This series of short shows will make you an expert on the place that started as Mound City and became the Gateway to the West. Explore the people and events that shaped history in the Midwest.
He was born in Germany, but grew up with a fascination about the American west. So when Carl Wimar moved to St. Louis to paint, you can imagine the subject matter he chose.
He was born in Germany, but loved America and captured in spectacular detail the wildest part of a young and growing country.
But some of his painting are nothing but a product of his vivid imagination.
But when Wimar returned, he got permission to travel up the Missouri river on government ships taking provisions to the Indians, giving him a firsthand view of the world he had known only in his dreams.
Except among art collectors, Wiman is largely forgotten today. But you can still see some of his best work in the dome of the old courthouse where he was commissioned to paint oval shaped scenes of St. Louis history, including a depiction of the transcontinental railway going west from St. Louis.
Of course he had to use his imagination once again for that one, because it never happened.