A History of Peru & Tourism

Posted on September 14, 2026 by ahcadmin

Post contributed by Photo and A/V Archives Aid Tom Hillhouse

When most people think of Peru, they think of the Incan civilization. Which is fair, the Incan Civilization was super cool! However the Incas tend to be a catch-all for Peru’s history and culture. There is a tendency to glorify the past and ignore the recent history of conflict in  order to sell an idea of culture or exoticism to tourists. Peruvian culture is so much more than the Inca or Machu Picchu, it is a tapestry of traditions and beliefs weaved together by the Indigenous people who have lived there for centuries.

I am writing this as a tourist and student who went to Peru to study abroad. I saw the most gorgeous landscapes and buildings, met amazing people, and witnessed some truly awful tourists. While I was in Peru I finally got to see the places that I saw in my history book, engage with the people who lived there, and see what history was preserved. In this blog I will be giving a history of Peru and discussing tourism’s impact on Peru.

Gallery: Author photos of Peru. Left side, top to bottom: a hike in Andahuaylillas, Chinchero terraces, and the Sacred Valley. Right side, clockwise: steps in Ollantaytambo, Inca Ruins in Ollantaytambo, and Inca doorway architecture.

Pre-Columbian Era (9000 B.C.E. – 1532 C.E.)

The History of Peru can be broadly put into 3 eras: the Pre-Columbian era, the Colonial era, and the Republican era. In the Pre-Columbian Era, the first evidence we have of people is in 9,000 B.C.E. We know that they were a small group of hunters and gatherers and are given credit for the cave paintings at Lauricocha and Toquepala. However, the oldest civilization goes back to 3,000 B.C.E. and is known today as Caral. The city of Caral in its prime was home to about 3,000 people. Surrounding Caral are 19 different sites that housed a total of 20,000 people.

1000–300 B.C.E. was the Chavín’s time to shine; they developed beautiful pottery and artwork. Even as the Chavín faded, their influence on religion and culture was preserved, as well as their artwork and pottery techniques. From 300 B.C.E.–1400 C.E. the Paracas were creating beautiful textiles, and the Moche were making buildings that have stood the test of time. The Moche are credited with building the Temple of the Sun and Moon, while the Nazca experimented with creating artwork you could see from the sky (Nazca Lines)!

Unfortunately, the Moche were wiped out by an ongoing drought. This is when the Wari emerged. They fought, conquered, and subdued the culture of those they conquered. Because of this we know little about other cultures between 700 C.E. and 1100 C.E. besides what archaeologists have excavated. Wari influence faded around 1000 C.E., but the Chimú of Trujillo, Chachapoyas, and Sican states would thrive for the next 400 years. The Inca empire only lasted for a century, but because it was the most recent and we have the most information on it, itc became the most popular. The Inca conquered a lot of the central Andes, but no one was prepared for the weapons and diseases of the Spanish.

Terraces in Urubamba. H.W. Straley papers, Box 11, Folder “South America”.

Colonial Era (1532–1824)

In 1524, smallpox was introduced from conquistadors in Panama. It swept through the Incan empire at a terrifying rate. It killed the Incan ruler Huayna Capac and most of his family. This led to political unrest and a civil war between two half-brothers competing for the crown, Atahualpa and Huáscar. Eventually Huáscar was named the Inca king, but his success didn’t last long. He was captured by conquistador Francisco Pizarro and ransomed. After the ransom was paid, the Spaniards killed Huáscar, tried Atahualpa for murder, and had Atahualpa publicly executed.

In 1534, Pizarro and his soldiers refounded the Incan city of Cuzco into a new Spanish settlement. In 1571, Cuzco became a pillaging state—the Spaniards were stealing as much silver and gold as they could and were giving it to Spain or fighting over it themselves. Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of Peru, established order with the Spaniards and the Peruvians by forcing Indigenous people into areas controlled by the Spanish, building cathedrals, and converting as many people as they could to Catholicism.

Republican Era (1824–Present)

The Republican Era starts with Peru’s fight for independence, led by José de San Martín of Argentina and Simón Bolívar of Venezuela. San Martín proclaimed Peruvian independence from Spain on July 28, 1821. Spain was unwilling to recognize Peru as independent until December 1824, when General Antonio José de Sucre defeated Spanish troops at Ayacucho. With this freedom the new republican government attempted to get rid of colonial elements and instead highlight Incan culture. By 1894, the government declared that all pre-colonial structures in Peru would be turned into national monuments.

