Marjorie Reed (1915-1996) was a prominent Western artist who is best known for her paintings of the Butterfield-Overland Stage Trail.  Reed made her living solely as a free lance artist for over sixty-five years and as a result left behind a significant body of work.   She also authored and published four books on the Butterfield Trail. Although her work is very respected and sought after she was an extremely private individual and there is little accurate biographical information currently available in print or on the internet. 

Schiffer Books will be publishing the first comprehensive biography of Reed's life in 2008.      Written by Blue Coyote Gallery owner Gary Fillmore, the release is scheduled for October, 2008.   Titled "All Aboard!  The Life and Work of Marjorie Reed", this beautifully illustrated production features over two hundred-fifty pages chronicling Reed's entire life, over three hundred color plates and scores of never before seen personal photographs. Reed's work is extensively cataloged in this edition, starting with the early illustrations created as a sixteen year old free lance commercial artist in Los Angeles and ending with the last painting on her easel at the time of her death six decades later.  Included are dozens of images from Reed’s apprenticeship under well known California impressionist Jack Wilkinson Smith, her period as an emerging artist and the youngest member of the Palm Springs desert painters of the 1930’s, the “Harvey Day” series (This book reveals the real reason she signed so many of her canvasses “Harvey Day”, as well as who Harvey Day really was.) and all one-hundred and ten paintings in the Butterfield collection from San Francisco to Tipton, Missouri.  

Although much of the book has been completed it is still a work in progress. Subsequent editions are planned. If you knew Marjorie Reed personally, have photos of her or other personal mementos, or own some of her work and would like to have it considered for possible inclusion in the book, please contact us.