The ancestry of the iconic, cattle-herding cowboy traces well beyond the American West—all the way back to the 8th century, when North Africans conquered Spain and brought the practice of working stock from the back of a horse to the New World.

Kansas City native “Cowboy Mike” Grauer, associate director for curatorial affairs and curator of art and Western heritage at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas, walks through a history that’s far more layered than what has been depicted in movies, television, and Western fiction. He looks at the different types of cowboys, at the true multicultural makeup of a cowboy crew, and at cowboy truths and tall tales.

The event coincides with the Library exhibit Cattle, Cowboys, and Culture: Kansas City and Amarillo, Building an Urban West.