Treasures from Our West: “The Big Things” by Frederic Remington

Originally featured in Points West in Fall 2014

The Big Things by Frederic Remington

Since 1977, Patrons Ball—the black-tie, “festive event” as the event’s first chairperson, Robin Weiss, called it—has truly become a “big thing.” Similarly, on August 14, 1899, Louisa Cody, Buffalo Bill’s wife, also spearheaded another “festive event,” a party at the Carter Mountain landmark Irma Lake. Mrs. Cody invited everyone in the county, including surveyor C.E. Hayden, who recorded in his diary that Frederic Remington, “the noted artist, was on hand and was sketching some of the outstanding characters.”

It’s little wonder, then, that Remington’s sketch, The Big Things, inked at that Irma Lake party, has come to represent today’s Patrons Ball. After all, the couple is dancing—and at a party hosted by non-other than Louisa Cody; what could be more appropriate?

Frederic Remington (1861 – 1909). The Big Things, August 14, 1899. Pen and ink on paper. Buffalo Bill Museum Association Purchase. 78.69

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