Buffalo Bill Cody Inscribed Photograph to Sister 1906

c. 1906 Buffalo Bill Photograph, Hand Inscribed to Sister Julia Cody Goodman   

~100% GUARANTEED AUTHENTIC w/COA~

Description: Original Buffalo Bill Silver gelatin photo, hand inscribed Buffalo Bill Wild West mount, personally hand written by Cody reading: 

"To sister Julia from Brother.  Taken in Rome Italy Mar. 28th, 1906".

 Image taken while on Cody's final tour of Europe. Photograph measuring 5 1/2" x 4" on 9 1/2" x 7" mount, framed. Verso bearing original articles and history relating to Charles Shaffer of Forrest City Missouri, an acquaintance of Cody's.

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Brief Bio: William Cody and his older sister Julia shared a close bond.  Although only three years his senior, she was as close a mother as Cody would
have after the early deaths of their parents. Julia always maintained a protective relationship with Cody, strengthened in large part by both acting as
guardians to their younger siblings. Julia would further be one of Cody's closest confidants through his most difficult and melancholy years.
 Although married and raising a family, she spent much of her time also caring for Cody's farm in Kansas and his Hotel Irma in Wyoming during his
many absences and appearances.

The photograph captures an aging Cody in 1906, which was both a fascinating and tragic period in Cody's life. This was a period where he was now at great odds with himself, Will (the man) and Buffalo Bill (the consummate showman). Buffalo Bill had several problems when he arrived in Italy that year. His hoped-for (and very public) divorce had been dismissed; he had openly been accused by his wife of being a drunkard,as well as adulterer; his good name was now tarnished in many newspapers throughout the United States and Europe; his third child had recently died; his partner of twenty years (Nate Salsbury) had died only some two years earlier. Cody was taking a hard look at how he had lived his life and was confronting his massive debts, fatigue and severe religious doubts.

W.F. Cody was desperately in search of both himself and his faith while privately at odds with the professional roll he
created and carefully maintained. In one such moment of divine despair while on the tour, he wrote his sister Julia that he wanted the Minister Harper to come to his Ranch outside of Cody to deliver one of his “blessed sermons” at a dinner for the neighbors so as “to bring us closer to God.” While Cody was himself not in attendance, it was clear that he hoped for some inspirational solace.

Although Buffalo Bill never did obtain his much wanted solace or the quiet rest of retirement, he did regain his faith (largely due to Julia's own). In a letter to Julia several years later (1914) he wrote “God ever bless you my patient brave sister. Remember our brave Christian mother and what she endured.”

His letters gently reminded Julia that he loved and prayed for her each night. Some extent of that correspondence and photographs Julia would later share in her "Buffalo Bill King of the Old West", memoirs about her famous brother, in which a related photo is shown on the cover.

SELLER NOTES:

A superb piece, one showing a rarely seen personal side of Will Cody (the man & brother) not simply the
performer "Buffalo Bill". This is one of only two known (actual photograph) images of Cody taken in Italy, this being
in Rome.  Personalized to an immediate family member (Julia Cody Goodman).
Rarely have Cody family items come to market, least yet a personal item from Cody to his much beloved sister Julia. Certainly, we have seen none other examples outside the Cody Museum.

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