pages 14 and 15:

“POLICE REVOLVERS

“During the past year, a thorough inspection has been made of the revolvers with which the officers of the Department are equipped. It was found that but comparatively few possessed the standard revolver, and of these a still smaller number were found to [be] in good and serviceable condition. Many [police] were armed with revolvers of a cheap and dangerous pattern of various calibres, and a large percentage out of order and dangerous to the person carrying them as well as to others. The Board, considering it of the highest importance that the Police Force should be armed with a uniform revolver, so that in case of public disturbance, ammunition of a standard calibre and quality could be readily furnished to the entire Force, and it also being important that the Police Force should be equipped with the best and safest arm, a board of recognized experts was appointed for the purpose of investigating and reporting upon the best known Police revolver. The competition was open to all manufacturers, and after a most thorough and careful competition, the committee of experts reported upon a revolver which has since been adopted by the Police Board as the standard for the Department. Officers who are at the present time equipped with revolvers of the former standard, in good condition, are not required to replace them with the new arm, but all others, amounting to more than one-half of the Force, are required to provide themselves forthwith with the new standard. “The importance of this action was further impressed upon the Board by the occurrence of several accidents resulting from the premature or accidental discharge of revolvers, in more than one case resulting in the death to members of the Force.”

For further information see Theodore Roosevelt Hunter-Conservationist, pages 99, 105, and 107, which document the role played by Roosevelt, then Police Commissioner, City of New York, in updating the firearms carried by the force.

Women and Self Defense

Quoting from the Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, California, September 24, 1870, issue [145 and 34], column C:

“A young lady of New Haven, taking example by the heroism of one of her sex in Indiana, publicly announced that it will not be [well] for young gentlemen to offer her insults, as she will go through the streets armed with a Colt’s navy revolver.”

CHAPTER 10 PAGE 388-389
CHAPTER 10 PAGE 388

Illustration of Colt Revolvers and Automatic Pistols

Link providing illustration of a Colt Revolvers and Automatic Pistols price list, of December 4, 1922. From The Connecticut Historical Society Collection. Note reference to “(Destroy all previous lists).”

Advertisement

The Public Enemy

Link from The Granger Collection website, with still from The Public Enemy, Jimmy Cagney sporting a New Service revolver, with Edward Woods also armed with a Colt (1931).

Film Still

CHAPTER 10 PAGE 396-397
CHAPTER 10 PAGE 396

Dewey Loving Cups and Swords

Link from the University of California site, Calisphere, showing the Dewey Loving Cups and Swords, at the exhibition by Tiffany & Co., at the Pan American Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. From the Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography.

Photography

CHAPTER 11

PAGE 405

Colt Government Model .45ACP

For a working schematic of the Colt Government Model .45ACP pistol, see the Colt’s Manufacturing Co., Inc., website.

Colt Manufacturing Co. Inc.

The pistols shows loading and insertion of the magazine, chambering of a round, firing, and ejection. And offers several other animated features.

Greece and Serbia, Ordering Colt Automatic Guns

Link to the Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts, to article on Greece and Serbia ordering Colt “automatic guns,” article in The Patriot, dated October 18, 1915. To access enter “Greece and Serbia, Colt Automatics,” find publication date, and locate article.

Article

It is reported in Hartford that the Colt Arms company has received an order for $16,000,000 worth of automatic guns from Greece and Serbia.

Production of Colt Model 1911

Series of photographs showing production of the Colt Model 1911 Government Model Pistol, from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalogue, by the gifted photographer Andreas Feininger (1906-1999). Images were taken during World War II. Note female gunmakers. Likely due to wartime restrictions, the identity and location of the factory was not revealed.

Among other photographs in this collection are White House police competing in pistol shooting competitions, soldiers training with the .45 Colt at Fort Knox and at Daniel Field, Georgia, and black soldiers from the Civil War, armed with handguns.

Photographs

Troops with Colt 1911 Government Model .45ACP Pistols

From the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library digital collections, Yale University, a troop of U.S. Army soldiers, in the field, with Colt 1911 Government Model .45ACP pistols. Notes indicate their assignment was to the Mexican border, “ca. 1910-1917”.

Photograph

Lt. John Emser

Close up of a Government Model in a shoulder holster, being worn by Lt. John Emser, then leading U.S. Infantry, attacking German fortifications on the Italian front. Photographed by Margaret Bourke-White, at Loiano, April, 1945.

Photograph

Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

From the collections of the Museum of the City of New York, a rare photograph of the interior of the Gun Department at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Note line-up of handguns, despite the fact that the Sullivan Law had been instituted only a short time before this image was taken, in 1913.

Photograph

Popular Science Magazine

Link to an unusual article in Popular Science magazine, September 1917, covering a rather bizarre patent for the Colt Government Model pistol.

Google Book

CHAPTER 11 PAGE 408-409
CHAPTER 11 PAGE 408

Shooting and Fishing Magazine

For further information on Shooting and Fishing magazine, see the following link to Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, on the history of the American Rifleman magazine, a successor to Shooting and Fishing.

Wikipedia

CHAPTER 11 PAGE 424-425
CHAPTER 11 PAGE 424

 Bill McMillan Shooting Trophy

Link to shooting trophy named after U.S. Marine Corps competitive shooter, Bill McMillan, champion shot with the Colt .45, and winner of numerous awards and trophies.

Trophy

CHAPTER 12

PAGE 431

E.K. Tryon, Jr. & Company
Display at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876

Link to the Free Library of Philadelphia site, showing display by company founded by E.K. Tryon, Jr. & Co. at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Tryon is a name which figured prominently in sales of Colt arms over the decades. Note handguns at lower section of exhibition case.

Photograph

The Adventures of the Russian Grand Duke Alexei

For further information on the adventures of the Russian Grand Duke Alexei, whose travels in the U.S. and hunts in the West with W.F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer inspired tremendous national interest, the reader is recommended to consult the Wikipedia website for the Grand Duke Alexei: “In 2006 the diary of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich was found in the Russian National Library along with Yussupov funds. The journal, written in English, begins in 1862 and ends in 1907. It has not been published yet.”

CHAPTER 12 PAGE 444-445
CHAPTER 12 PAGE 444

View of the Park River, Hartford Showing the Dome of Colt’s Factory

A 1925 view of the Park River, Hartford, nears the Dutch Point Station, showing a railroad bridge, and in the far right, the dome of Colt’s factory. From the University of Connecticut  University Libraries Digital Mosaic, and in the collections of The Connecticut Historical Society.

Photograph

CHAPTER 12 PAGE 450-451
CHAPTER 12 PAGE 450

Gatling Gun Company Trade Card

Link to Gatling Gun Co. trade card on the Centennial Exhibition Digital Collection site. The card, c. 1876.

Photograph

Gatling Gun Images

Gatling Gun from a British Library site; from John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and Its People, 1873.

Gatling Gun Images

Link to Gatling Gun stereoscopic image, from the Philippines, on the University of California site, Calisphere. From the Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography.

Gatling Gun Stereoscopic Photograph

CHAPTER 12 PAGE 451

The Dauntless

From the Duluth News-Tribune, published as The Duluth News Tribune; January 4th 1896; Duluth, Minnesota, a brief article about the fate of Caldwell Colt’s yacht, The Dauntless:

THE TATTLER.

…Mrs. Samuel Colt, mother of the late Caldwell Colt, the well known yachtsman, has placed his famous schooner The Dauntless in dock at Essex, Connecticut, where it will be allowed to fall to pieces.

