“Colt: Legend & Legacy” (1997) – Samuel Colt: Firearms Inventor & Tycoon

Samuel Colt (1814-1862) — “God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal.” – A common 19th century adage.

Samuel Colt entered the pool of visionaries in search of the invention that would tip the power balance in favor of those who possessed it, and he was one of America’s first tycoons, a Yankee peddler who became a dazzling entrepreneur.

Hartford, CT native Samuel Colt was an inventor and industrialist who made his fortune in the gun business. Founder of the Colt Manufacturing Company, he revolutionized manufacturing by patenting firearms with interchangeable parts and creating an assembly line on which to make them.

Colt firearms figured in many of the nation’s wars, and at the start of the Civil War both the Union and the Confederacy purchased firearms from the Hartford businessman. Sam Colt died in 1862 in his native city. The factory complex and grounds of the Colt Manufacturing Company are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2006 Samuel Colt was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

For education, entertainment, enlightenment and inspiration. We hope you enjoy and even learn something. Never forget!

#lionheartfilmworks #militaryhistory #firearmshistory

BECOME A “FOUNDING FATHER” ON OUR NEW PATREON PAGE – Join to find content you can’t find anywhere else – Consider becoming a member and joining the history revolution!

https://www.patreon.com/LHFW

🇺🇸👕🎖️** Find All Of Our Exclusive Patriotic & History-Oriented Merchandise Here – Every Sale Supports The Channel And Keeps Us “On The Air”:
https://teespring.com/stores/lionheart-filmworks

☕ If you appreciate our content and want to support us further, direct donations are always welcome at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lionheart

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, CLICK THE ‘BELL’ ICON FOR ALERTS ON NEW CONTENT – AND SHARE THIS VIDEO TO HELP US GROW AND KEEP HISTORY HAPPENING!

http://www.lionheart-filmworks.com/store
Some other videos you might like on our Channel:

“”50 Civil War Uniforms in 10 Minutes” – The Evolution of Blue & Grey”:

“Civil War Firearms: The Guns of North & South” Full Documentary”:

“Gettysburg: Darkest Days & Finest Hours” Complete Civil War Docu-Drama”:

Civil War “Mr. Lincoln’s Army: Fighting Brigades of the Army of the Potomac” – Complete”:

✈️🚁⭐ *** ONE WAY YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL! If you love military history, and to collect and model the great warbirds of the past – please visit our friends at Air Models in the UK – Each purchase really helps this channel out: http://airmodels.net/?aff=60 ***

Foreign It was called The Peacemaker The Equalizer the gun that won the West Cult the name is legendary the gun and historic American Icon the cult revolver helped tame Frontiers win Wars and Spark a revolution in American Manufacturing foreign in the mid-19th century the cult had no equal either as status symbol or weapon and everyone in the mid-1800s knew of

The Man Behind the gun the revolver King Samuel Colt America’s first industrial Tycoon [Applause] thank you the Colt Empire was built on a foundation of guns art religion and personal mythology Sam Colt was complex and flamboyant a self-proclaimed genius whose real accomplishments were matched by Relentless self-promotion and repeated self-invention his faithful wife Elizabeth proved herself to be no less extraordinary and

In the end made Sam Colt’s Legend bigger than ever and his Empire her own if I can’t be first I won’t be second in anything Sam Colt 1844 Samuel Colt was born in Hartford in 1814. I think Colt’s dominant trait was just this intense craving for success and I am certain it all does trace back too as father’s failure the family being knocked off the social register their downward Mobility intense downward Mobility uh his mother’s death his

Sister’s suicide just wave after wave of personal human tragedy to a young boy who had grown up in privilege in Hartford and then at the age of seven between the age of seven and fourteen watched it all collapse cult was raised very modestly his mother

Died when he was young his father was an agent for a Woolen textile mill we get the feeling from family correspondence that he was not the best student but he was very ambitious he and his father decided that the best thing for him would be to see some of the world

He was outfitted to be a sailor on a ship that sailed around the world while he was on this journey he conceived the idea for the repeating revolving mechanism and when he returned from a one-year apprenticeship aboard ship he had worked up very crude carved wooden elements of

A revolving firearm he was able to talk his father into funding some prototypes by the gunsmith Anson Chase in Hartford in 1832. Can’t learn self-promotion at an early age from 1832 to 1836 Colt traveled throughout America as Dr Colt c-o-u-l-t giving demonstrations of the newly discovered nitrous oxide laughing gas Dave is setting up in local lyceums and museums and lecture halls and Town Halls of the period that was attempting to

