Wild East

Near East Far West Online Exhibition Guide

World’s fairs produced and disseminated Orientalist imagery to millions of attendees in Europe and the United States. Massive multiacre spectacles, they showcased artworks, commercial products, architecture, design, science, technology, and people from across the globe. Their stereotyped advertisements and exhibitions frequently reinforced harmful racial hierarchies. However, global representatives used their voices, cultural authority, and artworks to assert their presence and identities and to counter biased assumptions.

Over 27 million visitors attended the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago during the six months it was open, including artists Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. North African exhibitions, including the Cairo Street and Bedouins performing as part of the “Wild East,” left impressions on both men. Their shared interest in Bedouin and Arab equestrian cultures may reflect their awareness that horsemanship in the Americas had, in part, originated with the Spanish colonial armies, whose own horses, tack, and techniques had been influenced by North African breeds and practices.

Illustrated guide cover featuring downtown Chicago and the Chicago River. Center, a young girl looks out at the river from a bridge. Left, a man and two women in fine dress. Text from top to bottom reads, “Rand Mcnally & Co’s A Week At The Fair: Illustrating Exhibits And Wonders Of The World’s Columbian Exposition With Maps And Diagrams.”

World's Fair

Published by Rand, McNally & Co.
A Week at the Fair: Exhibits and Wonders of the World's Columbian Exposition
1893
Colored ink on paper
9 × 6 in.
Object #2014.039, Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, Colorado

Black and white photo of a group of people posed in front of the Egyptian Mosque at the World’s Columbian Exhibition.

Blanche L. Snow for The Werner Company
Egyptian Mosque at the World’s Columbian Exhibition
1893
From Portfolio of Photographs of the World’s Fair, Art Series No. 10
11 × 13½ in.
Denver Art Museum, EXACC.2022.33

Black and white photo of mannequins used to represent Indigenous people posed in museum settings. Two women in a glass case prepare a hide.

Blanche L. Snow for The Werner Company
Life Group of Plains Women Dressing Hides Presented by the Department of Ethnology and Bureau of American Ethnology. Photograph of interior view of Smithsonian Institution and US National Museum exhibits in the US Government Building. From Portfolio of the World’s Fair, Art Series, No. 15.
1893–94
Denver Art Museum

Spread across nearly 700 acres, the Columbian Exposition included large temporary buildings arranged around a central water feature. Internal exhibits showcased technology, society, industry, and art. Along the mile-long Midway Plaisance, visitors found food, entertainment, the first Ferris wheel, and “living exhibits” of global cultures. While providing a venue for intercultural exchange, the arrangement of the displays and their stereotyped representations often reinforced harmful racial hierarchies.

Colorful poster featuring the head of an Arab man in the center surrounded by small vignettes. Text beneath his head reads, “An Arab.” Top reads, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: And Congress Of Rough Riders Of The World.” Bottom reads, “Actual Scenes – Genuine Characters. In Our Grand Open Arena With Covered Grand Stand Seating. 20,000 People, Twice Daily – 2 & 8pm – Night As Light As Day.”

Courier Litho. Co.
Buffalo, NY.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World: An Arab Poster
1896
Ink on paper
28 1/2 x 42 in.
Object ID# 73.0677, Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, Colorado

Program cover featuring Buffalo Bill and his Rough Riders. Top reads, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.” Center, a string of headshots of the riders with text, “And Congress Of Rough Riders Of The World.” Text at the bottom reads, “Historical Sketches & Programme. Price 10 Cents.”

Unknown publisher
Buffalo Bill's Wild West, Historical Sketches & Programme
1894
Colored ink on paper
9½ × 7 in.
Object # 2001.0014, Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, Colorado

A street scene set against the backdrop of a white building with an open archway decorated with orange-red stripes. A mashrabiya, a type of carved bay window, above the archway. Left foreground, men sit on a rug and watch a woman dancing in the street, center. Behind her, more people congregate to watch, along with a horse and a camel.

