: Thanks to the generosity of longtime Hartford philanthropists
Melinda and Paul Sullivan through the Melinda and Paul Sullivan
Foundation for the Decorative Arts, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum
of Art's exhibition "Samuel Colt: Arms, Art and Invention" is
back on the museum's 2006 exhibition schedule. Director Willard
Holmes made the announcement three weeks after the museum
postponed the exhibition for lack of funding. The exhibition,
which was to have opened May 5, will now open Wednesday,
September 20.
"The Wadsworth Atheneum trustees, staff, and I are most grateful
to Melinda and Paul Sullivan for providing full funding for the
Colt exhibition," said Holmes. "Their generosity enables us to
fulfill our original objectives with this groundbreaking show; to
tell the full and true story of Colt's genius through the
exhibition, its catalog and our programs for schools and the
public, all centered on these exemplary objects from our
collection."
The Sullivans commented in a joint statement, "Quite simply, we
felt that the Wadsworth Atheneum's unprecedented scholarship in
examining Samuel Colt's inventions deserve to be presented first
in Hartford, his hometown, before going on a national tour."
Echoing this, Coleman H. Casey, president of the board of
trustees, remarked, "This is a wonderful gift; wonderful for the
Atheneum, for Hartford and Connecticut, for American history and
the memory of Samuel Colt."
"Samuel Colt: Arms, Art and Invention" and its accompanying book
from Yale University Press mark the first initiative to fully
document the unique Colt firearms collections held by the
Wadsworth Atheneum. Constituting what Holmes has called "the
American equivalent of the great arms and armor collections in
Europe," the majority of these rare firearms - prototypes and
examples of his manufactured revolvers, pistols and rifles - were
in Samuel Colt's armory office at his death in 1862. Others
represent the models in production at his death and were acquired
by his widow, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, in 1862-1863.
Although these firearms collections alone demonstrate Colt's
achievements as a technological innovator and an industrial
entrepreneur, the exhibition and publication of Samuel Colt:
Arms, Art and Invention reveals the profound impact of Colt's
genius on American industry, US national identity and
international relations in the Nineteenth Century.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is at 600 Main Street. For
information, www.wadsworthatheneum.org or 860- 838-4058.
