George Caleb Bingham’s 1845 oil “Fur Traders Descending the Missouri” paints a rather romantic picture of what was more often a hardscrabble life on the unforgiving frontier. Fur trapper and trader Charles Larpenteur’s life was illustrative of the trials experienced by such men. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bridgeman Images)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bridgeman Images