About the Exhibit
Theodore Roosevelt by an unidentified photographer, circa 1883, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library
Cowboys don their big hats, as the Roosevelt Special stops for a short time while on the campaign trail in Laramie, Wyoming, September 18, 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, 56-523
Cowboy Montie Montana ropes President Dwight Eisenhower during his first inaugural parade, January 20, 1953, Museum of the American West, 2000.130.7.1
Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger meeting with Vice-President Richard Nixon, 1959, Donated by the family of Gene Bear to the Museum of the American West, 97.148.143
Bill Clinton wearing a cowboy outfit as he sits on a pony, circa 1949, William J. Clinton Presidential Library, H8-09
During the spring and summer of 2008, April 12 through September 7, the Autry National Center will premiere Cowboys and Presidents. This national traveling show will explore the fascinating and ongoing intersection of cowboy culture and presidential politics from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush.
The exhibit will explain how the presidency became intertwined with the emerging image of a heroic American cowboy at the turn of the twentieth century and will explore the ways that U.S. Presidents have used this powerful iconographic symbol to define themselves and their administrations to the nation and the world. It will also show how the press, foreign governments, and domestic political opponents have found cowboy imagery useful in criticizing presidential policy and leadership.
