Robert W. Rydell

Robert W. Rydell is Michael P. Malone Professor of History at Montana State University where he teaches U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History. His research centers on the history of world's fairs and, along with Dr. Laura Schiavo and Deborah Sorenson, he has served as guest curator for Designing Tomorrow: America's Depression-Era World's Fairs, an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. His work on world's fairs, especially how these events have promoted America's image around the world, led to his interest in Buffalo Bill and to collaboration with Professsor Rob Kroes, one of Europe's leading authorities on American culture. Their ideas for the book Buffalo Bill in Bologna began to take form during the year they spent at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and it is to Rob's credit that the book insists less on the "impact" of Buffalo Bill on Europe than on the show's "reception" by European audiences.