The McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has archival materials related to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
“It [archives] got broken up a bit at the time that the company was being sold,” said the library research assistant, Nathan Bender. “We have probably the largest single portion of the archives as it exists.”
Bender said the archive came to the library when the firearms from the company were relocated to the Cody Firearms Museum in the mid-1970’s.
Bender said at the McCracken anyone can page through vintage Winchester catalogs. A couple of which were printed in China when the company opened up an office in Shanghai in 1878. This was part of a broader effort to expand international sales.
“ They were selling all of their products, it appears. So they had the 1866 Winchester Rimfire and 1873 Winchester Lever-Action. They had just come out with the 1876 Lever-Action .45-75 for the nation's bicentennial. They called it the Centennial rifle,” said Bender. “What was brand new at that time was the Hotchkiss Bulk Action rifle chambered in 45-70 and 43 Spanish (cartridges). And those are all represented in the Chinese catalog.”
The catalogs, which Bender said are a rare find in the U.S., also included the option to purchase ammunition.
Bender said some firearms were sold to civilians, and eventually, the company sold the Hotchkiss model to the Chinese government.
“ They were pretty expensive and so it was only people with means who were able to acquire these. And of those 15,000 guns that they had sold in 1881, these later ended up being used in the Boxer Rebellion,” he said.
