Summary of Scholars' Round Table

The Scholars Presenting Their Reflections to Coltsville Neighbors.
From Left to Right D. Bluestone, S. Lubar, A. Hlebinsky, C. Emberton

NPS photo

Summary
Scholars' Round Table, March 2019
Coltsville National Historical Park

The National Park Service (NPS) Region 1 Northeast Regional Office (NERO) and the staff of Springfield Armory National Historic Site and Coltsville National Historical Park (SPAR/COLT), in cooperation with the Organization of American Historians (OAH), sponsored a 2.5 day Scholars' Round Table (SRT) on March 25-27, 2019, to discuss the national significance of Coltsville National Historical Park.

The panel included four scholars – Daniel Bluestone (Boston University), Carole Emberton (University of Buffalo), Ashley Hlebinsky (Cody Firearms Museum), and Steven Lubar (Brown University) – and a facilitator, Leslie Lindenauer (Western Connecticut State University).

Attendees included staff from the NPS Region1 NERO, COLT/SPAR and the NPS Stewardship Institute. The scholars discussed four questions (developed by NERO, COLT, and OAH) over two half days, and then presented their thoughts in a public session on the third day. This public session was also publicized to the attendees to the annual meeting of the National Council on Public History, which was being held in Hartford starting the 27^th.

For two days scholars and staff toured the sites and debated and discussed various topics from the Colt story including, innovations, marketing prowess, female corporate leadership, Colt’s role in western expansion, and the globalization of American products, labor history, guns in our culture, and the role of the park in the community and identifying stakeholders. The event culminated with a public conversation including the scholars’ reflections followed by a question and answer session. The event dovetailed with the National Council on Public History annual meeting adding the voices of public historians with the over 40 people in attendance. The conversation was engaging, and supportive of the commitment to inclusion of all voices while asking questions but not casting judgement.

At the conclusion, each of the four scholars submitted a reflection essay focusing on their reactions and insights to the significance of Coltsville and future directions for investigation and development. These essay links are located below at the end of this document.

Results

• The session highlighted research questions and potential paths of research into various aspects of the Coltsville story to provide the basis for public history student projects or focused commissions to historians.
• A potential additional area of significance emerged in context of the amount to which the federal government’s contracts with and design requirements for the Colt factory products affected its success. Does Colt mark the beginning of the military-industrial complex?
• Elizabeth Colt’s role in the company was an important unknown in the discussions – research is required in terms of how active a role she took in directing the company, or if she was an owner in name only, and did her brother run the works.
• A corporate history of Colt will be vital to understanding many of the aspects of interest, from production numbers to details of the labor force. It may also provide more information about Elizabeth’s role.
• The concept of the park as a laboratory for public history emerged affording opportunities for partnerships with area educational institutions.
• Based on community interest two public sessions focusing on the Colt legacy were offered in Hartford in September 2019:
  • Willie Granston, a PhD candidate in the History of Art and Architecture Department at Boston University, presented a program focusing on Elizabeth Colt and her role in the memorialization of Colt in Hartford, hosted by The Church of the Good Shepard.
  • Samuel and Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt: Uniting Art and Commerce, a lecture by Elizabeth Kornhauser, Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Painting and Scultpure at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was hosted by the Wadsworth Atheneum.
• Scholars emphasized focusing on the workers, rather than Samuel and Elizabeth exclusively.

To read the scholars' reflection essays please follow the links below.

Reflection Paper 2019 SRT Daniel Bluestone, Boston University

Reflection Paper 2019 SRT Carole Emberton, University of Buffalo

Reflection Paper 2019 SRT Ashley Hlebinsky, Cody Firearms Museum

Reflections Paper 2019 SRT Steven Lubar, Brown University