Harold McCracken (1894–1983) was an American writer, Alaskan

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

hunter,

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

stunt photographer,

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

, producer and

museum director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

. He was a noted explorer, who led expeditions in the 1920s tracing the possibility of a long-ago

land bridge In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and Colonisation (biology), colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regre ...

between

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

Expeditions

In 1913 at age 18 McCarcken traveled by train to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

where he lived with relatives for a time. McCracken undertook several expeditions to Alaska from 1916 to 1928. The first expedition was intended to obtain several big game specimens for a museum at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

McCracken, who was then living at 318 Warwick Avenue in Douglaston, New York and completing a book on artist

George Catlin George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the Old West. Traveling to the We ...

, was persuaded to transform an empty building donated by Gertrude Vanderbilt-Whitney in 1959 into the spectacular

Buffalo Bill Historical Center The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. The five museums include the ...

Cody, Wyoming Cody is a city in Northwest Wyoming and the seat of government of Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after Colonel William Frederick " Buffalo Bill" Cody for his part in the founding of Cody in 1896. The population was 10,066 at ...

. "I wouldn't undertake it again for all the tea in China," he said, "but I was always interested in challenges. I had friends in New York art galleries and I knew a lot of collectors because of my interest in western art." He was subsequently honored with the McCracken Research Library, dedicated in 1980. New library facilities were then opened to the public in 1994. McCracken retired from the Buffalo Bill Museum in 1974, and continued to live with his family, within sight of the historical center, until his death in 1983. Henry-Mead, Jean (2003) Westerners; Candid and Historic Interviews. Evansville: Medallion Books. , 1-931415-06-4

Works

*''The American Cowboy'' (1973) Garden City, NY: Doubleday. *''The Beast That Walks Like Man: The Story of the Grizzly Bear''. (1955) Garden City, NY: Hanover House. *''Beyond the Frozen Frontier''. (1936) NY: Robert Speller Publishing Corp. *''The Biggest Bear on Earth''. (1943) Philadelphia and New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. *''The Buffalo Bill Story: A Brief Account''. (n.d.) Cody, Wyo.: Buffalo Bill Historical Center. *''Caribou Traveler''. (1949) Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott. *''The Charles M. Russell Book: The Life and Work of the Cowboy Artist''. (1957) Garden City, NY: Doubleday. *''The Flaming Bear''. (1951) Philadelphia: Lippincott. *''The Frank Tenney Johnson Book: A Master Painter of the Old West''. (1974) Garden City, NY: Doubleday. *''Frank Tenney Johnson Western Paintings''. (1974) Dallas, Tex.: The Exchange Bank and Trust Co. *''Frederic Remington''. (1971) NY: Graham Galleries. *''Frederic Remington, Artist of the Old West'' (1947) Introduction by James Chillman, Jr. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. *''The Frederic Remington Book: A Pictorial History of the West''. (1966) Garden City, NY: Doubleday. *''Frederic Remington Memorial Collection''.(1954) NY: Knoedler Galleries. *''The Frederic Remington Studio Collection''. NY: Gallery Press. *''George Catlin and the Old Frontier''.(1959) NY: Dial Press. *''The Great White Buffalo''. (1946) NY and Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. *''A Heritage of the Blackfeet''. (1972) Cody, Wyo.: Buffalo Bill Historical Center. *''Hoof, Claws and Antlers: the Story of American Big-Game Animals''. Illustrated by Lee J. Ames. (1958) Garden City, NY: Garden City Books. *''Hunters of the Stormy Sea''. (1957)Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. *''Iglaome: The Lone Hunter''. (1930) NY: The Century Co. *''The Mummy Cave Project in Northwestern Wyoming''. (1978) Cody, Wyo.: Buffalo Bill Historical Center. *''Nicolai Fechin''. (1961) NY: Hammer Galleries. *''Pirate of the North''. (1953) Philadelphia: Lippincott. *''Portrait of the Old West: With a Biographical Check List of Western Artists''. (1952) Foreword by R.W.G. Vail. NY: McGraw-Hill. *''Roughnecks and Gentlemen''. (1968) Garden City, NY: Doubleday. (McCracken's Autobiography). *''Sentinel of the Snow Peaks''. (1978) Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott. *''Toughy''. (1948) Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. *''Trapping: The Craft and Science of Catching Fur-Bearing Animals''. (1947) Illustrated by Howard L. Hastings. NY: A.S. Barnes. *''Winning of the West''. (1955) Garden City, NY: Garden City Books.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCracken, Harold 1894 births 1983 deaths People from Park County, Wyoming Writers from Wyoming 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers