Description:

Cody William

Buffalo Bill Cody ALS Re: Foot-and-Mouth Disease Epidemic Affecting the Wild West Show Touring Schedule

 

1p autograph letter inscribed overall by American frontiersman William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917), and signed by him as "Will" at bottom. Written on March 31, [1914] in Denver, Colorado. On cream lined paper with "The Albany / Denver, Colo." letterhead, the stationery also touting the hotel's individual bathrooms and "fire proof annex". A few light wrinkles and expected paper folds, else near fine. 6" x 9.375".

 

Buffalo Bill penned this letter to his cousins J. Frank Cody and Nellie Cody. (Other examples of Buffalo Bill's correspondence can be found in the collection of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West located in Cody, Wyoming.) All of his letters to his cousin were signed Will or Cousin Will.

 

 In full, with unchanged spelling and punctuation:

 

"Mar 31st

 

Dear Frank + Nellie

 

The Foot + mouth disease about put all big shows out entirely We have to jump our aboard clear to California.

 

And I don’t know how soon they will quaranteen us.

 

The whole country is knock (?) silly in every way. It will be a month before we will know [how] unhealthy the minis are sold and thing if this present company take these they will be worked. For they are the biggest mining +c in Colorado

 

Love

Will".

 

In 1914--the most likely date of this letter--the United States experienced its most severe outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. Fever, blisters, and lameness were symptoms of this extremely infectious virus that attacked cloven-hoof animals, and could also spread to grain, clothing, and equipment. Quarantine prevented the spread of the disease, but the only known countermeasure to the epidemic was the slaughter of all infected animals.

 

"Buffalo Bill" Cody's real life experiences informed his incredibly popular "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" show. This colorful and rollicksome traveling circus featured Cowboys, Indians, Bandits, and other motley characters. Performers like Sitting Bull and Calamity Jane reenacted famous events, staged stunts and tricks, raced on horseback, and circled their Conestoga wagons to the dazzled delight of American and European crowds. The show performed between 1883 and Cody's death in 1917. The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, an organization funded by the city and county of Denver, Colorado, reports that Cody visited Colorado no fewer than 35 times over the show's tenure. While in Denver, Cody often stayed at the Albany Hotel, a lavish Art Nouveau style establishment first opened in 1885.

 

Before he was an entrepreneurial showman, Cody served as a Union soldier in the Civil War, Pony Express rider, scout, Indian fighter, and professional hunter. Cody allegedly earned his moniker "Buffalo Bill" by the ease with which he slayed thousands of the beasts of the Plains. Cody was seldom seen without "Lucrezia Borgia", his Springfield Model 1866 rifle.

 

An intriguing letter from the man who mythologized the Wild West!

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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