Qualla: C. M. Russell Museum Complex

C. M. Russell Museum Complex: Introduction

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Wollstadt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Charlie Russell paid for his drinks in paintings. At the Mint Saloon in Great Falls, proprietor Sid Willis accepted Russell's artwork in exchange for whiskey, and by the time the artist died in 1926, Willis had accumulated 90 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, wax sculptures, and ephemera. That collection eventually sold for $200,000 and helped establish the Amon Carter Museum in Texas. But Russell's log cabin studio - built in 1903 on an empty lot between his house and his neighbor's - stayed in Great Falls. Today it anchors the C. M. Russell Museum Complex, which the Wall Street Journal has called "one of America's premier Western art museums." The house and studio became a National Historic Landmark in 1965, preserving not just Russell's artwork but the space where he created it.

Image: Roger Wollstadt | CC BY-SA 2.0

C. M. Russell Museum Complex: The Neighbor Who Saved Everything

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Wollstadt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Josephine Trigg lived next door. The daughter of a saloon owner, she became an art teacher in Great Falls schools and later the children's librarian at the public library. She accompanied Russell and his wife Nancy on vacations and provided calligraphy for many of his illustrated...

Image: Roger Wollstadt | CC BY-SA 2.0

C. M. Russell Museum Complex: The Studio Where Cowboys Lived

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Wollstadt, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1900, after Russell's father gave the couple $500 and his mother's estate was finally probated, Charlie and Nancy Russell built a two-story clapboard house on the corner of 13th Street and 4th Avenue North. Good building logs were scarce in Great Falls, but telephone service h...

Image: Roger Wollstadt | CC BY-SA 2.0

C. M. Russell Museum Complex: Nearly Demolished

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Wollstadt, CC BY-SA 2.0. The city nearly tore down Russell's house. After Nancy Russell died in 1940 and the museum was built on the adjacent Trigg property in 1953, city officials and private parties advocated demolishing the aging structure. Only the threat of legal action from the Montana Federation o...

Image: Roger Wollstadt | CC BY-SA 2.0

C. M. Russell Museum Complex: Western Art Week

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. In 1969, the Great Falls Ad Club and local television personality Norma Ashby organized the first C.M. Russell Art Auction to benefit the museum. Held the same week as Russell's March 19 birthday, the event evolved into Western Art Week - now the largest original Western art auct...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

C. M. Russell Museum Complex: A Sculptor's Legacy

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Wollstadt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Russell worked in multiple media, and the museum's collection reflects this range. In 1979, Montana sculptor Robert Scriver's life-size bronze statue of Russell was placed before the south entrance. The museum displays not only Russell's finished paintings but his illustrated let...

Image: Roger Wollstadt | CC BY-SA 2.0