The Original Imagination Gallery: A Look Back
Online Exhibition
About the Exhibition
Supposedly, cowboys and cowgirls don’t cry. But we all dabbed our eyes with a bandanna when we closed the Autry’s classic Ted and Marian Craver Imagination Gallery for approximately a year of renovations. We are excited to refresh our “Spirit of Imagination” after 33 years, protecting the artifacts and updating the themes and design. In the meantime, we are proud to present this virtual look back at the original Imagination Gallery.
Virtual Tour
Experience this walk-through virtual tour of the Imagination gallery! Please pardon our dust, as this experience was “filmed” after the museum had closed to the public due to the pandemic. Presented courtesy of PBS Engineers, Inc.
Autry Artists Salon and Imagined Wests
Enjoy this recent conversation with artist Lewis deSoto (Cahuilla ancestry) and Josh Garrett-Davis, Gamble Associate Curator of Western History, Popular Culture, and Firearms. Garrett-Davis speaks with Lewis deSoto about his monumental piece Cahuilla (2006), a transformed 1980s pickup truck that will serve as an anchor in the new core exhibition Imagined Wests, located in the Craver Imagination Gallery. The discussion includes a sneak preview of that exhibition-in-development about popular culture storytelling of the American West.
Additional Sneak Preview
Catch a sneak preview of one of the artifacts that will grace the renovated core exhibition Imagined Wests. In this short video, the Autry’s Chief Conservator, Richard Moll, shows off a miniature Old West town hand carved by artist Gene Hoback. A working cowboy on California ranches as well as on movie sets, Hoback sold meticulous models to collectors, including the family of Caryll and Dr. Norman F. Sprague Jr., who donated this one to the Autry.
In “Tabletop Frontier,” the blog post accompanying this video, curator Josh Garrett-Davis writes that Imagined Wests “will explore how the West has been imagined in many types of media—movies and television, sure, but also other forms of what anthropologists call ‘expressive culture,’ including wood carvings.”
Video Walkthrough
Stay tuned for an extended video walkthrough!
Highlights (Click image for details)
Foreign Political Poster
The anti-communist Solidarity union in Poland used an image of Gary Cooper from High Noon to encourage people to vote in the country’s first partially-free elections in 1989. (Autry Museum of the American West, 97.155.1)
Badge
Western heroes, from John Wayne to Chuck Norris, are often lawmen defending helpless victims from ruthless outlaws. (Autry Museum of the American West, 2001.91.4.5)
Costume Sketch
The costumes seen onscreen are often a combination of historical fact and Hollywood fiction. (Autry Museum of the American West, 2000.54.1)
Revolver
The flamboyant outfits and accessories of actor Tom Mix influenced generations of cowboys, both onscreen and off. (Autry Museum of the American West, 95.5.2)
Guitar
The first Martin D-45 guitar was designed exclusively for singing cowboy Gene Autry in 1933. (Autry Museum of the American West, 91.221.620)
Mask
Westerns, such as The Lone Ranger, taught generations of children valuable moral lessons. (Autry Museum of the American West, 87.173.18)
Belt Buckle
Gail Davis, star of the series Annie Oakley, was the first positive female lead on television. (Autry Museum of the American West, 94.132.4)
Outfit (Davy Crockett)
The Davy Crockett phenomenon swept the country in the 1950s, resulting in a flood of licensed (and unlicensed) merchandise. (Autry Museum of the American West, 95.2.3)
Outfit (Three Amigos)
The comedy Three Amigos parodied many of the clichés found in traditional Western films. (Autry Museum of the American West, 89.180.3)