Frederic Remington enjoyed a highly productive and successful career as illustrator and fine artist. Between 1882 and 1913 people across the United States saw his drawings and paintings appear frequently in books and popular publications. He was known especially for his renderings of nineteenth-century Western frontier life. His contemporaries believed that he was recording for posterity a vanishing segment of American history, and they lauded his scenes for their realism, accuracy, and verve. Remington's work as painter, sculptor, illustrator, and writer remains ardently sought today and to many represents the true Old West.

Frederic Sackrider Remington was born on 4 October 1861 in Canton, New York. He was the only child of Clara Sackrider and Seth Pierre Remington. As a child Remington identified strongly with his father, who was a journalist, politician, soldier, and horse-racing enthusiast. Seth Remington founded Canton's only weekly newspaper, the St. Lawrence Plaindealer, and served as a volunteer...