Photos in our Museum graphic provided by Sheridan, WY Travel and Tourism www.sheridanwyoming.org and the Sheridan County Museum Collection WHAT S INSIDE 2The Amazing Life of an Amazing Artist 3Ridgway Glover 4SCHS News From the Collection 5Exploring History: From Past to Present 6WSHS Trek Comes to Sheridan 7From the Museum Call for Submissions WSHS Update Jessamine Spear 12 Johnson 14 Calendar Don Diers 15 16 Renewals/Donors Unique Volunteer 17 Opportunity Regional Reads 18 19 Membership Information 20 Volunteers Wanted The offi cial publication of the Sheridan County Historical Society and Museum VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1 SPRING 2011 HANS KLEIBER AND BILL GOLLINGS, AAt the other end of the ringing telephone was Judy Musgrave asking me to write an article on Hans Kleiber and Bill Gollings. I mean it is hard to say no to Judy Musgrave, just ask her husband, Bill. It has always been an honor to work with Judy so I had no hesitation in accepting her request. Unfortunately in most articles about artists they begin with their date of birth and end with the date of death along with notations about where they lived. Normally this is the necessary word count for a basic article on a deceased artist of the time. So let us get the word count issue out of the way as follows: 1887; Sheridan, Wyoming; 1878; Idaho; 1967; Dayton, Wyoming; and 1932. Now my word count is down to 1391 so I had better get started. Both men had an immense love for the old Hans Kleiber. Photo from the Sheridan County Museum Collection WYOMING PRINTMAKERS by Gary L. Temple West and Mother Nature combined. Yet, when we discuss the two men they often refer to them as the cowboy artist of Wyoming and the artist of the Bighorns. Actually the areas of their combined interests did not include state boundaries. Between the old West of Gollings and the Rocky Mountains for Kleiber they easily spent an immense amount of time in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. First, let us not discuss dates but rather a period of eight years from approximately 1896 to 1904 which were very important to both artists. For just a moment let your mind wander back to the early days when this country was the true old West of Wyoming and Montana. The range cow looked back at her spring calf suckling and lifted her head. A slight bumping was not really bothersome to the range mother as she had been through this seasonal ritual before. From the ridge line, Rosebud Creek down below the range cow slowly turned and swayed through the land. The vast hills of sagebrush, rock and prairie grass soon exposed the other Elling William Bill Gollings. Photo from the Sheridan County Museum/Gorzalka Collection. continued on page 8
Among the great mysteries of the early west were what happened to the Ridgway Glover photographs the earliest ever made of treaty negotiations in the field, and maybe, just maybe, of Fort Phil Kearny according to Paula Fleming, retired Photo Archivist at the Smithsonian Institution. Paula writes, In 1865, he was 34 and after photographing the Lincoln funeral, he decided to change his life and become a frontier photographer Arrangements were made for him to accompany an expedition to the Fort Laramie Peace Treaty Commission in 1866. He writes his fi rst letter to the Philadelphia Photographer on June 30 th ; Conditions for taking photographs were not ideal. In addition to the laborious task of making wet-plate glass negatives, he had to contend with muddy, sandy, hard water; high wind; dust and the reticence of some Indians to having their photographs taken. Still, he managed to obtain twenty-two good negatives of the negotiations, Indian groups, and ponies and a view of Fort Laramie itself. The negatives were to be brought back with the Commission and forwarded to Philadelphia for printing. They have never surfaced. Glover s luck was even worse as he accompanied Lt. Templeton s company to Fort Phil Kearny. The wagon train was attacked by Indians at Crazy Woman Creek but Templeton ordered him not to take photos during the attack. According to Fleming, MISSING IMAGES OF OUR AREA S FIRST PHOTOGRAPHER, RIDGWAY GLOVER By July, he reached the fort but was waiting for the medical supply train to bring more photographic chemicals. He was working with the wood choppers in the Pinery. Although Glover had experienced Indian warfare and knew that lone travelers would be killed as the Fort was under full time attack, he frequently went walking in the