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Collections |
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Curator's Corner Gerard Curtis Delano’s Story of the West
Although widely recognized for his vibrant southwestern landscapes and paintings of Navajo people, Gerard Curtis Delano’s abilities as an illustrator are evident in a series of pen and ink drawings given to the Society by Mr. and Mrs. Richard G. Bowman. During the lean years of the Depression, Delano’s love of western history and his abilities as an illustrator gained him steady employment writing and illustrating a weekly series entitled, "The Story of the West." Delano spent several months in Colorado Springs researching topics for the 105 articles that appeared weekly in Western Story between 1938 and 1940. The stories romanticize the history surrounding western settlement and the characters often appear as stereotypical heroes and villains. Yet this was typical of the era, and Delano’s abilities as an illustrator brought to life the adventures of trappers, traders, explorers, soldiers, Texas Rangers, and others who ventured early into the American West. Delano was both an artist and a businessman. He marketed lithographs of the drawings and text in five portfolios of twenty-one prints each. The Society is fortunate to hold seventy of Delano’s original drawings along with pages from all 105 issues of Western Story. Regardless of how we tell the story today, this collection is an excellent document of how it was told in the past.
BY MOYA HANSEN, Decorative and Fine Arts Curator |
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The articles in this section were published in the Colorado Historical Society's monthly newsletter, Colorado History Now. |
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