Newspaper page showing municipal building attacked by guerrillas. George C. and Nena O’Neill papers, Box 48, Folder “Peru 1”.

Recent History

In 1960, philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán founded the Shining Path. Its goal was to overthrow the government through guerrilla warfare and replace it with a dictatorship, sparking a cultural revolution that would eventually grow into worldwide communism.

From 1968 through 1980, Peru was ruled by the military. General Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew President Fernando Belaúnde Terry because of abuse of power claims. However, in 1975, because of Velasco’s economic mismanagement and deteriorating health he was replaced by General Francisco Morales Bermúdez Cerruti, who tried to restore the country’s economy.

In 1980, it did not matter who Peruvian civilians aligned with, they were being killed and abused by the police and the Shining Path alike. Both groups were trying to gain support through terror and were not concerned who got hurt in the process. The government ordered massacres of villages and encouraged torture and sexual violence to its citizens. “The CVR’s final report, published in August 2003, found that the combined insurgent and counterinsurgent violence had caused an estimated 69,000 deaths and disappearances” (Peru CJA). The Center for Justice and Accountability goes on to say from “1980 to 2000, some 70,000 Peruvians, the majority of them indigenous, died in fighting between government forces and guerillas. Both sides of the civil war committed systematic human rights atrocities.”

The transfer of power from Belaúnde to Alan García Perez on July 28, 1985 was Peru’s first exchange of power from one democratically elected leader to another in 40 years. But the economic mismanagement by García led to hyperinflation and the people voted for Alberto Fujimori in the next election. In 1992, Fujimori did a self-coup, dissolving congress and regional governments, and assuming control over the judiciary. The people supported the coup because they were frustrated with politicians inefficiency and corruption. “After the coup, Fujimori implemented a clandestine, parallel strategy of counter-subversion that included widespread domestic surveillance against political rivals, ‘hooded’ unconstitutional tribunals, and a campaign of extrajudicial killing and torture that targeted suspected leftists” (Peru CJA).

Newspaper page showing terrorism and police attacks. George C. and Nena O’Neill papers, Box 48, Folder “Peru 2”.

The 1980s and 90s included surprise attacks from the Shining Path, cocaine trafficking, and street crime. Peruvians fled the cities to the countryside. While Peru is rich in culture and history, it remains poor, and dominated by elites. In 2001, under President Alejandro Toledo, the economy grew, but Peru continued to have abuse of power, instability and poor management. Former president Alberto Fujimori fled the country to live in Japan and was arrested in 2005. He was convicted for ordering murders of suspected Shining Path members by death squads, abuse of power, bribery, and illegal tapping of phones. 

“The extremes of violence and reason, male and female, the Andean and the Western, the primitive and the modern converge in a public spectacle of national unity, staged by the government as part of the cultural politics of state-building in the wake of harsh years of political violence and economic crisis that have torn so deeply at the fiction of the imagined community of a united nation” (To Revolt Against the Revolution pp. 555).

Interior of a cathedral in Calca. Author photo.

Tourism

Now with our brief history lesson out of the way, we can discuss tourism in Peru. Peru has had a lot of political unrest in recent history due to corrupt politicians, natural disasters, and economic instability. With travel being accessible to more people and the fear of the Shining Path fading, Peru has become a place that tourists flock to. In 1995, the number of tourists that spent at least one night in Peru was 479,000. In 2024, that number was a startling 3,200,000 tourists visiting Peru, overwhelming the country, historic sites, and architecture.

Tourism has helped build Peru’s economy, but the question we should ask is what are they selling? “In each of the last three years, the army has trucked thousands of ronderos into Lima to march on July 28, Peru’s Independence Day. Newspaper photos and TV news footage overflow with the “exotic” imagery of ponchoed peasants along with a sprinkling of Amazonian militiamen in jaguar-tooth necklaces and war paint” (To Revolt Against the Revolution pp. 555). The local culture is adjusted in order to satisfy tourists and boost the economy.

This isn’t just a story about Peru, but of many countries using culture as a commodity, and unaware tourists. I am not trying to convince you to never travel and see the world. I am pushing for you to be aware of the place you are going to, the history and culture behind it, the narrative being pushed, authentic experiences vs tourist traps, and to be mindful of the people living there.

