From 1959 to 1989 R. Brownell McGrew traveled the back roads of the southwest, photographing and painting tribal members, ceremonies and other events of tribal life at a time when elders, but few outsiders, were trying to preserve American Indian cultures. He kept detailed notes and corresponded over the years with his models. Their accounts of meetings, coming-of-age ceremonies and other events drew a detailed portrait of tribal life in a period for which few such archives exist. He became known among the tribes as "The Man Who Paints The Old."