NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Wilner & Company announced that their 2020 fully-funded replica frame grant will be awarded to the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, to reframe their Alfred Jacob Miller painting: “Our Camp”, c. 1846-1860. The project was submitted to the grant opportunity by Karen B. McWhorter, the Scarlett Curator of Western American Art. It was unanimously selected, from a very strong group of submissions, by an independent panel of jurors:

• Annette Blaugrund, former Director of the National Academy of Design Museum and board president of ArtTable.

• Doreen Bolger, former Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

• James F. Dicke II, private collector, Chairman Emeritus at the Dayton Art Institute, and board member of the Ohio Arts Council.

• Aviva Lehmann, Director of American Art, Heritage Auctions.




•Justine Simoni, collector of antique American frames, Pensacola, Florida.

“Our Camp” is one of thirty-three Alfred Jacob Miller paintings and drawings in the Center of the West’s collection. It is one of five major oils in their holdings and is significant in terms of its scale, subject, and rarity -- Miller was the only artist to visually record the fur trade era in the Rocky Mountain West during its time.

In 1837, Miller attended the fur trappers’ rendezvous in what would become the Wyoming Territory. He was invited by Sir William Drummond Stewart, a Scottish nobleman and adventurer, to document the journey to the annual gathering of Native Americans, suppliers, and trappers. Along the way, Miller made drawings and paintings, creating a record of the West at a time when few on America’s East Coast and in Europe had seen it. The artist later worked up his field sketches into major studio works like this one.

“Our Camp” has an extensive publication and exhibition record, is on nearly constant view at the Center of the West, and is slated for inclusion in a 2023 traveling exhibition celebrating the transatlantic patronage relationship between Miller and Stewart, organized by the Center of the West. “Our Camp” features Stewart prominently, astride a white stallion in the foreground.

Wilner has extensive experience in framing paintings by Alfred Jacob Miller and other Western art of this period for private collectors, several museums, and major auction houses. They are excited to collaborate with the Whitney Western Art Museum’s curatorial staff on this project and contribute additional historical perspective to the exhibition. The process of reframing the Miller has begun with approval of an historically-appropriate frame choice via digital mockups: a replica of an American period frame, circa 1850, gilded with applied ornament and a rock patterned cove. Curator Karen B. McWhorter enthusiastically replied to Wilner’s frame suggestion: “ The mockup you sent truly enhances and elevates the painting. I’ll look forward to discussing this further, as well as other Millers of ours in need of your expert eye, reverence for history, and impeccable taste.”

This is the second fully-funded framing opportunity that Eli Wilner & Company has extended to the museum community during the co urse of 2020. The first grant was open specifically to frame restoration projects, and was awarded to the Museums at Washington and Lee University, in Lexington Virginia, for the frame on a 1779 portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, by Charles Willson Peale, 49 x 40 inches, originally commissioned by George Washington to hang in Mount Vernon. All non-winning projects submitted to Eli Wilner & Company’s grant opportunities are still considered for Wilner’s on-going matching funds for museums program.

Eli Wilner & Company has over 10,000 projects featured in both private and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Guggenheim, among others. The US White House currently displays 28 Eli Wilner & Co. frames. In 2019, Wilner was honored by the Historic Charleston Foundation with the Samuel Gaillard Stoney Conservation Craftsmanship Award for his company’s work in historic picture frame conservation.