Buffalo Bill Cody

Born William Cody (1846–1917), Buffalo Bill Cody was a soldier, a gold prospector, a Pony Express rider, a showman, and an impresario. Born in Ohio, he lived in Canada and the Kansas Territory while growing up. He received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service as a scout in the army. During that same year, Ned Buntline, author of a number of Westerns and creator of the character Buffalo Bill, persuaded Cody to go onstage portraying himself. In 1883, Cody organized Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, a show that proved enormously successful in the United States and Europe. It included dramatizations of such Wild West scenes as a buffalo hunt with real buffaloes, Custer’s Last Stand with some Lakota who had actually fought in the battle, and colorful figures and sharpshooters such as Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickok. The image on the following page is the cover of an 1893 program from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.