Antique Arms Annual, 1st Edition — S.P. Stevens, Publisher; R.L. Wilson, Editor (TGCA, 1971)
The first edition of the Antique Arms Annual entered the collection — sponsored by the Texas Gun Collectors’ Association, edited by R. L. Wilson, and published by S. P. Stevens. The cover is explicit: “S. P. Stevens / Publisher.” This settles a question the KB’s existing record of Stevens left open: the R. L. Wilson correspondence already in the collection (two 2013 letters) identifies Stevens as the photographer of the 20-page James S. Fowler Winchester Collection section (pp. 126–143) and as Wilson’s host in San Antonio during the typesetting push, but calls him photographer, not publisher. The cover is a primary document.
S. P. Stevens is documented in the H&H research record as the probable painter of Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee billboard work beginning around 1937, the owner of Stevens Outdoor Advertising Company of San Antonio (confirmed in press from 1957 through 1974), and a deep insider in Texas gun-collecting circles — his “Gunfighter” painting reportedly served as the Texas Gun Collectors’ Association’s club motif, and by 1971 he was the controlling production figure for the association’s flagship reference annual. The Wilson letters document him setting type at a San Antonio printer to make the spring TGCA show deadline, with R. L. Wilson working alongside him, and collectors signing copies “while the printer’s ink was still wet.”
What the cover confirms is that Stevens wasn’t just a contributor to the 1971 Annual — he was the publisher. A San Antonio sign-painter and outdoor-advertising company operator who also published a 200-page, 3,000-copy firearms annual for a statewide collectors’ association: that is the range of the man whose name the family-lore record connects to Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee’s billboard account.
Accession and references
- Accession: HH-BOOK-2026-0022
- S. P. Stevens: /people/stanford-p-stevens/
- Receipt: on file
