Autry Museum of the American West – Virtual Tour

The Autry Museum of the American West is dedicated to exploring the history of the American West. The museum presents a wide range of exhibitions and public programs across two sites.

The museum’s two sites are about 8 miles (13 km) apart. The primary site is the Griffith Park facility, and the Mt. Washington location hosts the Southwest Museum of the American Indian facility.

The Autry was established in 1988 by the actor Gene Autry as the “Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum” to share the story of the American West.

Its Griffith Park collection includes 21,000 paintings, sculptures, costumes, textiles, firearms, tools, toys, musical instruments, and other artifacts.

The museum also sponsors the “Native Voices at the Autry Museum of the American West” which is focused on producing new theatre works by Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nation playwrights since 1995.

The museum’s paintings, textiles, photographs, pottery, and videos are organized across three theme areas:

Religion and Ritual
Land and Landscape
Migration and Movement

The museum’s collection includes 238,000-piece consisting of 14,000 baskets, 10,000 ceramic items, 6,300 textiles and weavings, and over 1,100 pieces of jewelry.

It represents work by indigenous peoples from Alaska to South America, with an emphasis on the cultures of the Southwestern United States.

“American Progress” by John Gast, 1872 – depicts “Manifest Destiny” – the belief that the United States should expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean

The Gamble Firearms Gallery shows the place of firearms in the Old West across three key themes:

Hunting and Trapping
The Impact of Technology on Firearms
The West in Popular Culture

Southwest Museum of the American Indian

The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive that is part of the Autry Museum of the American West. Its collections deal mainly with Native Americans.

The museum also has an extensive collection of pre-Hispanic, Spanish colonial, Latino, and Western American art and artifacts.

The Southwest Museum of the American Indian – Mount Washington, Los Angeles, California

Highlights of the Autry Museum of the American West

The Western Frontiers: Stories of Fact and Fiction Gallery
The Gamble Firearms Gallery
Native American Ceramic Collection
Research Library and the Autry Library
Native American Textiles Collection
Painting of the Old West
Native American Basket Collection
Native American Jewelry Collection
Pre-Hispanic and Spanish colonial artifacts

Autry Museum of the American West – Griffith Park site