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Drawn West: A History of Promoting Place

November 15, 2025 – June 28, 2026

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In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, illustrated maps and advertisements functioned as powerful enticements to attract new inhabitants to the West. Opening Saturday, November 15 at the High Desert Museum, Drawn West: A History of Promoting Place explores a century of salesmanship, when artists and cartographers alike crafted an image of the West that depicted both fact and fiction.

The visually engaging exhibition features 50-plus maps, artworks and advertisements from the Museum’s extensive collections, including work by prominent Western artists Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, Edward B. Quigley and Edward Borein. Visitors will explore the decades of westward expansion, as roads, railroads, national parks and ski resorts began to sprout across the landscape.

The West’s inspiring mountains, broad plateaus and rapid rivers have long evoked a strong connection to a mythic Western character. Artists often represented Western cultures and landscapes through a romantic lens, at times infusing myth into marketing.

Leveraging the Museum’s collection of 29,000 objects, the exhibition is divided into five sections: Westward Expansion, Railroads, Roads, Recreation and Reclamation–covering 100 years of change. Each section dives into not only the national and legal challenges but also the regional response as more people moved West–all from the lens of the artists, cartographers and marketers of the time. From the growth of cities and towns along railways in the High Desert to the first Pendleton Round-Up in 1910 and the construction of the Bonneville Dam in the 1930s, each artwork, map and advertisement on display tells a story of near-constant change.

From myths and marketing to fact and fiction, Drawn West encourages visitors to look closer at a century of advertising place.