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Picture Page March 2015 Bannerman's 1927 Military Goods Catalog....... I purchased a collection of cartridges and reference materials this past
month, and included in it were four editions of Francis Bannerman Sons
Illustrated and Descriptive
. This page shows a view of the 'Bannerman's Island Arsenal', the most prominent building on Polepel's Island. This is the building that burned in 1969. . . . . . . . . . . .
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This is one of several pages devoted primarily to cartridges, however, cartridges are also scattered throughout the firearms sections of the catalog, listed with the specific weapons that were chambered for them. . . . . . . . . . . .
From the left column of the page shown above are these cartridges, including the W.R.A.Co. .45-70 U.S.G. headstamped example, of which Bannerman had 7 million. I can't begin to imagine 350,000 boxes of Winchester .45-70. The Springfield musket and Gallager's carbine cartridges at 10 cents each sound like a great deal, but considering these are 1927 prices when a new Ford Model T could be had for under $400, puts these cartridge prices into perspective. . . . . These cartridges are pictured on the upper right of the page shown above. Again, great prices for Spencer, Evans and Maynard cartridges from today's perspective. The Evans shot cartridge is quite unusual, with it's paper bullet. I believe these are attributed to the Phoenix Metallic Cartridge Company, which held the patent for the shot-filled segmented paper bullet. . . . . . . . . . . .
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Another of the pages devoted primarily to cartridges. The descriptions usually include some historical facts related to the cartridges being sold, including where and under what circumstances they were obtained. These facts were included by Bannerman to give the cartridges some intrinsic (collector) value over and above their value as shooting ammunition. . . . . .
The most interesting item to me on the page shown above to is the set of six Spanish War cartridges, ranging from battlefield pickups, cartridges damaged in shipping or at sea, or captured in war. Note the 'Poisoned Bullet' reference to the Spanish Reformado cartridge, a misnomer that originated as a result of the green verdigris that is usually found on their brass jacketed bullets and resulted from the reaction of the bullet lubricant with the brass jacket. At $1.50 for the six, or 25 cents each, these seem to be rather pricey compared to other cartridges in the catalog. . . . . .
Two cartridges that appear out of place in a military goods catalog are these, also from the page shown above. The upper one is the 32-40 Ballard and the lower one the .38-40 Remington Straight; both seem reasonably priced at about 1.5 cents per cartridge. . . ..
Another page with diagrams and descriptions of paper cartridges loaded with a round ball and a Minie bullet. . . . . . .
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Catalogue of Military Goods from 1927, 1940,
1945 and 1949. The 1927 edition is 370 pages, nicely bound with black cloth
covers and gold embossed lettering on the front and spine. The other three
are stapled together, and haven't survived the wear and tear of the
intervening years as well as the older bound edition. These Bannerman
catalogs are a great source of information on arms and ammunition, as well
as other mostly military items, as they provide detailed descriptions with
historical background information, and quality illustrations or in some
cases photographs for most of the items they sold. Francis Bannerman was
born in Dundee, Scotland in March of 1851 to a family in which the tradition
was to name the eldest son Francis, and he was the sixth in a line of
so-named sons, his father also being one of those eldest sons named Francis.
His family came to America in 1854, and found a home near the Brooklyn Navy
Yard. Frank, as Francis Bannerman VI came to be known, attended school until
the start of the Civil War, when his father enlisted in the Union Army and
Frank had to withdraw from school at the age of ten to help support the
family. He returned to school following his father's discharge from military
service at the end of the war, but found little opportunity to attend full
time due to the need to assist his father in his ship chandlery store, which
grew out of a scavenged junk business to one that was eventually purchasing
military goods at US Navy auctions, primarily worn rope for resale to paper
makers. In 1872, with his father's blessing, Frank set up a naval surplus
goods business in competition with his father. At an early age he had
observed old military muskets and swords being destroyed for scrap, and
knowing that there was demand for these old weapons in smaller countries
that were unable to afford modern weapons, he began attending Army auctions
and buying up these obsolete weapons. He was also aware that many of these
weapons had historical significance and were worthy of preservation. As a
result, he began publishing his catalog, illustrating and providing the
history of the weapons he had to sell. A New York Sun reporter wrote that
"Bannerman could tell an interesting story about everything he had for
sale". His catalog is given much of the credit for the beginning of gun
collecting among the middle class in this country, who previously only
purchased guns that were needed for food or protection. Over the next 25
years, Bannerman's developed into the world's largest seller of surplus
military equipment, and the growth of his business required several moves to
gain needed storage space. At the start of the Spanish-American War in 1897,
Bannerman's salesroom and warehouse was at 501 Broadway in New York City.
From this location, they outfitted many of the American volunteer regiments.
As the war wound down they purchased weapons directly from the Spanish
government before it evacuated Cuba, and then purchased 90% of the guns,
ammunition and equipment captured by the US military and auctioned off by
the government. These purchases necessitated that Frank Bannerman find a
remote location to safely store the 30 million (give or take a few million)
cartridges and artillery projectiles that he had obtained. He purchased Polopels Island in the Hudson River in 1900 for this purpose, upon which he
had constructed storehouses and a summer residence, all patterned after the
castles in his native Scotland. In the side of the largest castle-like
storehouse were the words "Bannerman's Island Arsenal". Consequently, the
island became known as Bannerman's Island, and the largest structure,
Bannerman's Castle. They continued to maintain the 501 Broadway location as
their retail outlet and showroom. Construction was ongoing on the island
until Bannerman's death in 1918. In August 1920, two hundred tons of
artillery shells and powder exploded destroying the powder house. State and
Federal firearms legislation severely impacted sales to civilians over the
years, and by 1957, Bannerman's island was pretty much abandoned. In 1958,
Frank Bannerman's grandchildren had the remaining ordnance on the island removed, allowed
the Smithsonian to select items for the museum collection, and auctioned off
the remaining items, The State of New York took ownership of the island and
buildings in 1967, and tours of the island were conducted beginning in 1968.
On August 8, 1969, a fire began in the Arsenal and over the next three days
destroyed the roof and floors, leaving just the walls standing. Today the
Arsenal is in ruins, with much of the structure remaining after the fire
having collapsed..
