The exhibition Playing Cowboy is drawn entirely of selections from the Johnie and Bob Terry collection in Springtown, Texas. The Terrys own and operate Wild West Toys, a company that manufactures die-cast metal cap guns and molded plastic Western figures from original toy molds from the 1950s and 1960s. Bob Terry is a self-taught historian …
In conjunction with the exhibition ARToons, join Kera Newby, Director of the Dickinson Research Center and Curator of Archives at the National Cowboy Museum, for an evening exploring the cartoony side of Western art. $5; free for Museum members.
Since there have been children in what is now called the American West, toys have been part of their lives. These toys often helped them “become” someone else: a brave warrior, a tough cowboy, a lawman, an outlaw. With the publication of the first dime novels and the worldwide tours of Wild West shows in the …
John Wayne and Stewart Granger strike it rich in this rousing comedy adventure set during the Alaskan gold rush. When prospectors Sam McCord (Wayne) and George Pratt (Granger) hit the mother lode, Sam agrees to go to Seattle to bring George’s sweetheart back to Alaska. But since she’s married to someone else, Sam invites a …
The Pulitzer Prize–winning American classic of the American West follows two aging Texas Rangers embarking on one last adventure. A love story, an adventure and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove …
Comic books emerged in the 1930s. Through a natural evolution, cartoons developed into comic books, first through publications containing compilations of cartoon re-prints, then as books which featured unique content. Superheroes entered the world of comic books soon after, with many of the characters having stood the test of time to become vital parts of pop culture. Join Dexter Nelson …
Did you know the Pony Express began in Oklahoma? Attend April’s Curator Conversation to learn, discuss and understand the origins of the Pony Express with Ronnie Davis, Award Winning Pony Express Rider and Suzette Chang, Chief Education Officer at the National Cowboy Museum. $5; free for Museum members. Registration requested.
The author of myriad best-selling mysteries set in the American Southwest, Tony Hillerman presents nine extraordinary, true tales of daily life in New Mexico, including the comical title story about a bank holdup in Sante Fe that never was. Read the West Book Club meets monthly. Select books available for purchase in The Museum Store …
Dutch ovens were used on cattle drives to feed the cowboys and are still used today by chuck wagon cooks. However, these cast iron pots have a much deeper history. Join Luann Sewell Waters, state co-coordinator of the Oklahoma Leopold Education Project, conservation and history educator and Dutch oven cooking instructor as she shares the …
Originally published more than fifty years ago, The Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides and explorers. The story …
