1958.32

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Details

ID Number

1958.32

Category

T&E For Science & Technology

Sub-category

armament T&E - firearm

Item Name

revolver

Maker

Colt

Date

1851

Materials

METAL, STEEL WOOD, UNKNOWN

Measurements

overall: 5 in x 13 in

Description

Colt Navy Revolver, Model 1851; steel with wood grips; grey, silver and brown in colour; octagonal, rifled barrel; six shot; wood grips, percussion cap barrel wedge

History

Possibly issued to the Upper Canadian Militia, this six-shot, 1851, London-made Colt pistol has a curious history. In 1958, when this gun was acquired by the museum, it was a mix-match of two different guns (indicated by two un-matching serial numbers). As luck would have it, while visiting the home of a private collector, Mr. Douglas (the Museum's curator at that time) noticed a gun in the collector's home that was made up of the same two pistols as the one in the Museum's collection! The guns were disassembled and reassembled with their rightful parts. While researching the former owner of the gun, Mr. Douglas discovered, that the two pistols had been stolen from the Fort Malden Museum in 1953 while they were on loan from Mr. Macdonald. The guns had been mix-matched after their theft in order to throw the police off the trail. Thanks to Mr. Douglas' investigation, the case of the missing pistols was reopened by Amherstburg police. The thief is still at large. Since the entire Macdonald collection was donated to the Museum, both guns were legally the property of Windsor's Community Museum. Now both pistols reside in the Museum's collection.

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

Subject (Fre)

Y

Subjects

Fort Malden Museum place

Militias / Milices subject

Upper Canada organization

War / Guerre subject

Weapon subject