On this date in 1919, Edgar S. Paxson, Montana based Western painter, died at age 67.
Paxson was born and grew up in New York, but moved to Montana shortly after marrying. He remained in Montana the rest of his life and worked as a self taught painter, painting Western themes. He's best remembered today for his spectacular Custer's Last Stand which is held by the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.
Paxson volunteered to serve with the Montana National Guard during the Spanish American War. His son Harry had also volunteered to serve. Paxson was 47 years old at the time. He jointed as a private but left as a lieutenant, serving in the Philippines. His wartime service likely shortened his life as he contracted malaria while serving. It was while convalescing in Butte that he started work on Custer's Last Stand. During this period of time he designed the triumphal arch that Butte built for its returning veterans of the war. It was not until this period that Paxson was able to work full time as an artist.
While he is best remembered for Custer's Last Stand, which took a long time to create, he also created a substantial body of work on the Corps of Discovery. His wife outlived him by twenty years, although Harry, whom he served within the Philippines, did not, having died in a mine electrocution accident some time prior. He left three other adult children at the time of his death.
While in his 60s at the time, he'd attempted to join the Army again, unsuccessfully, during World War One.
He's less well known today than his contemporaries Russell and Remington, and indeed that was also true during his lifetime. But he was a major Western artists of his day, and a friend to fellow Montana artist, Charles Russell.
On the dame day, the Chicago Tribune worried about the plight of underpaid college professors.
The cartoon was odd in that it compared them to apparently well off labor, which probably isn't how labor saw things.
And the Army Air Corps, which was responsible for air mail, had acquired a new twin engine aircraft for that purpose, shown here at Bolling Field outside of Washington, D. C.