References:

Physical Sources:

George C. and Nena O’Neill papers, Collection Number: 7995, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Dave Houser, Collection Number: 12564, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

H.W. Straley, Collection Number: 3396, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Online Sources:

Alexandrino Ocaña, G. “Reclaiming heritage and citizenship: urban pre-colonial cultural heritage management and heritage grassroots organizations in Lima, Peru”. Journal of Social Archaeology, 23(3), 303-325. (2023). 

EDODYSSEY. “Peru’s Recent History: A Story of Struggles and Growth”. Accessed August 3, 2026. https://www.edodyssey.com/blog/2018/12/13/perus-recent-history-a-story-of-struggles-and-growth 

Frommer’s. “Today in Peru”. Accessed August 3, 2026. https://www.frommers.com/destinations/peru/in-depth/today/ 

Gasparovic, Mike. Horizon Guides. “A Brief History of Pre-Columbian Peru.” May 19, 2025. https://horizonguides.com/guides/peru-ruins/timeline-of-pre-colombian-peru 

“Peru.” The Center For Justice and Accountability. Accessed August 3, 2026. https://cja.org/where-we-work/peru/ 

Quilter, Jeffery. “From Conquest to Colony: The Early Colonial Period in Peru.” February 4, 2021. Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 1:14:53.17. https://peabody.harvard.edu/video-conquest-colony-early-colonial-period-peru 

Starn, Orin. “To Revolt against the Revolution: War and Resistance in Peru’s Andes.” Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 4 (1995): 547–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/656257.

“Tourism in Peru.” World Data Info. Updated July, 2026. https://www.worlddata.info/america/peru/tourism.php 

U.S. Department of State Archive. “Background Notes: Peru”. January 20, 2001. 

Posted in Latin American history, Tourism, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Blood-Stained Book”: Murder Ballads of the Johnson County War

Posted on September 7, 2026 by ahcadmin

Post contributed by AHC Audiovisual Archivist Jessica LaBozetta. In Jessica’s free time, she enjoys playing traditional folk music and bluegrass in her community.

The author would like to extend a special thanks to the wonderful librarians at the Johnson County Public Library and the archivists at the Wyoming State Archive for their assistance in locating and stewarding Lonnie’s audiotapes

Folk music has a strong tradition of oral storytelling, allowing communities to preserve and pass on stories through song. Folk songs can be educational, humorous, or entertaining, but they can also pass on darker aspects of a community’s history. The Johnson County War of 1892 is one of these tragedies, in which powerful elite cattle barons killed homesteaders in a bitter dispute. This event left its mark on the history of the American West for generations and inspired a number of folk songs under the coined term “murder ballads.”

The Johnson County War

The Johnson County War is one of the most significant range wars in the history of the American West. Following years of conflict between homesteaders and wealthy cattle barons in the Powder River Basin over land use, water rights, and livestock, the violence steadily escalated over years. On April 5, 1892, a group of 52 men rode an unmarked train to pursue, shoot, and hang settlers who were deemed to be “rustlers.” Among the men, who are often referred to as the “invaders” of the conflict, were affluent members of the exceptionally powerful Wyoming Stock Growers Association. Contracted by the cattlemen, hired arms from Texas also joined the force.

An old west group photo of 42 men. They are dressed in cowboy hats, suits, and ties. A caption written onto the photo reads "The Invaders, Johnson County Cattle War. Taken at Ft. D.A. Russell (Francis E. Warren) May 4th, 1892. Below the caption are the names of the men in the photo.
The “Invaders.’ From American Heritage Center Photographic File “Johnson County War,” American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

One of the leaders of the invasion, former Johnson County sheriff Frank Canton, named 70 alleged rustlers for the invaders to eliminate. Among the men named by Frank Canton and the invaders was rancher Nathan D. Champion, who was falsely accused by the members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association of being a rustler. Having gained a reputation for advocating for the grazing rights of homesteaders, Champion was the first settler targeted by the invaders. In fact, in November of 1891, there was a failed attempt to assassinate Champion, leading to additional tension and bloodshed between the wealthy cattlemen and small-time ranchers.

