Retrieving the Past: Photos from the Archive

John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery
Now On View
Through March 29, 2009

PURCHASE THIS FEATURED IMAGE FROM THE EXHIBITION

The McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center houses more than a half million historic images. In the photography exhibition, Retreiving the Past: Photos from the Archive, 68 images were selected for exhibition to reveal the diversity of the collection to the public, as well as the capabilities of the library's new digitization program. Retrieving the Past was on view through August 17, 2008.

The images are highlights from the digital collections of Jack Richard, Charles Belden and the Buffalo Bill Online Archives. The photographers Richard and Belden each captured moments of energy and action in their respective genres. Richard, a photographer from Cody, worked in the Yellowstone area from the 1940s to the 1980s, where his crisp, superbly composed images captured the Western way of life. Belden's images were taken in the 1920s and 1930s on the legendary Pitchfork Ranch at the base of the spectacular Absaroka Mountains near Meeteetse, Wyoming. By photographing cowboys and cattle against this spectacular backdrop, he created some of the classic images of the American West.

The historic photographs taken from the Buffalo Bill Online Archive show the changing face of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917) from young man living and working on the frontier to Wild West entrepreneur to aging businessman. Cody has been call one of the most photographed figures of the 19th and early 20th century - and the Buffalo Bill Archive is indeed proof to that claim.

In an effort to increase public access to and use of these vintage photo collections, the McCracken Research Library has undertaken a major digitization program. With the help of considerable grant funding, the library has begun the task of scanning and cataloging historic images from select collections and making them available for viewing and purchase through the Buffalo Bill Historical Center’s website.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS