Reminiscences of Nate Salsbury 1899-1943

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Reminiscences of Nate Salsbury, 1899-1943

Reminiscences of Nate Salsbury 1899-1943

http://archives.nypl.org/the/21591

Nathan "Nate" Salsbury (1846-1902) was producer and manager of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, a highly successful show business enterprise that toured the United States, Europe, and elsewhere from the 1880s well into the 20th century, and featured William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Born in Illinois in 1846, Nathan Salsbury entered the U. S. Army while still in his teens, first as a drummer boy and eventually as a soldier with the 89th Illinois Regiment of Infantry, fighting in Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. After the war, he became an actor in various stock companies, appeared for a time with his own troupe, Salsbury's Troubadours, then retired from performing in 1887. Meanwhile, in 1883, Salsbury had been a key figure in the launch of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, an outdoor extravaganza that dramatized frontier life, built around the personality of onetime soldier, scout and hunter William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917). The show, which also starred sharpshooter Annie Oakley and, for one season, Chief Sitting Bull, was a worldwide success for many years, outlasting its producer and manager Nate Salsbury, who died on Christmas Eve of 1902, at the age of 56. His daughter Rebecca Salsbury James (1891-1968) was an artist who lived for most of her life in Taos, New Mexico. Consists of a typescript of Nate Salsbury's reminiscences, much of which concerns his Civil War experiences, his life as a touring actor, and, briefly, his years with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In addition to Salsbury's memoir, there are four folders of correspondence, mostly written to Rebecca Salsbury, although there is one telegram to Cody and Salsbury from actor Henry Irving. There is one letter dated 1917 to Rebecca's brother Milton Salsbury from actor James O'Neill, and a number of condolence letters to Rebecca upon Milton's death in August 1927, including one from James' son, playwright Eugene O'Neill. There is also a two-page account, written in 1943 by Wild West Show factotum Harry Tarleton, of a musical production Nate Salsbury mounted around 1895 called Black America, which featured an all African-American cast, and toured several cities in the U.S. before it disbanded.

.21 lin. ft. (1 box)

The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.