Buffalo Bill’s Disputed Dagger

From P.T. Barnum to Buffalo Bill Cody, successful 19th-century showmen knew that a degree of truth was essential to the most potent deceptions. This dance of artifice and sincerity was more than a trick, but a true embodiment of the American frontier experience. In communities seething with humanity, but not much law or order, folks had to discern for themselves what was real and what was not. Cody constructed a powerful identity by merging his real biography with imagined exploits. That same