Autographed Letter about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the 1893 World’s Fair Sells at Auction

A letter inviting the International Folk-Lorre Congress of the 1893 World’s Fair to attend Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show has sold at auction for $937.50. Heritage Auctions’ February 20, 2020, “Americana & Political Signature Auction” included the hand-written letter from Nate Salsbury, manager of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Company.

Dated January 19, 1893, Salsbury writes to the wife of Fletcher S. Bassett, who helped establish the International Folk-Lorre Congress at the World’s Columbian Exposition, extending an invitation to the Folk-Lore Congress “to attend one of our Entertainments as a body. The Congress will find much to interest them in our performance—incorporating as it does correct illustrations of the life and customs of various tribes of North American Indians—as well as foreign races of people.”

As vice president and general manager of William Cody’s entertainment company, Salsbury leased fourteen acres of land just outside of the southwest gate of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds for the construction of the enormous U-shaped arena for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.