In 1943, Gilcrease moved to San Antonio and opened the Museum of the American Indian, also known as the Gilcrease Museum. However, the San Antonio site failed to attract a large number of visitors. In 1947, he purchased the entire collection of the late Phillip Gillette Cole, an avid New York collector. The collection contained 21 bronzes and 46 paintings by Charles Marion Russell, 17 bronzes and 12 paintings by Frederic Remington, photographs by Edward Curtis, and documents and correspondence of well-known figures in the American West.