While some galleries have come and gone, others have maintained their presence for a substantial time, and Settlers West Galleries in Tucson, Arizona, could be a record-setter. Equipped with master’s degrees in American history and business administration, Stuart Johnson founded the gallery 54 years ago...
Reyne Hirsch could be called an accidental collector, and she wouldn’t be alone. After all, how many people have unknowingly built a collection only to discover its value and face the fact that they are, indeed, a collector? Hirsch, co-owner of the Dallas Auction Gallery...
In her career as a museum director, Sandra Harris recalls the time from 2002 to 2005 when she served as the first director of the non-profit Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her office was in a donated space because the museum was just a...
To William P. Healey, art is the manifestation of American Western history, a subject he’s been interested in since childhood. His older brother, a bibliophile, shared countless volumes detailing Western events with him; but more important than books, Healey says, were the art prints of...
The well-known photographer Edward S. Curtis [1868–1952] was prolific during the early 20th century when cameras and film development were still in their budding stages. Between 1900 and 1930, he traveled the West, living alongside and taking portraits of people belonging to more than 80...
As businessman and philanthropist Steve Lynn has matured as an art collector, one thing has become abundantly clear: Sharing one’s collection enhances the experience of it. “Why do it if you aren’t going to let others enjoy it?” Lynn asks. “It’s not fun to drink a...
While Russ Hoover was growing up in the early 1960s in what was then the small town of Scottsdale, Arizona, his mother took the then 7 year old to the Heard Museum in Phoenix. There, he fell in love with the museum’s Katsina doll collection....
When American Cheyenne politician Ben Nighthorse Campbell reported for duty to the 100th U.S. Congress in 1987, he confesses that he rode into Washington, D.C., on a Harley Davidson, his long hair gathered into a braid trailing down his back. This illustrious entrance was an appropriate...
For Jack Morris, the story of his life in the arts has had many twists and turns, eventually leading to his status as Emeritus Auctioneer with the Scottsdale Art Auction, which he co-founded with partners Michael Frost and Brad Richardson in 2005. After a case of...
For more than 50 years, Perry Null has been trading artwork and jewelry with American Indians from different tribal nations. He began learning the business in 1970 when he started buying and selling jewelry from Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and other Indigenous silversmiths. He worked along the...