The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, grew from a memorial effort begun in 1917 after William F. Cody’s death into a seven-acre nonprofit museum complex devoted to the history, culture, art, and natural world of the American West. Its five museums and the McCracken Research Library hold extensive collections on Buffalo Bill, Plains Indian peoples, Western art, the Greater Yellowstone region, and firearms. With tens of thousands of artifacts, major research holdings, public programs, and Smithsonian Affiliate status since 2008, it has become the oldest and most comprehensive museum complex focused on the American West.