The L.C. Smith Collectors Association
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    Note from the Cody Firearms Museum regarding LC Smith Inspector information Archived Message

    Posted by David Kennedy on June 13, 2007, 12:46 pm

    LC Smith Inspector List

    Many of you have received factory record information on your 1890-1912 LC Smith shotguns from the Cody Firearms Museum Records Office. This information often has the inspector’s mark. We have been reporting the names of inspectors in factory letters and serial number searches based on a photocopy of a list located in one of the assembly room ledgers.

    In recent foray into the LC Smith ledger books located in the McCracken Research Library, CFM Records Specialist Jesi Bennett found the inspector list. Upon close examination, Ms. Bennett and David Kennedy, Curator of the CFM, discovered that due to the poor image quality of the earlier photocopied ledger page, the Cody Firearms Museum Records Office has been mistakenly misreporting some inspectors’ names.

    Below is a comparison of the two lists.


    Previous list used
    AMcKnight
    BFurness
    C
    DH. Saddlemyre
    EC. Saddlemyre
    FG. Clute
    GD. Folley
    H
    JF. Brown
    KF. Green
    MJoe Murphy
    OJ. Hewes
    PR.W. Mack
    RC.F. Shafer
    SC.A. Turness
    T
    WW. Freeman
    New list
    AMcKnight
    BFurness
    CA. Tolley
    DH. Sadlemyre
    EC. Sadlemyre
    FG. Clute
    GW. Tolley
    HJ. Neyhart
    JF. Brown
    KF. Green
    MJoe Murphy
    OJ. Hewes
    PM.W. Mack
    RC.F. Schafer
    SC.A. Furness
    TE. Manwaring
    WW. Freeman

    With the publication of John Houchin’s book, L.C. Smith: The Legend Lives On, we feel it is important to pass along this information to collectors as additional data to aid in their research. The Cody Firearms Museum Records Office will be using this new list as of July 1, 2007. Any questions may be directed to Jesi Bennett at 307-578-4031 or David Kennedy at 307-578-4117.

    We are excited about our new records retrieval system which was installed in April. The microfilm and microfiche records which we have been using for 30 years have all been digitized. We are now able to view the same hand written records on a 30 inch computer monitor. The digital images are superior to the microfilm and microfiche in that they are much clearer, we now have the ability to zoom the image to a greater magnification and we are able to adjust the brightness and contrast of the images. We are able to pull out details of the records which were simply unreadable on the microfilm and microfiche.

    The digitization of the records also opens up the possibility of being able to use a heretofore unusable LC Smith shipping ledger for serial number searches and factory letters. This ledger has not been used to this point because it is not organized serially, it seems to be organized by configuration. The Records Office has not had the staff or time to create an index of this ledger using the microfiche or the original ledger. Having the images available digitally simplifies the indexing process. Our early survey of the first 56 pages of this 87 page ledger has revealed that there is some information on approximately 931 shotguns. This entire project will be at least a year in the works but we look forward to being able to share more information on this small set of records.

    Respectfully,

    David Kennedy
    Curator
    Cody Firearms Museum

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