The Cody Firearms Museum, part of The Buffalo Bill Centre of the West, located in Cody, Wyoming, is about to undergo a major overhaul. With some exhibits already deinstalled the newly renovated museum is set to reopen in 2019.

The museum holds an astounding collection of firearms and firearms related ephemera with around 3,000 firearms on display. But the collection holds over double this and the renovation hopes to enable the display of over 1,500 more guns. The museum took on the collection of Winchester Arms Museum in the 1970s before officially becoming the Cody Firearms Museum in 1991. The collection also holds records from a number of manufacturers including Marlin, LC Smith and Ithaca.

The museum was last layed out in the 1990s and the planned renovation will bring the museum’s displays into the 21st century. The ambitious project is expected to cost as much as $10 million.

The museum has already secured a number of grants and donations from the National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections fund, a Museums of America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and a private donation from Timney Triggers. But completely redesigning and renovating a museum is a costly business and the museum has decided to launch a funding portal to allow people to donate towards the project.

The Cody Firearms Museum are now inviting the public to help make their ambitious reimagining of the museum a reality. The new donation portal page explains that “a project of this scope requires donors at all giving levels.” Check out the page here. You can you can find out more about the Cody Firearms Museum’s renovation here.  

Having recently visited the museum, seen the impressive collection and heard about the renovation plans myself, I can confirm that the project is well worth supporting!