UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Wild West: Indians

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46917)
Number: 293
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 82 x 185 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 5
Catalogues: K.314; M.308; W.228
Impressions taken from this plate  (5)
Wild West: Indians dates from 1887. The 'Wild West Show' was part of the 'American Exhibition', one of the special events surrounding the Jubilee of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) in 1887. The ship, containing cowboys, Indians, buffaloes, horses, deer, etc., arrived in the Thames on 14 April 1887, and the show-ground was erected over the following weeks. The Queen visited Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Earl's-Court, Brompton, on 5 May 1887. 1

The exhibition officially opened on 9 May and was open throughout the summer. It came to a 'dignified close' on 31 October. 2

1: 'The "Wild West Show', The Times, London, 15 April 1887, p. 10; 18 April 1887, p. 10.

2: 'Opening of the American Exhibition,'The Times, London, 10 May 1887, p. 10; 'The American Exhibition', 1 November 1887, p. 9.

Years after, Whistler remembered taking his son, Charles James Whistler Hanson (1870-1935), and his young brother-in-law, Ronald Murray Philip (1871-1940), to see 'Buffalo Bill and his cow boys'. 3

3: Whistler to R. Birnie Philip, [20 February 1900], GUW #04773.