Archives On The Air 34: Romantics In Wyoming—Grace Raymond Hebard Papers

Published August 1, 2018 at 10:17 AM MDT

Hand-colored map depicting historical events in Wyoming with narrative written by historian Grace Raymond Hebard. Autographed by Hebard in the lower right corner, 1936. Box 71, Grace Raymond Hebard papers.

In the late 19th century, Wyoming became a hotbed for literature, painting and romanticism.

One example is Albert Bierstadt the famous landscape artist who found beauty in the untamed and untouched West. An early landscape painting in 1863 was of Lander’s Peak in the Wind River Reservation.

Like Bierstadt, many other romantics saw a similar value in Wyoming. Another example is the 1910 article “Wyoming in Romance.”

Albert Bierstadt’s 1863 painting “The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak.” This painting is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; The Metropolitan Museum of Art scanned the painting and it is available under public domain through Wikimedia Commons.

This article detailed a romantic interpretation of Wyoming’s beauty. It highlighted a section of Longfellow’s 1847 poem “Evangeline” that described Wyoming:

“Far in the West there lies a desert land, where the mountains Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and luminous summits ... Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in the shadow and sunshine.”

Come see the work of a 19th century romantic in the Grace Raymond Hebard papers available at UW’s American Heritage Center.