Victor Alexander and the Saddle: Art, Craft and Business

Victor Alexander (1906-1973) was a top hand on roundups in Wyoming and Montana and in the rodeo arena nationwide. Along the way he became a master of the craft and the art of the saddle. But he was more. This is the story of how, with a fascination for production technology and in a relentless pursuit of excellence, he helped transform the business of saddlemaking in the twentieth century. All saddlemakers are to some extent historians of their craft. The Victor Alexander Collection in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center includes nearly 5000 tools, patterns, drawings, catalogues, photographs, and other items related to saddlemaking. Famed tool manufacturers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Osborne and Gomph are represented along with many devised by Alexander himself.