Born in Gauting, Bavaria, Nick Eggenhofer became a
painter of the romance of the American West with its cowboys and
Indians. He has a reputation for historical accuracy from careful
research and also as an authority about frontier western transportation.
He was first exposed to the lore of the American West by hearing about
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Germany from older relatives who had
seen performances. American western movies continued to stir the
interest.
In 1913, at the age of sixteen, he came to America with his family from
Germany, and three years later he enrolled in night art classes at
Cooper Union in New York, something he did for four years.
He established an
illustration studio in New Jersey and made a living as a commercial
artist, illustrating hundreds of western magazines and books between the
1920's and 1940's. He became a collector of western artifacts including
saddles, guns, and Indian paraphernalia. He also wrote and illustrated
his own book titled "Wagons, Mules, and Men: How the Frontier Moved
West."
In the 1960's, he
moved from his home in West Milford, New Jersey and settled in Cody,
Wyoming, the town named for Buffalo Bill Cody, the man who first aroused
his interest in western life.
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