Frederic Remington, Selected Letters

It was not until 1947, thirty-eight years after Frederic Remington's death, that the first fairly comprehensive book about his life and work was published. That Harold McCracken completed "Frederic Remington: Artist of the Old West" was due in large part to the efforts of Emma Caten of Ogdensburg, New York, the sister of Remington's wife. Frederic and Eva Remington had no children, and Remington himself had been an only child, so after his death in 1909 it was Eva and, later, Emma who, with the help of Remington's friend John Howard, took responsibility for the collection of unsold paintings, sketches, and western paraphernalia in the house in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where the Remingtons were living when he died. When Eva died in 1918, she bequeathed the collection, as well as a copy of each of Remington's bronzes, to the Ogdensburg Public Library. When the library suffered a fire, the collection was transferred to the Parish Mansion in Ogdensburg, overlooking the St. Lawrence River, and it was remodeled and renamed the Remington Art Memorial. Still housed in the same building (including an addition) and now called the Frederic Remington Art Museum, the collection contains a comprehensive trove of Remington works and personal effects, including many letters. -- Introduction.