Mandan warrior Four Bears has been praised for his artistic genius, which may explain why artists of the Old West have felt compelled to portray...
An Artist’s Artist
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Collecting the West
Romance and the Buffalo Hunt
Nancy Cooper clearly fired up Charles M. Russell’s imagination when they met in 1895 (a year later, 32-year-old Charlie would marry 18-year-old...
Private Eye Cowboy?
Born on November 3, 1877, in Hillsboro, Texas, Laney Thomas Cathey was four when the railroad arrived. His relatives believe he worked for the...
Monkey Business
A half-scale saddle that advertised Buffalo Bill’s Wild West act of a monkey riding a goat was among the top historical lots to hammer down past its...
Big Year for Custer Guns
The year 2017 turned out to be an excellent year to collect firearms tied to a storied icon, George Custer, and his most famous (and fateful)...
Blessed Booze
A Presbyterian pastor and a Mormon walked into a saloon. The first railed against the distribution of liquor and all the evils that came from...
An Unusual Scale
Edgar Alwin Payne’s language of the Southwestern landscape mainly spoke of brilliant cliffs and skies towering over a small group of figures on...
Million-Dollar Cowboys
Thomas Moran was alive today, he would be surprised to hear that his former pupil reached the million dollar auction mark through an unusual subject...
Beating a Retreat
Alfred Jacob Miller did not leave his viewers guessing at what inspired his 200 watercolors that William Walters commissioned, beginning in 1858. He...
Hunka, Hunka Burnin’ Iron
Two days before The Guardian published its exposé, “Can’t Help Falling in Price,” about how the deaths of Baby Boomers has sent Elvis Presley...
She’s So Money
Sacagawea played a major role in the success of the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. The teenaged Lemhi...
A Woman’s Work is Never Done
The Plains Indian women’s role in the buffalo hunt was no small thing. “Theirs was harder work than buffalo hunting,” explained John C. Ewers, in...