Alex C. McIntosh, better known as Acee Blue Eagle, was a notable American Indian artist, teacher, poet and dancer. His interest in drawing began at an early age but it wasn't until his college years that Blue Eagle blossomed as an artist, particularly at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1932. Blue Eagle joined the Works Progress Administration in 1934, painting murals in public buildings like this large one, which can still be seen at the U.S. Post Office at Seminole, Oklahoma. Blue Eagle is considered a prolific painter due in part to the amount of research he undertook to validate the scenes he depicted in his work. By 1935, he was traveling abroad, even lecturing on Indian art at Oxford University in England. Afterward Blue Eagle returned to Oklahoma, teaching at Bacone College, where he established and headed the school's art department. There he played a key role in developing what became known as the Bacone-style of painting in Indian Art. He resigned in 1938 to become a full-time artist. During World War II Blue Eagle served in the U-S Army Air Force. Afterward, he taught art at Oklahoma State Technical College in Okmulgee, hosted a TV program for children, while also exhibiting his work on the West Coast. And in 1958, one year before his death, Blue Eagle was named "Indian of the Year" for the American Indian Exposition at Anadarko, Oklahoma. Important collections of Acee Blue Eagle's work can be found around the country ... including at the Gilcrease and Philbrook museums in Tulsa ... and the Oklahoma Historical Society in O-K-C.

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