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BUFFALO BILL HISTORICAL CENTER n CODY, WYOMING n FALL 2011 n Buffalofalo BillBill inin thethe big city, part 2 n Firearms in the arartsts n Summer field wworkork To the point ©2011 Buffalo Bill Historical Center (BBHC). Written permission is required to copy, reprint, or distribute Points West materials omething extra you in any medium or format. All photographs in Points West are BBHC photos unless otherwise noted. Questions about image will notice throughout rights and reproduction should be directed to Rights and this issue of Points Reproductions, [email protected]. Bibliographies, works cited, and footnotes, etc. are purposely omitted to conserve WestS is the new gift icon. space. However, such information is available by contacting the Our hope is that whenever editor. Address correspondence to Editor, Points West, BBHC, 720 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, Wyoming 82414, or [email protected]. you see it, you will recognize Managing Editor: that a particular story, object, Ms. Marguerite House activity, or program came Assistant Editor: Ms. Nancy McClure about due to the generosity Designer: of a donor. By Bruce Eldredge Ms. Lindsay Lohrenz Executive Director Contributing Staff Photographers: The icon serves as a kind of Ms. Chris Gimmeson, Ms. Nancy McClure Historic Photographs/Rights and Reproductions: visual cue to alert you to just how much of what we do Mr. Sean Campbell at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center is made possible Credits and Permissions: through gifts. In fact, as I read the magazine, even I was Ms. Ann Marie Donoghue amazed to see all those “gifts”! It is wonderful to realize Advisory Team: Marguerite House, Public Relations & Managing Editor how committed our supporters are to preserving the Nancy McClure, Public Relations & Assistant Editor Lindsay Lohrenz, Designer Spirit of the American West for generations to come. We Wendy Schneider, Director of Development are so thankful for each and every donor, and each and Christine Brindza, Acting Curator, Whitney Gallery of Western Art every gift, that helps to make that happen. Megan Smith, School Services Coordinator Points West is published quarterly for patrons and friends of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. For more information, contact I feel like the playwright Thornton Wilder who wrote, the editor at the address above. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments The BBHC is a private, non-profit, educational institution dedicated to preserving and interpreting the natural and cultural when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” In this history of the American West. Founded in 1917, its collections include: Buffalo Bill and the West he lived and loved, historic issue alone, you’ll read names like Donner, Dellenback, photographs and documents, firearms, natural history of the Olin, Prince, Buchloz, Newton, Allen, Whitney, Coe, Greater Yellowstone region, Plains Indians, and masterworks of western art. Lovelace, and Johnston—just to name a very few. I The mission of Points West is to deliver an engaging remind myself that each benefactor is a treasure, and educational magazine primarily to our patrons and friends. Points West will use a multi-disciplinary strategy to connect the each object or program they make possible is a treasure, reader to the nature and culture of the American West, and the BBHC in particular, through exceptional images and appealing, too. reader-friendly stories—all in celebration of the Spirit of the American West. With that, I’m excited to see more of those “gifts” popping up in upcoming issues of Points West! This is especially true as the reinstallation of the Buffalo Bill Museum gets underway About the cover: next month, and some of the best of our collection Poster. Hon. W. makes its way to the Cheekwood Museum in Nashville, BUFFALO BILL HISTORICAL CENTER n CODY, WYOMING n FALL 2011 F. Cody “Buffalo Bill.” The Calhoun Tennessee. With these exciting projects, and many Printing Company, more, you can continue your long support of the Hartford, CT. Virginia Boal Center’s efforts to preserve the Spirit of the American Hayden Acquisition West. Join us today! Fund Purchase. 