The Stark Museum in Orange Texas

Orange Texas has an additional great thing to offer to any visitors, tourists or even to the locals. Stark Museum of Art is one of them which maybe you are not familiar with or maybe you heard about it but you haven’t been visited this museum yet. Well, this museum has one of the nation’s most significant collections of American Western art. It has one of the finest collections of 19th and 20th century Western American art and artifacts in the country. And it carries the artistic interpretation of the western region over two centuries. A few explorer-artists traveled across the continent in the early nineteenth century. They recorded and documented the American Indians in portraits and scenes of their customs according to their perspectives. The following decade, two artists brought their painting skills to depict the grandeur of the Western landscape. At the turn of the last century, others created enduring iconic images of the Wild West in their paintings and sculptures portraying cowboy life and Indian imagery. Other artists have brought new interpretations to the concept of the West. The Decorative Arts collection features primarily glass and porcelain. There are items from Steuben Glass, including the only complete set of The United States in Crystal, a series of bowls engraved with scenes representing each of the 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and the Union. There are 76 engraved plates and also numerous bowls, flasks, and plaques. What I would like to see are the porcelain birds by artist Dorothy Doughty which is another highlight in the Decorative Arts collection. This museum holds the entire series as well as some duplicates, including unpainted versions. They have an American Indian collection too which consists of objects created by the tribes of the Great Plains, Southwest, Eastern Woodlands and Northwest Coast. It includes excellent examples of Plains clothing, body ornaments, and beadwork, such as elaborately beaded moccasins. It exhibits baskets from major basket-producing cultures in the West: Pueblo pottery, blackware, kachina dolls, and an outstanding collection of Navajo rugs and blankets. They have the Rare Books and Manuscripts collection like The Birds of America. There are letters and journals, seven Books of Hours manuscripts, and more rare treasures that are worth looking for. Come and visit this museum, you'll be amazed of what's in there.