Welcome

From its beginning in 1997, the Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center has served as the library and archives of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Its mission is to preserve, document, and interpret the heritage of the American West for the enrichment of the public by collecting, arranging, describing, making available, and preserving library, photographic, and archival materials related to the West and its social and cultural history.

The Center collects, preserves, and provides access to materials in support of the Museum’s research, educational, curatorial, and exhibition activities. Secondly, it provides reference, research, photographic, and moving image services to both scholarly and general public users. Finally, it manages the institutional records of the Museum.

The Dickinson Research Center is actively pursuing collections of personal papers, business and organizational records, and photographs that reflect and document aspects of Western history, culture, and art. The Center seeks materials in the following five topical areas: Entertainment (Western popular culture), Western Art, Ranching, Native American, and Rodeo.

Archival and photographic collections, which have been processed and are available for use by researchers, are shown in the Finding Aids.

Please contact the Center by phone or email to discuss your research needs or to make an appointment to visit. The Research Center is open 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. 

Research Center Events & Exhibits

When Animals Attack?:
Humorous Hunting Tableaux
Osborn Studio
January 22 - July 11, 2010

Before there was television, Americans spent their leisure time viewing stereographs, photographs printed side-by-side on card stock to produce three-dimensional images when viewed through a stereoscope. This exhibition features a collection of stereographs depicting humorous and exaggerated hunting scenes that showcase the photographer’s inventiveness and creativity. Most of the big game images were published between 1880 and 1910, and include deer, elk, moose, mountain sheep, bear and buffalo.

The exhibit shows from January 22 - July 11, 2010, in the Osborn Photography Studio of Prosperity Junction. If you're unable to visit, you can see the virtual exhibit.

Images in Osborn Studio are from the Museum’s Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center.

Reese's Pieces:
The Art & Life of William F. Reese
Atherton Alcove

Born in Pierre, South Dakota on July 10, 1938, William F. Reese characterizes his work as post impressionist with a touch of expressionism. After a near death experience due to peritonitis from a ruptured appendix in 1970, Reese determined to pursue an art career and quit the sign painting business that had sustained his family for years. He began his long association with this museum in 1977 as a guest artist at the National Academy of Western Art Annual Exhibition, now called the Prix de West Exhibition. View a preview video on Youtube for this exhibit.

The DRC is actively pursuing collections of personal papers, business and organizational records, and photographs which reflect and document aspects of Western history, culture, and art. In addition to our larger processed collections, the Center also has a variety of individual letters and other documents touching on aspects of the American West. Please view our finding aids to see the variety of our archival collections and feel free to request images, research, or an appointment to visit the Center. Visit this page regularly as new finding aids are posted to the web when a collection is finished being processed.