McCracken Research Library

Find out what goes on in the Center of the West’s McCracken Research Library and get an insider’s look at the incredible photographs, archives, and manuscripts housed and processed by the library’s staff—who are still making some amazing finds within the collections.

McCracken Research Library
October 2, 2020

Museum Minute: Collections Can Be Daunting

The McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West receives many gifts, donations, and loans from patrons. The staff…

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May 5, 2020

Museum Minute: Valley Ranch Boarding School

From 1922 to 1934, there was a college preparatory school for boys down the south fork in Cody. The Valley Ranch Boarding…

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March 19, 2020

Museum Minute: An Early Forest Ranger

Samantha Harper is an archivist at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s McCracken Research Library. This job means that Harper digs…

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Left to right: Max Wilde, D.W. DeFoe, J. L. Wheeler, Ty Cobb, Tom Yawkey. Max Wilde was the guide, DeFoe and Wheeler were clients, Cobb was also a client but a baseball superstar and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Tom Yawkey was owner of the Boston Red Sox. MS 6 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.69.609 (detail)
November 15, 2019

Museum Minute: The Cody Red Sox

Did you ever think that Cody had a connection with the Boston Red Sox? Well, it turns out there is a connection. …

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Buffalo Bill and Wild West show Indians, San Francisco, California, along the beach near Cliff House, September 7–14, 1902. MS 6 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.69.14

Cliff House Revealed – Points West Online

Originally published in Points West magazineFall/Winter 2013 Cliff House Revealed By Mack Frost As a photographer, I constantly have to remind myself…

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Cody Bell, with his hair in buns, at a National Guard encampment in 1909. MS 294 William A. Bell Family Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.294.0030 (detail)
October 17, 2019

Museum Minute: A $10,000 Deal

When Leonard Cody Bell (not related) was nine years old, Buffalo Bill Cody offered him $10,000 if he would keep his hair…

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