Illustrations and Information on Caldwell Colt’s Yacht

Extensive illustrations and information on Caldwell Colt’s schooner yacht, The Dauntless is provided by this link to the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic. The images include the yacht under sail, racing, interior and deck views, the crew, Caldwell Colt himself, and others, and the end of the vessel, at moorings in Essex, Connecticut, aflame and partly submerged. Colt’s ketch the Oriole is also pictured. Images from the Mystic Seaport collections.

Caldwell Colt’s Schooner Yacht Illustrations

Commodore Colt and the Colt Cup

Link to Google Books for data from Munsey’s Magazine, volume 24, with data on Commodore Caldwell Colt and the Colt Cup.

Google Book

Dining Room of Caldwell Hart Colt’s Yacht The Dauntless

Link to the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic, illustrating the dining room of Caldwell Hart Colt’s schooner yacht, The Dauntless, taken between the years 1882 and 1894. From the Mystic Seaport collection. Note banjo at right.

Caldwell Hart Colt’s Schooner Yacht Images

The Dauntless Double Cabin

Link to the University of Connecticut, University Libraries Digital Mosaic, illustrating the double cabin likely occupied by Caldwell Hart Colt, on his schooner yacht, The Dauntless. c. 1882-1894. From the Mystic Seaport collection. Note cigars and spirits.

Double Cabin on Caldwell Hart Colts Schooner Photo

Gifts from Mrs. Samuel Colt to Larchmont Yacht Club

Link to The New York Times with article noting the gift from Mrs. Samuel Colt of a signal cannon from The Dauntless, to the Larchmont Yacht Club. The present was in memory of Caldwell, and included a statement from Mrs. Colt. Date of publication, May 20th 1894.

Article

Link to another article in The New York Times about the gift of a cannon to the Larchmont Yacht Club, from Mrs. Samuel Colt. That date, two days before, on May 18th 1894, identified the cannon as “the famous brass cannon of the old Dauntless….”

Article

CHAPTER 12 PAGE 454-455
CHAPTER 12 PAGE 454

Uses of the Thompson SubMachine Gun

Including the gun collection in the crime laboratory of Northwestern University, Chicago, this link gives an idea of some of the uses of the Thompson Submachine Gun, which caused grave concern to the makers at Colt’s factory. From the site of the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department.

Photograph

Sir Winston Churchill

An August 1940 photograph from Media Storehouse, of Sir Winston Churchill, with a Thompson Sub Machine Gun, and smoking his trademark cigar.

Photograph

Demonstrations of Colt’s New AR-15 Rifle

Demonstrations of Colt’s new AR-15 rifle, as captured by Life magazine photographer Arthur Rickerby, 1963. Accessed via Google, in the Time, Inc., Life magazine photo archives. Note Del Shorb wearing shooting jacket with Colt logo on pocket. The lady doing much of the firing is recalled by Shorb as a company employee of that period.

Photograph

Alleged Faults of the M16 Rifle

Link to Time Life Pictures/Getty Images, a photograph of U.S. Congressman Richard H. Ichord, in Vietnam, looking into faults alleged of the M16 rifle. An early model with the straight forend, as well as the bolt assist.

A color image of U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, firing a Colt M16 rifle, can be accessed from Getty Images. The Senator wears a quite senatorial suit, and has ear protection. Senator Bentsen was himself a keen shooter and sportsman, and his cousin Calvin Bentsen, also a keen outdoorsman, supplied several Black Rhinoceros to the Disney World safari park, in Orlando, Florida. These had been protected on Calvin Bentsen’s conservation-oriented ranch, in Texas.

Photograph

Hartford Police Patrol Wagon

An illustration of a Hartford Police patrol, in a wagon, with the Model 1895 Colt Browning “potato digger” belt fed and tripod-mounted machine gun. Formerly in the Honiss Oyster House Collection, transferred to The Connecticut Historical Society, 1982.

Illustration

Epilogue

EPILOGUE PAGE 460-461
EPILOGUE PAGE 460

Elizabeth Jarvis Colt’s Gift

From The Morning Herald, published as The Lexington Herald; August 31st 1905; volume 35; issue no. 243; page 1; Lexington, Kentucky, a reference to Mrs. Colt’s gift of her mansion, Armsmear, and of grounds for a park:

CITY MADE BENEFICIARY IN COLT WILL.
(By Associated Press)

HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 30.

The will of Mrs. Samuel Colt, widow of the inventor of the Colt firearm, was presented for probate today. Practically the entire estate of $3,000,000 is distributed. The city will receive the magnificent grounds around Armsmere [sic.], the Colt mansion, for park purposes, at the death of Mrs. Colt’s brother, Richard W.H. Jarvis. The house will be for use as a home for widows and orphans of the Protestant Episcopal clergymen.

Elizabeth Jarvis Colt Obituary

A detailed obituary of Mrs. Colt appeared in the Hartford Courant newspaper, soon following her death on August 23rd 1905; access is at a fee, on the newspaper’s website.

Hartford Courant Newspaper

EPILOGUE PAGE 478-479
EPILOGUE PAGE 478

Pistol Drawing Contest, September, 1952

Link via Google featuring “Kid’s Pistol Drawing Contest,” shot in September 1952, by Joe Scherschel, from the Time, Inc., Life magazine photo archives. Numerous photographs, many showing boys and girls doing the quick draw, or otherwise firing cap pistols, based on the Single Action Army revolver. In that era, quick draw contests were popular with adults, and this nationwide interest had been influenced largely by the frequent television and film programs on the West. The figure in the brochure is Arvo Ojala, well known shooting coach and master of the quick draw. It was Ojala who faced off against Matt Dillon in the opening segment of the dominant Western on television, “Gunsmoke.”

Photograph

EPILOGUE PAGE 488-489
EPILOGUE PAGE 488

The Ship Corvo and Captain Jeremiah Spalding

Several references to the ship Corvo and to [Captain Jeremiah] Spalding appear in the following citations, each of which can be located by using the website of Readex Historical Newspapers (a division of NewsBank):

Portland Advertiser, published as Portland Advertiser and Gazette of Maine;
Date: August 3rd 1830; volume: VII, issue no. 82; page 3; Portland, Maine.

Notice regarding the sailing of the Corvo. From Boston destined to Calcutta, July 31st 1830, Spalding in command.

Another reference on the sailing of the Corvo, appeared in The Salem Gazette;
Date: August 3rd 1830; volume VIII; issue no. 62; page 3; Salem, Massachusetts.

An article on the sailing of the Corvo appeared in the Weekly Messenger, published as The Boston Weekly Messenger; August 5th 1830; volume 11; issue no. 9; page 3; Boston, Massachusetts.

To quote the entire article:

“Departure of the Missionaries – On Monday, the ship Corvo sailed for Calcutta, with Messrs Hollis Read, Wm. Hervey, and Wm. Ramsey, and their families, missionaries to Bombay, and Mr. John Taylor Jones and lady, to join the Burmah mission. India-wharf, and the shipping, in the neighborhood, were thronged with the friends of the missionaries, and thousands who had come to witness the affecting farewell. A prayer was offered by the Rev. Mr. Jackson, of Charlestown, a hymn was then sung, and another prayer for the safety and success of the missionaries, was made by the Rev. Mr. Green, of Boston. —Paladium.”

One can imagine the impact of this departure on young Samuel Colt.

A brief note on the sailing of the Corvo also was posted by the Baltimore Patriot, of August 4th 1830; volume XXXVI; issue no. 29; page 2; Baltimore, Maryland.

Note: Readex is a subscription service, and requires registration and a payment to utilize their services.

