Blog

Every ten years the U.S. embarks on a process to calculate and record information about the population in a census. The first census of the newly-formed country was taken in 1790. One hundred years later, during the census of 1890, the government hired special agents to embark on a project that became known as the Report on Indians Taxed and Not Taxed. (“Indians not taxed” were those who were living on reservations or those roaming in unsettled areas of the country.) 1890 U.S. Census form, Public Domain SRM artist William Gilbert Gaul was one of those special agents. [...]

This year our lecture programs have taken us around the world, from exploring the influence of Buffalo Bill on the youth of 1950s Belgian Congo, to the global influences on the development of Western Horse cultures. We continue that journey with a trip across the Atlantic by exploring the reciprocal dialogues between French and US culture through interests in the American West with Dr. Emily Burns’ talk titled Mobile Arts, Fluid Ideas: The American West in France / France in the West. Interest in and representations of the American West was not exclusive to American artists like Charles Russell and [...]

Continuing exploration of our current exhibit, another studied theme centers around the Bison and the Plains Indian. One gallery wall of artworks features the chaos and movement during the actual hunt. Opposite that wall is a progression of paintings highlighting Plains Indian women and their role in relation to moving camp during hunting season created by Charles Russell from early in his career into the 1910s, representing a 20-year span of the artists treatment of this theme. Seeking New Hunting Grounds (Breaking Camp; Indian Women and Children On The Trail) | Charles M. Russell | c. 1891 | Oil [...]

Our current exhibit looks at different aspects of the American West, one theme of which explores Western Archetypes. As evidenced in his paintings and bronzes, artists like Frederic Remington created a cast of archetypal western heroes that he returned to again and again from the cowboy, to the brave solider, and the mountain men. One well-known western archetype is that of explorer, figures who carved out the trails west, with the most famous explorers of the American frontier being Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. These western heroes are represented in the exhibit with Charles Russell’s 1897 painting Captain William Clark [...]

One of the 4 themes in our current exhibit, Picturing the American West, highlights artworks that depict the long-standing narratives of Cowboys vs. American Indians. But as scholars have shown, the conflicts between “cowboys and Indians” are more myth than reality, and were often the product of imagination from dime store novels and popular “Westerns” of film and television. Attack on the Herd (Close Call) | Charles Schreyvogel | c. 1907 | Oil on canvas | 26.125 x 34.25 inches Many who joined the cattle drives of the late 19th century were of African, Mexican, and Indigenous descent. [...]

Our current exhibit, Picturing the American West, is a thematic installation that invites you, the viewer, to explore new contexts and perspectives on Western American Art. The artworks are grouped around four themes, one of which is Western Archetypes. This theme is largely centered around an image of Buffalo Bill Cody in Charles Russell’s 1917 painting, Buffalo Bill’s Duel with Yellowhand. Buffalo Bill's Duel With Yellowhand | Charles M. Russell | 1917 | Oil on canvas | 29.875 x 47.875 inches Buffalo Bill Cody, ca. 1875, public domain Buffalo Bill is the west personified. One story [...]

Our current exhibit, Picturing the American West, focuses on 4 different themes, one of which centers around the essential role the American bison – what is commonly referred to as buffalo – played in the lives of Native Americans. Indians Hunting Buffalo (Wild Men's Meat; Buffalo Hunt) | Charles M. Russell | 1894 | Oil on canvas | 24.125 x 36.125 inches   Wounded (The Wounded Buffalo) | Charles M. Russell | 1909 | Oil on canvas | 19.975 x 30.125 inches Historians estimate that in the late 18th century, 30 to 60 million buffalo once [...]