collectingIn 1883, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show began in North Platte, Nebraska. Before it folded three decades later, the hunter-scout-turned-megastar had entertained over 50 million Americans and Europeans.

With 200 actors and 300 head of elk, deer, horses, mules, mountain sheep and buffalo, the show was a Wild West odyssey. Posters were one of the most powerful marketing tools used to promote the megastar. Made to impress the crowned heads of Europe and the masses in America, these colorful lithographic posters are now desirable collectibles. Never meant to survive 100 years, somehow they have.

In San Francisco, Greg Martin Auctions featured a selection of vintage Buffalo Bill posters in its October 28, 2002 Antique & Collectible Firearms auction. The sale totaled over $4.5 million.

Related Articles

  • hostiles

    Not four months after the bloodshed at Wounded Knee, 75 Lakota Indians—including 23 presumed “hostiles”…

  • Grant Conspiracy book cover

    Screenwriter and author Lee Martin’s latest novel, The Grant Conspiracy: Wake of the Civil War…

  • the-wild-west-word-theatre

    Hold onto this wild gallop into the West! This CD celebrates the oral storytelling tradition…