Earn a livelihood from that you can imagine that as Master of Ceremonies and the choreographer of that a tremendous amount of Showmanship came into play in 1834 he ends up in Baltimore where he executes a contract with John Pearson who’s a local gunsmith and Pearson Works exclusively for him under contract for

About a two-year period working up to various models that lead to his formal application to the U.S patent office the laughing gas money allowed him to pay the Ben Smith to produce the first prototype cult revolvers it was a passable way to make a living it really

He wasn’t very successful in fact his gunsmith John Pearson was constantly reminding him that he needed to be paid I have worked night and day almost so I would not disappoint you and what have I got for it why vexation and Trouble the manner you are using us is too bad come

Up with some money in a devil of all ill humor and not without cause John Pearson 1836 With his patent in hand and with the help of wealthy New Jersey relatives Sam Colt opened the patent arms Manufacturing Company in 1836 in Patterson New Jersey he was 23 years old his principal role was as a Salesman for his patent firearms and the sails were terrible Sam was working every angle and

Connection that he could to try to secure government contracts influencing congressmen his cousin and sort of economic overseer deadly seldom was very angry with Colt for trying to sell guns through old Madeira basically wanting and dining influential folks that had influenced in the war department or congress

You use money as different were drawn from an inexhaustible mind Dudley Selden 1836. in 1842 after 6 years and a production run of 5 000 pistols and rifles the company declared bankruptcy and liquidated its assets Colt had failed New Jersey for two reasons first is that he was

A chaotic presence in the midst of this small struggling startup business he had ego the size of Texas but he didn’t understand the nature of the challenge he was embarking on but also the timing was wrong I mean they launched the company within months of at the collapse you know the Great

Bank riots and panic of 1837 it was on a huge recession and um just a bad time in the economic cycle of the country it was also during a period when there were no Wars the country was involved with spent 1841 to 1846 in New York City

Where he maintained a studio at New York University he he continued to unsuccessfully hustle for a government Firearms contract as he pursued with little success other inventions and Enterprises Colt demonstrated for congress his invention of an underwater mine that used a telegraphed signal for Harbor defense called Showmanship prevailed as he blew up a 500 ton Schooner on the Potomac River to the Delight of the thousands who attended but to his great disappointment he was once again unsuccessful in securing a

U.S government contract during his six years in New York City Colt would regularly receive discouraging field reports on his Patterson guns users complained that the guns were too complicated too easily fouled up too heavy and potentially lethal to the shooter undarted Colt regularly solicited testimonials from users of his guns as

He kept up a steady stream of correspondence with Military Officers and others who he thought might help him But Fame and success were still elusive 30 years of peace a Mexican war broke out in 1846. foreign in 1846 Sam Colt was poor as a church mouse and he knew the Mexican war had started and he’s flailing around he knows Surf’s Up and that there’s an

Opportunity for him but he’s not sure what In November 30th 1846 Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers Wright Sam Colt in Hartford a letter that will change the course of history that letter is basically reporting from the frontier that in fact the guns you made in New Jersey do work and they have in fact

Changed the way we fight the those which you made have been in use by the Texas Rangers for three years and aren’t the only good Improvement I have ever seen the summer of 1844 Colonel J.C Hayes with 15 men fought about 80 Comanche without your pistols we should not have

Had the confidence to undertake such daring Adventures Captain Samuel Walker 1846. an Indian can far 20 arrows in a minute but a gun could only shoot about once or twice in a minute because of the the having to reload say a rifle something had to be developed as a counter to the

Indians great Firepower as it were and the cult revolver was the answer to that the Texas Ranger with a repeating pistol has a weapon that can be fired as rapidly and more accurately with more hitting power than an Indian’s bow and arrow so it’s very much a tool of

Advantage a weapon of advantage on the Great Plains with a 25 000 contract for one thousand guns that Walker arranged and with a design modifications that Walker suggested Sam Colt re-entered the gun manufacturing business in 1847. without a factory or Machinery Colt contracted with Eli Whitney’s Armory in

New Haven for the manufacturing of the guns the key ingredient in that contract was when Whitney finished the contract all the machinery and the tooling and the unfinished parts and the gauges became the property of coal so he moved these up to Hartford in the Pearl Street

