Treasures from Our West: Winchester calendar

Originally featured in Points West in Spring 2009

Winchester calendar cover

In 1887, Union Metallic Cartridge Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, introduced an advertising calendar to market its line of ammunition. Not to be outdone by its down-state rival, Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut, also introduced the first Winchester calendar the same year. It was only a matter of time until other firearms manufacturers followed suit.

With catchphrases like “Wherever there’s a hunter, there’s a Winchester,” “I wish I had Dad’s Winchester,” and “Results Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow,” manufacturers adopted such marketing strategies as collector posters and annual calendars. Through the years, they engaged popular artists to create appealing images—A.B. Frost, Frederic Remington, N.C. Wyeth, W.R. Leigh, Lynn Bogue Hunt, Philip Goodwin, and Norman Rockwell. They featured a wide range of firearms users including boys, hunters, ranchers, soldiers, and women. In this 1909 Winchester poster, an “outdoorsy” woman has all the right equipment for a stay in the back country—including her trusty Winchester.

After all, what woman could resist the slogan “Makes an outing outfit complete.”

1887 Winchester calendar cover. Gift of Olin Corporation, Winchester Arms Collection. 1988.8.2923

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