The Buffalo Bill Center of the West celebrated its Centennial in 2017! Throughout 2017, we shared posts, images, and tidbits about the Center's history. Take a look for some blasts from the past...
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was the consummate storyteller and enthusiastic student of history. More than a century ago, as his Wild West played in arenas around the world, Buffalo Bill contemplated his legacy. He dreamed of a new arena that would "teach people by seeing history." For more than 100 years, the Center of the West has nurtured Cody's dream, teaching and sharing the West he loved. With a most sincere thanks to our founders, we enter our second century and continue to share how Cody's dream shapes and defines how the Center celebrates the Spirit of the American West. For more information, enjoy a lecture by the Center's own Peter Hassrick, Director Emeritus and Senior Scholar.
Since Buffalo Bill's death in 1917 and the founding of our parent organization, the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association, the Center has had several significant milestones and grown to our current complex of five museums and a research library, all inviting you to discover the real and mythic West through art, culture, history, and natural science. Click here for a quick summary of our history.
VIDEO: To learn more about how the Center got its start, check out this video presentation by Jeremy Johnston, our Curator of Western American History.
VIDEO: And find out more about Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, another indispensable person in the history of the Center.
This article was originally published in a winter 1977 Buffalo Bill Center of the West newsletter. A bugle-blowing cavalry charge to rescue two damsels in distress on July 11, 1869 served as the inspiration for a painting by Charles Schreyvogel which is part of the permanent collections at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. […]
Much of the western image in the public mind today was created in an artist’s studio in New Rochelle, New York. Frederice Remington’s portrayal of the frontier saga, enduring for almost a century now, helped America and the world reach conclusions as to what the West was and why it mattered. The New Rochelle studio […]
This story was originally published by Richard Frost in a winter 1980 Buffalo Bill Center of the West newsletter. Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody is a well known Old West personality for several reasons. He rode for the Pony Express, scouted for the U.S. Cavalry, and provided buffalo meat to the track-laying crews of […]
This piece was originally published in a winter 1976 Buffalo Bill Center of the West newsletter. The letters of Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) are as distinctive as his paintings, and each one is a clue which helps to reveal the full dimension of the man. Russell referred to his letters as “paper talk” and claimed […]
This article was originally published in a 1986 Center of the West newsletter and written by former curator Paul Fees. When you say “Custer,” what comes to mind? His power as a symbol is such that most of us immediately conjure up a strong, often complex picture—flamboyant Civil War hero, boy general, controversial victor at […]
This article was originally published in a 1983 Center of the West newsletter The most solid emblems of permanence in a western pioneer town were the hotel, the railroad station, the church, and the newspaper. William F. Cody had a hand in building all four for his namesake, Cody, Wyoming. Because of the long memories […]