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May 28, 2021

Portraits of Wild Bill Hickok, the Most Famous of All Western Gunfighters

James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as “Wild Bill” Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation.


Hickok was born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois at a time when lawlessness and vigilante activity was rampant because of the influence of the “Banditti of the Prairie.” Drawn to this ruffian lifestyle, he headed west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, working as a stagecoach driver and later as a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought and spied for the Union Army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life.

In 1876, Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota) by Jack McCall, an unsuccessful gambler. The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man’s hand: two pairs; black aces and eights.

Hickok remains a popular figure of frontier history. Many historic sites and monuments commemorate his life, and he has been depicted numerous times in literature, film, and television. He is chiefly portrayed as a protagonist, although historical accounts of his actions are often controversial, and much of his career is known to have been exaggerated both by himself and by contemporary mythmakers. While Hickok claimed to have killed numerous named and unnamed gunmen in his lifetime, his career as a gunfighter only lasted from 1861 to 1871. According to Joseph G. Rosa, Hickok’s biographer and the foremost authority on Wild Bill, Hickok killed only six or seven men in gunfights.

Portrait of a young James Butler Hickok, aka “Wild Bill” Hickok.

James B. Hickok in the 1860s, during his pre-gunfighter days.

Hickok in his days as a Cavalry Scout around 1869.

Wild Bill Hickock, between 1868 and 1870.

Carte de Visite of Wild Bill Hickok, ca. 1874.



Cabinet card photograph of Wild Bill Hickok by Rockwood, 1873.


Wild Bill Hickok in 1869. The unsheathed knife is likely a photographer’s prop.

Rare tintype of Hickok, ca. 1870. It was found with the last letter he wrote to his wife, Agnes Thatcher Lake.


Wild Bill Hickok, Texas Jack Omohundro, and Buffalo Bill Cody as the “Scouts of the Plains” in 1873.


A publicity photo for the show Buffalo Bill Cody put together in 1873. After a few months on stage, Hickok came back west temporarily flush. Left to right Elisha P. Green, Hickok, Cody, Texas Jack Omohundro, and Eugene Overton.

Hickok with his long locks shorn and sporting a goatee with his new Cheyenne family. Circus proprietor Agnes Thatcher Lake, was better looking than the formal photographer’s frown of the period would indicate despite being Wild Bill’s senior by 15 years. Her daughter Emma, on whom Hickok reportedly doted, is center.

1 comment:

  1. The photo of Wild Bill Hickok above with a winter cap on is mislabelled as" Hickok in his days as a Cavalry Scout around 1869". This was taken in Deadwood in July 1876. See the other photo in the same chair with a different cap was taken same place and time. FYI

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