Autry National Center

Location/Dates:

Museum of the American West at Griffith Park
Ongoing Exhibit

The history of the Western genre is explored in The Imagination Gallery. Putting the Western into a larger historical context, the gallery shows how the genre evolved in response to social and cultural changes taking place in America during the twentieth century. Highlights from the film collection range from the camera director Cecil B. DeMille used on the set of The Squaw Man (1914) to an original Norman Rockwell painting of Gary Cooper used to advertise Along Came Jones (1945). The television collection includes artifacts ranging from Clayton Moore’s costume from The Lone Ranger (1949-61) to the original handwritten pilot for Bonanza (1959-73). Almost every iconic cowboy is represented in the gallery, including, but not limited to, William S. Hart, Bill Pickett, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Duncan Renaldo, James Arness, John Wayne, and Clint Eastwood. Cowgirls, such as Patsy Montana, Betty Hutton, and Katharine Hepburn, are also represented. Although its popularity has waxed and waned over the years, the vitality and continuing influence of the Western genre is evident in the Imagination Gallery.