Description: This photograph shows William Frederick Cody, famously nicknamed "Buffalo Bill" and his troupe from Buffalo Bill's Wild West visiting Dayton, Ohio, in Montgomery County in 1916. A note on the photograph reads "Buffalo Bill and his troupe when they visited N.C.R. in 1916. Wm. Cody (Buffalo Bill) is near the center of front row, and to his left are Col. E.A. Deede, Earl Reeder, Robert Carney and Charles Stout at the extreme right." Buffalo Bill was an American hunter and showman who, after his military service, started a show that traveled across the country called Buffalo Bill's Wild West, featuring other well-known performers, like sharp-shooter Annie Oakley. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F03_002_001
Subjects: Dayton (Ohio); Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917; Entertainment; Performers; American Indians in Ohio
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)