The National Firearms Museum
One-armed Zerelda Samuel had a hard time filling
out a receipt. Yet to the delighted man who stood nearby, his long
journey to meet this woman was just about to become worth the effort.
After a pleasant afternoon spent with conversation and lemonade,
he was going to make the purchase of a lifetime—buying a family
heirloom of a boyhood hero. And it came with a receipt from his mother!
Exactly 100 years later, the staff at the National
Firearms Museum opened a box recently arrived from Old Town Station
in Lenexa, Kan. Wearing white gloves and in an environmentally secure
and controlled room, they carefully unwrapped layers of bubble wrap
that held a large frame revolver. Accompanying the gun was a small
yellowed receipt that read: “Received $39.00 from Mr.
C.B. Parsons of Lexington, Kentucky for my son Jesse’s pistol,
Smith & West #1984 size .44. Signed,
Zerelda Samuel, James Farm, Kearney, Missouri.”
In the world of firearms collecting, few guns have associated
excellent provenance—provenance being a
clear and provable chain of custody from the original owner to the
present. Jesse’s mother, “Zee” Samuel, lived
another 30 years after Jesse’s death, selling his guns, and
even pebbles from his grave, almost until the day she died. But having
this receipt and the gun together brings one that much closer to
the widow Samuel’s pistol—a Smith & Wesson
.44 revolver she asserted belonged to her son, the infamous outlaw
Jesse James.
Now on display, the new exhibit “Guns West!” opens the doors
to the historical West, the legendary frontier, and the American West as viewed in cinema and sport. Guns of famous lawmen and
outlaws, TV and movie stars and cowboy action heroes all share billing in one of the largest exhibitions of arms at the National
Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va.
The National Firearms Museum is open daily and admission is free (donations gratefully received). Arms enthusiasts of all ages are welcome. For more information, please call (703) 267-1600 or visit nationalfirearmsmuseum.org