mountains traveling as far as fi fty miles and disappearing for fi ve to six days at a time. He believed the Indians would not hurt him as they would by Mary Ellen McWilliams and Paula Richardson Fleming think he (a devout Quaker) was a Mormon, probably due to his civilian clothes, and by then, long blond hair. On Sunday, September 16 th, despite warnings to wait for the armed escort coming Monday, he left one of the two cuttings and walked to the other camp. Early the next day F.M. Fessenden and two other men found Glover s mutilated body a short distance from the fort. Fessenden searched for his apparatus but none was found. In a condolence letter to Ridgway s brother, Col. Carrington noted that his only possessions were a few letters, a blanket and incomplete photographic equipment. For 130 years, we had no photographs of either the Peace Commission or of Fort Phil Kearny from Glover and did not even have a photo of the photographer himself. Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and The Fetterman Massacre searched to no avail for decades for possible missing photos, But in March of 1996, Paula Fleming, attending a small auction in Canada, discovered a portrait of Glover and purchased it. When the Fort Phil Kearny/ Bozeman Trail Association was looking for photographs for their book, Military, Indian and Civilian Portraits of Fort Phil Kearny, they placed a notice on the internet for the missing photos. Too late for the book, Paula Fleming answered, I have a photograph of Ridgway Glover. Correspondence followed, plus a personal meeting and that correspondence is on file in the Wyoming Room at the Sheridan County Library. Glover was buried near the cemetery area at Fort Phil Kearny and his body is believed to be there yet. Fleming allowed the FPK/BTA to print the photo, for the first time, in their newsletter, The Lookout. No photographs of Fort Phil Kearny, when in operation, have ever been discovered. Ridgway Glover. Photo courtesy of Paula Fleming. No copies to be made without owner s written permission. 3
The offi cial publication of the Sheridan County Historical Society and Museum by Katie Curtiss, Management Team The transitions I spoke of in the last Log are moving along smoothly, and we are pleased that Nathan Doerr had accepted the position of Museum Director as of January 1 st. He will, of course, continue as well with his creative educational programs, both in his outreach to the community and in the exhibits at the Museum. We are pleased to welcome Joe Gingles to the Board. He will bring great expertise and insight to our Fundraising/Grants and Property Committees. Thank you, Joe! Also welcome to Eddie Dankenbring, our new building and grounds supervisor. He is a stellar, go-to guy who has provided enormous help in organizing our new insulated garage and is instrumental to Nathan and the staff in building our new exhibits for this year. In addition, we bid farewell to Bob Legoski and thank him for his years of service to the Board. Our dinner meetings continue at the Shrine. January featured Ken Schuster and a program on Sheridan area artists. February featured Scott Burgan and a presentation on Father DeSmet. Thanks to Killy s Deli for their excellent meals. Spring also means committee meetings. The Exhibits Committee met to consider this year s new exhibit, which will feature photographs and artwork, as well as yet unseen items from our collections. The Collections Committee is evaluating our in-house collections and those housed off-site. Spring means spring cleaning. You will not be disappointed in Nathan s reorganization of the Museum space and the artifacts brought forth in this year s exhibits. Thanks to all of you who do so much to support, volunteer for, and make a commitment to preserving and sharing the rich heritage of Sheridan County. FROM THE COLLECTION This piece, titled Stay With Him, was recently re-discovered in the Museum s collection. Painted by western artist Jesse Winingar Jr. and originally sold for $10, it depicts a rider atop a horse with the 28 brand. Other works by Winingar can be seen in Powder River Country: The Papers of J. Elmer Brock. Do you know more about J. W. Winingar or own any of his pieces? Let us know as this piece will be part of this summer s new exhibit, and we would love to know more about the artist and see or even exhibit some of his other pieces. A special thanks to George Gligorea for cleaning Stay With Him for us. Stay With Him, undated, by J. W. Winingar Jr. Sheridan County Museum Collection. 4
