John Mix Stanley
A self-taught Detroit painter who recorded the American West, then lost much of his life's work to fire.
Stanley was born in Canandaigua, New York, and moved to Detroit in 1832 as an itinerant sign and portrait painter. He was self-taught. His travels took him across the West and to Hawaii, where he made some of the works he is known for today.
More than 200 of his works were destroyed in the 1865 Smithsonian fire, a loss that contributed to the long decline of his reputation. He returned to Detroit in 1864, set up a studio, and died there in 1872.