In this landmark 528 page, 12.5 x 12.5 inches publication, Western American art historian Dr. Larry Len Peterson presents the sweeping story of the artists of the American West and their works in a fresh and enlightening tale. Western American art is a big tent, as expansive as the region’s history and land. It took birth in the nineteenth century in a time when Americans had an almost mythical belief and hope in the infinite potential of the West. The West was about making new, starting over, visions, myths, legends, dreams. This publication is divided into six parts: Part I. The Romantics: Nineteenth Century Artists in the World of Manifest Destiny and Darwinism; Part II. The Nostalgic: Charles M. Russell; Part III. The Searchers: Twentieth Century Artists Embrace the Mythology of the American West, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Hollywood; Part IV. The Sun Worshipers: The New Mexico Artists; Part V. The Storytellers: Illustrators, Sporting Artists, and Others; and Part VI. The Master: Howard Terpning. For two centuries, Western American art has defined who we were, who we are, and who we will be as Westerners. That’s a daunting task, and the challenge has resulted in kaleidoscopic adventures of starts and stops and changes in direction—much like shifting shadows. Peterson accompanies 560 spectacular color illustrations—the best of 10,000 auction lots, holding over 150 world records—with introductory essays to each Part, along with accompanying profiles of 120 artists to provide a unique view of the artists’ historical and cultural milieu—a view at once panoramic and intimate. In the end, Western American art is not one art. It has many regions, styles, and forms, telling a complicated American story. It is a crazy quilt of Americana as diverse as country music. It’s never one thing and can be joyful, sad, and everything in between—captured rather than painted. Touching through time, Western American art makes hope and the West rhyme.

The American West Reimagined - Gems from the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction

Larry Len Peterson

The Coeur d'Alene Art Auction

"It is for everyone who appreciates Western landscape, loves Glacier Park, and wants to know more about a painter who impressed his vision on generations of travelers called west by the mountains. All aboard for Fery-land." - From the Foreword by Brian W. Dippie In John Fery's lifetime, more Americans saw his art in person than almost any other artist. Train depots, hotels, universities, ships, travel agencies, and corporations all proudly displayed his magnificent paintings. What was not familiar was the man behind these impressive landscape paintings not only of Glacier National Park but also many other vistas of the American West. This biography makes use of 284 illustrations that document a remarkable life while also presenting the people and times in which Fery lived. More than that, it explains in detail the relationship between John Fery and his main patron, Louis W. Hill of Great Northern Railway fame. Born Johann Levy in 1859 in Hungary, Fery was smitten early on with painting the Alps. After the death of both of his parents when he was just a teenager, Johann sought formal art training in Vienna, Munich, and Düsseldorf. By the early 1880s he had changed his name to John Fery and was hired on by German immigrant painters to work on cycloramas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Subsequently, along with his French wife Mary, he traveled through the Hudson River Valley in New York; lived in Cleveland for a while; explored Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and eventually located to booming Duluth, Minnesota where he worked on a mural for the Fitgar Brewery. In 1895 it was there that a young Louis W. Hill working for his famous father, James J. Hill, fell in love with Fery's art. Alongside Peterson's engrossing tale of the life of this great painter, the 284 illustrations offer an unprecedented selection of Fery's works-a view at once panoramic and intimate.

JOHN FERY - Artist of Glacier National Park & The American West

Arts & Photography

Frontier photographer L. A. Huffman (1854 1931) captured the spirit of the American West like no other artist. As comfortable photographing the haunting images of the plains Indians as he was the working cowboy, Huffman accurately recorded a passing way of life on the American western frontier. Arriving in Fort Keogh, Montana Territory, in 1879, ten years before Montana would become a state, Huffman realized the importance of recording the end of the open range, the untamed western landscapes, the plains Indian, and the last of the buffalo herds. While many painters and photographers created art that romanticized the West, Huffman photographed everyday life, ranging from ranching and hunting scenes to landscapes of Yellowstone National Park. While living in Miles City, Montana, he captured unique images of frontiersmen, cowboys, Native Americans, soldiers, and city folk from the area. This handsome volume contains over 500 spectacular images of the American West. The informative text i