Factory he gained a second contract for another thousand revolvers also from the federal government it was in cult’s Native Hartford that he would finally see the success he craved in the 1840s Hartford was an old Merchant in banking City suffering from declining Agriculture and population loss a crisis has arrived

Hartford is on the downward course manufacturers and mechanics are the soul of prosperity we must bring prosperity to our doors by producing Reverend Horace Bushnell 1847. hope returned to Hartford primarily because a rich uncle had extended a line of credit this fortunate turn of events

Wedded the story of the gun in the 19th century to the story of 19th century Hartford as Firearms manufacturing became its Central industry River valley had long been a center of gun production Connecticut itself was known as the Arsenal of the revolution in a decade prior to Colt’s return to Hartford machine tools and precision measurement had reached the point where Firearms could be produced with machine made interchangeable parts

New England in general was a center of great mechanical skill the Connecticut Valley was one of the pockets within that region that had all sorts of people who exhibited a lot of talent when it came to design and Machinery the center of New England industrialization was the Springfield Massachusetts Armory which

Had been founded in 1794. during the early 19th century a leading goal of the Armory was to achieve interchangeability of gun parts a concept it actively promoted to the many private contractors in the area who hope to do business with it it was a Clearinghouse of technical information and what happened is because

These private contractors held government contracts the orders Department insisted that if they wanted to continue to contract with the national government they had to share their inventions with anyone who walked through that Armory gate and that’s exactly what happened when Sam Colt was first studying the system of manufacturing that he

Understood to be necessary to mass-produce guns the Springfield Armory was the first place he visited on a tour of Connecticut River Valley arms factories some of the most important Machine Tools in the United States were never patented in the 19th century because they came out of these shops of gun makers who

Decided that they wanted to keep their government contracts and that they would forego patterning their Machinery because that was part of the deal and then from there that technology spreads out 1849 marked a turning point in Sam Colt’s life that year Colt was granted a controversial renewal of his patent and

Moved to a larger Renton Factory in Hartford that year also the California Gold Rush had begun and Colt developed the legendary 1849 pocket revolver the single most successful pistol produced in his lifetime with 325 000 sold by the time of his death it was also the year that he first made

A profit from gun making but most importantly in 1849 Colt hired Elijah King root he came to Colt at Med career after having worked at the Collinsville ax Factory in nearby Collinsville Connecticut and by the time he came to Coal there’s no question that he was recognized as one of the really top

Master machinists in the Connecticut Valley which made him one of the top Master machinists in the United States if not the Western world the thing that Elijah root did for Sam Cole was that he helped cult synthesize manufacturing he helped Colt introduce Machinery that had been developed elsewhere and bring it into a

Sophisticated production facility scene can be more captivating to the eye of a live mechanic then those long lines of shafting and machinery and the Vista of busy workmen in Rose it is a museum of curious machinery Hartford daily current 1849. once Sam Colt and Elisha root perfected the system for mass-producing complex

Metal instruments like firearms that system was readily adapted to make typewriters sewing machines and eventually bicycles automobiles cameras you name it and it really is in Hartford Connecticut and in the Connecticut Valley that this choreography of Machining of complex machine operations is developed that a lot of inventors and manufacturers that went on

To Greater independent fames and really cut their teeth and this incubator that was Colts Armory a famous example of Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney Lee Colts in the mid-60s and form their own Machine Tool Company the alumni of Colt’s Armory became the Vanguard of this high-tech Industrial Revolution that made Hartford you know

What I have called the Silicon Valley of the 19th century the center of a revolution in the world of work that really changed the way things are manufactured and essentially gave birth to the Modern Age of mass production in mid-19th Century America the youthful Nation dreamed of glory and expansion

Cult’s revolver was perceived to be a necessary tool and a progressive symbol of the age what was remarkable about the cult pistol when it came out was the the amount of Firepower that it could put out the fact that it was a workable repeater I think people were

Also taken with the way in which this product of industrialization was itself like a small Factory it was a bullet firing machine as opposed to a single shot weapon in that sense it was a kind of model product of Technology the way that the computer is today

I for one feel thankful that if pistols must be made they are to be made in Hartford since they bring so many Pleasant accessories Isabella Beecher hooker 1856. and Walker’s 1847 contract was a harbinger of the tremendous sales that colt would reap with the settlement of the American West

But more than a huge market for his guns the Western frontier became the source of his biggest Fame I think cult tapped into the Texas Revolution which was a huge area rebelling against the foreign power and capturing the imagination of the Americans out of Texas came