The pursuit of Champion led to a bloody showdown at the KC Ranch in 1892, where Champion was hiding alongside three other cowboys, including Nick Ray. During the siege, Champion kept a journal, in which he detailed the ensuing shootout. By 9:00 a.m., Ray had been killed by the invaders. Champion successfully held off the invasion for several hours, but was gunned down by the invaders before nightfall.

In Champion’s final journal entries, he says, “Well, they have just gotten through shelling the house like hail. I heard them splitting wood. I guess they are going to fire the house to-night. I think I will make a break when Night comes, if alive. Shooting again. I think they will fire the house this time. It’s not night yet. The house is all fired. Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again.” After fleeing the house, which had been set aflame by the invaders, Champion was shot. Some accounts say he fled the burning house barefoot, attempting to defend himself from the gunfire.

Four men pose for an old timey sepia photo. Three wear cowboy hats and are on horseback. The fourth stands at a wagon full of supplies.
Nathan Champion, center left. From American Heritage Center Photographic File “Nathan D. Champion,” American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Following Champion’s death, the invaders moved northward to the town of Buffalo, and the invaders reconvened at the TA Ranch to hide from authorities. Meanwhile, Sheriff William “Red” Angus assembled a posse of over 200 men to apprehend the invaders at the TA Ranch, resulting in another standoff. This standoff lasted for days, leading Governor Amos W. Barber to send a telegraph to President Benjamin Harrison, reading “An insurrection exists in Johnson County, in the state of Wyoming… I apply to you on behalf of the state of Wyoming to direct the United States troops at Fort McKinney to assist in suppressing the insurrection.” It was not until the president called the U.S. Cavalry to the TA Ranch that the standoff ended.

Ultimately, the members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association were never convicted for the murder of Nate Champion, but the event left Champion immortalized as a hero who represented the rights of the working class against adversity.

A small wooden cross wreathed in floers is set in the middle of a hillside. Around the marker the ground is rocky and has short, scrubby bushes.
“The Gulch where Nathan Champion was Killed.” From American Heritage Center Photographic File “Johnson County War,” American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Folk Music as Storytelling

Definitions for folk music in the traditional sense of the term vary widely, but generally, folk music is music that is passed down through generations through oral storytelling tradition. In traditional folk music, a song is a structured piece of music with lyrics that are set to a melody, whereas a tune is the melody around which a song is structured. 

It is commonplace in folk music that new words be set to a traditional tune that would be familiar to many audiences, which is a longstanding, global tradition not isolated to American folk music. Many traditional tunes found in American folk music are borrowed from Irish and Scottish folk music. Employing familiar tunes for new songs facilitated the oral history tradition of folk music, as setting lyrics to a melody recognized by one’s audience allowed songs to spread throughout communities with greater ease for their performers. An excellent example of this is the tune of the traditional Irish ballad titled “The Bard of Armagh,” which was later adapted with new lyrics to the cowboy ballad “The Streets of Laredo.”

Most folk music was not recorded in fixed formats like sheet music until the advent of audio recordings. Instead, folk music was often shared in communal gathering spaces, and musicians often learned this music entirely by ear. Common ways that folk music was shared across communities were through labor, celebrations, and community forums. Because of the nature of folk music being largely passed through oral storytelling, regional variants of folk music were commonplace in the lyrics and in some cases, aspects of the tune. In fact, it is not uncommon for traditional folk music to have multiple entirely differing sets of lyrics depending on the regional variant most dominant within a community. It was not until audio recordings and personal radios became more accessible to the average consumer that lyrics to traditional folk music became more fixed.

Murder Ballads

Murder ballads comprise an important but oft-underrepresented subgenre of traditional folk music for modern folkway recordings and picking circles. Murder ballads are characterized by their narrative structure that details the events of a murder and its immediate aftermath. Murder ballads originated in in traditional folk music in Europe, with notable examples being the Irish ballad titled “The Wexford Girl” and the Scottish children’s ballad “Edward.”

With vivid, sometime gruesome, descriptions, murder ballads are occasionally written from the perspective of the murderer, as is the case with the Appalachian ballad “Down in the Willow Garden.” However, far more commonplace is the murder ballad written from the third-person perspective of an unnamed narrator. This perspective allowed working class communities with strong folk music traditions to utilize the device of the murder ballad not only as a storytelling tool, but also as a way to provide a voice for marginalized communities, allowing them to critique corruption and injustice.

