Renovations that would improve environmental conditions and security systems at the center’s five museums, including roof repairs at two of the facilities.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, is applying to the NEH Division of Preservation and Access for an Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant to install new security systems; replace an aging steam boiler with atomizer humidifiers, install a new chiller and cooling tower; retrofit air handlers in exhibition and storage areas; install building management systems to ensure environmental conditions that are the best for the collections are maintained; and replace aging roof systems to ensure collections protection. Some of this work will be in structures that are more than 50 years old. The five-year cost of the highest-priority projects is $2,047,000. With this application, we are asking for $500,000 to be used over the five years. Trustees and staff are committed to raising the $1.5 million match as well as the additional funds needed to complete the projects outlined.

No project description available

To support collaborative planning by the Museums West consortium for a traveling exhibition that will explore the changing understanding of American Indians in 19th- and 20th-century art and popular culture.

Reinterpretation of the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

An implementation project to upgrade environmental controls and improve fire and security systems at the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association’s Cody Firearms Museum, which houses a collection of 7,000 firearms and more than 20,000 related objects chronicling the development of firearms from 1425 to the present.  The collection would be stored and then reinstalled after the museum undergoes a complete renovation.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West will improve collections care and infrastructure in the 45,000 square-foot Cody Firearms Museum (CFM). The CFM holds more than 7,000 firearms, the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world and the only firearms museum that has earned American Alliance of Museums accreditation. Planning is underway for a complete reinstallation of the CFM, which will interpret the story of firearms as a continuous narrative about people, ingenuity, and artistry. While the reinstallation process is underway, and CFM objects have been moved to safe temporary storage, engineers will connect CFM galleries to the Central Plant at the Center of the West, eliminating outdated boilers and providing clean, efficient atomizer humidification in the CFM. The project will also eliminate deficiencies in the fire and security systems of the CFM.

To support the improvement of environmental conditions, security, fire detection, lighting, and storage for the preservation of the center's collections, which focus on the history and art of the American West.

Preparation of a thematic, illustrated digital edition of the papers of Buffalo Bill Cody, a symbol of the American West in the popular imagination. (24 months)

At the dawn of the age of celebrity in the late nineteenth century, the public persona that William F. Cody created in his thirty years as head of the touring show, Buffalo Bill's Wild West, was central to a durable and vivid mythic vision of the vanishing American frontier. In the American public imagination, William F. Cody had become to many the embodiment of American promise and American virtue. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center will develop a digital edition of The Papers of William F. Cody containing material gathered from multiple repositories and organized into three thematic modules. The goal of The Papers of William F. Cody is to collect, edit, and publish online an open-access, keyword-searchable, digital edition that covers the period from William F. Cody's birth in 1846 to his death in 1917.

The retention of five staff members to further develop and implement a teacher training program in Native American studies.

On March 10, 2017, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed House Bill 76/House Enrolled Act 119, which aims to educate all Wyoming students about American Indian tribes of the region, including the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes. The resulting education standards are required to be implemented beginning in the fall of 2021. However, the state has not allocated funding for professional development of Wyoming's social studies teachers. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West's Native Education Outreach Specialist has turned full attention to developing and delivering a program that will provide the state's educators the knowledge and support they need to deliver this cultural content adequately. The Center and tribal and education partners created a six-module Professional Development program which is currently being provided to two cohorts of teachers and will offer four cohorts programs in 2022. Early feedback shows the program and content have been very well received.