Scores of Heroes so The Eyes Of The World Won’t Texas and along with the settlement of Oregon in the 1840s and 50s and with the California Gold Rush in 1849 suddenly the entire West had captured the imagination of the public the West Was unknown and therefore considered dangerous the West Was

Associated with warring or hostile Indians the West Was associated with literally grizzly bears and and snakes and everything so a gun was seen as absolutely necessary California Gold Rush people went West every single one of them wanted to revolver most people had a rifle but they also if they could get one wanted

To revolve them and I’m I imagine that made Mr cult a millionaire Because of cult’s success in in marketing his pistols to the Texas Rangers and because of cult’s priority in the field in inventing a repeating pistol it’s the cult weapon that has the the name recognition and therefore the market share the name Samuel Colt is now more widely

Known throughout the world than that of any other living American inventor William hammersley 1856. Sam Colt was determined to be a famous person and to use his personal celebrity as a way of marketing his product and he created this Cult of Personality this Cult of Genius around himself again as a

Way of lifting the reputation of his product you know one sees people like Lee Iacocca or Madonna using Persona and personality as a marketing tactic this is 130 years 140 years later very few people had done that prior to Sam Cole Colts inventive marketing and his personal mythology helped him gain market share

But his greatest success came as worldwide conflicts opened up new markets for his weapons little could he have dreamed even in 1846 and seven that the Mexican war would be just a drop in the bucket compared to the impact of the Gold Rush western migration and the outbreak of

Wars of Independence and Liberation around Europe Italy Austria France Russia the Crimean War follows in the 1850s and then our Civil War cataclysmic Civil War in 1861 so that from 1848 until 1865 was one of the biggest growth periods in terms of the need for armaments in the history of the world

The good people of this world are very far from being satisfied with each other and my arms are the best peacemakers Sam Colt 1852. it was a momentous time in American history as the Young Nation climbed onto the stage of world affairs Sam Colt made sure he was where the action was

Wherever it might be 1851 Colt reached his greatest Fame yet with a triumphant performance at London’s International Crystal Palace exhibition of Technology he’s inducted into the Institute of civil engineers in London he’s the first American to be drawn into their Circle and it was a very elite group of men

Devoted to promoting technology he’s hailed as the epitome of American Ingenuity and receives all this attention from the world’s press and he then launches his great mission to go around the world and meet all these world leaders Colts marketing of his product took into a lot of different places around the

World I don’t know if there was anyone prior to Samuel Colt who had this sort of international contacts that he developed he worked both sides of the street in a number of international conflicts and in the American West he actually sold Firearms to both the Native Americans and American forces that were fighting

Against them so you know it was um part of the whole ethos of the time Sam Cole saw the big picture of his time New Opportunities from industrialization and mass marketing a new style of warfare and new markets for firearms one of the first things that he did was to

Develop the rampant cult trademark that we think is the first corporate trademark at least in this country and it’s you know still used the most famous outgrowth of that was the rampant cult sculpture that was on top of the Armory Dome until very recently difficult is bold erect standing up launching lunging

Forward I mean this is the surrogate for the man himself the posture and the Persona are synonymous and both of them snap crackle and pop the idea that this is tomorrow’s technology tomorrow’s Frontier you can have it today you know it’s it’s romance and it really worked

I think Colt was a genius in two ways he was clearly a genius as an inventor he is also a genius at marketing and popularizing this product which is a peculiar product a tool for producing death to be able to sell that the way one sells toothpaste and sewing machines

Is is a kind of demonic brilliance he began giving gifts to important decision makers people in the military people in political life who he thought could help him land government contracts but in the Hartford years he expanded this activity to include paybacks to friends bribes to individuals that could

Help him either land contacts or make connections this is part of the way of doing business the presentation gun was an instrument of marketing for a product that ranged up to the equivalent of fifteen hundred dollars today it was no small token to receive a pistol compliments of Colonel Colt Colt gave

Away 2500 presentation sets during his lifetime it was legendary for the relationships he formed with journalists and artists and people who again were decision makers and people could influence opinion whether it was through just smoothing or bribery or whatever Sam Colt worked the mechanism of public relations brilliantly when they can be

Made a good story of the use of a cult revolving rifle carbine shotgun or pistol upon grizzly bears Indians Mexicans and so on for publication the opportunity should not be lost send me a hundred copies and give the editor a pistol Sam Colt 1860. he also commissioned artists to document his