Death & Estate of Captain Spalding

Death and estate reference to Captain Jeremiah Spalding, “master mariner,” and captain of the brig Corvo, on which Samuel Colt sailed as a young seaman, and on which he invented the revolver, is contained in the Boston Daily Courier, published as the Boston Semi-Weekly Courier, June 25th 1855, volume XXXI, issue no. 5057, page 3. This article includes the following, indicating Spalding had gone to the California gold fields:

“Administrator’s” Sale of Real Estate

By virtue of a license of the Probate Court for the county of Norfolk, dated May 13, 1855, will be sold by public auction on SATURDAY, July 7th, 1855, at 4-1/2 o’ clock 1… M. on the premises, all the right, title and interest which Jeremiah Spalding, late of Benicia, in the county of San Francisco and state of California, master mariner, deceased, had at the time of his death in and to the following described parcels of real estate, to wit – [listing property in Roxbury, Norfolk County, Massachusetts “by deed dated October, A.D. 1846, and recorded with Norfolk Deeds…”

[Plus another plot of land, and yet another.]

Access to this data is available via the website of Readex Historical Newspapers (a division of NewsBank). Note: Readex is a subscription service, and requires registration and a payment to utilize their services.

Readex

The Corvo

For further data on the Corvo, use the links as follows, which present several relevant volumes pertaining to the missionaries noted above, courtesy of Google Books.

Google Book

Google Book

Research by Conor FitzGerald has determined that the Corvo is mentioned fairly often in British newspapers of the late 1820s and 1830s, but much of what is said is quite limited.

Engravers Part 1 and 2

ENGRAVERS PAGE 495-496
ENGRAVERS PAGE 496

Families of Engravers

Excerpt below from the soon to be published, Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrel.

Sons of Wilbur A. Glahn, which led to data on the family of engravers, as well as most specifically on Wilbur. Gunmaker’s pulls, invoices, notes, etc. See The Colt Engraving Book, Volume II, pages 550-551. The Nimschke Book, page 95, also had data on the Glahn family of engravers.

Years later Wilson met yet another member of the Glahn family, from whom interesting items were gathered, as pictured in The Colt Engraving Book, pages 558-559, 594-595 and 598.

Grandson and granddaughter-in-law of Gustave Young, at the Young family home, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Leading to identifying several engravers working for him, and a great deal of additional material. Enough information to fill Wilson’s car for three trips in hauling off the material. See The Colt Engraving Book, Volume I, pages 72-74, and 201.

While researching Kornbrath, Wilson located Hugo Reuss, an engraver and die-cutter, who was still coming to his office and workshop in Hartford, even though he was quite elderly. Reuss had shared office space with R.J. Kornbrath, and the advertisement pictured on page 384 of The Colt Engraving Book, Volume I, was acquired from Reuss at that time. The caption reads as follows:

Above: Original art work by Hugo Reuss; in the period of post-World War I. The emphasis is on die work.

Reuss worked three years for Helfricht, and went into business for himself in 1887. Two other pieces of advertising art by Reuss, from the same period, refer to him as an engraver and die sinker, but neither mentions his firearms work. After leaving Helfricht’s employ, Reuss appears to have concentrated on the die cutting, and on fine jewelry work. (Private Collection).

Visiting at the Colt factory with engraver Alvin F. Herbert, whose career at Colt’s began c. 1954, was revealing of details about not only his career (previously he was a Smith & Wesson engraver), but that of his predecessor Wilbur A. Glahn.

Wilson first met Alvin A. White, through Herb Glass, in 1966. At that time Glass was desirous of Wilson taking over the management of White, and developing that into what would become A.A. White Engravers, Inc. White had met the last of the Ulrich engravers, Leslie Borden Ulrich (a son of John), and lent to Wilson a photograph of this artisan, with two of his standard poodle hunting dogs. The caption to this photograph, on page 346 of Winchester Engraving, states:

Leslie Borden Ulrich, with two of his poodles, which the retired engraver used as hunting dogs. This rare photograph was a gift from Ulrich to Alvin A. White, then doing some gun engraving for him. (Alvin A. White Collection)

Granddaughter of Cuno A. Helfricht, leading to a treasure trove on that artisan, as well as on his father, stock maker, gunsmith and engraver, Charles J. Helfricht. The cache also ferreted out extensive information on engravers in Cuno Helfricht’s employ, and included several engraved examples, invoices, drawings, and so forth. See The Colt Engraving Book, Volume I, pages 379-391.

Visits to the engravers at the Winchester factory located a few items; the Kusmit brothers; Nick and Robert, had several records and material from the days of the Ulrichs and their associates. Most of this was relevant to Winchesters, but involvement of some of the Ulrichs with Colt has been documented.

Discovery of George Ulrich, a grandson of C.F. Ulrich, and son of Alden George Ulrich, who had a considerable amount of information on the family, on engravers, including “gun maker’s” pulls, photographs, drawings, etc. Several of the prints and drawings discovered on that occasion were published in Winchester Engraving (see that title, chapters III-XI). Among the treasures in that find is the photograph on page 347 of a Marlin slide action shotgun, which Alden George Ulrich had engraved and gold-inlaid for Czar Nicholas II of Russia. The caption to that photograph reads:

“A classic from the workbench of George Ulrich, the Marlin slide action shotgun made for Czar Nicholas II of Russia, in 1913. The Romanoff coat of arms was gold-inlaid on the right side of the frame. Gold borders and scrolls were profuse, and the stock work (by Conrad F.) was of the highest order. (Photograph George Ulrich Collection).”

Yet another of the Ulrich family had been located, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, who had a tin can filled with engraving tools. A stamp made with the tiny marking C.F. ULRICH was discovered in the can. That stamp is now in the Cody Firearms Museum, of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody WY, and is pictured in Winchester Engraving, on page 100. That extraordinary relic is dated 1867, and bears the initials: CFU.

Wilson was also led to the widow of Rudolf J. Kornbrath, at her second floor duplex apartment in Hartford, on the recommendation of John Hovaness Hintlian. There Wilson poured over various papers, photographs, source illustrations and other material from R.J. Kornbrath’s reference and source collection. Also in that archive were correspondence, advertising, and brochures, and photographs which were made by a relative of the engraver. Further information appears in The Colt Engraving Book, Volume II, Chapter XI, and the Winchester Engraving book, Chapter XII.

ENGRAVERS PAGE 498-499
ENGRAVERS PAGE 498

Samuel Colt Presents and the Study of American Firearms Engravers

From the 1961 Atheneum exhibition sprang not only The ‘Russian’ Colts, but such publications as L.D. Nimschke Firearms Engraver, followed by three gradually expanding tomes detailing the subject of Colt firearms embellishment: The Book of Colt Engraving (1974), Colt Engraving (1982), and The Colt Engraving Book (two volumes, totaling 1,000 pages, 2002-2003), as well as The Book of Winchester Engraving (1975), Winchester The Golden Age of American Gunmaking and The Winchester 1 of 1000 (1983) and finally, Winchester Engraving (1989).

The Nimschke book alone gave important clues in the identification of mid and late nineteenth century engravers:

• Gustave Young (page 95, a Manhattan Pocket revolver, gold-inlaid, which Wilson later discovered in Litchfield, Connecticut)
• E.A. Coleman (page 12, a Merrimac rifle)
• Grünewald (page 5, a Manhattan percussion pocket revolver)
• Jacob Glahn (page 95, a Moore cartridge revolver believed made for the inventor to personally show to President Abraham Lincoln, as published in The Colt Engraving Book, Volume II, pp. 552-553).

On the subject of modern firearms, E.C. Prudhomme’s Gun Engraving Review (1961) was yet another landmark. And John T. Amber’s Gun Digest, early in its evolution, featured “Custom Guns,” and then later expanded by adding a special section on engraving, the 1959 edition presented “Artistry in Metal–A Gun Engraving Sampler.”

