Augusta Isabella Corson Metcalfe was born in Marshall County Kansas in 1881. Her father, Edward G. Corson, moved his family from Pennsylvania in search of fortune on the frontier. The family again moved to No Man’s Land in 1886, an area which is now the panhandle of Oklahoma. Augusta began drawing at a young age after her mother supplied her with pen and paper. In 1893, the family homesteaded in the newly opened Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation in western Oklahoma.

Augusta learned all about living on the rugged frontier of the Upper Washita River Valley. She rode horses, roped and branded calves, and still performed household chores. At the end of a long day she drew pictures of the day’s activities. She would sketch anything and everything that she saw. She sketched horses, dogs, calves being born, and cattle being rounded up.

In 1905, Augusta married Jim Metcalfe. They had a son named Howard the following year. However, the Metcalfe marriage did not last long. Jim left the family when Howard was two and Augusta continued to work the farm and care for her young son alone.

Augusta had little time for painting and drawing, but she began a tradition that would make her famous across the nation. She wrote letters to friends who included drawings and painted pictures on the envelopes and letters.

Soon Augusta’s paintings began being noticed. Her artworks were the subject of several articles in magazines including the Farmer’s Stockman, Oklahoma Today and Life. She became known as the Sagebrush Artist and won several honors including induction into Oklahoma’s Hall of Fame and the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

Augusta C. Metcalfe died in 1971, although she had no formal training as an artist, she produced many critically recognized artworks and recorded the history of western Oklahoma for generations to come.

THE OKLAHOMA FARMER STOCKMAN

“Lighten Woman’s Burden”

Augusta Metcalfe

October 5, 1911

“Few of us can escape the primeval sentence that we shall live by the sweat of our brows, but all of us, even though our lots be cast in scenes of isolation and hardship, where books and music and art are little known, and perhaps a common schooling not always be had, may reach out for themselves and rise above the daily grind of household duty to seek for the beautiful and claim it for our own.”

Home | Collection | Contact | Direction | Exhibits/Events | Information | Links | Works