The Buffalo Bill Museum & Grave is located less than 30 minutes outside Denver in Golden, Colorado, at the location where William “Buffalo Bill” Cody was buried upon his own request. The museum was begun 1921 by Buffalo Bill’s foster son, Johnny Baker, in order to illustrate “the life, times, and legend of William F. Cody. It includes exhibits about Buffalo Bill’s life and the Wild West shows, Indian artifacts, Western art and firearms.” The museum has 3000 sq. ft. number of exhibit space, most of which houses the permanent exhibits including timelines with in-depth text panels, firearms from Buffalo Bill’s personal gun collection, and Buffalo Bill’s grave. “The Museum has nearly 1300 photographs of Buffalo Bill, the Wild West shows, and Wild West performers in its digital database. The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave has an archives of letters and papers associated with Buffalo Bill’s life and the Wild West shows.”
Online collections include photographs of Wild Bill’s life and posters from his shows.
Metadata:
Metadata for the photographs of the Buffalo Bill: A Life in Photos exhibit is sparse. Each photograph contains descriptive metadata that is limited to the name of people in the photographs and approximate year the photograph was taken. These descriptions are followed by brief descriptions of Buffalo Bill’s life at that time, though these descriptions rarely address the photographs specifically. Descriptive metadata for the poster exhibit, A Visit to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West is even more sparse. A name or descriptive phrase is written beneath each image, but the date and context of its creation is unavailable. No image number or collection number is given within either exhibit to identify any collection item and no item-level description is offered besides a brief word or phrase. No corresponding collection number for the corresponding physical collection of any item is given.
Photographs can be ordered for a nominal fee with an order form that is provided online. The order form asks for a description of the photograph requested and an accession number, though no accession numbers or collection numbers seem to be readily available. However, a Gift Shop link will take users to the online store, where they can order posters –among other items –that are featured as thumbnails and can be opened in a separate window and viewed with the same resolution as those in the exhibit. The posters in the online store –unlike those in the poster virtual exhibit – have clearly labeled titles written beside them in bold, some of them list copyright information, and list an item number.
Collection Principles:
The online collection includes a photo exhibit called Buffalo Bill: A Life in Photos. This exhibit displays 15 black and white and sepia photos on a light brown background with brief description beneath each photograph. A poster exhibit called A Visit to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West features color images of posters from Buffalo Bill’s shows. Photographs and posters are small and can be opened in a separate window, but not enlarged or zoomed in. The digital collection items seem to be present for quick viewing rather than research purposes, as information is not readily available and photos and posters are not detailed enough for any type of examination.
Object Characteristics:
All images are formatted as JPEGs (though TIFFs are apparently available as well through special request). Most photographs range in resolution from 230 X 291 pixels to 230 X 353 pixels, though occasional photos range are approximately 460 X 297. Posters for the poster exhibit, A Visit to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West are JPEGs as well, and they are the same size and resolution. The site states that the museum “respond[s] to requests for information promptly and can usually provide TIFFs or JPEGs of photos in our collection within 2 working days.”
Intended Audience:
The museum seems to be aimed at a broad user base, individuals, families. The physical museum includes a permanent children’s exhibit, the “Kids’ Cowboy Corral,” and boasts that “The Buffalo Bill Memorial Park was ranked by the Denver Post as one of the top five tourist attractions in the Denver metro area for 1996,” clearly illustrating the museum staff’s desire to attract people from all over. The site has separate Press Information and Researchers sections, in which the museum offers to make reproductions of many of its collection items available upon request for free or for minimal charge. The online exhibits seem to be designed for educational purposes and to feature the collection as a whole for potential visitors, as it does not feature high quality or well described surrogates for individual collection items and encourages press and researches to contact the museum about specific item requests.
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