REGIONAL READS - Available in the Museum Merc Hans Kleiber: Wyoming Printmaker and Artist by Marylee M. Moreland and Gary L. Temple Copyright 2004 347 Pages, hardbound 422 Black and white impressions 12 Examples of pen and inks 51 Examples of hand colored impressions 82 Examples of watercolor painting 60 Examples of oil paintings 22 Examples of unpublished impressions Comprehensive research on the works of Hans Kleiber Elling William Bill Gollings: A Cowboy Artist By Gary L. Temple and William T. Ward Copyright 2007 275 Pages, hardbound 208 Oil Color Plates 25 Watercolor/Gouache Color Plates 37 Commercial Illustration Color Plates 5 Graphites 47 Etchings 25 Christmas cards 24 Photographs of the artist 8 Images of Ephemera Gollings: More of the Story By Gary L. Temple and William T. Ward Copyright 2009 352 Pages, hardbound 214 Color plates 64 Black and white plates 158 Images of anecdotal historical photographs and memorabilia All new images from volume I The Life and Art of Bernard P. Thomas: Paint, Passion and Preservation By Judy Musgrave and Nathan Doerr Copyright 2007 98 Pages, softbound 127 Color images 17 Black and white images 14 Christmas cards 28 Illustrated envelopes and letters 28 Photographs and self-portraits of the artist 18 The offi cial publicati Historical Society an Membership in the Wyoming State Historical Society/Sheridan County Historical Society and the Sheridan County Museum are two separate entities. Anyone can be a member of either entity or both. We strongly encourage our supporters to join both. The Museum is owned and operated by the Sheridan County Historical Society. Check your mailing label for when your membership(s) expire. SM is SCHS/WSHS membership and MM is Museum membership. As a private, non-profit (501)(c) (3) organization, the Sheridan County Historical Society can accept various kinds of donations, and all are tax deductible for the donor. For Your Consideration: Designate the Sheridan County Museum as the beneficiary of memorials for loved ones. Outright gifts to the SCHS of money, land or other assets. We appreciate donations of any size. Deferred gifts. Designate the Museum in your Insurance Policies, Wills, or Trusts. Members of the Board of Directors will be honored to discuss one or more of these options with you at your convenience. Just return the attached mailer and check the box requesting further information.
on of the Sheridan County d Museum MEMBERSHIP & DONATION INFORMATION SHERIDAN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY/ WYOMING STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY The SCHS/WSHS membership includes membership in SCHS and WSHS. It includes receiving copies of the Annals of Wyoming, the state historical society newsletter Wyoming History News and the SCHS newsletter The Log as well as meeting and special events notices for $31 single and $43 household. SHERIDAN COUNTY MUSEUM The memberships are structured by four levels*: Level 1 $30 for single adults and $25 for single seniors (aged 60 or over) Level 2 $50 for family Level 3 $100 for business or individual Level 4 $500 for corporate or business Each level carries various passes to the museum, discounts at the Merc, a subscription to the museum newsletter The Log and special events notices. *Museum memberships at all levels are discounted $5 for single SCHS members and $10 for household SCHS members at Levels 2, 3, or 4. SHERIDAN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP New Membership $31 Single Dues Renewal $43 Household Dues SHERIDAN COUNTY MUSEUM MEMBERSHIP Level 1 $30 Adult Level 1 $25 Senior Level 2 $50 Family Level 3 $100 Business or Individual Level 4 $500 Corporate or Business THE LOG NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION $15 One year (3 regular issues, plus any supplemental issues) HOW YOU CAN HELP Name Address Seasonal Address Seasonal Dates: Start End THE LOG NEWSLETTER DONATION $ Additional donation to help defray publication costs. Suggested $5 for individuals and $10 for households/businesses. DONATION TO SUPPORT THE SHERIDAN COUNTY MUSEUM $ The Sheridan County Museum is pleased to accept donations of any amount to support our mission - to preserve and share the history of our area with present and future generations. I would like a member of the SCHS Board to contact me concerning a donation. Phone Email Mail check and form to: Sheridan County Historical Society & Museum P.O. Box 73, Sheridan, WY 82801 $ TOTAL 19