1.69.6130 n BuffaloBuffalo BillBill inin thethe big city, part 2 Even though the Buffalo Bill Museum section of the Center will n FirearmsFirearms in the arts be closed for reinstallation beginning in early October, many of n SummerSummer fieldfield work your favorites from this collection will remain on exhibit in a separate area of the Center. Please note: Our other galleries will be open as usual! n 2 n POINTS WEST Contents Al and Ann Simpson are the consummate supporters of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Regular participants in the Center’s Cody High Style Fashion Show, the “dynamic duo” never fails to draw a crowd. This year’s Patrons Ball pays tribute to the Simpsons by selecting them as Honored Guests. Al retires as Chairman of the Center’s Board of Trustees at the end of September. Read more on page 17. FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 4 Man of the West – Man of the world – Man of will. To millions, he WAYS OF GIVING By Wendy Schneider was—and still is—known as “Buffalo Bill.” Yet William F. Cody seldom 18 used, and never much cared for, the nickname “Bill.” To his family BBHC BITS AND BYTES and close friends, he was always called “Will.” By Dr. John Rumm 19 News, activities, calendar, and events 6 Buffalo Bill in the big city, part 2. When we arrived at the General’s house we told the driver to put up the team but to be ready at the 24 IN OUR BACKYARD: YELLOWSTONE front door by eight o’clock. The evening papers were out by this Report from the field: golden eagles, sagebrush country, time, and Mike showed them to me, and I read more of my history in and the Spirit of the American West. We arrived at the them, than I ever knew that I had. By William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody nest on a beautiful and calm morning to find the chick up and about with one of the adults in the nest. On this day of observation we learned a very important Unloading the six-shooter: Disassembling the glamorization 10 lesson in pronghorn parenting: Never try to conceal and demonization of firearms in the arts. Western heroes’ your fawn in sagebrush three hundred yards from an shooting skills elevate them in communities that enjoy “any active golden eagle nest. By Dr. Charles R. Preston excitement…a gunfight might bring.” But, as the smoke clears, these communities typically reject heroes who do not belong to law enforcement. By Ashley Hlebinsky 28 TREASURES FROM OUR WEST This month’s look at our collections 20 From Buffalo, New York, to Cody, Wyoming: the story of Bronson Rumsey and his business records. We the undersigned hereby agree 30 BETWEEN THE BOOKENDS that all moneys received by Bronson Rumsey as trustee for one half Shooting from the Lip: The Life of Senator Al Simpson interest in the Cody Townsite Co. shall first be applied to the payment By Donald Loren Hardy of water rights due the Shoshone Irrigation Co. By Jeremy Johnston Review: University of Oklahoma Press excerpt 15 Special Rendezvous Royale section 31 A THOUSAND WORDS Throughout this issue of Points West, there are a number of gift icons. Each one represents a donor or donors who have made the event, program, or acquisition possible. Visit us Brand new videos uploaded regularly on Magazine of the Buffalo Bill Historical ThankYouTube. you donors!Check it out! online . Center • Cody, Wyoming FALL 2011 n 3 MAN OF WILL By Dr. John C. Rumm journey or the character that carried that persona, the first true “celebrity” Curator Dr. John Rumm has thought him through it. of modern times. long and hard about what he personally Left fatherless at age 11, Cody “I’m no scout now,” Cody declared hopes to portray about William F. Cody in began working at frontier occupations in 1873. “I’m a first-class star!” The the “new” Buffalo Bill Museum, scheduled to support his mother and sisters. By meteoric rise of Buffalo Bill fueled to officially open on July 4, 2012. He will age 21, he was famed as a guide. Hired Cody’s ambitions as nothing else tell you that there’s a marked difference to furnish buffalo meat to railroad had. By the early 1880s, wealthier between the person of William F. Cody laborers, he was hailed as “Buffalo than he had ever imagined, Cody felt and the persona of Buffalo Bill, and it’s Bill” for his abilities. Respected for his “stimulated to greater exertion” and possible that readers may know one but in-depth knowledge of the plains and desirous of “increas[ing] my ambition not the other. To explain further, Rumm prairies, he became one of the Army’s for public favor.” writes: most valued scouts. They saw him as a man of character—dependable, “I amMan American enough of tothe think West,reliable, and worthy Man of their trust. of theCody looked World for new horizons that we can do almost anything if we When they needed someone who to conquer—and conquer he did. once make up our minds that it has to could, Cody did. Premiering in 1883, Cody’s innovative be done.” traveling entertainment spectacle, William F. Cody Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, succeeded newspaper interview, 1899 But the West remained the limit brilliantly. For three decades, as its of Cody’s horizon…that is, until he marquee star, impresario, and director, To millions, he was—and still is— met a writer with the pen-name Ned Cody toured with his show throughout known as “Buffalo Bill.” Yet William Buntline—a man who would turn North AmericaI can andand Europe, I will.