The Western Legacies Series is a co-publication series between The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and the University of Oklahoma Press. The series consists of works on Western culture germane to the museum, such as biographies, directories, material-culture monographs, art histories, photo essays, and corporate histories. Some works may be published in conjunction with museum exhibits, but will be designed to exist independently of such exhibits. Each work will incorporate the latest research and insights gleaned from the various fields that delve into the political, sociological, institutional, and cultural aspects of western life. The books are written in a style that appeals to general readers, professional historians, and their students.
We travel with Bailey as he encounters Indians, U.S. soldiers, Mexicans, freed slaves, and cowboys working other drives. The journal contains surprises for readers steeped in romantic cowboy lore and cattle drive legend. Bailey’s time on the trail was hardly lonely, and crews included African Americans and, at least on the early drives, women and children.
This biography puts readers in the saddle to experience the life of a champion rider in his quest for the gold buckle. Drawing on interviews with Smith and his family and friends, Margot Kahn recreates the days in the late 1960s and early 1970s when rodeo first became a major sports enterprise. She captures the realities of that world: winning enough money to get to the next competition, and competing even when in pain. She also tells how, in his career’s second phase, Smith married cowgirl Carole O’Rourke and went into business raising horses, gaining notoriety for his gentle hand with animals and winning acclaim for his and Carole’s Circle 7 brand.
The enduring fascination of the American West marks this collection of essays by distinguished historians, investigative reporters, a novelist, and a celebrated screenwriter. All of these articles have won Wrangler Awards—the western equivalent of the Oscars—presented annually by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
During the 1870s, Cheyenne and Kiowa prisoners of war at Fort Marion, Florida, graphically recorded their responses to incarceration in drawings that conveyed both the present reality of imprisonment and nostalgic memories of home. The Silberman Collection is an unusually complete group of images that illustrate the artists’ fascination with the world outside the southern plains, their living conditions and survival strategies as prisoners, and their reminiscences of pre-reservation life.
From its roots in cowboy and vaquero culture to the big-business excitement of today's National Finals competitions, rodeo has embodied the rugged individualism and competitive spirit of the American West. Now the long trajectory of rodeo culture comes fully alive in Arena Legacy. Showcasing the unrivaled collections of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, this lavishly illustrated volume is the first to depict rodeo's material and graphic heritage. Certain to delight a diverse audience of rodeo aficionados, participants, collectors, and historians, this stunning volume is a fitting tribute to America's truly western sport.
American Firearm Manufacture, Design, and Artistry, 1800–1900
by Richard C. Rattenbury
Foreword by R. L. Wilson
Photographs by Ed Muno
The history of American firearms is inseparable from the history of the United States, for firearms have played crucial roles in the nation’s founding, westward expansion, and industrial, economic, and cultural development. This history unfolds in compelling words and images in A Legacy in Arms, a volume that draws upon the collections of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City to trace the business and art of gun making from the early national period to the turn of the twentieth century.
The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898–1915
by Steven L. Grafe
Foreword by Paula Richardson Fleming
The photographs in Peoples of the Plateau capture the lives of Pacific Northwest Indians at the turn of the twentieth century. By the late nineteenth century, after the U.S. government had confined these Indians to a reservation, their lives began to change irrevocably.
