Articles

We are pleased to introduce Lonesome Dove, a new traveling exhibition created by The Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library, Texas State University, and presented in partnership with Humanities Texas.

Lonesome Dove—Larry McMurtry’s epic novel of two aging Texas Rangers who drive a herd of stolen cattle 2,500 miles from the Rio Grande to Montana to found the first ranch there—captured the public imagination and has never let it go. The Lonesome Dove miniseries, which first aired on CBS in 1989, lassoed an even wider audience.

Capturing the sweeping visual imagery of the original miniseries, the Lonesome Dove exhibition presents classic images taken during filming by Bill Wittliff, renowned photographer, writer, and executive producer (with Suzanne De Passe) of Lonesome Dove. The images, however, are worlds apart from ordinary production stills, depicting an extraordinary union of art, literature, and history.

Lonesome Dove is a wall-hanging exhibition that features fifty-five framed and matted sepia tone photographs and is now available for rental through the Humanities Texas traveling exhibitions program. The exhibition will make its debut on September 4 at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas, where it will be on display until December 3.

To learn more about reserving Lonesome Dove for your venue, please contact our exhibitions coordinator at exhibitions@humanitiestexas.org.


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Gus and Call on the Mesa, © 1988, Bill Wittliff. The Lonesome Dove miniseries stars Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae and Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call. The Oscar-winning actors portray aging Texas Rangers who lead an epic cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the late 1800s.
Crossing the Rio Grande, © 1988, Bill Wittliff. From the making of the miniseries Lonesome Dove, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Larry McMurtry.