Originally featured in Points West in Spring 2007
Attaque De Le Diligence (Attack of the Stagecoach) poster
Who could miss the message in this eye-catching poster? Produced by the Weiners Litho Company of Paris in 1905, this single-sheet lithograph advertised Buffalo Bill’s Wild West tour of France with a hint of the excitement audiences could catch in the show arena. In English, it reads “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, two times per day, every day at 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock in the evening. Attack of the Stagecoach.”
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, posters such as this served as the best form of mass advertising available and Buffalo Bill took full advantage of the medium. Cody hired only the best lithography companies available to produce his posters, as this example shows.
The artist’s name is unknown, but the image is similar to other posters created by artists in Paris who were contemporaries of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and likely influenced by his work. Most posters were pasted directly onto buildings or other structures so that the public could see them. Later, they were pasted over or torn down when their usefulness had passed. Luckily, lithography businesses recognized the potential value of these ephemeral works of art and produced extras for sale to the public, making it possible for us to enjoy them today.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West poster featuring the Deadwood Stagecoach, Weiners Litho Co., 1905, lithograph, 30 x 30 inches. Buffalo Bill Museum Purchase, Mary Jester Allen Fund. 1.69.6022
Post 007
