Brinton Hosts Meet-Up for Members to View Collection Exhibit

On Saturday, Oct. 7, Brinton Museum Members had a chance to preview the Treasures from the Collection exhibit before it opened to the public. A good crowd attended the meet-up.

Treasures from the Collection offers a look at the breadth of Bradford Brinton’s passion for collecting fine art and features several works acquired during the time of his ownership of the Quarter Circle A Ranch from 1923 to 1936.

The exhibition also includes modern pieces acquired by the museum over the past twenty years. Barbara McNab, Curator of Exhibitions, introduced Bradford Brinton’s collection.

McNab started her talk by referring to the movie, The Broken Trail, in which Robert Duvall as Prentice “Prent” Ritter and his nephew, Tom Harte, played by Thomas Haden Church,

During the time period when Malcolm and William Moncreiffe’s owned the Quarter Circle A Ranch, around 30,000 horses were brought to ranch to be sold to the British cavalry to be used in the Boer War.

She said that Brinton loved horses, and the first photo she chose for the collection was of Brinton,

Next to his photograph, was a portrait of his mother, and a portrait of his twin daughters. As she walked around the room, McNab pointed out a drawing by William Gollings, who is mostly known for Western art,

Two photos in the collection were done by the famous photographer, William Henry Jackson. McNab said about the one showing a railroad tunnel,

Jackson was well known for his photos of Yellowstone, he was a member of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871, and his photos, along with Thomas Moran’s paintings, helped to convince the government to preserve Yellowstone as a National Park.

Other artists in the collection included Hans Kliber, who lived in Dayton for many years; boxers fighting in the ring by American Realist painter George Bellows (1882-1925), as Brinton was a fan of the sport; Wyoming artist Ken McCain; a mouse sculpture by Tony Hochstetler; and a few modern paintings such as the Lives of Man by Vanessa Compton, and scenic watercolors.

Two photos that are a part of a much larger collection at the Brinton were by civil war photographer Alexander Gardner, who was commissioned to record the Fort Laramie Peace Talks between the government and the Native Americans in 1868.

McNab talked about her coming to the Brinton Museum, she said that she started with the museum in 2013, moving here from St. Louis, Missouri where she studied at Washington University in St. Louis studying studio art and art history. She said it was a change to move from a town of 2.2 million people to Big Horn with around 400 people, but she added that her family loves it here.

A very young admirer of William Gollings and some Native American paintings was Harper Jo Heimbuck, two-year-old daughter of Kendra Heimbuck, Executive Director at the museum. Harper said she “knew everything about the museum.”

Helped by her mother, Harper talked about her favorite artists, and pointed out portraits from the Winold Reiss Blackfeet Indian portraits on display at the museum.

The Treasures from the Collection exhibit will run from Oct 7 through December 23. It is in the SK Johnson Family Gallery. Admission is free, thanks to Ramaco Carbon, LLC.