Elizabeth Hart Jarvis
American, 1826 - 1905
BiographyElizabeth Hart Jarvis was born in 1826, the daughter of Reverend William Jarvis (1796-1871) and Elizabeth Miller Hart (1798-1881) of Middletown, Connecticut. She was one of nine children, including her sister Hetty Hart Jarvis (1828-1898). On 5 June 1856, she married Samuel Colt (1814-1862), who founded Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1847. They made their home, Armsmear, in Hartford as well. The Colts had five children: Samuel Jarvis (1857), Caldwell Hart (1858-1894), Elizabeth Jarvis (1860), Henrietta Selden (1861-1862), and unnamed (1862 stillborn). Caldwell Hart Colt was the only child to survive infancy.
Elizabeth H. J. Colt's legacy of philanthropy, art patronage, and institution building earned her a reputation as a visionary civic leader. In 1905, she bequeathed to the Wadsworth Atheneum a collection of nearly 1,000 objects, artworks, and documents. She also provided a fund to build the Colt Memorial, the first American museum wing bearing the name of a female patron. Elizabeth H. J. Colt died in 1905 at Heartsease, the home of her niece and godchild, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Beach Robinson in Newport, Rhode Island.
Elizabeth H. J. Colt's legacy of philanthropy, art patronage, and institution building earned her a reputation as a visionary civic leader. In 1905, she bequeathed to the Wadsworth Atheneum a collection of nearly 1,000 objects, artworks, and documents. She also provided a fund to build the Colt Memorial, the first American museum wing bearing the name of a female patron. Elizabeth H. J. Colt died in 1905 at Heartsease, the home of her niece and godchild, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Beach Robinson in Newport, Rhode Island.
Person TypeIndividual
American, 1869 - 1936
