At the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the NEH has funded the creation of permanent and traveling exhibitions that bring Western culture to the American public. TE Ranch wagon and exhibit, Buffalo Bill Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, USA. Wagon from the TE Ranch. 1.69.4813.1
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West encompasses a research library and five museums: the Buffalo Bill Museum; the Whitney Western Art Museum; the Cody Firearms Museum; the Draper Natural History Museum; and the Plains Indian Museum. First imagined by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody himself, the center has celebrated the American’s West’s unique and enduring culture for nearly a century. The NEH has supported the center since 1978, providing funding to help it reach the public through art, science, culture, and history.
Read More
NEH support of the Cody Archive has helped the center digitize materials relating to his life and Wild West show. William F. Cody riding a running horse in arena c. 1887. Buffalo Bill Online Archive MS6 William F. Cody Collection. Image courtesy of McCracken Research Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
In addition to helping the center assess and preserve its historically-valuable collection, the NEH has funded the creation of permanent and traveling exhibitions that bring Western culture to the American public. These include permanent exhibitions that examine the American legend’s life, the Wounded Knee massacre, and the popular representations of Native Americans in 19th- and 20th-century culture. Recently, the NEH has supported upgrades and improvements to the Cody Firearms Museum’s environmental controls and fire security systems. The museum, considered by many to be the premier firearms museum in the nation, is currently undertaking a total renovation. Today, the center plays a central role in Cody, Wyoming, serving as a major tourist attraction and welcoming 140,000 visitors per year to the 10,000-person town.
The Cody Archive includes early film recordings. Annie Oakley shoots glass balls. Video courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Cody Archive.
Recently, the NEH has funded the development of the Cody Archive, which digitizes Cody’s writing and papers and makes them publicly available online. Because it encompasses the history of entertainment, popular depictions of the American West, and the individual histories of the towns large and small through which Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show traveled, the collection is used by a wide range of scholars, K–12 students and teachers, and other individuals. The museum has been able to incorporate much of what it has learned in the collection process into its exhibitions and supplementary digital materials. What is more, Jeremy Johnston, Curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Managing Editor of the papers, notes that NEH funding has encouraged people to take Buffalo Bill’s legacy seriously, “going beyond those negative images that stem” from old films: “whether he’s a hero or a villain, you can’t deny that Buffalo Bill played a significant role in shaping American culture.”
