Christmas with Charlie

by Jennifer Bottomly-O'Looney, Senior Curator, Montana's Museum

Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), Montana’s famed Cowboy Artist, loved Christmas with a childlike abandon. Every year he transformed his studio into a Santa’s workshop, where he worked feverishly to fashion models out of wax, clay, and plaster as Christmas gifts for friends and loved-ones, and as fanciful table settings.



Caravan Man, Wax, modeled before 1900, 4¼” H x 5½” W x 2” D, Gift of Spencer R.
McCulloch, X1954.04.02

Montana Historical Society curator emeritus, Robert F. Morgan, noted that “Russell delighted his table guests with personal place settings around the table—with his favorite Holidays being Christmas and Thanksgiving. [With] his creative mind and nimble fingers, wondrous small models decorated each place setting.”


Best Wishes for Your Christmas, Watercolor, gouache
and ink, 1914, 12½” H x 9” W, Mackay Collection,
X1952.01.25



In addition to these small treasures he also created delightful Christmas cards. He loved to portray magical encounters between astonished cowboys and Santa Claus on the wintry Montana plains. He also painted a number of humorous and nostalgic cowboy-themed cards such as the one shown at right.

In 1914, Russell sent this original, hand-painted greeting to kindred spirit Malcolm Mackay and his family. While the verse is the artist’s own, the calligraphy is not. Knowing that his own penmanship was somewhat lacking, Charlie relied on close friend and neighbor Josephine Trigg to do the calligraphy.

Nancy summed up her husband’s love for the Holiday when she recalled their first Christmas together in Cascade as a married couple “trotting in a double harness” when they had nothing. Nancy wrote, “We were happy over that Christmas…because the happiness came from within. Charlie was as pleased as if he had received a million dollar gift. The simple things in life always did thrill him; no one could live near him without taking on some of the child-like joy from the little things.”

It’s No Lady’s Job, Plaster, 1926, 9” H x 9” W x 29” D, Gift of Charles S. Jones, X1954.07.01

Charlie’s love for Christmas continued throughout his lifetime. In fact, he was working on the plaster model of It’s No Lady’s Job, above, in his Great Falls studio as a Christmas present for Nancy, the day before he died. It is crafted in plaster, wax, cloth, leather, string, and metal, and is painted. The model was never completed.

Russell’s images of Christmas continue to delight viewers to this day. His Christmas greetings are enjoyed by many and remain a popular commodity in our Museum Store. We at the Society join with Charlie Russell in saying to you and yours “Best Wishes for Your Christmas!"
 

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The Mackay Gallery of Russell Art is a 2,000 square foot exhibit featuring approximately 80 art pieces, including major oils, watercolors, pen and inks, pencil sketches, bronzes, sculptures, and illustrated letters. To learn more, download the Family Guide to the Mackay Gallery (PDF). Join us on March 19, 2014 for a celebration of Charlie Russell’s 150th Birthday. And watch for our full-color catalog, Montana's Charlie Russell: Art in the Collection of the Montana Historical Society, to be published in Fall 2014.

The Real Thing

by Vic Reiman, Museum Technician, Montana’s Museum



Teddy Blue Abbott at 18. "I had a new white Stetson hat that I paid
ten dollars for and new pants that cost twelve dollars, and a good shirt
and fancy boots. They had colored tops, red and blue, with a half-moon
and star on them. Lord, I was proud of these clothes! They were the
kind of clothes top hands wore, and I thought I was dressed right
for the first time in my life." [We Pointed Them North]

A small, black comb. A clothes brush. A shaving cup. These mundane objects were recently cataloged in Montana's Museum, but they do little to reflect the rollicking life of their owner, E. C. Abbott. In 1883, “Teddy Blue,” as he was known, rode into Montana as a 22-year-old, driving cattle from Texas. Fifty years later, he authored a memoir, We Pointed Them North—the only book-length remembrance by an eye witness to Montana’s open-range period. In the book, Abbott describes the art of herding cattle. But he goes on to reveal what went on in the “parlor houses” of Miles City, detailing the cowboys’ longing for women and love of liquor.

We Pointed Them North significantly informs today’s understanding of 19th-century Western life. Author Larry McMurtry studied it as background for Lonesome Dove, his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The scene of naked cowboys swimming their horses across a river is taken directly from the memoir. Abbott is also quoted extensively in the PBS series, “The West.”

