Born on August 8, 1830 in New York, NY, William Jacob Hays developed a successful career as a painter. While attending the National Academy of Design, Hays studied drawing from John Rubens Smith. His first exhibited painting at the National Academy of Design was Dogs in a Field. He went on to paint depictions of deer, race horses, game birds, fish, fruit and flowers. Beginning in May of 1860, Hays further used his skills on a three-month trip up the Missouri River to Fort Union, located in what is now the state of North Dakota. This trip would prove to be the most valuable in his artistic career. During his journey, Hays sketched the flora and fauna of the American West, as well as forts and trading posts. He was also fascinated by the abundance of buffalo, as well as other wildlife of the vast prairie. Using the sketches that he had gathered on his trip, Hays created several paintings in his New York studio that included buffalo. A Herd of Bison Crossing the Missouri River, in the collection of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and Herd on the Move, in the collection of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, both resulted from this studio time. Hays' field sketches of trading posts and forts along the Missouri River are also of importance. These sketches are the only visual references known in existence that depict some of these establishments. Hays' paintings of the American West contributed to the history and knowledge of the area. As a naturalist and observer, his paintings of prairie life, including plants, were rendered with accuracy and detail. He portrayed his depictions of buffalo as realistically as possible, studying even the bone structure. Hays died in New York City in 1875. Hays' son, William Jacob Hays, Jr., also pursued an artistic career as a painter of western art. -by Jennette Durham, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 2003