Among coauthor Wilson’s early articles in periodicals are “Did Joseph Wolf Engrave Firearms” (The Gun Report, October, 1967), and in The American Rifleman, “L.D. Nimschke–Firearms Engraver” (January 1966), “The Youngs: Standouts in the Engraver’s Heyday” (May 1968) and “50 Years of Gun Engraving at Colt” (October 1969). Wilson’s “Enterprising Sam Colt’s Profitable Presentations” (The American Rifleman, July 1969) dealt with “Entrepreneur’s gifts to high-placed people aimed to sell guns,” and focused on Colonel Colt’s gifts to Union Civil War officers, November 1st 1861 (see Chapter VI).

Other magazines in addition to The American Rifleman began publishing on decorated American firearms. Among the earliest of such pieces were: “The Art of the Gun Engraver” (by Wilson and Herb Glass, Shooting Times, September 1968), “Colts Army .45” (The Gun Report, June 1968), “Some Nimschke Engraved Colt Pistols” (The Gun Report, March 1969), “Gold-inlaid Colt Revolvers” (Arms Fair Guide, London 1969), “Masterpieces of the Gun Engraver’s Art” (1971 Guns & Ammo Annual), “The History of Gun Engraving in America” (1972 Guns & Ammo Annual), and “Firearms Engraving in 19th Century America” (1975 Guns & Ammo Annual). These articles, and many more over the years, fanned the flames of interest by collectors, students and historians, on the subject of decorated American firearms).

The magazines also published several issues with engraved arms on the front covers. While manager of A.A. White Engravers, Inc., and later American Master Engravers, Wilson was able to place numerous images of deluxe firearms by his artisans on several of these covers. Some of the covers appeared in the color catalogue, A.A. White Engravers, Inc. (c. 1968) and the black and white brochure, similarly titled.

On publication of The Book of Colt Firearms (1971), not only were numerous engraved pieces pictured throughout the 616-page tome, but three chapters dealt specifically with engraving: “Presentation Colt Firearms” (pages 550-575) not only reviewed the practice of Colt presentations, but for the first time published the treasure trove of deluxe and historic Colt percussion firearms at The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, gifts from Samuel Colt, dating from the Paterson period up until 1854. The two other chapters were “The Evolution of Colt Engraving,” pages 574-575, and “The ‘Tiffany’ Type Grips,” pages 576-579.

All of these broke new ground, and were a few years in advance of Wilson’s first of three related titles on Colt engraving: The Book of Colt Engraving (1974).

In 1971 appeared the large format (10 3/8- x 13 5/16-inches) Antique Arms Annual, by the Texas Gun Collectors Association, with Wilson as editor. That 264-page large landscape volume featured decorated firearms, European and American, with innumerable pages illustrating engraved, gold-inlaid, and otherwise fancy pieces. Among the articles was “‘Tiffany’ Stocked Firearms,” coauthored by Roy G. Jinks and Wilson. Yet another was “William M. Locke and His Collection,” which pictured his five percussion gold-inlaid Colt revolvers (page 144), and such deluxe pieces as engraved Colt, S&W, Remington, Henry Deringer, Massachusetts Arms Co., Wesson & Leavitt, Springfield Arms Co., Allen and J.G. Bolen pepperboxes (cased sets), Cooper double action revolvers (cased set), and various embellished European firearms. Locke authored his own introduction to this eight-page piece.

Another article in Antique Arms Annual 1971, “The James S. Fowler Collection of Deluxe Winchester Firearms,” devoted twenty-two pages to his finest Winchesters, and an important Single Action Army Colt, serial no. 27000 range. One more piece with numerous deluxe arms, primarily European high art firearms and Kentucky rifles, was “Joe Kindig, Jr., Master of Antiquities,” with a foreword by John S. duMont. The captions were written by Wilson, based on a full day spent visiting Kindig, in company with S.P. Stevens, whose photographs illustrated the six-page article.

Several advertisers featured decorated arms, particularly that of Herb Glass. Many of the pieces in this 11-page extravaganza were from the Richard P. Mellon Collection, all in color, the photographs taken by a rock and roll photographer, suggested by the collector’s wife, Trudy Adams Mellon. Herb Glass had been quietly building the Mellon Collection for approximately four years, which peaked at some 700 firearms, one of the premier American arms collections of all time.

Merrill Lindsay’s landmark 10-page article, “The Armor and Arms Club,” in preparation for a book he was researching on American arms collectors, illustrated the work of Bruce Pendleton, with some of the most exquisite of high art European arms. Tom Seymour’s “Matched Pairs of Flintlock Pistols” concentrated on Kentucky flintlocks, and was five pages in length, plus a single page with two pairs, from his own collection.

Other articles concentrating on decorated arms were “Kentucky Rifle Silhouettes,” by Albert M. Sullivan, Jr., “IXL Means – I Excel” by William R. Williamson (with four pages of exquisite George Wostenholm Bowie knives), “The Charter Oak Colts,” by Arnold Marcus Chernoff, and James E. Serven’s “The Guns in Arizona’s Past.”

Among advertisers’ illustrations of deluxe arms were the Antique Armory, Inc. (Ted Hutcheson and Robert B. Berryman), Theodore M. Hutcheson’s Winchesters and a fancy Henry rifle, Leo Bradshaw, Jr. with a Winchester Model 1876, Colt Single Action Army and a richly embellished Merwin, Hulbert & Co. single action revolver. David Woloch’s single page advertisement illustrated an extraordinary engraved and gold- and silver-plated Colt Baby Lightning carbine and a Helfricht-engraved Single Action Army Colt of Boy Scouts of America founder, Daniel Carter Beard (a friend of Theodore Roosevelt). Ivan B. Hart ran a five-page advertisement, picturing his best Winchesters with a fine Henry rifle deluxe. Antique Arms Annual 1971 photographer S.P. Stevens ran eleven pages on his collection, many of these decorated arms, with the emphasis on Kentucky rifles and fine Colts. George R. Repaire took out a three-page ad, with rare early Colt revolvers, some of them later being traded to Herb Glass, in order to acquire the Sultan of Turkey Dragoon. The Jonathan M. Peck Collection was represented by five pages of fancy Winchesters and Colts, including the exquisite Colonel Gzowski, Aide de Camp to Queen Victoria, Canada, Winchester Model 1876.

The Larry Sheerin Collection was three pages of exquisite Colts, and on the front cover, his prized set of the Van Syckel Dragoons. Jerry D. Berger was represented by his double cased set of November 1, 1861 presentations by Colonel Colt to General Irvin McDowell. Charles L. Bricker pictured his Samuel Colt presentation Navy set to the Earl of Cardigan, leader of the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade. William Edmunds’ three cased Colt sets, the H.D. Norton Model 1860 Army, the William H. Cox Model 1861 Navy, and the Major Charles T. Baker 1860 Army, the former two gifts from the Colt company just after the Civil War, and the latter from Colonel Colt, at the start of the war, were featured on a three page color spread. The Baker set was later presented by Berger (who made his fortune with Topsy’s, a popcorn and fast food empire) to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Arms and Armor.

Johnie Bassett’s five-page advertisement displayed color images of two deluxe sets of engraved Colts (Dragoons serial nos. 13128 and 13551 and Model 1862 Police nos. 23798 and 23800, with presentation Civil War cavalry saber), and four deluxe Henry and Winchester rifles, including the half-gold-plated Model 1866 cased set, serial no. 79863, by John Ulrich. Bassett was a leading collector of decorated and historic arms, and eventually purchased Wilson’s cache of the Gustave Young and Young Family Archives, as well as material from several other of Wilson’s arms engraving discoveries.

