Please join us at our monthly chapter meeting on Monday, November 11, 2024 at 7:00 PM when our speaker, Lee Silliman, will present his illustrated lecture on: The Wild Horse: History & Lore, From Pre-History to mid-20th Century
Lee’s talk will vividly sketch, using vintage imagery and anecdote, the story of the North American wild horse on the Western frontier. The lecture begins with a discussion of how the horse evolved in North America, spread to other continents, and then went extinct in North America. The talk will relate how the horse returned to the Americas with the colonial Spanish and was a factor in the repression of native cultures. As the Spanish horses escaped or were stolen by Native Americans, horses--both wild ones called mustangs and tamed ones traded from tribe to tribe--inexorably diffused northward. The acquisition of the horse profoundly altered the lifeways of Native Americans. The talk will conclude with an explanation of how early twentieth century mustangers (those who sought to capture mustangs for profit) utilized many ingenious tactics to break the will and freedom of an animal who so well personified the spirit of the untamed West. Books telling the history of the wild horse from Silliman’s collection will be on display for inspection, and a bibliography sheet will be available.
Lee Silliman is a retired educator and former museum archivist now living in Missoula. He has nurtured an avid interest in the art and history of the American West since his youth. As a collector of vintage engravings, Silliman has assembled, annotated, and framed many exhibits of these artworks for museums in six Western states.  His has taught five courses for the MOLLI program at the University of Montana on Western history and art.
The meeting will be held in Room 110 in the Interdisciplinary Sciences Building (ISB) on the University of Montana campus. The building lies on the south end of campus on Beckwith Avenue between Maurice and Mansfield avenues. Though not required by the university, FVAS honors the decision of those who wish to wear a mask.

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