Dan Muller

Dan Muller aka Daniel Cody Muller (1889–1976), artist, illustrator and writer of the American West; Muller was born in Choteau, Montana, October 11, 1889 to Carl and Augusta Muller.

Muller's early years are known only from the artist's own recollections of them. In one of his five published books, "My Life with Buffalo Bill" the artist alleges that his father, who was allegedly one quarter Piegan Blackfoot, was killed by a horse when Muller was nine years old, and he (the artist) was adopted by Buffalo Bill Cody. Muller then reportedly was raised and spent 18 years working with Cody in his Wild West Shows and on Cody's ranches. (see Footnote 1 below)

Muller wrote that he met C.M. Russell about 1900 in Choteau MT (about 50 miles from Russell's home town of Great Falls) and was influenced in his art by Russell. In a 1964 Milwaukee newspaper article Muller was described by a Taos NM art gallery owner as "...the Russell or Remington of our day".

Muller wrote that he sold his early paintings to tourists in Yellowstone Park; he spent the years of World War I breaking horses for the army, sold his first painting professionally in New York City in January 1917 and subsequently worked as a ranch hand while traveling by horseback from Mexico to Canada and back to the American West. He was in New York City again around 1929, then worked in Chicago from 1930 until about 1933.

In 1933 Muller painted three 100 foot murals for the Travel and Transport exhibit of the Century of Progress Chicago World's Fair. That same year he wrote and illustrated an original short story titled "Break 'Em Gentle" for the premier October 1933 issue of Esquire Magazine- an issue which also featured works by Ernest Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett, Ring Lardner, John Dos Passos and others.

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