Throughout its 125-year history, National Geographic has published photographs of the American West that both support and defy romantic notions of the land and its peoples. In this special exhibition, wide open spaces, spectacular rock formations, and the cowboy life are examined alongside struggles for limited natural resources, Native American cultural continuity, and new energy sources. The selection – which includes photographs by Sam Abell, Ansel Adams, William Albert Allard, Edward Curtis, David Alan Harvey, William Henry Jackson, Sarah Leen, and Joe Sartore, among many others, drawn from the significant holdings of the National Geographic Archive, offers a broad understanding of a region that has long captivated photographers.