Returning to hardcover books featuring deluxe arms, Theodore Roosevelt Outdoorsman, published in 1971 by Winchester Press, offered several pieces, many of these custom made for TR, with engraving by such artisans as L.D. Nimschke and John Ulrich, and the most spectacular of all Bowie knives, by Tiffany & Co., New York. As TR himself wrote from the Dakota Badlands to his sister Anna: “In two or three days I start across country for the Bighorn Mountains, and then you will probably not hear from me for a couple of months. I take a wagon and six ponies, riding one of the latter. I now look like a regular cowboy dandy, with all my equipments finished in the most expensive style…” (August, 1884; page 29).

ENGRAVERS PAGE 502-503
ENGRAVERS PAGE 502

Herman “Herm” Bodenstein

Data on a “Herm” Bodenstein, age 80, living with John Marr, engraver, according to the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Included here since John Marr was an engraver. “Herm Bodenstein” was also an engraver.

Name: Herm Bodenstein
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1790
Age in 1870: 80
Birthplace: Hannover / Hanover
Home in 1870: Milwaukee Ward 1, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Race: White
Gender: Male
Value of real estate: View image
Post Office: Milwaukee

Household Members

Name	Age	Notes
John Marr	38	Engraver
Bertha Marr	34	Bodenstein's Daughter
Charles Marr	12
Louis Marr	10
Hedwig Marr	7
Selma Marr	2
Frederica Jens	20
Herm Bodenstein	80

Engraving Techniques Patented by Otto Bodenstein

Engraving techniques patented by Otto Bodenstein, and used primarily on Merwin, Hulbert firearms. Issued December 3rd 1878 (no. 210,446), and reissued November 11th, 1879 (no. 8,964). At least one Colt Single Action Army revolver is known embellished in this style, serial no. 53684, made by the Colt factory for W.B. “Bat” Masterson, and shipped to him in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1879. Note one of the witnesses to this patent: James Merwin.

Link to Patent

ENGRAVERS PAGE 503

From Samuel Colt Presents to Magnificent Colts

The good fortune to begin one’s career with “The Big Bang” of Samuel Colt Presents has led to numerous other opportunities. With that exhibition and book as a launching pad, the ensuing fifty years have offered platforms of experience which allowed a broad evolution in the art of firearms decoration.

This was made possible via a variety of research and publishing opportunities, as well as funding from auction house employment (ranging from Christie’s to Greg Martin Auctions to Sotheby’s), funding of special research projects, and sometimes books, by numerous collectors, dealers and institutions. Not the least of these were collaborations with:

• Herb Glass and the Wadsworth Atheneum (The Arms Collection of Colonel Colt, 1964)
• John Hovaness Hintlian (Army Revolvers and Gatling Guns, 1963, and purchase and marketing of hundreds of copies of Samuel Colt Presents)
• John J. Malloy and Glode Requa (L.D. Nimschke Firearms Engraver, 1965)
  Thomas Haas, Sr. (The Rampant Colt: The Story of a Trademark, 1969)
• Charles Kidwell and Robert E.P. Cherry (Colt Commemorative Firearms, 1969 and 1974 editions, respectively)
• R.Q. Sutherland (The Evolution of the Colt, 1967, and The Book of Colt Firearms, 1971)
• William E. Steinkraus/Winchester Press (Theodore Roosevelt Outdoorsman, 1971)
• Texas Gun Collectors Association/Leo Bradshaw/Larry Sheerin/S.P. Stevens (Antique Arms Annual 1971)
• Wallace Beinfeld (two editions each of Colt and Winchester Engraving texts, 1974 and 1982, and 1976 and 1992 respectively, as well as The ‘Russian’ Colts monograph, 1979, coauthored with Dr. Leonid Tarassuk)
• R.E. Hable/Jackson Arms (Colt Pistols, 1976)
• Philip R. Phillips/Jackson Arms (Paterson Colt Pistol Variations, 1979)
• John B. Solley III/Michael V. Korda/George A. Strichman, Chairman of Colt Industries and C.E. Warner, President of the Firearms Division (The Colt Heritage, 1979)
• Peter Hawkins and Christopher Brunker of Christie’s and C.E. Warner and George A. Strichman of Colt Industries (Colt/Christie’s Rare and Historic Firearms auction, 1981)
• Richard Rattenbury/Peter Hassrick/The Buffalo Bill Historical Center/Winchester Gun Museum (Winchester The Golden Age of American Gunmaking and the Winchester 1 of 1000, 1983)
• Stephen A. Lash, Brian Cole and Nick McCullough/Christie’s and Dr. Helmut Nickel and Stuart Pyhrr, Curator and Curator in Charge-designate, Department of Arms and Armor, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Rare Firearms A Benefit Auction for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Arms and Armor, 1985)
• L.D. Eberhart/E. Andrew Mowbray (The Deringer in America, two volumes, 1985, percussion, and 1993, metallic cartridge)
  George A. Strichman/Robert Abrams/Les Line/Abbeville Press (Colt An American Legend, 1985)
• Peter and Patty Murray/Robert Loomis of Random House (and five more books to follow) and Peter Riva of International Transactions literary agent for numerous books of later date (Winchester An American Legend, 1991)
  Gene and Jackie Autry and Monte and Joanne Hale/Autry Museum of Western Heritage and Greg Martin (The Peacemakers Arms and Adventure in the American West, 1992; plus Colt An American Legend, dedicated to the Autrys and the Hales)
• Jim and Ellen Herring/Trophy Room Books (Theodore Roosevelt Outdoorsman, 1993)
• Steven P. Fjestad and Blue Book Publications (The Book of Colt Firearms, editions of 1993 and 2008, and American Engravers – The 21st Century, by Roger Bleile, 2010)
• William B. Ruger, Stephen Sanetti, Michael Korda and Paul McCarthy (Ruger & His Guns, 1996)
• Michael Del Castello and Greg Martin (Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,1998)
  Dr. Joseph A. Murphy (Fine Colts, 1999)
• Ugo Gussalli Beretta (The World of Beretta, 2001)
• Dennis A. LeVett (The Paterson Colt Book, 2001)
• John Amicucci, Martin Lane and Charles Radcliffe (The Colt Engraving Book, 2000-2001)
• Peter Riva and his insightful negotiations and Robert Loomis, Random House, Inc. (Silk and Steel: Women at Arms, 2003)
• William I. Koch and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Things I Love, 2005)
• Al Cali/Greg Martin Auctions (American Arms Collectors, Percussion Colts and Their Rivals, The Al Cali Collection, 2010).
• Lowell E. Baier, Robert Model and Dr. Howard P. Monsour, Jr., of The Boone & Crockett Club (Theodore Roosevelt Hunter/Conservationist, 2010)
• William L. Berg, Greg Martin (Colt Firearms Treasures, work in progress)
• George F. Gamble, Greg Martin/Autry National Center of the American West (American Firearms Treasures, work in progress)

ENGRAVERS PAGE 504-505
ENGRAVERS PAGE 505

Henry C. Curtis, Engraver

Henry C. Curtis, engraver, listed in the 1870 United States Federal Census, Hartford.

