Vesta Spencer Taylor and husband Charles Taylor.
Vesta Spencer Taylor
A Conversation with Vesta Spencer Taylor
Interviewed by Dick Bertel on WTIC
1965
WHS collections 1984.63.1
The original recording of this interview was made in 1965 by Dick Bertel, local radio personality at WTIC radio station in Hartford, CT. He interviewed Vesta Spencer Taylor at her home at 26 Olin St., Windsor, CT. The interview concerned the life of Vesta’s father, Christopher Miner Spencer, and his many accomplishments, including his meeting with President Abraham Lincoln to demonstrate his Spencer repeating rifle, his development of an automatic screw machine, and his personal steamboat the Luzette.
Audio Clip: President Lincoln tests C.M. Spencer’s repeating rifle (2:56)
Audio Clip: President Kennedy receives Spencer book (2:13)
The full audio recording is 40 minutes long and can be heard if you visit the Windsor Historical Society research library, or contact the librarian/archivist Michelle Tom at mtom@windsorhistoricalsociety.org. The transcript for the entire interview is here: full transcript.
Christopher Miner Spencer, the interviewee’s father, around age 28, circa 1861, near the time when he introduced his repeating rifle to President Abraham Lincoln. WHS collections 2015.1.114.