Achievements he had George Catlin paint a series depicting Colts revolvers in action and those were then turned into lithographs so they could be Mass marketed Thank you Sam Colt shared with his generation of faith in progress and a belief that the American experiment would lead to a more perfect way of life Colt used his multiplying profits to create a new model industrial Community a utopian Vision he called coltsville Colt planned to buy 200 mostly unused

Acres in hartford’s South Meadows floodplain for the site of Coatesville the size of his plan the way he acquired land his demand for unheard of public subsidies and the Very idea of massive Urban Development on a flood plain were all highly controversial Colt threatened to leave the city if his demands were

Not met it took him several years to get through all the bureaucratic red tape the Old Guard Hartford standing order as it was once called typically were Republicans and they were the bankers the insurance people the old money and they were clashing with Colt all over the place he

Also really pushed their buttons by building the Armory and coltsville complex out of cash flow he never took loans from the bank and never insured his property in the city where Banking and insurance where the the other major modern industries from the moment his plans became known people were just

Slapping their heads in wonderment thinking he’s nuts he’s crazy this this guy is crazy he hasn’t been around Hartford long enough to realize maybe not this year maybe not next year but inevitably the Connecticut River will seek its revenge in 1854 with construction underway Hartford was hit by the Century’s worst flood

Although what became known as Colt’s Folly appeared doomed he hired an artist to document a world he was about to change he’s undaunted he insists on starting again and this time they’ll build an earth and embankment around the South Meadows so that they won’t be as vulnerable to flood water Cold continued work on a two mile long 40-foot wide embankment that successfully reclaimed the flood plain for development Colts embankment was a Triumph of civil engineering and a symbol of his outsized ambition it was an intensely politicized age Sam Colt and the industrialists of the north typically voted Democratic the

Democratic party was pro-business pro-industry pro-immigration Sam Colt became one of the champions of the democratic party and probably one of its largest financial backers in fact helped Thomas Seymour land the governorship of Connecticut in 1850 for which he was awarded a commission as a lieutenant colonel hence Colonel Samuel Colt

In 1855 as his catalog of products continued to expand Colt Incorporated Colt’s patent firearms company and opened the Colt Armory the world’s largest private gun Factory Hartford is destined to be the largest manufacturer of firearms of any place in the union Hartford Daily Times 1856 with success came tremendous employment

Growth Colt employed about 50 people in 1847 his first year in Hartford at the height of the Civil War Colt’s Armory employed about 1400 workmen in eight 500 foot long 60-foot wide rooms filled with men and machines its massive scale and russian-style onion Dome symbolized the power and international aspirations of the

Manufacturing Revolution that unfolded Within cold summary was a cranking glamorous spectacle that earned Hartford an international reputation for machine-based manufacturing on every floor is a dense Wilderness of strange iron machines a tangled Forest of rods bars pulleys wheels and and all the imaginable and unimaginable forms of mechanism where it must have required

More brains to invent all of these things than would serve to stock 50 senates like ours Mark Twain 1868. Sam Colt like the Democratic party with pro-immigrant and he recruited Irish German and British immigrant workmen that came to Hartford and for many of them this was their first job in the new

World the third of Colt’s Workforce were Germans and he built amenities for them the band The Beer Hall the Potsdam Village sort of German Workers housing gave coltsville a distinctly European flavor which was very interesting and I suppose also controversial to the congregational old guard of old Hartford foreign

Was conceived as a self-contained industrial compound complete with a store boat dock railroad Depot a school recreational facilities and Charter Oak Hall a community center because Hartford lacked sufficient working-class tenements Colt built 40 units of workers housing he built the whole thing he put in his

Own sewer system he had his own roads his own amenities he had his own Gas Works he was really seeking to build an industrial Utopia he had his own Brass Band made up of Armory workers and coltsville had its own schedule really it all revolved around the factory coltsville also included the palatial

Estate of armsmere with its Deer Park and so Bon ponds and greenhouses and he ultimately was successful although his earlier plans for coltsville are a lot more elaborate than what was actually executed he had an idea for a huge school to promote the teaching of technology and

Of mechanical skills and he was going to leave money to the city to have this built when he died and he became so disenchanted with Hartford politics and government that he took that out of his will he also wanted the new State Capitol building to be built

