Harold McCracken was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, Alaskan grizzly bear

Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...

 hunter, biplane

Biplane

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

 stunt photographer, cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

, producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

 and museum director

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

. He was a noted explorer, who led an expedition in the 1920's tracing the possibility of a long-ago land bridge

Bering land bridge

The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles wide at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. Like most of Siberia and all of Manchuria, Beringia was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light...

 between Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 and Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

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

George Catlin

George Catlin was an American painter, author and traveler who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West.-Early years:...

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

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is a complex of museums displaying artifacts and art of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. Founded in 1917, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center is the oldest museum in the West...

 in Cody, Wyoming

Cody, Wyoming

Cody is a city in Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after William Frederick Cody, primarily known as Buffalo Bill, from William Cody's part in the creation of the original town. The population was 9,520 at the 2010 census...

. "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.

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.