Bust of Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt

View of bust and detail image.

When her husband, Samuel Colt, died in 1862, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt (1826-1905) became one of the wealthiest women in New England. She assumed a prominent role in Hartford as the largest stockholder of the Colt arms manufactory and as a leader in civic and social affairs.

Elizabeth Colt commissioned or purchased paintings from some of the day's most celebrated American artists, including masterworks from Hudson River School painters Frederic E. Church, Sanford Robinson Gifford, William Bradford, John F. Kensett, and Albert Bierstadt. She also traveled extensively, collecting curiosities and treasures in America and throughout Europe, to assemble a decorative arts collection that included American, European, and Asian examples.

At the time of her death in 1905, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt bequeathed her collection of almost 1,000 works of art including paintings, ceramics, porcelain, objects, documents, and firearms, to the
Wadsworth Atheneum. She also funded a new addition to the buildings of the Atheneum, the Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt Memorial Wing, which was completed in 1910.