On the site of the Old Charter Oak Tree and that would have made coltsville really the center of the city and that didn’t happen either although the place known as coltsville never lived up to its Founder’s dream hundreds of thousands found work there for many it was the beginning of a new

Life in America With the onset of the Civil War Sam Colt’s company was about to meet its greatest success called himself like many industrialists of his day who did business with the South was anti-abolitionist he vigorously marketed guns to both North and South before the outbreak of War he was once again hugely controversial

He was shipping weapons South because he was being paid then there was an opportunity to make a sale that kind of almost a moral willingness to deal the instruments of death to both sides as long as they demand for weapons is something that really becomes marked

Later in the century where cult is is selling weapons to uh to both sides in European Wars Continental Wars Asian Wars it is generally understood that cult’s establishment is incessantly occupied in making arms for the southern states to be used in Waging War against the United States treason consists of giving Aid

And comfort to the enemies as is done daily constantly and by contract by individuals in Connecticut the New York Times 1861 After the War Began he stopped selling guns to the South but that was his mode which is to work both sides of the fence in an international conflict Sam Colt

Was intense and outrageous audacious certainly you know it was part of the whole character of the man foreign Fifty two Colt was a International Celebrity he was now a successful man he’d made it and he began summering spending the height of the summer season Newport Rhode Island partly for leisure mostly for business Newport became the meeting ground of the international glitterati of the 1850s and especially large concentrations of military Southern

And political figures summer of 1852 Sam Colt met 25 year old Elizabeth Hart the daughter of a very prominent and affluent socially connected Newport Family they were utterly devoted to each other there was a real sense of partnership there she didn’t need the money the Jarvis

Family had plenty of money in their own right but I think took the daughter of an Episcopal Minister Sam Colt was exciting she brought instant social credibility and respectability to a guy had been controversial Sam Colt was married at the age of 41 which is certainly late in life by the

Standards of the period they were married in 1856 on their honeymoon they all over Russia they travel all over Germany they go to England and they’ve been more places than most people of their time in the 1850s travel was pretty exotic thing to do and of course when the Colts traveled

They traveled well they traveled on the nicest steamer that existed at the time and so they’re traveling around They’re bringing back reminders and souvenirs but also examples of the Arts and the culture of these places that they’re visiting and they’re bringing all this back to Hartford

The period between 1856 and 1862 is the most settled period in the most domestic period in his life I mean he really is already successful and he loves his children he absolutely loved family life he loved armsmere this Mansion he loved his Gardens and he wanted to smell the roses For all their prosperity and contentment the Cults suffered more than their share of tragedy during their five years of marriage lost two children to illness a third was to be stillborn and the two remaining children would pre-decease Elizabeth [Applause] for Sam Colt the success he had craved and had achieved what ironically contribute to his death at an early age just after the outbreak of the Civil War is under a tremendous amount of stress because he was very successful and he was trying to build on that success he

Was doubling the size of the Armory and the factory was running 24 hours a day he had been ill with gout for a couple of years before that the rumor was always that Sam Colt had died of syphilis which uh is almost certainly not true I think the

Big picture is that Sam Cole died almost of exhaustion clearly there were natural causes the gout the rheumatism that did him in this was a guy that was falling apart Elizabeth herself described Sam as never having fully recovered from the death of his first daughter I mean what

A fascinating contrast to the image of the rampant cult this Macho persona Sam Cole died in January 1862 at the age of 47. Elizabeth buried him on the grounds of his beloved armsmear next to his two infants Elizabeth as was the custom of the day remained home and watched the funeral

From the Boudoir at arm’s mirror I see the Workman at the tomb preparing a last resting place for him it seems as if the mainspring is broken and The Works must run down Elizabeth Colt 1862. there was a sense of just shock at the factory that this guy was so inseparably

Connected to the company he was the company his Persona was mounted on its roof his name was over the door he had built this thing from nothing he was lionized as one of the American Originals one of the great you know inventor industrialists of his age

Who would pick up the raids and Carry On by the time of his death Samuel Colt had made and sold almost 1 million guns more than any other gun maker before him how would Colt’s Empire Fame and reputation endure after his death Elizabeth his 35 year old Widow had been

Married to Sam for just five and a half years in the end she is alone and one of the many reasons why Elizabeth becomes hartford’s greatest philanthropist is because she has no direct heirs to leave the fortune to but it was also out of sense of Civic love that she does these

