by John Dowd
The Ravalli County Museum is proud to announce the showcasing of a special exhibit that will be featured in their upstairs exhibit room for the next couple months.
The museum uses this space for temporary exhibits, and often will have a new one there every six months or so. For this one, the museum will be featuring grizzly bear depictions.
Michelle Nowling, executive director, said she is excited not just because the exhibit is interesting, but because the man behind it has done this before and always does a great job.
Lee Silliman is the man behind the new exhibit, “Ursus Horribilis, The Grizzly Bear Illustrated: 1828-1943.” Silliman owns Lee’s graphics, and does photography, picture framing, exhibits and lectures out of Missoula. According to Nowling, Silliman builds the frames, creates the verbiage and collects original lithographs, post cards, etc. for the displays, putting everything together himself.
Nowling put the display up, and said everything was pretty much done for her. All she really had to do was hang the pieces and light them.
She said Silliman has over 20 exhibits in his collection and the museum plans to display another next year. He did one on early promotions of Glacier National Park and he even had a similar presentation done on bison instead of bears. The bison exhibit showcased artistic depictions of the plains animals based on descriptions communicated back to non-native society before bison were widely recognized. That exhibit featured a date range earlier than the one on the grizzly.
This exhibit features illustrations made later in time but featured grizzly bears in a similar fashion, seeing how these bears were depicted by artists over the years. Nowling said it appears some artists were more accurate than others with their depictions.
“The fun thing about this exhibit is that every illustration is very different,” said Nowling.
Silliman will be at the museum on Tuesday, February 12 at 6:30 p.m. to present information about the exhibit.
“His presentations are phenomenal,” added Nowling, who said Silliman often includes images that did not make it into the official exhibit and talks about the process and his inspiration behind each exhibit.
The grizzly bear exhibit includes 49 prints, most of which are original, ranging from years 1828 to 1943. The exhibit opened officially on February 5, and it will be at the Ravalli County Museum until April 18. After that, it will be sent to Travelers Rest State Park Visitors Center for the summer.
According to Nowling, the showing was paid for by the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, through a match grant. They raised the match funds from museum donors, to whom Nowling and her staff are profoundly thankful. These funds will cover the exhibit this year, and the one Silliman will do next year, as well as the museum’s purchase of the “Red Light District Walking Tours of Downtown Hamilton.” This self-guided tour takes interested parties through the “unsavory” district of old Hamilton, which is full of interesting and forgotten history. Booklets are available at the museum for this tour and person-led tours can be scheduled. Nowling said they would love to have more of these guided tours.
The museum also has a business walking tour, with a booklet, that can also be scheduled as person-led tours. This is more of an architectural tour, featuring the old buildings of downtown. Nowling said interested parties can call or email the museum, or ask in person when visiting to schedule tours. Visitors must be 16 years or older for the red light tour.
Nowling added that it is field-trip season, so it’s a good time for schools and youth groups to schedule tours. The museum also has some new staff, so they are taking donations for things to include in the collection. The executive director wanted to clarify that they can be a little picky on what they accept. Being that spring is around the corner, the museum is also looking for volunteers, and interested parties check the website, https://ravallimuseum.org/ for that. The Museum can be contacted by phone at (406) 363-3338.
Leave a Reply