We're making a visit today to this display booth by Francis Bannerman Sons, Inc. at a ca. 1910 exhibition at Madison Square Garden. For three generations of Bannermans, the company was a major purveyor of military goods to sportsmen and collectors in New York City.
The firm was founded in October 1872 by Francis Bannerman (1851-1918) and his wife Nellie Boyce Bannerman as an offshoot of his family's ship chandlery and military salvage business located near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By 1880, Francis was selling mostly government surplus arms and military supplies. Around 1890, he acquired the Spencer Arms Company, manufacturers of a repeating shotgun.
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