L.A. Huffman: Photographer of the American West

Reference

Catalogs & Directories

Settlers West Galleries

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<li>2018 Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award Winner: First Place Nonfiction!</li> <li>
2018 True West Magazine Best of the West Winner: Best Author and Best Nonfiction Book of the Year! </li>
<li>University of Nebraska Great Plains Book of the Month: December 2018!</li> </ul>
American Trinity is for everyone who loves the American West and wants to learn more about the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is a sprawling story with a scholarly approach in method but remains accessible in manner. In this innovative examination, Dr. Larry Len Peterson explores the origins, development, and consequences of hatred and racism from the time modern humans left Africa 100,000 years ago to the forced placement of Indian children on off-reservation schools far from home in the late 1800s. Along the way, dozens of notable individuals and cultures are profiled. Many historical events turned on the lives of legendary Americans like the "Father of the West" Thomas Jefferson, and the "Son of the West" George Armstrong Custer - two strange companions who shared an unshakable sense of their own skills - as their interpretation of truths motivated them in the winning of the West. Dr. Peterson reveals how anti-Indian sentiments were always only obliquely about them. They were victims but not the cause. The Indian was a symbol, not a real person. The politics of hate and racism directed toward them was also experienced in prior centuries by Jews, enslaved Africans, and other Christians. Hatred and racism, when taken into the public domain, are singularly difficult to justify, which is why Europeans and Americans have always sought vindication from the highest sources of authority in their cultures. In the Middle Ages it was religion supplemented later by the philosophy of the Enlightenment. In nineteenth-century Europe and America, religion and philosophy were joined by science and medicine to support Manifest Destiny, scientific racism, and social Darwinism - all of which had profound consequences on Native Americans and the Spirit of the West. Presenting research in anthropology, archaeology, biology, history, law, medicine, religion, philosophy, and psychology, Dr. Peterson provides the latest observations that delineate why the Native American's life was destroyed. American Trinity is a stunning portrait, a view at once unique, panoramic, and intimate. It is a fascinating book that will make you think about the differences between belief and knowledge; about the self-skepticism of science and medicine; and about what aspects of the world we take on faith.

American Trinity: Jefferson, Custer, and the Spirit of the West

History

Americas

Sweetgrass Books

Raised at the edge of what would become Glacier National Park on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and robbed of his hearing by scarlet fever at age two, John L. Clarke overcame many hardships to become a celebrated and widely collected artist. He rose to fame by applying his passions for the Glacier country, its wildlife, and Native Americans to the arts of wood carving, sculpture, sketching, and painting. Author Larry Len Peterson accompanies the tale of this Blackfeet icon with photographs, printed materials, full-color images of his artworks, and images of contextual works from other famed artists of the time to provide a unique view of the artist's historic and cultural milieu: a view at once panoramic and intimate.

Blackfeet John L. Cutapuis Clarke and the Silent Call of Glacier National Park: America's Wood Sculptor

History & Criticism

* Newly Revised & Abridged Edition from an award-winning author Larry Len Peterson! * Written in a scholarly style, including end notes, bibliography, and index * Offers a fresh perspective on the origins, development, and consequences of racism. 
American Trinity is for everyone who loves the American West and wants to know more about all the good, the bad, and the ugly of Euro-American conquest. Author, cultural historian, and 2016 C.M Russell Heritage Award recipient, Larry Len Peterson details the collision of European and Native American civilizations and the bloody aftermath that doomed a once-thriving people. Wide-ranging, painstakingly researched, and brimming with fresh insights, American Trinity is an engaging, accessible read on how the West was shaped by the implacable forces of Thomas Jefferson’s Doctrine of Discovery, and Euro-American hubris embodied by George Armstrong Custer.

American Trinity (Revised & Abridged Edition) Jefferson, Custer, and the Spirit of the West

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