Great things Emerge in public life as the first president of the soldiers Aid Society which is a charitable relief organization and at the end of 1863 she conceived her first of her Memorial campaigns which is the memorial biography of Sam Colt called armsmere she co-wrote sections of that book with

Henry Barnard who was a very noted educator and that book documented Sam Colt’s achievements their life together and arms mirror was published privately and to give you an idea of how dedicated she was she had all kinds of bindings produced for this book and some of them

Went on to win prizes I mean she didn’t just publish a book she published one of the most beautiful books of the time and this is the point at which Elizabeth begins shaping crafting and controlling the way her husband will be remembered and for the next 43 years

She devotes a considerable amount of time to painting and shaping managing his reputation being sure that he will not be forgotten building monuments propagandizing commissioning articles and books that contribute to his ongoing Fame 1963 Elizabeth commissioned a Monumental postmortem portrait of Sam Colt from Charles Loring Elliott the leading

Portrait Painter of the period She was so taken by the results that she commissioned Elliot to paint an equally imposing portrait of her and her beloved Son Caldwell Then in 1866 Elizabeth commissioned a magnificent Monument for the newly purchased cult family burial plot in hartford’s new Rural Cemetery Cedar Hill where she Sam and their children are now buried and that is a big project it costs the equivalent today of eight hundred thousand dollars it is a tour de force

Of Art and sculpture I mean it’s big big big and it’s loaded with visual iconography and power and it’s just a really ambitious work of art after losing four children and a husband within five years Elizabeth had begun to emerge from a year of mourning then on February 5th 1864 with the

Nation at War Colt’s Armory burst into flame and burned to the ground it was suspected but never proved that Confederate sympathizers had torched the building and she stands in a blue bra or window and watches his Vision go up in flames and as the Flames engulf the onion Dome with the rampant

Cult the personal symbol of her husband ah engulfed that in flames and as the roof collapses and the onion Dome collapses into the core of this Towering Inferno wow I mean that is just in a way over the top to think that the Magnificent Noble structure is in ruins it seems so

Identified with a kernel it seems like burying him again Elizabeth Bears it with calmness when the beautiful Dome fell she burst into tears Reverend William Jarvis Elizabeth Colt’s father 1864. she had the choice of either rebuilding it or taking the insurance money which was about 17 million dollars at that

Time which would be a lot more today and she could have just Incorporated that money into her already large inheritance from Sam She inherited today’s equivalent of 200 million dollars when Sam died Sure that she and her board of directors resolved to rebuild the Armory while continuing wartime operations in an unburned wing of the building she does it in the style of the original Colts Armory but she introduces fireproof construction it is instead of Brownstone it becomes brick instead of

Three stories it becomes four it is more decorative it’s got more ornamentation on it so it is more a work art it is a more practical building it is a bigger building but for all intents and purposes it is the same it looks the same the onion Dome goes back on the

Horse goes back on another one remade and Colt’s Empire lives again she picked up the pieces after Sam died and arguably in a way the coal company became even more successful after Sam’s death than it did during his lifetime between 1862 and 1890 the coal company

Was considered to be one of the most sophisticated manufacturers of firearms in the world and she was the one that was sitting at the helm in 1865 Elizabeth decided to build a picture gallery a private art gallery that was eventually installed at armsmere it became the premier art

Experience in the state of Connecticut and another memorialization of the values that the Colts and fellow victorians held Elizabeth’s picture gallery became not only one of the earliest intact Fine Art collections in the United States but the first believed to have been assembled by a woman Patron at the same time she is gearing up to build her Masterpiece which is the Church of the Good Shepherd the cult

Memorial Church built at the North End of Colesville as a memorial to Salmon the deceased children but also as a Parish church for the factory workers and as another embellishment of what has now become her Empire coltsville the church features an elaborate hierarchy of entrances including the armorer’s door decorated with Colts

Revolvers cut in stone Gun parts are used as additional ornamentation throughout the church The interior of the church is decorated with a series of stained glass windows that memorialize the Cults including a rendering of Samuel Colt as the Old Testament character of Joseph of Egypt as Far and Away the grandest example of ecclesiastical Church architecture in a city filled with churches and it’s kind

Of her debut on the stage is a public figure and people know she’s got the money but this is a pretty audacious thing in its own right after 1869 Elizabeth turned her attention to charitable work and institution building good works mixed with good times as Elizabeth and her only surviving family

