Showy and Sure-Fire
In 1868, eight-year-old Phoebe Anne Moses, later to be known as Annie Oakley,
picked up a rifle for the first time and shot a squirrel. Several years later,
she began shooting game in the woods, selling it to a local shopkeeper to
help pay the mortgage on her mother’s home. Lured to Cincinnati to compete
in a shooting contest, Moses competed against well-known marksman Frank Butler,
ultimately capturing victory, as well as Butler’s heart. The two married
and joined Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show performing as shooters
and garnering the attention and friendship of Sitting Bull. The Smith and
Wessons in this exhibit were gifts to Annie Oakley from husband Frank Butler.
Curiously, the guns carry the same decoration despite the fact that they are
not a matching set.
