Sam and Elizabeth:

HARTFORD, CONN. -- At the Wadsworth Atheneum from September 8 to March 9, 1997, "Sam and Elizabeth: Legend and Legacy of Colt's Empire" tells the story of one of the most alluring couples of the industrial age. Five years in the making, it represents the first comprehensive display and analysis of the Atheneum's Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt Collection.

The collection, bequeathed to the Atheneum in 1905, was originally housed in the Atheneum's Colt Memorial wing, thought to be the first American municipal museum wing bearing the name of a woman patron.

The collection contains more than 1,000 objects, paintings, decorative arts, photographs, and documents, including Sam Colt's personal collection of firearms and the entire original contents of Elizabeth Colt's 1860s vintage picture gallery -- at the time, one of New England's finest private art galleries.

Sam Colt, the inventor and industrialist, and Elizabeth Colt, the philanthropist, institution builder, and art patron, are rendered using collections that are biographical and wide-ranging, representing European, American, and Asian art and reflecting key events in the Colts' lives. Themes include Sam Colt's flamboyant performance at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, Elizabeth Colt's Grand Tour of Europe, and the realization of an industrial empire. With their personal possessions and dozens of strategic the exhibition provides an adventure of discovery as collections, stored away and unseen for most of the past half century, are again unveiled.

Striking a balance in the way "his" and "her" versions of the Colt story are presented and devising the means for displaying so much eclectic material has not been easy. Although the basic outline of Sam Colt's legend has been told and retold, the reality was not quite so pat. As curators dug deeper into the content and contexts that gave the collections meaning, surprising discoveries were made.

At each fork in the road the Colts faced difficult choices. They proceeded in ways that were rarely easy or inevitable. Neither profits nor gun-money guilt fully explain two individuals who shared a strong sense of purpose. More than guns, or religious piety, or the pursuit of an industrial utopia, a belief in the idea of progress was the tie that bound Sam and Elizabeth, one to the other and each to the impulse to make the world a better place than they found it. Whether or not they succeeded in doing so, the Colts were among the most intriguing and progressive characters of the industrial age.

In 1847, a cycle of economic decline was broken when Sam Colt (1814-1862), a 33-year-old native son, chose Hartford as the place to found Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company. By 1849, after years of toil, perseverance, and failure, Colt had a product and a process that worked. Colt's pistol factory became one of the most celebrated icons of the industrial age and his pistol - the famed "Colt's Revolver" - became one of the first products of American manufacture available around the world. By 1851, Sam Colt was an international celebrity.

In 1856, Colt married Elizabeth Hart Jarvis (1826-1905), who's legacy of philanthropy, art patronage, and institution building earned her a reputation as a visionary civic leader. In 1905, Elizabeth Colt bequeathed to the Wadsworth Atheneum a collection of nearly 1,000 objects, artworks, and documents and a fund to build the Colt Memorial, the first American museum wing bearing the name of a woman patron. Today, parks, schools, museums, patriotic societies, agencies of poor relief, and the Episcopal Church, all bear the imprint of her civic vision.

Colt's Empire is their story. It is the story of their home, Armsmear, and of their empire, Coltsville. And it is the story of Hartford's transformation from a part-time, government center and trade port on the Connecticut River, to a prosperous industrial metropolis. Sam and Elizabeth changed the world around them, shaping an environment that clearly echoes their presence to this day.

Elizabeth had few equals in her generation who were more determined and able to create memorials. There was the Colt Memorial "Church of the Good Shepherd," the "Caldwell Colt Memorial House," the "Colt Memorial Statue," "Colt Memorial Park," the "Colt Memorial Annex" of the Wadsworth Atheneum, and Armsmear, and the "Colt Memorial" biography of Sam Colt. Each of these projects were both acts of remembrance and works of art involving nationally renowned, artists, writers, and architects.

In 1864, Elizabeth Colt began forming a private art gallery that centered around the two life-size portraits she commissioned of herself and Sam in 1863. The gallery was a memorial to Sam Colt and a shrine to the redemptive power of art, nature, and maternal love.

At the exhibition (1864) of the Metropolitan Fair in New York -described as "the most extensive ever offered in this country" - she was introduced to the art and several of the artists whose work she acquired. With the Hudson River School artist Frederic Church as an advisor, Elizabeth Colt amassed a collection of works by the leading American and European painters of her day.

Colt liked art that was morally elevating, devoid of controversy, and flawlessly executed. In addition to its dramatic wilderness scenes and views of the pristine and unblemished American West, the gallery featured historical tableaux, scenes of the Orient, pastoral views of animals, and sentimental portraits of maternal love and childhood innocence.

The Atheneum is at 600 Main Street. For information, 860/278-2670