Editing Samuel Colt (section)

== Legacy ==
It is estimated that in its first 25 years of manufacturing, Colt's company produced more than 400,000 revolvers. Before his death, each barrel was stamped: "Address Col. Samuel Colt, New York, US America", or a variation using a London address. Colt did this as New York and London were major cosmopolitan cities and he retained an office in New York at 155 Broadway where he based his salesmen.<ref name=evans>{{harvnb|Evans|Buckland|Lefer|2004|pp=59–64}}</ref>

[[File:WLA metmuseum Sultan of Turkey Colt Dragoon revolver.png|thumb|A Dragoon revolver, Colt's gift to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire]]
Colt was the first American manufacturer to use art as a marketing tool when he hired Catlin to prominently display Colt firearms in his paintings. He was awarded numerous government contracts after making gifts of his highly embellished and engraved revolvers, with exotic grips such as ivory or pearl, to government officials. On a visit to what was then [[Constantinople]], he gave a custom-engraved and gold inlaid revolver to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire [[Abdülmecid I]], informing him that the Russians were buying his pistols, thus securing a Turkish order for 5,000 pistols; he neglected to tell the Sultan he had used the same tactic with the Russians to elicit an order.<ref name=evans />

Apart from gifts and bribes, Colt employed an effective marketing program which comprised sales promotion, publicity, product sampling, and public relations.<ref name=Sapp1314>{{harvnb|Sapp|2007|pp=13–14|year=2007}}</ref> He used the press to his own advantage by giving revolvers to editors, prompting them to report "all the accidents that occur to the [[Sharps rifle|Sharps]] & other humbug arms", and listing incidents where Colt weapons had been "well used against bears, Indians, Mexicans, etc".<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2004|p=45}}</ref> Colt's firearms did not always fare well in standardized military tests; he preferred written testimonials from individual soldiers who used his weapons and these were what he most relied on to secure government contracts.<ref>{{harvnb|Hosley |1999|p=61}}</ref>

Colt felt that bad press was just as important as good press, provided that his name and his revolvers received mention. When he opened the London armory, he posted a 14-foot sign on the roof across from Parliament reading: "Colonel Colt's Pistol Factory" as a publicity stunt, which created a stir in the British press. Eventually the British government forced him to take the sign down.<ref name=tucker /> Colt historian Herbert Houze wrote that Colt championed the concept of modernism before the word was coined, pioneered the use of celebrity endorsements to promote his products, introduced the phrase "new and improved" to advertising, and demonstrated the commercial value of [[brand awareness]]—as a word for "revolver" in French is ''le colt''.<ref>{{harvnb|Houze|Cooper|Kornhauser|2006|p=11}}</ref> Barbara M. Tucker, professor of history and director of the Center for Connecticut Studies at [[Eastern Connecticut State University]], wrote that Colt's marketing techniques transformed the firearm from a utilitarian object into a symbol of American identity. Tucker added that Colt associated his revolvers with American patriotism, freedom, and individualism while asserting America's [[technological supremacy]] over Europe's.<ref name=tucker>{{harvnb|Tucker|Tucker|2008|pp=79–82}}</ref>

In 1867 Colt's widow Elizabeth had an Episcopal church designed by [[Edward Tuckerman Potter]] built as a memorial to him and the three children they lost. The church's architecture contains guns and gun-smithing tools sculpted in marble to commemorate Colt's life as an arms maker. In 1896, a parish house was built on the site as a memorial to their son, Caldwell, who died in 1894. In 1975, the [[Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House]] was listed in the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=75001925}}|format=pdf|title=Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House |publisher=US Department of the Interior|page=2|access-date=December 20, 2011}}</ref>

Colt established libraries and educational programs within his armories for his employees, which provided training for several generations of [[tool and die maker|toolmakers]] and other [[machinist]]s, who had great influence on other manufacturing efforts over the next half century.<ref>{{harvnb|Roe|1916|p=164}}</ref> Prominent examples included [[Francis A. Pratt]], [[Amos Whitney]], [[Henry Leland]], [[Bullard Machine Tool Company|Edward Bullard]], [[Worcester R. Warner]], [[Charles Brinckerhoff Richards]], [[William Mason (Colt)|William Mason]] and [[Ambrose Swasey]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lendler|1997|p= 17}}</ref>

In 2006, Samuel Colt was inducted into the [[National Inventors Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/257.html|access-date=December 21, 2011|title=Samuel Colt|publisher=National Inventors Hall of Fame|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318134629/http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/257.html|archive-date=March 18, 2012}}</ref>