by Austin Sprake:
by Geoffrey Godden:
William Frederick Cody was born in Iowa, U.S.A., in 1846. After working for the Pony Express service in 1860-1, he became a guide to the U.S. army. In 1863 he enlisted in the army. The popular name 'Buffalo Bill' was occasioned by the fact that he supplied buffalo meat to the employees of the Kansas Pacific Railway during its building. In 1876, during the Sioux-Cheyenne war, he killed the Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hand in single combat. In 1883 he launched his famous Wild West Show, which later toured Europe with great success. Colonel Cody died on 10 January 1917.
The Stevens silk portrait titled BUFFALO BILL shows Cody facing slightly left. Some examples have the double signature 'W. F. Cody=Buffalo Bill' woven across the bottom of the picture - as shown on the image above.
The title 'Buffalo Bill' was first listed on label 23+26+2 of 1887 with other American subjects - President and Mrs Cleveland, and Sergeant Bates. These four titles were included in advertisements of May to December 1887.
Examples are normally mounted on type C2 card-mounts and have a lengthy story back-label. The address at the bottom affords a key to dating, for the firm was no longer at 34 Paternoster Row, London, after 1892.
W. F. Cody was also depicted on Stevengraphs titled W. F. CODY [so212 on this site] and SOUVENIR OF THE WILD WEST [so472 on this site].
Other comments:
The reverse of this silk often has a history of Cody:-
double signature
the image of this reverse label kindly
donated by John Hartwig, USA
