1969 Buffalo Bill Historical Center Brochure Plains Indian Museum Cody WY For Sale

This item is a vintage promotional brochure or flyer for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, dating from approximately 1969. Printed in a sepia-toned monochrome ink on an off-white or cream-colored paper stock, the brochure is a two-panel spread that likely formed part of a larger folded piece. The left panel announces the Plains Indian Museum, which opened on June 1, 1969, describing it as “one of the most outstanding displays of Plains Indian materials to be found in any museum.” The copy details exhibits featuring the Sioux, Crow, and Blackfoot nations, including full figure costumes, tribal medicines, ceremonial objects, weapons, scalps, war shirts, and “elegantly beaded paraphernalia,” alongside an archaeological wing containing artifacts from Mummy Cave. The text notes that the displays cover more than 10,000 years of human occupation of the Northern Plains. The right panel prominently features the Buffalo Bill Historical Center name and its location in Cody, Wyoming, at the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. A stylized illustration of a poster reading “BUFFALO BILL’S WILD WEST” evokes the showman’s legendary traveling spectacle. A list of attractions directs visitors to see the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, and the Plains Indian Museum. The typography and layout are characteristic of late 1960s institutional promotional design, employing a clean, readable sans-serif typeface for headings and a compact serif for body text. The brochure serves as a document of the expansion of a major Western heritage institution, capturing the moment when the Plains Indian Museum joined the existing Buffalo Bill Museum, which had begun in 1927, and the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, which opened in 1959. The promotional language emphasizes the authenticity and educational value of the complex, presenting it as a comprehensive destination for understanding the history and art of the American West.