Record

Photograph

1922-04

National Park Service, Springfield Armory National Historic Site (NPS Museum Collections)

U.S. Submachine Gun Thompson Model 1921 .45ACP, SN 11867 (Springfield Armory NHS, SPAR 1546)

NPS museum catalog record for a Colt-made Model 1921 Thompson, which the catalog says was manufactured between 1 and 4 April 1922 and transferred to the museum on 27 April 1960. The catalog photograph is not stored here.

Date: 1922-04
Kind: photograph
Source: National Park Service, Springfield Armory National Historic Site (NPS Museum Collections)
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: NPS Museum Collections web catalog record, Springfield Armory National Historic Site, catalog number SPAR 1546. The catalog's copyright page asks that anyone reproducing an image first contact the custodial park, so the NPS asks that reproduction be cleared with the park and no image is stored here; the page shows a document plate and links to the catalog record.

The catalog quotes the museum’s exhibit label: “Recalling the Prohibition era, the Thompson submachine gun … represents the fully automatic weapons which continue firing as long as the trigger is pulled.” It also cites the Armory’s 1922 annual report: “The Thompson Sub-Machine Gun was tested.”

The record carries a “STOLEN WEAPON ALERT” reference that this archive has not read in full. Much of the catalog’s notes quote commercial collector sources, and only the catalog’s own fields and the Armory annual report are cited here. This gun has no crime history in the record; it illustrates the model.

Object: Submachine gun, Model 1921 Thompson, .45 ACP, serial number 11867
Maker: Colt (Hartford, Connecticut), commercial model
Date: 1-4 April 1922
Provenance: transferred to the Springfield Armory museum on 27 April 1960
Appears in: NPS catalog, SPAR 1546

itemU.S. Submachine Gun Thompson Model 1928 .45ACP, SN 13159 (Springfield Armory NHS, SPAR 18)NPS museum catalog record for a Colt-made Thompson marked "U.S. NAVY MODEL OF 1928/13159," with a 20-round box magazine and Cutts compensator, made about 1928 and donated by Savage Arms Co. in 1979. The catalog photograph is not stored here.itemModel 1921 Thompson Submachine Gun, Colt (Smithsonian, National Museum of American History AF.69053MA)Smithsonian Open Access catalog record, CC0, for a Model 1921 Thompson submachine gun made by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, serial number 5075, date made ca. 1922 or ca. 1926. No image is published with the record.