[WILD WEST SHOWS] -- [LILLIE, Gordon W. "Pawnee Bill" (1860-1942)]. A group of 7 items, incl. LS, TLS, signed checks, and memorabilia from Pawnee Bill's Old Town and Indian Trading Post.

4 items signed by G.W. Lillie, including: Letter signed ("G.W. Lillie / 'Pawnee Bill'") to Senator Burton. Chester, PA, 20 November 1901. 1 page, 6 x 9 in., on Leary's Hotel letterhead, old creases. -- Typed letter signed ("G.W. Lillie") to Friend Haag. Trenton, NJ, 15 March 1911. 1 page, 8 1/2 x 11 in., on Buffalo Bill's Wild West combined with Pawnee Bill's Great Far East letterhead, old creases, few tears along left edge, including loss, soiling from paperclip. Lillie discusses a matter regarding a contractual and financial matters. -- 2 partially printed checks from "Pawnee Bill's Indian Old Town and Indian Trading Post," each signed ("G.W. Lillie"). Pawnee, OK, first dated 25 September 1939, second dated 30 September 1939. 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 in., toning.

[With:] Pawnee Bill's Indian Trading Post (Oldtown). Pawnee, OK: n.d. 3 3/4 x 5 3/4 in. wholesale catalog no. 5, with paper wrappers and illustrations throughout (soiling, edge wear). -- 9 1/2 x 4 in. opened envelope on "Pawnee Bill's Indian Oldtown and Indian Trading Post" stationery, addressed to Miss Mary C. Criswold, Old Lyme, Connecticut, postmarked 1934 with a three cent US Postage stamp (toning, expected wear). -- SWORDS BRO'S, photographers. Studio portrait of Pawnee Bill pictured with his wife, May Lillie (1869-1936). York, PA: ca 1890s. 3 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. cabinet photograph on cardstock mount (toning and soling to print and mount; edge and corner wear to mount, including creased corners). Here, the couple is pictured together in costume, posed with a single shot percussion rifle and a shotgun. Their names are written in the negative and the photographers' imprint is on mount recto.

Undaunted by the fiscal realities of the Great Depression, business man and Wild West Show owner Pawnee Bill opened a popular tourist attraction in Pawnee, OK. Pawnee Bill's Old Town and Indian Trading post sold American Indian and Mexican goods and hosted rodeos for eager tourists, still imagining the wild and untamed West. The attraction remained a popular destination until it burned to the ground in 1940. Nearing his own death, Pawnee Bill did not rebuild the town.