Art of the American West: the Amon Carter Museum's collection chronicles all aspects of western life, from the 1840s to the present.

• Author: Stewart, Rick
• Position: Museum Today

THE HISTORY of the Amon Carter Museum's collection of western American art began with the institution's founder, Fort Worth, Tex., publisher and philanthropist Amon G. Carter Sr. (1879-1955). He started his own collection in 1935 with the purchase of a painting by Frederic Remington and a small group of watercolors by Charles M. Russell. According to Carter, his interest in these two leading artists of the American West stemmed from his close friendship with the noted American humorist Will Rogers, who had been a personal friend of Russell's.

Carter was also interested in the history of the western experience. He had been born in a log cabin and never forgot the simple upbringing and self-reliant values he learned as a youth. A decade before he began collecting art, Carter purchased 780 acres of lakefront property that had belonged to one of the pioneer ranching families of the region, built a large house, and christened it Shady Oak. Over the next several years, he moved a number of historic buildings onto the property, filling some of them with historical artifacts to remind himself of his humble beginnings.

During Carter's lifetime, Shady Oak was visited by the rich and famous, and he instituted the custom of presenting each of his visitors with a short-brim Stetson, which he dubbed the "Shady Oak hat." Rogers received a hat on at least two occasions, joking the second time that he was getting "another bum hat deal." At the bottom of a photograph of Carter and Rogers, tight-lipped and looking into the camera, Rogers wrote: "Amon--this is a remarkable photo--it caught us both not talking."

Carter increased his collecting activities following Rogers' tragic death in an airplane crash in 1935. He bought wisely, learning from early mistakes and actively seeking the advice of those who had firsthand knowledge of the work of Remington and Russell. By 1950, he had amassed a sizeable collection, part of which was displaced in the Fort Worth Library and elsewhere for the benefit of the public. In that year, he wrote a formal letter to the Fort Worth City Council to request that a parcel of land be set aside for a future gift. "It is my purpose to erect and equip a museum and present it to the city of Fort Worth" he announced. His own collection would form the core of an institution devoted to the study of western art. To that end, Carter acquired a major private library of western Americana, forming the basis of what eventually would become a...