Archival Research Group

05/24/2026

More on this little guy later, there's a lot of history with the Army getting Smith & Wesson 1917 revolvers and the associated problems. This unit is also rather interesting. While not a frontline combat unit, they did come under enemy artillery and aircraft fire while delivering ammunition to the artillery units, sometimes as close as a mile from the front.

How important is the condition to you? If the condition is documented in a primary source.

We’d love to hear from you. There are no wrong answers, just different perspectives. We would love to hear where you stand.

05/23/2026

This trapdoor serial number 421,439 appears in the regimental book for the 51st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. In the regimental book, Captain Warren G. Ickis writes to the Adjutant, informing him that each man has a haversack knapsack and a canteen, and that they are marked in accordance with Army Regulations. He further notes that several pieces of cutlery have been lost by the men, but they still have enough to equip each man. He finally lists the number of rifles the company has on hand. This rifle is among the rifles listed.
The 51st Iowa mustered into service out of Des Moines, Iowa. It sailed out of San Francisco aboard the SS Pennsylvania, bound for the Philippines to fight the Spanish. However, it arrived at Manila just a few days before the end of the Spanish-American War, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The regiment would remain in the Philippines throughout the Philippine-American War. It would be moved to Cavite, where it would take part in several battles and engagements, including San Roque, the Quingua River, Pulilan, and others. It mustered out of service on November 2, 1899, out of San Fransico.

One thing we particularly liked about this request was how it came in. This rifle was listed and found by another collector; he subsequently passed on the opportunity to the current owner because he felt it would best fit the current owner's collection. They opted to help one another, and we love hearing stories like that. That’s what makes this community so great to work with!

(From a collection in the Midwest)

05/21/2026

We’ll be bringing back US Martial Arms Collector Magazine back later this year. It will re-released on the 50th anniversary of Frank Mallory’s Springfield Research Service Volume 1. The editor we contracted to run the magazine designed this cover page. We’ll have a more organized method of keeping you in the loop of US small arms research.

05/21/2026

More updates coming…

The editor we contracted out designed the cover for the re-release of US Martial Arms Collector Magazine.

Will be releasing later this year on the 50th anniversary of Frank Mallory’s SRS Volume 1.

05/17/2026

We have here a 1860 Spencer carbine belonging to the 6th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, as recorded in a Civil War ledger book entry dated July 13, 1864.

Originally entered in the SRS under Company “G” of the 6th Indiana Volunteer Cavalry by Frank Mallory, he wrote that in error (these things happen). Thanks to a colleague who specializes exclusively in Civil War small-arms research, we were able to locate the correct file.

It was issued to Trooper William Gibson of Company “G” of the 6th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. That particular unit was issued M1860 Spencer carbines. The Ordnance Quarterly was able to point us in that direction. The 6th Illinois participated in the Siege of Port Hudson, the Atlanta Campaign, the Battle of Franklin, and the Battle of Nashville, and is most famous for Grierson’s Raid in 1863.

Civil War research is extremely challenging; we were glad to locate the file for our subscriber.

(Eric Larke collection)

05/15/2026

More updates will be coming but we're bringing U.S. Arms Collector Magazine back later this year (in digital form).

Volume 179 of the magazine will be released on the 50th anniversary of Volume 1.

More to follow. The structure will be very similar to Mallory's original framework.

Introduction with updates on: projects, research and what will be coming down the line.
Researcher notes, what has been found at the archives.
Copies of interesting documents.
Short article.
Serial numbers being added to the SRS.

More to follow.

Send a message to learn more

05/10/2026

This is a fantastic rifle with a mountain of documentation. The report itself is about 17 pages long, so we can’t upload everything, but we’ll include the highlights.

In 1939, the Ordnance Officer at Fort Sam Houston initiated an investigation into defective safeties on the new M1 rifle found by the 3rd Infantry. There was some concern that pulling the trigger might deactivate the safety; you can imagine how concerning that would be.

The Commanding Officer at Springfield Armory, Colonel Stewart, issues a reply, naming at least six steps required to modify the safeties and rectify the problem, and stating that this should not be done by field personnel. A sample safety provided by Fort Benning was forwarded to Springfield Amory, and they found it suitable for the task and recommended that a fixture be produced and funds be allocated for its manufacture.

This rifle is dripping with provenance, and it illustrates how the U.S. military's switch to a semi-automatic service rifle was hardly seamless. Additionally, a copy of the jig, as well as the sample safety, was just sitting in the box at the archives.

Please understand, we can’t do this for every M1 or firearm possible. You can see we have just under 17k entries for the M1 Garand out of the millions produced. Which is why this does not happen often and why we get so excited when it does.

When collectors say, “If only this gun could talk.” Well, it can, you just need to speak the language, and we can help with that!

(Rich Hudak Collection)

04/29/2026

We are eagerly awaiting another project.

Frank Mallory got this microfilm from the ATF sometime in the 1990s.

We just got it digitized today. We’re awaiting the final product.

The company took some samples they saw and it included records from the Department of the Treasury and DoJ. Some records go back to at least the 1930s.

Frank Mallory had a focus on serial numbers, so we know that must be a large portion of it.

They said it was much larger than originally estimated. Just shy of 25k records.

These files have been sitting dormant for the last couple of decades.

04/26/2026

Thanks to one of our volunteers we were able to fix a glitch in our Smith and Wesson Double-Action .38 Databases.

New entries added this morning. Most are surveys from the U.S. Navy between 1945-1948.

04/25/2026

This is always exciting for us! Connecting artifacts to primary source documentation. These connections never get old for us!

One of our subscribers found an extremely rare M1903, one of just TWO numbers we have for the USS North Carolina, off of her custoday record card. For whatever reason, the other 120 rifles are not recorded on this card. The USS North Carolina was the lead ship of the North Carolina-class fast battleships, capable of 28 knots and designed to es**rt aircraft carriers. She was commissioned on April 9, 1941, and nicknamed “Showboat.” She saw combat early in World War II at the Battle of Eastern Solomons in the summer of 1942. She would also see service during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944. In 1945, she would participate in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After the surrender of the Japanese, she helped transport personnel home and was finally decommissioned on June 27, 1947.

Disclaimer - Before we get a huge influx of e-mails asking for documentation on their collection. We cannot do this for every possible serial number.

We collect serial numbers when we find them and record them. But if you look at the screenshot, we have over 98k entries. When you compare that against the millions of M1903s produced, it’s a very small but respectable sample size. Our subscribers get the most use out of our databases by actively searching by serial number. It’s incredibly rare to acquire something and have a “hit” after the fact as a surprise. Most people know the hit going into it.

(Jason Miller collection) Thanks for the photos and your support!

And always, if you like this content and want to see more like it. Please like, comment and share so others can find us and help us grow!

04/24/2026

It is probably safe to say Cpl. Homer Newton was not someone who regularly filled out reports....

He gets bonus points for very creative spelling of the word.