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Historic Cased Smith & Wesson New Model No. 3 Single Action Revolver from the Lodge Family Attributed as Presented to Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge by His Close Friend President Theodore Roosevelt with Notarized Letter - Serial no. 21060, 44 S&W Russian cal., 6 1/2 inch solid rib bbl., nickel finish, walnut grips. This revolver was passed down through the family of Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., and his great- grandson Henry Sears Lodge indicated in an included letter that the revolver was a gift from President Theodore Roosevelt to Roosevelt’s close friend Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. during
a hunting trip in the “Wild West”. He indicates that his father, Senator and U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., had told him the revolver was the mate to another Smith & Wesson given by Roosevelt to the future Czar Nicholas II on the same trip and suggested that the Russian leader liked the revolver so much that he had them ordered for his personal guard leading to the revolver being known as the “Russian .44.” A subsequent letter from David M. Grose relates mostly the same story but also adds that the revolver was only fired once by Henry Cabot “Lodge
Sr. only used this gun to outdo a neighbor’s cat on Nahant, MA where they lived at the time.” It also indicates Grose purchased the revolver from Henry Sears Lodge c. 1988 and had fired it himself twice. The included factory letter notes that this revolver along with two others shows no shipping information in the factory ledger though they should have been shipped in 1892 or 1893. This revolver was loaned to NRA National Sporting Arms Museum in April 2013 and is featured in “Guns of the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum” on page 87, “Smith & Wesson Sixguns of the Old West” by Chicoine on page 400, Boorman’s “History of S&W Firearms” on page 108, and discussed by Jim Supica on C-SPAN’s Presidential Firearms (https://www.c-span. org/video/?438656-1/presidential-firearms).
The family lore clearly has at least some aspects of the story incorrect. The Smith & Wesson .44 Russian would have been in use by the Russian government since the 1871 when Nicholas
II and Theodore Roosevelt were both children, and Nicholas II never came to the United States and was not liked by Theodore Roosevelt. The story may have been confused with visit of Grand Duke Alexei, son of Czar Alexander II and uncle of Nicholas II. He visited the U.S. in 1871 and toured the Smith & Wesson factory which was by then already contracted to supply revolvers for the Russian military and also went hunting in the American West with Lt. General Philip Sheridan, Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, and William F. Cody (then a hunter and not yet an international sensation). Nicholas II is known to have presented an elaborate Smith & Wesson revolver to a Russian officers in 1895, the same year the Russian military adopted the more modern Nagant revolver. President Theodore Roosevelt’s most famous dealings with Russia and Czar Nicholas II came in 1905 when he helped negotiate peace between Russia and Japan ending the Russo-Japanese War and earning Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.
Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. (1850-1924) was one of Theodore Roosevelt’s most important political allies and advisors and also one of his closest friends starting in the mid-1880s when both men were delegates to the 1884 Republican National Convention in Chicago. In 1887, Roosevelt was one of the founding members of the Boone & Crockett Club formed
for the conservation of wildlife. Lodge was one of the key members and helped push the clubs agenda in Congress. In 1892 or 1893 when this revolver likely left the factory, Lodge would have either been running for a Senate seat or have
As pictured and described in the books Guns of the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum by Supica, Wicklund & Schreier & Smith & Wesson: Sixguns of the Old West by Chictoine
recently been elected. He had previously made a name for himself as a historian, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, and Congressman.
Roosevelt had also in part made a name for himself as a historian and in 1892 and 1893 was a commissioner on the United States Civil Service Commission, a position he was
given by President Benjamin Harrison based on Lodge’s recommendation. Roosevelt served on the commission until 1895 and earned a reputation for fighting against corruption. In 1895, Roosevelt and Lodge co-authored the book “Hero tales from American History.” He then served as president of the New York City Police Commissioners where he continued to earn a reputation as a reformer. He became the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley in 1897, and then resigned that position to fight in the Spanish-American War as the lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (The Rough Riders). Both Lodge and Roosevelt were proponents of U.S. intervention in Cuba.
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