Charles Marion Russell
Street Scene in Arabia
1908
Watercolor on paper
9¼ × 6½ in.
C. M. Russell Museum: Gift of the Josephine Trigg Estate, 953-1-018

Although not formally a part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show set up camp outside the fairgrounds and became one of the summer’s main attractions. Demonstrations of sharpshooting, roping, and riding punctuated dramatically staged scenes of Old West violence. In addition, performers including Cossacks, gauchos, vaqueros, and Arabs demonstrated their athletic skills as part of the Rough Riders of the World.

A squat silver vase with geometric designs similar to those from Indigenous pottery. At the top, a delicate flower pattern is raised in the silver.

Indigenous Art and Tiffany

Paulding Farnham (designer)
Tiffany & Co. (manufacturer)
Pueblo Vase
1893
Sterling silver, inlaid with copper, niello, and gold
6 × 12½ in.
Exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Chicago, IL. Tiffany & Co. Archives, B1993.01. © Tiffany and Company 2023.

A clay jar that is narrow at the bottom, then widens significantly in the middle, and tapers up at the top. It is decorated with black and white geometric patterns.

Acoma artist
Jar
1895-1900
Clay and paint
11¼ x 13¼ in.
Denver Art Museum: Gift of Mr. C.W. Douglas, 1929.50. Photography by Bill O'Conner, courtesy Denver Art Museum

A decorated clay bowl. The exterior has a white background with brown with brownish geometric designs. The interior has stacked rows of triangular, wave-like designs that go around the circumference of the bowl, alternating white and browns.

Zuni artist
Bowl
1890s
Clay and paint
6 1/4 x 13 15/16 in.
Denver Art Museum: Exchange with Indian Arts Fund, 1929.140. Photography by Bill O'Conner, courtesy Denver Art Museum

At world’s fairs, Indigenous arts were often displayed within ethnographic exhibitions, emphasizing a perceived distinction between art and artifact. By the late 1800s, however, Indigenous arts circulated throughout international markets and directly impacted European and American art and design. For example, George Paulding Farnham’s Pueblo Vase, exhibited for Tiffany & Co. at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, references motifs and forms of Pueblo vessels. By transforming and appropriating Indigenous designs, such artworks simultaneously celebrate and attempt to replace Indigenous artists.

Side view of an Arab man on horseback, mid-stride, facing right. The man raises a stick-shaped object over his head with one hand and holds the reigns with the other. His clothing billows behind him, indicating a quick pace of movement.

Frederic Remington
A Note from the Wild East–Midway Plaisance–Chicago
1893
Mixed media on board
31 1/2 x 32 in.
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Gift of Jasper D. Ackerman

Five Arab men on horseback riding abreast, each holds a gun in the air.

Frederic Remington
“A Revolver Charge” illustration for “An Arabian Day and Night” in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine
1894
Ink on paper
10 × 7 in.
Denver Art Museum: EXACC.2022.13

A brown leather strap attached to patinaed brass spurs with an eight-leafed floral-shaped button. There are two spurs, each with eight spokes. Floral decorations etched into the brass.

Unknown Algerian artist
Spurs
about 1900
Leather with heavily ornate brass
about 1900
5 × 2¾ in.
Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming: Gift of the Coe Foundation, 1.67.193

Frederic Remington’s sighting of Bedouin riders at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, which he captured in his cover illustration for Harper’s Weekly, inspired a trip to Algeria the following year with writer and editor Poultney Bigelow. Remington’s illustrations accompanying Bigelow’s essays feature a variety of lively depictions, including charging Arab riders. Remington returned to the United States with sketches, photographs, and even stirrups and spurs that he displayed in his studio.

Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism is organized by the Denver Art Museum. It has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Research for this exhibition was supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art. It is presented with generous support from Keith and Kathie Finger, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Sotheby's, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.