[coltsixguns]

I've had this 1878 for a couple of months and decided to go ahead and get a factory letter on it so I called this morning.

The factory information came back just as you see it 45 colt x 7-1/2" barrel nickel finish with rubber grips.
In a 2 gun shipment to a Professor Charles E. Norton in late August of 1881.
No address listed for the good Professor.

Thanks to the internet, google showed me that the Professor was at Harvard and thought to be "the most cultivated man in the United States".

Imagine that.....a liberal Harvard professor in Cambridge, Mass who bought a pair of nickel 78's.

Charles Eliot Norton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click to enlarge....

 

[dogface6]

When Professor Norton bought that Colt - 'liberal' just meant a larger helping.

In his day, Rifle and Revolver Clubs were all over the Eastern seaboard, and pretty much every man followed the shootists of the day, thanks in large part to the old 'Police Gazette' and other like publications.

A man that was that well-thought-of may well have books or autographs out there - well worth picking up to keep with his Colt.

 

[David13]

Times have changed. And it really hasn't been for the good.

But you are quite right. That is interesting.
dc

 

[Oyeboten]

Well, now you can be searching for the other one ( of the 'Two Gun Shipment' )..!

Very interesting provenance, and, a lovely old '78 too of course!

 

[coltsixguns]

Well, now you can be searching for the other one ( of the 'Two Gun Shipment' )..!

Very interesting provenance, and, a lovely old '78 too of course!

I guess I should have asked Paul what the other serial number was in the shipment. I'll certainly pay attention to any nickel 45 x 7-1/2 6400 range serial number DA when I see them!

 

[bofg]

I thought this article was interesting, it explains the Professors view towards crime. It is from the Boston Journal Aug. 29, 1897.

 

[royal]

I'd like to think he had a double shoulder holster rig for campus wear.