Name: Henry C. Curtis
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1831
Age in 1870: 39
Birthplace: Connecticut
Home in 1870: Hartford Ward 3, Hartford, Connecticut
Occupation: Engraver
Race: White
Gender: Male
Value of real estate: View image
Post Office: Hartford

Household Members

Name	Age
Henry C Curtis	39
Mary W Curtis	30
Anna Curtis	8
Henrietta Curtis	7

ENGRAVERS PAGE 508-509
ENGRAVERS PAGE 508

William B. Johnson, Engraver

William B. Johnson, engraver, from the 1860 United States Federal Census, Hartford, Connecticut

Name: Wm B Johnson
Age in 1860: 42
Birth Year: abt 1818
Birthplace: New York
Home in 1860: Hartford District 3, Hartford, Connecticut
Gender: Male
Post Office: Hartford
Occupation: Engraver
Value of real estate: View image

Household Members

Name	Age
Wm B Johnson	42
Hariet F Johnson	40
Anna Curtis	8
Henrietta Curtis	7
Hariet A Johnson	14
Ella M Johnson	11
Minnie C Johnson	9
Elisha Banwell	17
Catharine Callahan	28

ENGRAVERS PAGE 512-513
ENGRAVERS PAGE 512

John Medairy, Engraver
Bank Note Engraving and Printing

Link to reference to “John Medairy, Engraver” in regard to “Bank Note Engraving and Printing.” In the Baltimore Sun, published March 7, 1839, volume IV, issue no. 94, page 2. Link via Google to America’s Historical Newspapers site. The reference and the fact that Medairy was involved in engraving for Samuel Colt’s John Pearson prototypes, shows that the inventor looked to bank note engravers (such as the later figure, Waterman Lilly Ormsby) as a source of firearms decoration. Medairy is cited in the article as having “experience in his profession for fifteen years…” Further, “…the numerous specimens of bank notes in his possession, give him a decided advantage in arranging designs to suit the banks, should they employ him in this way.” The article closes with the statement: “We may add, that Mr. Medairy is an artist of experience, taste and judgment; and is otherwise highly deserving of the patronage of his fellow citizens.”

Reference

Engraver John Medairy

Link via Google Books to The Publishers Weekly, February 20, 1904, p. 643, volume 65, part 1, by R.R. Bowker Company, with reference to engraver John Medairy. Note relationship to the Whitney family.

Google Book

The research site, ProQuest also presents information on Medairy, but requires a fee, and access via a participating library.

Ancestry Library

ENGRAVERS PAGE 514-515
ENGRAVERS PAGE 515

Conrad F. Ulrich, Gunmaker

Conrad F. Ulrich, shown as a gunmaker, in the 1860 United States Federal Census for Hartford.

Age in 1860: 44
Birth Year: abt 1816
Birthplace: Hesse-Kassel / Hessen-Kassel / Electorate of Hesse / Kurhessen
Home in 1860: Hartford District 3, Hartford, Connecticut
Gender: Male
Post Office: Hartford
Value of real estate: View image

Household Members

Name	Age	Notes
Conrad Ulrich	44	Gun Maker
Anna Ulrich	44	Wife
Frederick Ulrich	19	Gun Maker
Fred Ulrich	16	Engraver
Jane Ulrich	18
Herman Ulrich	13
John Ulrich	10
George Ulrich	9
Mary Ulrich	5

By 1870 Conrad F. Ulrich is listed as Mechanic. By 1870 (first appearance of) Conrad F., aged 24, is shown without occupation. By 1880 Conrad is listed as “works in Pistol Factory.” 1890 does not exist in full. Conrad Ulrich’s 1862 IRS records do not list occupation. No Conrad Ulrich appears on New York City immigration records.

ENGRAVERS PAGE 522-523
ENGRAVERS PAGE 523

Alvin Herbert, Engraver

Link to Ebony magazine, December 1961, issue which features Colt factory engraver Alvin Herbert. The date coincides within the time period in which coauthor Wilson was occasionally visiting the Colt factory, while employed at the Wadsworth Atheneum, having already organized the “Samuel Colt Presents” exhibition, and the book accompanying that event. The article is entitled “Gun Engraver Creates on Steel,” with the subheading: “Craftsman carves intricate designs like fine sculpture.”

Google Book

ENGRAVERS PAGE 524-525
ENGRAVERS PAGE 524

Catalogue of A.A. White Engravers, Inc.

Front cover and contents of A.A. White Engravers, Inc., catalogue, printed c. 1967. Measuring 6- x 9-inches, the 20-page glossy-stock publication celebrated the artistry and craftsmanship of Alvin A. White, and some of his associates. At that time, coauthor Wilson was in the early years as Managing Director of the company, which had been founded by antique arms dealer Herb Glass. The cover Colt .45 revolvers (nos. 42010SA and 42011SA) were commissioned by Robert Q. Sutherland, publisher of The Book of Colt Firearms (1971). Buttcaps were of engraved 18karat gold, fitted to checkered ivory grips by the ingenious and resourceful White.

For data on a select list of contemporary master engravers, the authors recommend Roger Bleile’s American Engravers: The 21st Century, published 2010 by Blue Book Publications, and edited by S.P. Fjestad. For copies visit the following link:

Blue Book Publications

ENGRAVERS PAGE 526-527
ENGRAVERS PAGE 526

Obituary for Gold and Silver Inlayer Horacio Acevedo

For an obituary on the talented firearms engraver and gold and silver inlayer, Horacio Acevedo, access the website: dailyjournal.com, and enter the keywords “Horacio Acevedo.” Mr. Acevedo died August 31, 2010, at age 85.

Daily Journal

ENGRAVERS PAGE 530-531
ENGRAVERS PAGE 531

Samuel Colt, the Pre-Civil War South

An Addendum to:
“Amos H. Colt in the South – Agent for Colonel Colt, 1860-61 Based Significantly on Research by Travis Parrish”

The extent of Colonel Colt’s interest in establishing a manufactory in Georgia is detailed in the North South Trader’s Civil War magazine, Volume 30, No. 3/2004. Authored by Lori Nash Cosgrove, the extremely informative article is entitled: “Loyalty & Lobbying: The Knives of Mark Cooper” (pp. 38-48).

Quoted here with permission of the North South Trader’s Civil War magazine, the issue is concisely stated by Lori Nash Cosgrove (p. 40):

Transcribed below are letters sent between Colt Firearms, the state of Georgia, and Mark Cooper. These letters offer concrete information about Sam Colt’s early intent to supply arms to the Southern states, and the consideration of manufacturing them at Etowah, Georgia.

Colt and Cooper shared common interests: Both were successful businessmen within their own realms, and they well understood the principles of supply and demand. But while Colt’s interest was surely only financial, was Cooper’s?

It may be inferred by some from the letters that follow that arming the South was a business matter to Cooper. However, his longtime advocacy of states’ rights and his future actions make clear the high regard in which he held his home state and the lengths to which he would go to help preserve it.

The subject of Colonel Colt and sales and a possible factory site in the pre-Civil War South begins with two letters from Colt’s longtime friend Bedney F. McDonald, dated Marietta Georgia, January 4, 1860. This correspondence broached the idea of establishing a factory in Georgia.

Text of the first of the two letters, dated January 4, 1860:

Marietta, Georgia, January 4, 1860

Dear Colonel:

I take pleasure in introducing to you Major M.A. Cooper of this state. He comes North for the purpose of purchasing arms for the State of Georgia. Also to inquire into the manner, cost, etc., of manufacturing them. Any attention you may extend Major Cooper will be duly appreciated by him and acknowledged.

Very truly your friend,

Bedney F. McDonald

The second letter was more detailed and specific:

Marietta, Georgia, January 4, 1860

Dear Colonel:

The last Legislature of this State made an appropriation of $75,000.00 to purchase arms for the State of Georgia. The Governor has appointed Major Mark A. Cooper for the agent as I learned from him (the Governor) today, to purchase them…I have written to the Governor to request Major Cooper to give you a call at your manufactory at Hartford. I know of no one I prefer to yourself to furnish the arms for the State. Major Cooper is the iron master of Georgia and is authorized by the Governor to examine into the cost alone of establishing a manufactory for making arms in the state. He is one of the substantial men of the south.

Truly your friend,

Bedney F. McDonald

Formerly 3rd Regiment Army USA

Colt responded promptly to McDonald:

Hartford, January 12, 1860

I have received your two very kind notes of the 4th instant. The one directed to me here and the other at New York and for your kindness you have my sincere thanks and let me assure you that I shall take the greatest pains in promptly carrying out the wishes of the agent of your State to the extent of my ability where it shall be my good fortune to meet with Major Cooper, which I hope will be as early after his arrival north as possible.

