Treasures from Our West: Photograph, Buffalo Bill’s family at construction site of first Buffalo Bill Museum

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Spring 2017

Photograph: Buffalo Bill’s family at construction site of first Buffalo Bill Museum

Seven years after the death of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody in 1917, the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association coordinated an iconic sculpture in his honor, Buffalo Bill—The Scout by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. In 1926, they were poised to build a museum nearby to pay homage to their namesake, which would open on July 4, 1927.

The first delivery of logs for the building definitely boosted excitement for the project. Indeed, photo ops were the order of the day for the museum’s first curator and Buffalo Bill’s niece, Mary Jester Allen; Buffalo Bill’s grandchildren, the Garlow kids; and a host of other workers and dignitaries.

(L–R) Mary Jester Allen (1875–1960); Jane Garlow (1909–1987); George Walliker, the Garlow children’s cousin; Bill Garlow (1913–1992); Geneva Garlow Walliker, Fred Garlow’s sister and the Garlow children’s aunt and caretaker; and Fred Garlow Jr. (1911–1985) sitting on logs at the construction site of the original Buffalo Bill Museum in downtown Cody, Wyoming. PN.228.146

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