Cody, Samuel Franklin Papers, 1888-1913, bulk 1890-1905

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Summary

Title:
Samuel Franklin Cody Papers
Dates:
1888-1913, bulk 1890-1905
Extent:
15 Linear Feet
Language:
English , French , German , Italian .
Preferred citation:

Samuel Franklin Cody Papers, 1888-1913 (Bulk date: 1890-1905), Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; 96.159; [Item identification] [Date].

Background

Scope and content:

The Samuel Franklin Cody Papers contain posters, clippings, scripts, programs, photographs, lettersheets, sheet music and documents relating to the career of Texan, Samuel Franklin Cody, a Wild West showman, sharpshooter, actor, playwright, horseman, inventor, and aviator in Great Britain and Western Europe.

The bulk of the collection consists of materials related to the production and advertisement of Mr. Cody's Western melodrama, The Klondyke Nugget, inspired by his trip to the Klondyke in the 1880's. Included are 7 colored posters (1900-1903), manuscripts for the complete five act play, two sketch versions and individual scripts for various parts; directions for lighting and props, clippings and reviews; and sheet music for various instruments.

Other melodramas written by Mr. Cody around the turn of the century are represented by manuscripts for Calamity Jane with a Klondyke setting, Nevada, and Viva, A Woman of War set in Cuba. Mr. Cody and his family also toured Great Britain and Western Europe, performing a sharp shooting act and conducting horseman versus cyclist races. Clippings, posters, tickets, and programs (1891-1903), approximately half of which are in French, Italian or German, indicate the wide popular appeal of Cody and his family. A scrapbook of clippings, the majority in French, chronicle Cody's horseman versus cycling racing tournaments of 1893, challenging prominent French cyclists. Four colored posters feature Cody in circa 1895, racing against one or more cyclists. Reviving a lifelong interest in 1903, Cody turned his energy to designing and building man-carrying kites for reconnaissance by the British Navy. This phase of his life, which eventually led to his death, is represented by a poster, airplane drawings, clippings, and his patent for improvements in kites.

Biographical / historical:

Samuel Franklin Cody was a turn of the century American cowboy, Wild West show performer, playwright, actor, inventor, and aviation pioneer in England and Europe. He was born Franklin Samuel Cowdery on March 6, 1867 in Davenport, Iowa. He was the fourth of five children born to Phoebe and Samuel Franklin Cowdery, Sr. Little is known for certain about the earliest years of his life, as he made many claims about this time that are unverifiable, such as his claim that he had once lived the life of a cowboy, worked on the Chishom Trail, prospected for gold in Alaska, and others that have been proven false, such as his claim that he was born in Birdville, Texas.

It is known that by 1881, at age 14, he had gone to Montana and was breaking in horses, proving talented at handling even the most difficult animals. In 1888, he joined Adam Forepaugh's Circus and Wild West show, briefly quitting to tour with Annie Oakley, and returning to Forepaugh's show when Oakley's show folded. By this time, he had changed his last name to Cody and his "Captain Cody, King of the Cowboys" act consisted of demonstrations of his skills as a marksman and cowboy. That same year he met Maud Maria Lee when the show performed in Norristown, Pennsylvania; they kept in touch, and married when the show returned the following year.

Cody taught Maud how to shoot, and she became part of his act. The pair sailed to England in 1890, and began touring as a shooting act. They advertised themselves as "Captain Cody and Miss Cody: Buffalo Bill's Son and Daughter," which brought legal action from Buffalo Bill. In London, the couple met Elizabeth Mary King, later known as Lela Marie Cody. Maud taught two of Lela's younger children, Vivian and Leon, how to shoot, but shortly after, Maud returned to the United States alone. Cody replaced her with Lela, both onstage and as a companion, although the marriage between Cody and Maud was never legally dissolved. By the mid-1890s, Cody was touring Europe with his new family, giving demonstrations of his horse riding, shooting, and lassoing skills. He capitalized on the bicycle craze of the time by challenging famous cyclists to race against him on horseback during his show. Cody always won the races, and became a popular western figure all over Europe.

By 1897, Cody and his family returned the act to England. In December 1898, they debuted The Klondyke Nugget, written by Cody, their first "Wild West Melodrama," a popular form of theater at the time. The entire family performed in the show, and it went on to tour the entire country. Other dramas followed including Nevada, Viva, a Woman of War, Calamity Jane, and Alaska, but none were as successful as The Klondyke Nugget.

Another claim that Cody liked to make was that his interest in kites came from a Chinese cook he met in his youth on the old cattle trails. Whatever the origin, Cody's shows provided him the financial security to fund his growing interest in kites, and he gradually spent more time on experimenting with kites, and less time on his theater acts. He was particularly interested in man-lifting kites; in 1901, he patented a design for a winged double-cell box kite. He did several public demonstration flights of up to 2,000 feet around London, England, as well as used his kites for his own meteorological research. The latter resulted in him becoming a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1902. A large exhibition of his kites took place in London in 1903, and he later crossed the English Channel in a boat towed by one of his kites. His work came to the attention of the British Army, who was interested in the military possibilities for kites. In 1905, he was hired by the Army to build kites, and in 1906 he became the Army's Chief Instructor in Kiting at the Balloon School in Adershot. During this period, he also became interested in gliders and motorized kites. He was part of the team that built England's first dirigible in 1907; its 50-mile flight from Farnborough to London was both an English aviation milestone and made the country more aviation-conscious.

Cody went on make contributions to England's development of heavier-than-air flying machines. On 1908 October 16, Cody made the first powered sustained flight in England, when he flew the wood, metal, and fabric aircraft he designed and built a quarter of a mile. Soon after, the Army decided to stop backing the development of heavier-than-air aircraft, and Cody's contract ended in April 1909. He continued working on aircraft on his own, and developed a biplane, monoplane, and seaplane. He won numerous flying awards and competitions from 1910 to 1913. Cody was killed on 1913 August 7 when a plane he was test flying broke up in midair and crashed. He was buried with full military honors in Adlershot Military Cemetary near London. A beloved figure, more than 50,000 people are estimated to have attended his funeral and burial.

Acquisition information:
Purchase from Sothebys, 1996.
Arrangement:

Organized into the following series:

  1. Plays
  2. Racing tournaments
  3. Shooting acts
  4. Kites and airplanes
  5. Books
  6. Correspondence
  7. Diary
  8. Music
  9. Photographs

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Original finding aid written by Sharon Johnson and Cheryl Miller, 1998. Finding aid revisions by Rick Ceballos in 2023 and Molly Smith in 2026.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-01-27 20:23:32 +0000 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Appointments to view materials are required. To make an appointment please visit https://theautry.org/research-collections/library-and-archives and fill out the Researcher Application Form.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Autry Museum of the American West. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Library and Archives at the Autry. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Autry Museum of the American West as the custodian of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred citation:

Samuel Franklin Cody Papers, 1888-1913 (Bulk date: 1890-1905), Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; 96.159; [Item identification] [Date].

Location of this collection:
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, CA 90027, US
Contact:
(747) 201-8448
rroom@theautry.org
Website