The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the
American West located in
Cody, Wyoming
Cody is a city in Northwest Wyoming and the seat of government of Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after Colonel William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody for his part in the founding of Cody in 1896.
The population was 10,066 at th ...
. The five museums include the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indians Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Draper Natural History Museum, and the Cody Firearms Museum. Founded in 1917 to preserve the legacy and vision of
Col. William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is the oldest and most comprehensive museum complex of the
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
.
Background
The complex can be traced to 1917, when the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association was established after the death of William F. Cody, the original Buffalo Bill. Gradually other elements were added to what started as a historical center. The current seven-acre building has more than 50,000 artifacts and holds five museums.
[Edward Rothstein, "At the Buffalo Bill Museum, a Showdown Between History and Myth"](_blank)
''New York Times,'' 3 August 2012, accessed 6 April 2014
/ref>
Since 2008, the center has been part of the Smithsonian Affiliates program, the first museum complex in Wyoming to have this status. As an Affiliate, the Center of the West has hosted Smithsonian artifacts. It has also recently loaned some of its own vast collections to a Smithsonian exhibition in Washington, D.C.
The museums are connected by a unifying "credo" (adopted 2010 by the Board of Trustees) that begins, "We believe in a spirit, definable and intellectually real, called 'The Spirit of the American West.'" The institution includes the recently reconceived Buffalo Bill Museum, which highlights Western ephemera and historic objects in telling the life story of W. F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Edward Rothstein of the ''New York Times'' wrote,
The exhibition n Buffalo Bill
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
affirms what the center as a whole demonstrates: that behind the mythologizing is something worth cherishing, even if it is flawed, complex and still evolving. The old impulse to demolish the myth has been put aside.
Buffalo Bill Museum
The inaugural museum opened in 1927 in a log cabin across from the current location. It was moved and reinstalled in 1968, and it is now part of a five-museum complex. The museum offers a wide-ranging view of the life and times of William F. Cody, as well as of the "Buffalo Bill" character he created, which made him the world's most celebrated person of his time.
The museum showcases the fame and success Cody attained through his "Buffalo Bill's Wild West show," and addresses his influence on the economic and cultural development of the American West.
Plains Indians Museum
The museum features the stories and objects of Plains Indian people, their cultures, traditions, values and histories, as well as the contexts of their lives today. The first curator was George Horse-Capture, an enrolled member of the A'aninin
The Gros Ventre ( , ; meaning "big belly"), also known as the Aaniiih, A'aninin, Haaninin, Atsina, and White Clay, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in north central Montana. Today the Gros Ventre people are ...
tribe. The majority of the collection is from the early reservation period, ca. 1880-1930. It contains artifacts primarily from Northern Plains tribes, such as the Arapaho, Lakota, Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfeet and Pawnee. The holdings also include important contemporary objects, ranging from abstract art to star quilts.
The museum also sponsors an annual Powwow held on the third weekend in June at the Robbie Powwow Garden at the Center of the West. This event attracts dancers, artisans, and visitors from all over North America.
Whitney Western Art Museum
The museum features paintings and sculptures of the American West. The gallery first opened in 1959 and was later united with the Buffalo Bill Museum.
In June 2009, it re-opened following a re-installation. Replicas of the studios of both Frederic Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Stat ...
and Alexander Phimister Proctor
Alexander Phimister Proctor (September 27, 1860 – September 5, 1950) was an American sculptor with the contemporary reputation as one of the nation's foremost animaliers.
Birth and early years
Proctor was born on September 27, 1860 in Bo ...
help visitors learn about the artists and their techniques. Included are works by other classic Western artists: George Catlin
George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West.
Traveling to the American West five times during the 183 ...
, Edgar Samuel Paxson
Edgar Samuel Paxson (April 25, 1852 – November 9, 1919) was an American frontier painter, scout, soldier and writer, based mainly in Montana. He is best known for his portraits of Native Americans in the Old West and for his depiction of the ...
, Alfred Jacob Miller
Alfred Jacob Miller (January 2, 1810 – June 26, 1874) was an American artist best known for his paintings of trappers and Native Americans in the fur trade of the western United States. He also painted numerous portraits and genre paintings i ...
, Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth too ...
, Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not ...
, Alexander Phimister Proctor
Alexander Phimister Proctor (September 27, 1860 – September 5, 1950) was an American sculptor with the contemporary reputation as one of the nation's foremost animaliers.
Birth and early years
Proctor was born on September 27, 1860 in Bo ...
, Joseph Henry Sharp and N. C. Wyeth. Contemporary Western artists include Harry Jackson, James Bama
James Elliott Bama (April 28, 1926 – April 24, 2022) was an American artist known for his realistic paintings and etchings of Western subjects. Life in Wyoming led to his comment, "Here an artist can trace the beginnings of Western history, see ...
, Deborah Butterfield
Deborah Kay Butterfield (born May 7, 1949) is an American sculptor. Along with her artist-husband John Buck, she divides her time between a farm in Bozeman, Montana, and studio space in Hawaii. She is known for her sculptures of horses made f ...
, Fritz Scholder, and the sculptor Grant Speed. Interactive stations allow visitors to create their own works of art.
Draper Natural History Museum
The museum features approximately of interactive exhibits highlighting geology, wildlife, and human presence in the Greater Yellowstone region. Videos, natural history dioramas
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
, and photography replicate the sights, sounds, and smells of the area. Specimens of grizzlies, wolves, bighorn sheep, moose, elk and other wildlife are on display.
Cody Firearms Museum
The museum houses a large collection of American firearms.[Cody Firearms Museum](_blank)
The collection includes firearms ranging from 16th-century hand cannons to guns of modern manufacture. It explores firearms as "tools of human endeavors" and boasts a collection of 7,000 individual firearms with ~20,000 additional related artifacts. The core of the museum is the Winchester Repeating Arms Company
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...
factory collection, which was transported from New Haven, Connecticut to Cody in 1976. The museum was dedicated in 1991 and also includes a large collection DuBiel Arms Company rifles.
Programming and Activities
The Center of the West offers a variety of programs for visitors, including lectures, family activities, chuckwagon dinners, and horse rides, based on availability.
Harold McCracken Research Library
The library houses a collection of 30,000 books, over 400 manuscript collections, and more than half-million photographs. Named in honor of Harold McCracken, writer, artist, and developer of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the library supports "inquiry across many disciplines related to the American West." The library has strong collections relating to Buffalo Bill, the Wild West show, Plains Indians, cattle and "dude" ranching, the fishing and hunting industries, the oil industry, Yellowstone National Park, and the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
References
External links
Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Video presentation of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center
{{Authority control
American West museums in Wyoming
Museums in Park County, Wyoming
Biographical museums in Wyoming
Center of the West
Smithsonian Institution affiliates
Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums
Cody, Wyoming