Harvey Alexander Logan

Students complete scholars program

From Warren County: Bowling Green High School — Ethan Oliver Baker, Katherine Elizabeth Cohron, Jacob Austin Lyons, Jacob Adam Malmquist, Elizabeth Gaines Penn, Megan H. Taing, Kelly Ann Wyrick and Cesarina Rose Rounce; Greenwood High School — Callie Ann Allison, Kevin Higdon Belt, Mallory Cecile Clouse, Megan Lee French, Laken Nicole Greene, John Cleaveland Greer, Shelby Lynn Hilbert and Riley Carol Miller; South Warren High School — Michael Samuel Greene, Seth Matthew Stewart and Jessica Sloane Stuart; Warren Central High School — Ryan Lee Bell, Allyn Hunter Goatley and Sayrah Kristin Breanna Jones; Warren East High School — Molly Ann Greer.

The New Colt Gallery: The Revolver, a Gun That Made History ...

Updated July 22 — One of the biggest attractions during the Autry’s Day of the Cowboy and the Cowgirl celebration this Sunday, July 23, is the reopening of the Greg Martin Colt Gallery , which has been closed since March for redesign. And it will feature one of the coolest technological stories of the 19th century: how the Colt revolver came to be.

“The Greg Martin Colt Gallery really will explore the entire history of the Colt Revolver, from its early beginnings, from the idea, from its inception, all the way up into the modern West,” said Jeffrey Richardson, the Autry’s associate curator for Western history and popular culture. “It will look at the development of the gun specifically, but focusing on how the gun played in the American West and why is that connection there between the Colt revolver and the American West.”

Colt’s Manufacturing Company even donated a 175th anniversary commemorative single action army model revolver to the museum in recognition of the new exhibition, titled The Colt Revolver in the American West . Designers are working on integrating the gun into the existing gallery, and it should be on display soon.

On display now is an 1835 prototype revolver, one of only a handful made before Samuel Colt patented and began mass-producing his revolutionary gun.

Revolutionary because this gun did not require reloading after each firing. Instead, it had a cylinder that automatically revolved — hence the name — when the user cocked the hammer to align each round for firing. Nowadays, when we think of a handgun, the image that comes to mind is of a revolver with a six-round cylinder — Samuel Colt’s revolver. But they didn’t always look or work like that. Before Colt’s invention, a user could only fire once before having to reload again, making for a slower, less efficient gun that often proved fatal in real-world situations.