Tag: Charlie Russell

‘Cowboy Artist Charlie Russell and Glacier National Park’ by David R. Butler

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books

“What’s the matter with packing your war bag and heading to my camp?
A robe is spread and the pipe lit for you always.” – Charles M. Russell – https://cmrussell.org/

From the Publisher

“Explores Charlie and Nancy Russell’s two-decade connection with Glacier National Park, showcasing his art, influential visitors, and landscape changes over time.

“Cowboy Artist Charlie Russell and Glacier National Park examines the intimate relationship artist Charlie Russell, and his wife, Nancy Russell, had with Glacier National Park for over twenty years in the early 1900s. At Bull Head Lodge, their Apgar summer home on Lake McDonald, Charlie Russell painted and sculpted, producing some of his most famous works, including major works illustrating Glacier National Park. The Russells also entertained numerous important figures in the art and literary worlds during their summers in the park, and these individuals and their relationships with the Russells are examined. The book also describes park excursions undertaken by Charlie and Nancy Russell designed to support tourism growth as well as to encourage sales of Charlie’s art.

“Numerous examples of Charlie’s art are presented in the book, and photographs of the Bull Head Lodge area as well as the park excursions are supplemented by modern photos. These modern photos, taken by the author, illustrate landscape changes that have occurred in the park over the 100-year period since the Russells were among the most significant celebrities to ever call Glacier National Park home.”

My Opinion

Russell’s original wood-frame home, in its new location in September 1976.

I have come to appreciate the work of Charlie Russell throughout my forty-year membership in the Montana Historical Society–with access to its books, collections, and scholarly articles in “Montana The Magazine of Western History.” From that background, I think that Butler has written a detailed, lavishly illustrated biography that covers Russell’s work, wife, associates, and influence on the Park from his home base in the Apgar community on Lake McDonald.

I highly recommend the book for those beginning their trek through Russell’s world.

Malcolm

 

 

A Sense of Wonder

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Life, Montana2 Comments

“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.” — Rachel Carson

After the basic needs are met, I can think of little that is more important in the upbringing of a child than cultivating a sense of wonder.

When I see adults who have bright and twinkling eyes, who are forever learning new things, who are inquisitive and gentle about the natural world, who have the grit and spirit to take risks, who are not afraid to cry, who take responsibility for their own actions, who believe one way or another in magic and worlds they cannot see, then I know they were loved as children.

Where there is creativity and an infinite ability to dream, there is hope. As a father, I could do no better than teach the joy of an open mind; as a writer I could do no less than write it and live it.

BOOK REVIEW COMING SOON

I’m currently reading a wonderful and well written novel by Fairlee Winfield called “Buffaloed.” In a word: it’s a hoot. It shows the West like it was rather than like it was idealized to be. And, one of the main characters is none other than Montana’s best artist: Charlie Russell.

Malcolm