cover image Frontier America: Art and Treasures of the Old West from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Frontier America: Art and Treasures of the Old West from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Elizabeth V. Warren, Paul Fees. ABRAMS, $35 (128pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-0948-9

The Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Buffalo Bill and Plains Indians museums make up the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., which claims to be the world's foremost repository of U.S. Western art and artifacts. This elegant volume displays the center's treasures. Boehme, curator of art at the center, introduces the artists as she guides us through the painting and sculpture exhibits. Fees, curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum, discusses Cody memorabilia, Indian artifacts and the collection of firearms. He takes us back to the pioneer days in the Old West and to the military frontier. Readers whose knowledge of Western art is limited to Catlin, Remington, Russell and Bierstadt have a great treat in store. And those who have wondered where Indian chiefs sat for their portraits will discover the answer. (April)