I will meet with him either in Washington or New York or at Hartford, whichever place and whatever time he shall appoint. I think, however, it will be far better for him to telegraph to me at a particular day he will be at Hartford and come direct there on his arrival North, as much time may thus be saved and if he is the practical man, I am informed he is, we can talk more understandingly in the workshop than elsewhere…

I shall always be happy to receive any of your friends in a social way as well as in the business point of view or in the instance of the gentleman you have now been kind enough to acquaint me with, as one of the most prominent men of your State.

To have soon the pleasure of seeing your friend Major Cooper at my shanty [Armsmear] here in Hartford. I must close this hasty scrawl with the compliments of the season and many happy returns of the New York to you and Yours.

I am truly yours,

Samuel Colt

Next in the sequence of correspondence is Mark Cooper contacting Colonel Colt, promoting the site of Etowah, George:

Etowah, George, 25 January 1860

Sam’l Colt, Esqr.

Sir:

Inclosed [sic] is a letter to you furnished me by Col. B.F. McDonald, the son of an esteemed friend of mine, ex-Governor, McDonald of Georgia. If not prevented by some Providential occurrence I shall, at an early date visit your establishment on business connected with our state’s affairs. For anything that I may propose to do, I shall refer you to Secretary Cobb, Senators Toombs and Iverson U.S. from Georgia and those representing them also to Governor Brown of Georgia.

I see it states that you propose to engage in the manufacture of firearms in the South. Allow me to suggest to you to extend your observations far south as Etowah, Georgia, before you decide on a location. With a full knowledge of all locations South, I hazard anything in saying that, for your business or for any operation of manufacturing iron or steel or wood or work or cotton, this place has advantages superior to any, with this further benefits, that a location here would be made at speculation prices.

Very respectfully your obedient servant,

Mark A. Cooper

Colt’s Agent Amos H. Colt

In an update from Colt’s agent Amos H. Colt, Colonel Colt is informed regarding business prospects, and the state of business. Cooper’s name is part of the subject of the letter:

January 30, 1860

Sir:

I have again had an interview with the Governor who has given to Captain deBignon the order to equip his troop with carbines and pistols. The captain left this morning on business for Savannah but left word that the list would be made out on his return and be sent on. Captain G. Doles is now urging the Governor to give an order for the rifled musket for his company, which the Governor has partly promised to do. He has also given me to understand that he would shortly send on a Mr. Mark Cooper to visit the factory in relation to a selection of arms…

For Company

A.H. Colt

Quoting further from the letters in the “Loyalty & Lobbying: The Knives of Mark Cooper” article (p. 42):

Marietta, George November 17, 1860

My Dear Colonel:

I regret to hear through Mr. Hartley of your indisposition and hope by this time you have recovered. I write to let you know that the Legislature of Georgia has passed a bill appropriating one million dollars to arm the state. The bill passed both branches of that body unanimously. I would suggest to you (deferring to your better judgment) the propriety of your visiting Georgia at as early a date as possible and see what you can do in the premises. Other Southern states will pass similar bills but varying in amounts from $200,000.00 to $1,000,000.00[.] I hope you will take my suggestion under consideration.

Bedney F. McDonald

A newsworthy incident which would adversely affect any progress on establishing a Southern Colt Armory took place on January 22, 1861, when a shipment of 670 muskets (quoting from p. 42 of the North South Trader’s Civil War magazine article) “were seized in the state of New York. They had been intended to arrive in the state of Georgia by way of Charleston and Savannah.”

The following correspondence to New York Mayor Fernando Wood from Robert Toombs of Milledgeville, Georgia, was dated January 24, 1861:

To His Honor, Mayor Wood:

Is it true that the arms intended for and consigned to the State of George have been seized by public authorities in New York? Your answer is important to us and to New York, Answer at once.

Robert Toombs

In response, Toombs received this missive from Wood:

Hon. Robert Toombs, Milledgeville, Georgia

In reply to your dispatch, I regret to say that the arms intended for and consigned to the State of Georgia have been seized by the police of this state, but that the City of New York should in no way be made responsible for the outrage. As Mayor, I have no authority over the police. If I had the power, I should summarily punish the authors of this illegal and unjustifiable seizure of private property.

Fernando Wood

What is thought to be the final communication from Cooper to Samuel Colt was dated Etowah, 5 April 1861. To quote:

Colonel Samuel Colt

Hartford, Connecticut

Dear Sir:

Your telegram of the 30th ultimo was received on my return from Montgomery. I could not leave here at present, but would be very glad to have a full conference with you or an authorized agent of yours. I think it might be greatly to mutual interest. A move here by you now would give larger royalty than any other plant in North America. There may be millions in it. I have at command all the gun work for Ordnance and Army. I have been waiting to hear from you.

We will have no war between North and South, but plenty to do nevertheless. The Government and the people are looking to Etowah for a future supply of arms &c. Let me hear from you.

Yours truly,

Mark A. Cooper

Quoting again from “Loyalty & Lobbying…” page 42:

Four days later, in a letter from Colt at a hotel in New York to an employee, Colt writes, “I may leave here for the South before returning to Hartford.” Was Colt planning to investigate the proposed manufacture of arms at Etowah with the aid of and on the property owned by Mark A. Cooper?

If so, it was not to be. Within days it was clear that there would, indeed, be a war, a war that would greatly affect all that held Mark Cooper’s loyalties.

The widely quoted statement from Samuel Colt, dated February 18, 1860, Havana, Cuba, corroborates Colt’s intent at manufacturing and selling arms in this critically explosive environment:

…Say to Mr. Root and Mr. Lord that they must do their best to turn [out] our arms. Run the armory night and day with double sets of hands until we get 5,000 or 10,000 ahead of each kind. I had rather have an accumulation of our arms than to have money lying idle, and we cannot have too many on hand to meet the exigencies of the time… Make hay while the sun shines…

P.S. The news we get here from New Orleans is very war-like and I am sure there is a market for all the arms we can make, whether there is a fight or not. Now again I say to Root and Lord, keep on the work with all the forces than can be employed night and day.

Note: Further research is needed on this subject, and the above information, and that in Magnificent Colts on page 541, need to be correlated with the detailed presentation in James L. Mitchell’s Colt: A Collection of Letters and Photographs About The Man, The Arms, The Company. The relevant chapters in that 1959 publication (The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg PA) are: “Southern Sales” (from page 31 to 84) and “Southern Armories” (page 85 to 106).

Footnotes & Literature
Footnotes & Literature 536-537

Astor House Menu

From The New-York Historical Society collections, a bill of fare Astor House menu of May 21st 1852

Bill of Fare

For an additional description of the Astor House menu click on “More Bibliographic Information.”

Astor House menu April 1, 1854

Astor House Guest List

Among the discoveries made in Conor FitzGerald’s researches were entries in the Astor House Hotel (opened June 1st 1836), guest ledger, as follows:

Some noted guests from June into August, 1852:

• Benjamin Kittredge, Cinn., OH
• Henry DuPont
• William Ryl, Jr, of Paterson, NJ
• Sam Colt Saturday June 18, 1852 (together with the following people:)
• Colts guests: HB & Mrs. Beach, JD & Mrs. Alden, Miss Rogers, Miss Chaffee, Miss Beach, Saml G. Garage (or Larage) (Colt took Rooms 155, 157, 159)
• J.D. Alden returns on June 24, Room 248
• Edw N. Dickerson, June 26, Room 277
• Capt Grant, US Army, June 21, Room 247
• Gen L.B. Polk (no room listed)
• Wm Aspinwall, June 22, Room 272
• Oakes Ames, July 2, Room 278
• William Seward
• Hon. Daniel Webster

FitzGerald notes: Personally, I suspect that this records people arriving at Astor House to meet with Colt, not being there circumstantially, but to do business, then dine at Delmonico’s or Astor House’s own restaurant.

