Buffalo Bill's Wild West paper toy: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Hand-cut paper toy, part of a child's play set of chromolithograph cutout toys representing characters from the Buffalo Bill Wild West show. Figures in the 41-piece set include William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, trick riders, American Indian performers, steer, buffaloes, bulls, horses, and the Deadwood stagecoach. Produced on a set of sheets by McLoughlin Brothers, publishers of children’s books and board games, the cards were cut out and mounted on wooden bases. They could be arranged to re-create two well-known acts from Cody’s enormously popular production. One group of figures enacts “The Capture of the Deadwood Mail,” a gunfight over a stagecoach between mounted Native Americans and cowboys. The other group displays the show’s buffalo hunt.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: paper toy
• Measurements: overall: 2 in x 4 in; 5.08 cm x 10.16 cm
• Subject: West
• Subject: Wild West Shows
• ID Number: 2012.0071.34
• accession number: 2012.0071
• catalog number: 2012.0071.34
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.