Literature, Culture, Art, Photos of The Old West

  • Across the Wide Missouri The literary history of the American West, from Lewis & Clark to Powell
  • A Campaign in New Mexico with Colonel Doniphan Written in 1847 by Frank S. Edwards
  • Central Pacific RR Photographic History Museum Hundreds of historic photos of the west, building of the Rail Road, etc.
  • A Chronology of US Historical Documents A fine page! And kept up-to-date with current historic events.
  • Crossing the Frontier: Photographs of the Developing West, 1849 to Present On this site you'll find more than 50 images from the exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, areas for comment and discussion, educational resources, and more.
  • Images of the American West An absolute treasure chest of Western images, selectable by Subject or State.
  • The Frontier in American History By Frederick Jackson Turner. Commentaries in different periods on the central theme of the influence of the frontier in American history.
  • "Influence of Overland Travel on the Early Settlement of Nebraska" Paper read at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January, 1912
  • The Kansas Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier "We cross the prairie as of old, The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free!"
  • Literary History of the Midwest Nobody quite knows what the Middle West is. Even geographers differ on which states should be designated as part of the region.
  • A Literary History of the Old West An essay about the life, thoughts, and writings of Bernard DeVoto, written by Wallace Stegner.
  • "Manifest Destiny": The Philosophy That Created A Nation
  • The Mountain Man as Western Hero From Virgin Land: The American West As Symbol and Myth, by Henry Nash Smith.
  • Newspaper Articles: 1844 to Present All about the Emigrants; also includes letters to "back home"
  • Newspapers of the Old West From Arizona to Oregon
  • The Northern Great Plains:1880-1920 Over 900 photographs of rural and small town life at the turn of the century. Highlights include images of sod homes and the people who built them; images of farms and the machinery that made them prosper; and images of one-room schools and the children that were educated in them.
  • Old West History Articles from the History Buff's Reference Library
  • Old West Library Dedicated to the history and romance of the Old West. Lots of good links here.
  • Edgar Samuel Paxton Unlike other Western artists, including Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington, Paxton painted what he knew. He had lived in Montana from 1877 and personally interviewed and knew participants of the era's major events. He painted Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph, hunted with Chief Ten Doy of the Bannocks. He interviewed Indian and white survivors of Custer's fateful encounter on the Little Big Horn and visited the battlefield several times to absorb as much detail as he could before painting his masterpiece Custer's Last Stand.
  • Photographs of the American West From 1861 to 1912 from National Archives and Records Administration
  • Pioneer and Frontier Life Letters, diaries, and other papers associated with the westward movement, overland travel, the gold rush, homesteading and settlement, and daily life on the frontier in the U.S.
  • Pioneer Women of the West A brief listing of holdings in Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library, Moscow, Idaho
  • Ranch Life and The Hunting-Trail by Theodore Roosevelt "...Here there are no fences to speak of, and all the land north of the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains and between the Rockies and the Dakota wheat-fields might be spoken of as one gigantic, unbroken pasture, where cowboys and branding-irons take the place of fences."
  • Read The West American Western Magazine: The Internet Source for Western. Celebrating the traditions, culture, art, films, music & literature of the American West.
  • Rocky Mountain Winters "We now considered ourselves fully established in winter quarters. Game was plenty, and wood abundant; nothing, therefore, remained for us to do but to recruit our horses, eat of the best the prarie afforded, drink of the crystal waters that rolled by our side, and enjoy life in true mountain style..." Written in 1841 - 1842 by Rufus Sage
  • Roughing It by Mark Twain Riding the Overland Stage in 1861
  • Charles Russell's "Women of the Plains" From the Old West Art Gallery
  • Scientific Exploration of the American West Good information on explorations by John J. Audubon in the Spring of 1843, John Fremont and the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers between 1842 and 1860, and the early Hayden Explorations: 1853-1860.
  • The Virgin Land By Henry Nash Smith--one of the most wide-ranging and provocative studies of American history and culture ever produced.
  • Western Historical Manuscript Collection of Native Americans available through an inter-library loan from the University of Missouri--Columbia.
  • Western Writers Find information about your favorite Western writer--in alphabetical order.
  • Wild Women of the Wild West From the HistoryNet: Whether she was addressed as Madame or Ma'am, Se�orita or Squaw, a woman needed guts to live out West. The "weaker sex" encountered savage, brutal and obnoxious obstacles (and these were just the men!), not to mention mean ol' Mother Nature and a plague or two. Or three. In spite of these barriers, or maybe because of them, the American frontier attracted legions of nonconforming women--mavericks, loners, eccentrics and adventurers.
  • Women's Historical Manuscript Collection Containing information about women and their status and roles throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
    • See Also Links To:
  • Old West History
  • Old West Towns and Forts
  • General History and Other Old West Sites
  • Other Links


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