Two Albums of William F. Cody at Leisure, Compiled and Presented by Illustrator R. Farrington Elwell 

Lot of 2 albums made for William F. Cody by Robert Farrington Elwell (1874-1962) a self taught artist who covered Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the 1890s and became Mr. Cody's ranch manager in Wyoming.  Elwell's Western illustrations appeared in Harper's, Century and American.  Both albums are artfully compiled, with inked captions for each photograph and small ink accent illustrations and designs scattered throughout.  One album is constructed of 6 heavy card stock mounts, 9 x 13 in., bound with 2 metal rings, with illustrated covers and containing 45 photographs. The other is 13 heavy card stock mounts, 9.75 x 12.5 in., with no cover and no binding, containing 113 photographs.

The bound album features a buffalo illustration on the front cover and the initials R.F.E. and M.F.E. and 1901 on the back cover.  All photographs show the TE Ranch, Carter Ranch, and surrounding scenery, plus a few views of the battlefield at Little Bighorn,  though none show Cody himself.  Every photograph is captioned and has gold stars affixed at the corners, and each page includes small ink illustrations of Western wildlife, campsites, tepees, saddles, and the like.

The unbound pages are similarly arranged, but without the stars and accent illustrations.  They show at least 15 candid photographs of William F. Cody at the T.E. Ranch, Pahaska Tepee, and on a hunting and camping trip in the surrounding wilderness in November 1904.  The other men on the trip are Iron Tail, of whom several fine candid shots are included, Elwell, a man called "Black Fox," and unidentified others.  Two notable shots of lron Tail show him in full headdress and regalia, seated on a blanket playing a game of cards with an unidentified man in wooly chaps (titled A game for ponies and A critical moment). Four more shots show Cody relaxing inside his den at the TE (with titles such as Here one finds a homelike atmosphere never to be erased from memory and Where the strife of the outer world is excluded).  Two views show Cody directing two men working three-horse plows (Plowing an oatfield a mile in circumference), and two show him cracking a whip in the corral (Trying out an old companion and Crack after crack like the bark of a Winchester, with a close-up of the whip titled Could this whip but tell tales).   Locations mentioned in the captions include Elk Fork, North Fork of Shoshone, Sweetwater, Whit Creek, Camp St. Lawrence, and the Coal Mine.  All in all, an exceptional and unique album capturing Cody and friends out of the spotlight.
 

Provenance: Descended directly in the family of William F. Buffalo Bill Cody

Very good.