The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is a museum and association which honors women of the American West who have displayed courage or spirit and who have distinguished themselves while exemplifying the pioneer spirit. The facility is located in the Cultural District of Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.
The museum was begun in the small basement of the library in
Hereford, the seat of Deaf Smith County in West Texas by Margaret
Clark Formby (1929-2003), wife of the radio broadcaster Clint
Formby. Formby sought for a larger city to take over the exhibits,
and Fort Worth won the competition. Formby's husband's uncle was
the Texas politician Marshall Formby, a state senator, highway
commissioner, and gubernatorial candidate.
Inside the
museum
- The Hall of Fame: Photographs, artifacts, and in-depth
information on Cowgirls honorees. The center of the building is an
empty rotunda propped up by
twelve Corinthian columns.
- "Kinship with the Land": a 15-minute film about the cowgirls'
relationship with the land.
- Connie Reeves Discovery Corral: This is a hands-on play area
for children.
- "Into the Arena": is about the cowgirls who where in the rodeo,
from victories to heartaches.
- "Claiming the Spotlight": The tremendous influence of cowgirls
on pop culture: from matinee idols to musicians, from television
stars to the cowgirls portrayed in literature and advertising.
- Juke boxes with earphone with ten cowgirl songs, including "My
Adobe Hacienda" by Louise Massey and the Westerners.
- The preceding exhibits are located on the second floor, but
traveling exhibits are housed on the first floor to the right of
the rotunda. Early in 2010, a cross-section of the art of Georgia
O'Keeffe, was on temporary display. The short film The Spirit of
the Cowgirl, narrated by Michael Martin Murphey, is also shown
on the first floor.
Hall of
Fame inductees
- Alice Greenough Orr (1975)
- Sacagawea (1977)
- Enid Justin (1978)
- Tad Lucas (1978)
- Linda Burch (1980), winner of National Cutting Horse futurity;
amassed $2.5 million in her career
- Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls (1984)
- Rose Wilder Lane (1984)
- Carrie Ingalls Swanzey (1984)
- Laura Ingalls Wilder (1984)
- Willa Cather (1986)
- Patsy Montana (1987)
- Georgie Sicking (1989)
- Mary Ann Dyer "Molly" Goodnight (1991)
- Margaret Formby (1994)
- Wilma Mankiller (1994)
- Patsy Cline (1994)
- Cynthia Ann Parker (1998)
- Sandra Day O'Connor (2002)
- Glenna Goodacre (2003)
- Gail Davis (2004)
- Wantha Davis (2004)
- Ann Lowdon Call (2005)
- Elaine Kramer (2005)
- Anne W. Marion (2005)
- Lulu Bell Parr (2005)
- Minnie Lou Bradley (2006)
- Esther Hobart Morris (2006)
- Bonnie McCarroll (2006)
- Dale Evans Rogers
- Texas Rose Bascom
- Annie Oakley
- Cornelia Ritchie Wadsworth Bivins (2009)
References
External
links