western

You may know the names of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, or Pat Garrett. But what about Buss Luckey, the Rufus Buck Gang, the Lighthorsemen, or Zeke Miller? Although whites dominate popular depictions of the lawless west, Black, Red and Deadly presents the sagas of African-American and American Indian outlaws and bona fide law enforcers in Indian Territory. Luckey was an African American convicted bandit who dynamited a train carrying $60,000 in gold bullion.

Grazing. Fire. Water. All issues important out West, all issues pertinent to rangeland ecology and management, and all addressed in this comprehensive book. For scientists who study natural processes, such as the research staff at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (where this book resides), there is much to be learned from this text. Deer, insects, and other herbivores graze, and grazing has impacts on plant physiology and morphology, energy flow through ecosystems, and other ecosystem effects. Fire and water also profoundly shape both managed and natural systems.

This book is a collection of chapters, each written by experts in their ecological discipline. It covers the role of both insects and vertebrate animals (those with a backbone) in desert ecosystems, how nutrients move through the system (‘nutrient cycling’ is a hot topic for those who study ecosystems), and how plants adapt to the soils and rainfall in deserts. An important text for anyone who studies these phenomenon in deserts and elsewhere.

A book that accompanied the 1946 exhibit "If You Want To Build A House" exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art. The book highlights mid-century modern architects such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra as well as Prairie School architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The book describes the concepts of modern architecture from the prospective of a potential home builder.

As a former apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship program, Curtis Besinger provides a lively account of daily life in this community of architects established by Wright in Wisconsin and Arizona. While an apprenticeship with the Fellowship was unlike standard architectural training, it did entail some architectural tasks, such as drafting, designing, and overseeing projects, including the actual building of Taliesin West.

John Alcock is a behavioral ecologist and professor at Arizona State University.  He writes in a very approachable style (similar to more popular and famous biologists like Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson) that splendidly reveals his passion and appreciation of desert life as a naturalist to the general public.  This 1990 title, “Sonoran Desert Summer,” is marvelously illustrated with pen and ink drawings by Marilyn Hoff Stewart.

John Alcock is a behavioral ecologist and professor at Arizona State University. He writes in a very approachable style (similar to more popular and famous biologists like Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson) that splendidly reveals his passion and appreciation of desert life as a naturalist to the general public. This 1985 title, Sonoran Desert Spring, contains numerous photographs (some in color) of the Sonoran desert during springtime.

This dog-eared 1964 (second printing) copy of “The Vertebrates of Arizona” has likely been used in the field by Smithsonian and other biologists over the years. Editor Charles H. Lowe was a respected herpetologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.  Containing useful landscape photographs, maps, and data, the second half of this book is organized into annotated check-lists of fishes, amphibians, birds and mammals of Arizona. This makes it an essential resource for biologists and taxonomists studying the region.

Together, the Goodwin and Guenther Collections in the Arizona State Museum form the most significant collection of Apache cultural materials dating from the mid-1800s to 1985. In the early 1930s, Grenville Goodwin came to Arizona to attend prep school, but instead was drawn to the Apaches and spent his time studying their way of life. He gathered items from them, and earned the trust of knowledgeable elders who recreated things no longer made – all which he thoroughly documented, detailing their construction, meaning, and use.

Featuring Ann Nolan Clark’s poetic prose and softly-colored illustrations by renowned Chiricahua artist Allan Houser in The Desert People, this book teaches us about the yearly cycle of Tohono O’odom traditional life and culture through the experiences of a young boy being taught by his father. Clark was an award-winning writer and educator whose books about American Indian life, culture, and language helped educate a generation of American Indian students during the New Deal years.

“It just seemed like a natural and harmless thing to do at the time” states author Bob Jones regarding the formation of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society in 1946. The ‘rockhounds’ who formed the group could not have anticipated that their organization would go on to create the world’s largest and most renowned gem and mineral show, frequented by scientists and scholars, dealers and vendors, artists and jewelers, and students and families alike.

The African American soldiers who served in the Spanish-American War and the Indian Wars were known as the “Buffalo Soldiers.” Especially remarkable is that  both of these conflicts occurred during the latter half of the 19th century, meaning that some of Buffalo Soldiers had been enslaved just years prior. Yet in spite of this and other obstacles, they were known for serving with valor and honor. In addition, they were tasked with the controversial job of helping to "settle" western states, including Arizona.

Zane Grey, the American author famous for his popular Western adventure novels, published this non-fiction work in 1919. In addition to being a dentist and writer, Grey was an avid fisherman. This title is full of zesty and manly fishing adventures of watching and wrestling with big game fish off the coast of southern California and is tastefully illustrated with photos taken by the author.

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.

This 1906 volume features essays written by notable travelers who visited the West, including John Wesley Powell (who was the first director of the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology and whom the Smithsonian's Anthropology Library is named after), artist Thomas Moran, geologist R.D. Salisbury, poet Harriet Monroe, and others. It is illustrated with many black and white photographs, showing the beauty and majesty of the Grand Canyon.

Beginning in late 1863, author J. Ross Browne accompanied Charles D. Poston on his tour of Arizona as the territory’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This book recounts their adventure, presenting a vivid, colorful description of the area and of the terrors which then attended border life in Arizona, where one-twentieth of the population had been swept away by the attacks of the Apaches in three years. Browne's travelogue also contains details on early mining in addition to observations of the lands and people he encountered.

“For more than thirty years the author has been gathering information from old timers, Indians, Mexicans, cowboys, sheep-herders, historians, any and everybody who had a story to tell as to the origin and meaning of Arizona names” begins Will Croft Barnes' most well-known work, Arizona Place Names – the product of a lifetime of travel throughout Arizona as a result of his military, political, geographical, and ecological services to the U.S.

“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.

“Go to the National Museum in Washington, and I venture the assertion you will find there more objects of universal interest and wonder gained from Arizona, than from any other country you can name.” So states George Wharton James in the forward to Arizona, the Wonderland. James was an enthusiast of the American Southwest who wrote over 40 books about the region, including this tribute to Arizona, an unabashedly enthusiastic travelogue.