Possibly one of the progenitors of the herd at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge, the buffalo shown here was sketched by Shrady in 1899 at the new New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo) as a model for his buffalo sculptures. In 1907, 15 of those captive bison were shipped to the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve (now Wichita Wildlife Refuge) near Lawton, Oklahoma, in an effort to save them from extinction, where they were met with emotional celebration by Quanah Parker and other elderly Comanche who recalled the glory days of the buffalo hunt. Shrady was perhaps the first sculptor to take full creative advantage of the lost-wax process offered by Roman Bronze Works. The deeply and freely sculpted fur was made possible by his easy access to the wax model just prior to casting. It is curious, given his attention to detail, that he sold the rights of reproduction to a dealer, Theodore B. Starr.

From the exhibition:Frontier to Foundry: the Making of Small Bronze Sculpture in the Gilcrease Collection, December 2014 - March 2015.
Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2014.