Museum Minute: The Palm Protector Pistol

In the early 1900s, a new concealable pistol was created. The Palm Protector Pistol was a double action revolver, but Danny Michael, the assistant curator of the Cody Firearms Museum, said it didn’t really look like a conventional revolver.

“The internals of the gun kind of looks like the spokes of a wagon wheel and it sits on this flat disc in your hand,” said Michael. “It’s really designed that when you hold the gun the only thing that somebody might see would be the barrel protruding slightly between your fingers.”

The pistol was designed to be the ultimate concealable gun. It was originally designed in France, but then a U.S. inventor bought the rights to manufacture the guns. The pistol was only manufactured from the early 1900s to 1910.

“Now, they are more of a curious item than anything else. And they are a side bar to the concealable firearm history since they never really caught on,” said Michael.

Museum Minute was a series co-produced with Wyoming Public Media (WPM).