Isham and Liz Isham Cory

I am especially excited about a model I recently bought online - Buffalo Bill's Isham!  (Pronounced EYE-shum.) It's a lovely vintage mold, mint in box, and has beautiful shading. Those are nice things, but not the real reasons I hunted down an Isham. 

The truth is, it's because of who this model is named for. One of my dearest hobby friends is Liz Isham Cory. Her relative was a friend of Buffalo Bill Cody and he named his favorite horse after him. 

Liz was the first collector editor of Breyer's Just About Horses (it had been edited by an advertising agency with some help from Anne Bentley first). She has been in the hobby since the very early 1970s, and was studying journalism at the University of Iowa. Peter Stone, who knew Liz from model horse shows, asked her to put together a publication that could be sent to the many hobbyists who were bombarding Breyer for information on collecting and showing. (Guilty!!) Just About Horses was written in her dorm room on campus.

Liz and me at a recent Great Lakes Congress show.

Buffalo Bill on his horse Isham at his Wyoming TE Ranch, ca. 1914. Source unknown. Google Images.

Since Liz is a dear friend, I just had to acquire an Isham for my collection. And she is going to sign the box the next time we get together.