Shared artwork in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show posters reveals subtle differences
A Museum Minute
By Olivia Weitz
Wyoming Public Media
May 23, 2024
A 1-minute audio snapshot highlighting a museum object from the collection of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
A special exhibition that ran at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in 2024 considered why some printers made small, but meaningful, tweaks to the posters used to advertise Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.
Two of the featured posters, one by an American printer and one by a French company, looked almost identical. Buffalo Bill Museum Curatorial Assistant Sam Hanna said that’s because sometimes the printers that made the posters shared artwork.
“What’s notable about these posters is that the art is modified in the French version to place the French soldier more centrally in the image and closer to Buffalo Bill. I find these interesting, because at first glance, they appear to be almost duplicates. But there are subtle differences upon examination that make them all more special,” he said.
The exhibition, Advertising the Frontier Myth: Poster Art of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, was on view from May 24, 2024–January 12, 2025.
