Arms
Connecticut
has a long and continuous tradition of arms and ammunitions production.
That element of the state’s past has been amply studied and chronicled.
Deyrup,
Felicia J. Arms Makers of the Connecticut Valley: Regional
Study of the Economic Development of the Small Arms Industry.
No. 33 in Smith College Studies in History. Northampton: Smith
College, 1948. This study was made during World War II and as
a result certain papers, most notably the Colt Collection at the
CHS, were closed. Thus the work cannot be considered definitive.
Nevertheless, it is a first-class scholarly study, with full apparatus.
It includes numerous charts and graphs of the economics of arms
manufacturing. The small-arms industry is defined as “factory
production of weapons carried on the person.” (p.7n) The study
covers the Valley from New Haven north to Springfield, and includes
Norwich.
Grant,
Ellsworth S. The Colt Legacy: The Story of the Colt Armory
in Hartford, 1855-1980. Providence: Mowbray Company, 1982.
This is promoted as a biography of not just the man, but of the
Armory itself. Lavishly illustrated. Grant is a much published
amateur historian.
Hall,
Karyl Lee Kibler, and Carolyn C. Cooper. Windows on the works:
industry on the Eli Whitney site, 1798-1979. Hamden: Eli Whitney
Museum.
Haven,
Charles T., and Belden, Frank A. A History of the Colt Revolver
and Other Arms, Made by Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing
Company from 1836 to 1940. New York, W. Morrow, 1940. A full
history of the arms—not the man. Thoroughly illustrated and authorized
by the Company.
“Repeating
Fire-Arms: A Day at the Armory of Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing
Company’.” United States Magazine 4(March, 1857)3:221-49.
Very useful illustrated description of the factory as it was
in 1857.
Serven,
James E. Colt Firearms, 1836-1960 Santa Ana, Calif.: Foundation
Press, rev. ed., 1960. Lavishly illustrated account. Exhaustive.
Strother,
F. “America, A New World Arsenal: Bridgeport an Example of the
Effects of War Orders in the United States.” World’s Work
31 (January, 1916): 321-33.
Wadsworth
Athaneum. Samuel Colt Presents. Hartford: the Athaneum,
1961. A lavishly illustrated catalog, with commentary, of an exhibition
of Colt firearms.
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