A joint project of the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, The William F. Cody Archive provides an invaluable record of the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century American national development. Through this digital archive and its associated texts, researchers and visitors have an unequaled opportunity to see, through the eyes of Buffalo Bill, the expansion and growth of the American West.

Readers are given glimpses of attitudes of the time through his interactions with individuals ranging from statesmen and royalty to noted military and literary figures who sought his opinion on policy questions concerning the American West. A greater understanding of public attitudes and political, economic, and environmental policies that affected the United States during his lifetime are also reflected in his lesser-known roles as a community founder, businessman, rancher, and investor.