"Peacemaker" Colt Single-Action Army Revolver, serial no. 4519 1874

This is a "Peacemaker" Colt Single-Action Army Revolver, made by Samuel Colt. The name is dripping with irony. In the American West of the late 19th century, the distribution of weapons was far from even. This weapon’s association with peace glosses over the violence of settler colonialism, the Indian Wars, and the dispossession of indigenous peoples. The mythology of the Wild West was constructed and advanced through dime novels, Wild West shows, and eventually film. The Colt revolver became a symbol of American individualism, yet it simultaneously represented the power of the state and the expansion of American economic interests. The presence of a gun in a museum collection prompts us to confront uncomfortable questions about the role of violence in shaping American history and national identity. The history of arms manufacturing reveals much about the development of industrial capitalism and the rise of the military-industrial complex. To understand this object fully, one would need to consult a range of historical sources from company records, government archives, and accounts of military campaigns.