The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s new exhibition Find Your Western encourages visitors to explore the Western genre and its influence on pop culture in the United States as well as other countries.
Visitors will be greeted with a collection of movie posters, film stills, comic books, pulp publications, novels, costumes and more, all exploring how different people have interpreted the West. Some highlights include Giant the 1956 film starring screen legends Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, Grapes of Wrath by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck, Clint Eastwood’s 1980 comedy Broncho Billy and costumes from Gail Davis’s portal of Annie Oakley on the 1950s TV series Annie Oakley and Robin McLeavy’s Hell on Wheels character Eva Oates. Many of the works discussed are represented by foreign language materials, hinting at the global reach of the Western.
“Find Your Western is about connecting the popular expression of Western culture with the themes explored in the rest of the Museum,” said Nathan Jones, Associate Curator of Cowboy Culture. “Popular culture helps us relate to the history of the American West.”
The exhibition is on display December 14, 2019, through May 10, 2020.