Hundreds of museums celebrate the American West (including more than a few east of the Mississippi). But True West magazine says the Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West in Scottsdale, AZ, is the best. The museum is #1 in True West’s Top 10 Western Museums of 2021. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum of Oklahoma City took top honors last year. The entire list of best museums is in True West’s September 2021 issue, on newsstands August 11.
They collect and exhibit Old West items and art as well as anybody around. It is truly a top Western museum.
“Western Spirit consistently makes our annual list of top museums, and it’s no wonder why,” says True West Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell. “They collect and exhibit Old West items and art as well as anybody around. It is truly a top Western museum.”
Two-time Spur Award-winning writer Candy Moulton and the editors of True West selected the winners for this annual award based on extensive travels, research and firsthand experiences in visiting dozens of Western museums each year. Moulton points to exhibits currently on view, such as “Maynard Dixon’s American West,” features his magnificent modernist landscapes; “By Beauty Obsessed: Gilbert Waldman Collects the West,” showcases works by Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, the Taos Society of Artists, Charles M. Russell, and many others; “Beaded Gauntlets from the William P. Healey Collection” examines how Native Americans adapted an aspect of U.S. Cavalry garb to their own purposes; and the “Morton and Donna Fleischer American Military Saddle Collection” shows the development of the saddle over time.