Cover Art Description:
On the front cover is N. C. Wyeth's depiction of a wagon train
painted to illustrate the story of Iowa pioneer life before the Civil War in
the 1922 book Vandermark's Folly, by Herbert Quick. Other settlers traveled
similar routes to western states whose futures were influenced by the
political appointments of President Abraham Lincoln, described in Richard W.
Etulain's article starting on page 3. The work, titled It was the newest,
strangest, most delightful, sternest, most wonderful thing in the world -
the Iowa prairie (1921, oil on canvas, 25⅞" x 30¼"), appears courtesy Lyndon
B. Johnson National Historical Park, Johnson City, Texas, gift of Lady Bird
Johnson; photograph courtesy Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford,
Pennsylvania.
Roundup Camp by Moonlight, by E. W. Gollings (1921, oil on canvas, 12" x
18"), on the back cover, calls to mind the ideal star-gazing conditions in
the West that led to it becoming home to some of the most important
scientists, observatories, and educational institutions in the world. Kevin
J. Fernlund's article on the subject begins on page 23. Roundup Camp by
Moonlight is in the Montana Historical Society Museum collection.
Copyright Montana The Magazine of Western History, Montana Historical Society. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.
