Old Faithful Geyser, Emerald Spring, the magnificent canyons and falls of the Yellowstone River: these and other sites, familiar to the millions of visitors who travel through Yellowstone National Park each year, have been an inspiration to generations of artists. Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and dozens of other artists have braved difficult conditions to capture the splendors of Yellowstone in many media, from delicate watercolors and pen-and-ink sketches to powerful oils and popular lithographs. They have portrayed the animals that lived there, the humans who passed through, and above all the remarkable natural features that have made Yellowstone a wonderland to so many artists and observers.The first national park in the world, from the moment of its inception in Yellowstone National Park has been perceived as a vast visual spectacle. By the 1890s it was known as "the Nation's Art Gallery." Peter Hassrick traces the artistic history of the park from its earliest explorers to the present day in Drawn to Yellowstone, a richly illustrated account of the artists who traveled to and were inspired by Yellowstone.Yellowstone was simultaneously an aesthetic experience and a potent force in America's search for national identity. Visitors made comparisons between the castles of Europe and the gleaming spires of Yellowstone, to prove that America, too, had its history and its grandeur. It was from Yellowstone that flowed, like the waters that pulse from its geysers, an artistic energy that at once captivated a nation and contributed to its philosophical and aesthetic history.

Peter H. Hassrick is founding director emeritus of the Charles M. Russell Center at the University of Oklahoma.