William "Buffalo Bill" Cody

Artist Albert Naegli (American, born Germany, 1844 - 1901)

Dateca. 1880

MediumAlbumen cabinet card

DimensionsImage and sheet: 5 7/8 × 4 1/16 inches (14.92 × 10.32 cm)
Mount: 6 7/16 × 4 3/16 inches (16.35 × 10.64 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.273

SignedOn mount recto, lower left, printed in black ink: "Naegli / 46 EAST 14th STREET, / Union Square, N.Y."

InscribedOn mount verso, top, in pencil: "Wm. F. Cody / "Buffalo Bill".

MarkingsStamp on mount verso, lower right, in blue ink: "THE / COLLECTION OF / AMERICANA OF / FREDERICK H.MESERVE / NEW YORK"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of a frontiersman (William F. Cody) standing with one hand on the barrel of a shotgun, the other on the handle of a gun tucked into his belt. He wears an embroidered shirt, wide brimmed hat, and pants with a large belt buckle.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

The cabinet card was introduced in the 1860s and remained popular through the 1890s. This format was favored by collectors of mass-produced portraits of celebrities such as these: the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the author of the bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the western explorer and showman Buffalo Bill Cody.

Published References

For other portraits of Cody--and a catalogue of the ephemera stemming from his celebrity--see James W. Wojtowicz, The W. F. Cody Buffalo Bill Collector's Guide with Values (Paducah, Kentucky: Collector Books, 1998).

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