DESIGNER UNKNOWN BUFFALO BILL BIDS YOU GOOD BYE. 1911.
54x41 inches, 137 1/4x104 cm. The U.S. Lithograph Co. Russell-Morgan Print, Cincinnati & New York.
Condition B+: repaired tears and restored losses at edges, some affecting image; creases, abrasions, restoration and overpainting in margins and image; vertical and horizontal folds.
This poster is an extraordinary confluence of at least four external influences including dreams, schemes, self promotion and publicity. In 1909, Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, the scion of the great Philadelphia department store family, publicly proposed the idea of a gigantic memorial to the vanishing Native American, to be situated across from the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Wanamaker, and his chief photographer, Joseph Kossuth Dixon, kept pushing their project and on December 8, 1911, Congress passed an act authorizing the construction of the monument on Staten Island. In 1913 there was a groundbreaking ceremony and President Taft himself, as well as over 30 prominent Native Americans, were in attendance. Among the monument's supporters was Buffalo Bill, who was at the time winding down his long run as America's premiere and most-recognized performer. After announcing his impending retirement in 1910, advertisements for his shows began appearing with the phrases, "bids good bye," "absolutely last appearance," etc. It turned out the perennial showman's announcement became a rather successful way to sell tickets, and these "good bye" notices continued to appear for several years. Here, in an attempt to piggyback his own publicity with an important national story, the performer decided to weigh in on the monument. No other copy of this poster is known to exist, but the image is reproduced in the book, "Thrilling Lives of Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill," (by Frank Winch. S.L. Parsons & Sons, New York, 1911) with the caption, "a suggestion designed by Louis E. Cooke [Buffalo Bill's General Agent] for the proposed monument to the American Indian, to be erected in New York Harbor by Mr. Rodney Wanamaker." Identical imagery from the anonymous design was also used the following year on a poster to promote the film "The Life of Buffalo Bill in 3 reels." A victim of the onset of World War I and changing public opinions, the monument was never constructed. Buffalo Bill died in January, 1917.