There are a large number of Army, Navy and Marine Corps officers listed as well. This is perhaps one of the most important Colt documents I have seen, this is a crucial record of Colt and others at the Astor House in 1852.

Astor House Guestbook

Later, Conor FitzGerald advised further names from The Astor House guestbook:

• Thurlow Weed lived in room No. 11
• Daniel Webster occupied Nos. 12 and 13
• William Seward occupied No. 14 (“Seward’s Committee” room)
• 2 entries for Benj. Kittridge
• 2 entries for Henry Du Pont
• 2 entries for Sam Colt
• 2 entries for U S. Grant
• 1 entry for Col A. G. Hazard (Powder Co)
• 1 entry for William Horstmann of Philadelphia
• 1 entry for Charles S. Longcope of Texas (Other Texans are listed at Colt’s time)
• 1 entry for Oliver J. Ruger of Syracuse
• 2-3 entries for J. D. Alden, Colt’s secretary
• 3 entries for Edward N. Dickerson
• 1 entry for Capt James West (recipient of cased set of gold-inlaid Colt revolvers; Captain of the Star of the West steamship)
• 2-3 entries for Oakes Ames, and other Ames family members
• 2 entriesd for General or Bishop Polk.

Astor House

From Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia is an article and image on the Astor House.

Astor House Wikipedia

Astor House Demolition

Also located was a more revealing image of the historic hotel’s demolition.

Image

More on Samuel Colt and Astor House

Google Book

Graveley & Weaks Cutlers at Astor House

Graveley & Weaks Cutlers (Bowie Knives) was at No. 9 Astor House on Broadway just off Barclay about 1837.

Google Book

Sam Colt and Astor House

Some further data regarding the Astor House, an article also including references to Colonel Colt, in the United Services Magazine. Captain Robert Coleman, and Augustus Stetson, are known to have been involved with the Astor House, relevant to Samuel Colt’s visits in the 1850s.

Data on Astor House

Astor House Photo

From the New York Public Library collections, a view of Broadway in 1854, just down the street from No. 155 Broadway. Note reference to Astor House.

Photo

Menus of Hotels

General link to the University of Houston, Digital Library, collection of menus of hotels, restaurants and steamboats, c. 1850s, 1860s.

Digital Library

Link to the University of Houston, Digital Library, with collection of menus. Most important, the Astor House, three pages in length, with a front cover, “Bill of Fare” (culinary selections), and Wine List. Dated January 2nd 1862, eight days prior to Samuel Colt’s death. An engraved depiction of the Astor House is on the menu’s front cover. Menus from numerous other hotels, restaurants and steamboats of the 1850s and 1860s are presented in this link. Courtesy Hospitality Industry Archives, Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston.

Note on page 4, the St. Nicholas Hotel, New York City, menu from March 5th 1856. The St. Nicholas was one of the hotels at which Samuel Colt is known to have stayed. At bottom right, a hunting motif, sportsman with his longarm and other gear for the field. Courtesy Hospitality Industry Archives, Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston.

Note that the St. Nicholas Hotel menu was engraved by Rawdon, Wright & Hatch of New York City, banknote engravers, who were associated with W.L. Ormsby. The engravers’ signature is located at the bottom, beneath the banquet motif in a large St. Nicholas dining room. Game listed of Roast Widgeon Ducks, Roast Grouse, Roast Brandt Ducks, and Haunch of Venison.

Digital Library

Another link to the University of Houston, Digital Library, with collection of menus. Of special interest, the steamship Baltic, dated April 11th 1858, printed on both sides of paper. Note handwritten notations including date April 9th 1858. Note: This may not be the same Baltic as was captained by J.J. Comstock. Menus from numerous other hotels, restaurants and steamboats of the 1850s and 1860s are also presented within this link. Courtesy Hospitality Industry Archives, Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston. See also page 4, which has a menu dated June 21st, 1857, from the Tremont House, Boston, Massachusetts, yet another hotel at which Samuel Colt stayed.

Burning of Barnum’s Museum

Link to the New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery, with colored print showing the “Burning of Barnum’s Museum, July 13th 1865 after the original painting by C.P. Cranch…” Note that the Astor House hotel and the street on which was the Colt Paterson period office (155 Broadway) are nearby to the Barnum’s Museum.

Digital Gallery

Samuel Colt’s Hotel in London

Samuel Colt’s hotel in London appears to have been Long’s, at 16 New Bond Street (13 Clifford) Street. His uncle John, in letters home to his wife, from London, in 1851, say that Colonel Colt also stayed there. Link via Ash Rare Books, London, shows a c. 1878 (or later) print of Long’s Hotel.

Print

FOOTNOTES & LITERATURE PAGE 536-537
FOOTNOTES & LITERATURE PAGE 537

Early Arms Collectors of the United States

Link to an intriguing and early article on arms collecting, mentioning some of the pioneer American enthusiasts, among them W. Stokes Kirk, Francis W. Breuil, Reginald H. Sayre, Francis Bannerman, and Mr. Morosini.

Article

Collectors and Collections of Pistols

Link to an intriguing illustrated history, “Collectors and Collections of Pistols,” from Outing magazine, volume XXXIX, issue no. 4, January 1902. Via the LA84 Foundation Home Page. The article by John Paul Bocock, on pages 407 to 416, mentions names and interests of several pioneer arms collectors in the U.S. and one in Canada.

Magazine Article

FOOTNOTES & LITERATURE PAGE 540-541
FOOTNOTES & LITERATURE PAGE 541

Historic Colt Factory Fire

Link which shows the historic Colt factory fire, as depicted on an insurance company lithograph (see also image as reproduced in the present book, on page 239).

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 548-549
BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 549

Book by Harold Schechter

Book published in September 2010, by Harold Schechter, entitled Killer Colt Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend.

Book

Illustration Drawn by John Colt

This image is believed to be an actual illustration for a lecture drawn by John Colt.

Illustration

The Bella C. Laundauer Collection

The Bella C. Laundauer Collection at The New-York Historical Society, presents many intriguing opportunities for the serious collector.

Collection

The John C. Colt Trial

The John C. Colt Trial, commenced January 21, 1842.

“Murder by Gaslight” website, with article, “The Corpse in the Shipping Crate.” Illustrations from contemporary sources.

Article

Sixteen Letters Found at Rutgers

Among sources consulted were sixteen letters at the Rutgers University’s archives. These were listed by Conor FitzGerald, as follows:

Dickerson, Mahlon Papers, 1779-1857- “Letters received, etc., 1799-1852, and diary, July 1, 1809-December 31, 1819. Also papers, 1779-1784, of Jonathan Dickerson (2 items) and papers, 1854-1859, of Edward Nicoll Dickerson (16 items).” 4 folders and 1 volume.

These items must be reviewed in person. No digital images are available.

Samuel Colt and Colt Family References

An important source of Samuel Colt and Colt family reference material is at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, as revealed in the following link.

Samuel Colt and Colt Family Reference

Jarvis-Robinson Family

Link to source material related to the Jarvis-Robinson family papers, and Samuel Colt, at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Library

John E. Parsons

Link to source material related to John E. Parsons (1903-76), noted author who wrote extensively on Samuel Colt and Colt firearms, as well as on such makers as Winchester, Smith & Wesson, and Henry Deringer. From the Manuscripts and Archives of Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.

Archives