Member Caldwell spent time traveling together and mixing with American Victorian society Caldwell heart cult was the Second Son of Sam and Elizabeth and he was born in 1858 and he is the sole Heir that lives really past the age of two so Caldwell is the Crown Prince of coltsville and

There was a brief sort of flurry of optimism that young Caldwell was going to take the reins of the rampant Colton and Lead it to Greater glories and just never happened he was more interested in hunting and fishing sailing his yacht and it sounds like he was almost the

Antithesis in some ways of his father he eventually at the age of 35 is sailing in Florida gets tonsillitis and dies lots of things that don’t kill us today killed the victorians It’s 1894 Elizabeth resolved built he had another Memorial which is the Caldwell cult Memorial House of the church the parish House of the church the Good Shepherd this building is way off the scales it is a really big in your face dramatic statement about this yachtsman son who Elizabeth dotted on and loved In 1901 after nearly 40 years at the helm of Colt’s Armory and facing a major wave of Labor unrest Elizabeth Colt now 75 years old sold the company ending the Colt family era she died in 1905 and she left the estate of arms mirror the grounds to

The city as Colt Park which it is today and she left the house arm’s mirror to a trust the cult trust and it still functions today as a home for widows and other female dependents of Episcopal clergy and other qualified gentle women she also left fifty thousand dollars to

The Wadsworth athenium to build the cult Memorial at the Wadsworth athenium to house the 1000 plus objects that she left to the museum The story of the Colt company after Colt family ownership continued to be one of innovation in weaponry the Gatling gun the Colt 45 Browning rifles and machine guns the M16 they and other models led to booming sails and huge profits during wartime but with increasing competition employee

Strikes and periods of Peace the cold company in the 20th century was beset with declining sales and failed attempts at diversification [Applause] In 1981 the company vacated its old Armory and moved to the suburb of West Hartford where it struggled to survive through various owners and economic bailouts the new semi owner shoots has been created right here in Connecticut it fires like any handgun today 60 years after Sam Colt’s first patent

Diminished and renamed Colts Manufacturing Company ties its future to the kind of technological innovation that had propelled Sam Colt’s company to the top of the American industrial pyramid the cult era transformed both Connecticut and Hartford once the Region’s leading manufacturing center today Hartford is one of America’s poorest cities trying to

Redefine itself in a post-industrial era the Hartford of the late 20th century has fewer factory jobs than in Sam Colt’s time Connecticut’s long Reliance on armaments has made for periods of boom and bust despite the survival of many prominent buildings much of Colt’s industrial Empire is today lost or difficult to see

Sam and Elizabeth Colts physical Legacy has faded in some ways and been redefined in others the once abandoned Armory building is today the centerpiece of an industrial park containing residential Apartments Studios for artists and Crafts People and an Eclectic mix of businesses including professional and creative services and a maker of reproduction

Classic cold firearms foreign no longer owned by the company the worker housing survives as cult Estates a residential complex Potsdam Village’s beer garden and wicker furniture Factory are gone but the Swiss style Cottages remain although greatly altered over the years in Colt Park armsmere’s ponds Gardens greenhouses and statuary are long gone replaced by a city-owned Recreation Complex at the entrance to the park is Elizabeth’s last Memorial the Colt

Memorial statue which he built in 1906 on the site where Sam Colt and their infant children were originally buried the monument depicts Sam Colt the boy genius and Colonel Colt the master of cultsville together with scenes of Colt’s International triumphs the church and its Memorial house remain

Active in the community still used for Services Public programs and Parish activities Athenaeum opened the doors of its cult Memorial Wing in 1910 80 years after the revolver King conceived the invention that made him rich In 1996 the museum mounted a major exhibit based on the cult collection Sam called for better for worse made guns ubiquitous he did for pistols what Eli Terry did for clocks he made it possible for middling folk to own one and suddenly these things become not exactly a household commodity but much

More common and today there are almost as many guns as there are people in the United States cult is part of the 19th century culture of the gun which for all kinds of reasons which were perhaps inescapable made gun ownership a critical and really a normal aspect of American Life couple

This with the spread of armaments after the Civil War and what you have as a kind of inheritance passed from the 19th century to the 20th is the notion that widespread gun ownership is normal Empire has inevitably changed with the passage of time Colt’s most lasting Legacy however is

One of today’s most critical issues the proliferation of the gun Thanks for watching if you’d like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this please like comment below and share this video with fellow history Buffs and of course be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening thank you