southwestern

Taliesin is a relatively rare edition self-published in Scottsdale and signed by the author, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. In this book, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, the third wife of Frank Lloyd Wright, tells beautifully illustrated accounts of The Fellowship, The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, The Taliesin Associated Architects, and Taliesin West itself. There are many intimate color images of Wright’s Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona that was completed in 1937.

The first of six colorful pop-ups in Creatures of the desert world depicts early morning in Arizona’ s Sonoran Desert as bobcats and birds around a large saguaro cactus dramatically lift off the page when the book is opened. The subsequent pages follow the vibrant and alive desert environment throughout the day into a full moonlit night when the night hunters, including bats and kit foxes, begin their search for food.

This book from the Armed Forces History collection at the National Museum of American History Library provides an overview of firearms used by the military, lawmen, outlaws, settlers, and others on America’s westward-pushing frontier. It features descriptions, drawings, and photographs of weapons from long-barrel flintlocks to Winchester rifles to the famous Deringer pocket pistols. One chapter focuses on guns manufactured by Colt, including the Colt Single-Action Army Revolver – a.k.a. the Peacemaker – which is the state firearm of Arizona.

This volume on Western style encompasses everything from humble denim jeans to the fanciest rhinestone-covered cowboy costumes. Brimming with photos, it presents a history of the American West spanning its early days to the present, told through clothing. You’ll find a buckskin hunting shirt from the 1820s, Angora chaps worn by a Colorado cowboy in the 1920s, and a colorful gauze fiesta dress from the 1950s made by Thunderbird Fashions of Prescott, AZ.

In October 1881, Doc Holliday and the three Earp brothers had a shoot-out with the Clanton and McLaury brothers on a street in Tombstone, Arizona. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral has become the stuff of legends and the subject of numerous books and movies. This detailed history provides context and information not only about the gunfight itself but also about the booming town of Tombstone and its place in the overall history of the violent Western frontier. It includes photographs of the participants as well as of the site where it took place.

“Writers of mystery stories often have to cast about for the key elements of an intriguing story […] I did not go looking for these critical ingredients of the story of the Tucson Meteorite. They came to me.” states Richard R. Willey in his forward to this short but thorough book. This book explores every aspect of the Meteorites – from their original descent to Earth, their mineral composition, to their use as anvils by American Indians and frontiersmen alike, to their name as a specimen, and the history of how they came to be in the Smithsonian.

There is a commonly held superstition that illicitly removing specimens of petrified wood from Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park is bad luck. As a result, the National Park Service receives many of these returned rocks with “conscience letters” of regret from over the years. The letters have been carefully archived and the purloined samples are now in a “conscience pile” at the end of the park property. The rocks cannot be distributed on the park land as the exact provenance for each piece can never be known, and areas need to be kept as pristine as possible for future research.

Max Ernst was one of the most prolific and original artists of the 20th century. After marrying American artist Dorothea Tanning in 1946, the couple moved to Sedona, Arizona where they lived until 1953. It was in Sedona that Ernst completed his monumental masterpiece Capricorn. Originally constructed in cement from castings of milk bottles, automobile springs, and other cast offs, the free-standing sculpture was situated opposite the house Ernst built by hand on Brewer Road.

German artist Max Ernst was a pioneer of the Dada and Surrealist movement. After marrying American artist Dorothea Tanning in 1946, the couple moved to Sedona, Arizona, where they lived until 1953. Initially remote and unpopulated, an artists’ colony soon took root amongst the monumental red rocks.

“Arizona is a land that is full of history as well as mystery and invites investigation. It has a fascination that every one feels who crosses its boarder. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is both the oldest and newest portion of our country – the oldest in ancient occupation and civilization and the newest in modern progress.” So states Joseph A. Munk in A Romantic Land, the first chapter, or sketch, in this, his first book about Arizona.