Treasures from Our West: Wild West Cossack

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Fall 2010

Photograph of “Cossack” Nikoloz Antadze from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West debuted in 1883 and introduced millions of people worldwide to the American West in the thirty years that followed. Often blurring the lines between reality and the myth that Cody himself helped to create, the popular entertainment enthralled audiences with action and suspense, conflict and conquest, trick riding and shooting—and the “cowboys and Indians” of lasting fame.

By 1892, Cody and company had expanded the multicultural nature of the Wild West show to include horsemen from around the world, including “Cossacks” like the cast member in this photograph, Nikoloz Antadze, as well as Argentine gauchos, Mexican vaqueros, European cavalry, and various others—never mind that those billed as Cossacks were actually trick riders from the province of Georgia.

Black and white photograph, Cossack from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, ca. 1901. William H. Rau, photographer. William F. Cody Collection. P.69.51

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