GUEST: I received it from my mother. My folks passed away I would say probably ten years ago. My mother got it from her great-aunt, and nobody else in the family wanted it. My wife didn't want it. I wanted it, so I ended up with it.
APPRAISER: Well, this is by an artist who was actually born in Austria in 1859; his name is John Fery.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And he first came to the United States to lead groups of hunters who would go on expeditions in the Pacific Northwest. But he ended up moving to New York in 1886, and he lived in a lot of different places. But as a matter of fact, he lived in Milwaukee from 1903 to 1911. And his biggest patron was the Northern Railroad, and he traveled all across the western United States painting pictures of the West. The railroad company would exhibit them in the hotels and the lodges and the stations along the railroad.
GUEST: Huh...
APPRAISER: But what this did was, it really promoted travel for people in other parts of the United States to come out west and see the things that they saw in these paintings. And Fery is really credited with helping to establish Glacier National Park.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Which I think is so interesting, because on the reverse of your painting, it says "Glacier Park, Montana."
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: President Taft signed a bill to make Glacier National Park a national park in 1910. It was the tenth national park, so I think that means your painting must date after 1910. The presentation of the painting is really enhanced by the original frame that it's in. I think if this were to sell at auction, it might bring between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST: Really? Holy cow. Very nice.