To grasp the book's singular impact on our culture, one has only to compare the sanitized Westerns of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s (for example, “Bonanza”) with a more recent portrayal, like “Lonesome Dove” or “Deadwood.” The profanity and sex in the latter works clearly show the influence of authentic cowpuncher “Teddy Blue.” Abbott was born in England 153 years ago next week. He died in Gilt Edge, Montana, in 1939.

The Research Center owns a first edition of We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher, by E. C. Abbott and Helena Huntington Smith (New York, Toronto: Farrar, Rinehart, Inc.) 1939, as well as the paperback editions published by the University of Oklahoma Press (1976, 1982).

Bicycles and Beer

by Ashley Fejeran, Project Assistant, Montana Digital Newspaper Project



Anaconda Standard,
August 9, 1897, p6

It appears that Montanans have long understood the harmonious connection between bicycle riding and a delicious local brew. This article on a lively bicycle race from the Centennial Brewery in Butte to Gregson Hot Springs in Anaconda appeared in the Anaconda Standard in 1897. Now known as Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, Gregson was a little over 12 miles southwest of the Centennial brewery.

Pedaling furiously, at a pace only a fierce rivalry between local brewers can produce, the cyclists raced alongside a portion of the Montana Union Railway tracks that ran between Butte and Garrison.

The racers’ efforts were so great they prompted the author to comment that the perspiration they generated "threatened to wash out the Montana Union tracks." A descriptive, if slightly disgusting, way to put it! In the end, only one brewer could triumph, but I’m sure any hurt feelings were soon mended over a nice cold one.



Advertising poster for the
Centennial Brewing Company, Butte, Montana

Honoring Those Who Served

By Maegen Cook, Digital Collections Assistant

On November 10, 1918, Paul F. Craig of Hilger, Montana, died in France. A private in the U.S. Army, the 25-year-old was killed in action that day—one day before the armistice on November 11. A record of his service to the country is available on his military enlistment card, part of the Montana Adjutant General's Office Records 1889-1959 (RS 223). The Historical Society is pleased to announce that all Montana military enlistment cards are being digitized and added to the Montana Memory Project website. Cards for the Spanish-American War and World War I are online now. Cards for World War II are currently being added. Along with Montana men, women who served as nurses in WWI and in any capacity in WWII are included.

World War I enlistment card for Paul Craig of Hilger. All Montana enlistment cards
are being digitized and added to the Montana Memory Project.



The great advantage of digitizing the cards is that they are now keyword-searchable. Enter a person's name or hometown and retrieve every card on which that term appears.

On Veterans Day, people around the country will pause to remember those who have served, both past and present. Some may be persuaded to revisit their family history, curious to see if they have a veteran in the family. In that way, from these seemingly dry, fact-filled records, whole stories unfold.

* A note about the "detention camp" to which Pvt. Craig was temporarily assigned. Craig was not in any trouble. The camp's location simply made it a convenient embarkation point for American troops headed to Europe. Thousands of soldiers passed through it.

A Rare Find

by Molly Kruckenberg, Research Center Director

Our library recently acquired a rare 1891 volume of images of Yellowstone. This valuable work contains 25 images by the firm of renowned photographer Frank Jay Haynes and features popular views like the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Mammoth Paint Pots, and Old Faithful. What makes the work so unique? The extraordinary detail and continuous tones produced by the photogravure process.


"Hotel Valley, From the Hot Springs" in Yellowstone National Park in Photo-Gravure

"Because of its high quality and richness, photogravure was used for both original fine art prints and for photo-reproduction of works from other media such as paintings,” states Wikipedia. The engraving process, by Chicago Photo-Gravure Co., was expensive, so not many volumes of Yellowstone National Park in Photo-Gravure were produced. 

Detail from "Hotel Valley, From the Hot Springs"

This item is available for public viewing in the Montana Historical Society Research Center, along with 100% of our historical photographs, books, periodicals, maps, newspapers, vital records on microfilm, oral histories on audiotape, livestock brand records, city directories, topical vertical files, state documents, published laws, and the Montana Code Annotated. The Research Center is open Tuesday through Friday, 9:00-5:00, and Saturday, 9:00-1:00.

Meanwhile, our installation of more and better shelving in our archives is well underway. Archival collections will re-open to the public in Spring 2014.

Yellowstone National Park in Photo-Gravure (St. Paul, Minn.: F. Jay Haynes & Bros.), 1891.