While murder ballads were popular storytelling devices of Appalachian folk music, folk traditions in the American West frequently adapted the murder ballad as an opportunity to spread news of current events in the region. As folk music was typically passed to listeners amongst poor and working-class communities, the mythologization of folk heroes is commonplace, seen in ballads like those written to commemorate outlaw Jesse James. Because of this, American murder ballads have not only become ubiquitous with the American West, but have served as a constantly evolving primary source that preserves the memory of those revered by the working class.

“The Blood-Stained Book”

While the U.S. Army was able to end the standoff at the TA Ranch, the conflict in Johnson County between the cattlemen and the homesteaders was far from over. Homesteaders were outraged by the killing of Nate Champion, Nick Ray, and other small ranchers by the invaders and called for justice. One newspaper clipping in the scrapbooks of Joseph M. Carey reports that “The feeling stirred up by the killing of Champion and Ray is exceedingly bitter, and as soon as the soldiers are taken away hostilities will likely be resumed.”

A clipping of a newspaper column. The text reads "Make Bad Threats. Rustlers will skin and burn the prisoners alive. Rallying small ranchers. Now mustering to seize the invading cattlement. Fears that Fort McKinney will be attacked—a clergyman leads the band. After the prisoners. CHeyenne, Wyo., April 19. Special Telegram. A special messenger from Johnson County to Douglass says the rustlers are emboldened by their recent victory in the fight at the T.A. ranch and are trying to muster a sufficient force to get possession of the forty invading cattlemen, now prisoners at Fort McKinney. More than a thousand rustlers are encamped about the post. This includes the deputies of Sheriff Angus, who are rustler sympathizers.
Newspaper clipping regarding Johnson County War, April 20, 1892. Box #17. Carey Family papers, Coll. 1212, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Prior to the conflict, public sentiment tended to favor the cattlemen over the so-called rustlers, but following the murder of Champion, sympathy shifted to the settlers instead. A letter to the editor of the Christian Union reads “The Wyoming Affair is no longer an affair of simply local importance. It is only another form of the great question now asked by all thinking people in Europe and America: ‘Is money the greatest power in the world?’’ Another letter to the editor of a Wyoming newspaper begs the question about the treatment of the working class, arguing that the wealthy cattle barons had “exhausted all legal measures to crush poor farmers and small stock men of Johnson County, and having done them all the injury that unlimited money could procure, have now added assassinations to their previous crimes.”

What may have assisted in turning the tide of public opinion was the widespread publication of Champion’s journal in newspapers across the country, sensationalizing the event further. One article reads that on Champion’s person “was a diary soaked with his heart’s blood, through the center of which a bullet had torn its resistless way.”

Several murder ballads originated in Wyoming regarding the Johnson County War. In line with the tradition of other murder ballads, the words of “The Blood-Stained Book,” which also goes by the titles “The Ballad of Nate Champion” and “The Blood-Stained Diary,” are sympathetic to the plight of members of the working class perceived as being mistreated by those in positions of power. What sets “The Blood-Stained Book” apart from its contemporaries in the sub-genre of murder ballads, however, is that it is written from the perspective of Nate Champion himself. While murder ballads are at times written from a first-person perspective, this perspective is typically either from that of the murderer or an unnamed, first-person narrator who serves as a witness to the events. Borrowing quotes from his journal of the events in its narrative structure, the ballad recounts a vivid description of the conflict through the eyes of the victim, which is an uncommon practice in traditional murder ballads.

It’s just a little blood-stained book, which a bullet had torn in two;
It tells the fate of Nick and Nate, which is known to all of you;
He had the nerve to write it down, while the bullets fell like rain,
At your request, I’ll do my best to repeat those lines again.

“Two men stayed with us here last night, Bill Jones and another man,
They went to the river and took a pail, and will come back if they can;
I told old Nick not to look out, there may be someone near,
He opened the door, was shot to the floor, he’ll never live, I fear.

Two hours since the shots began, the bullets fly thick as hail,
Must wait on Nick, he’s awful sick, he’s still alive, but pale;
At stable, river, and back of me, the men are sending lead,
I cannot get a shot to hit, it’s nine and Nick is dead.

Down at the stable, I see a smoke, I guess they’ll burn the hay,
From what I’ve seen they do not mean for me to get away;
It’s nearly noon, I see a rope thrown in and out the door,
I wish that duck would show his pluck, he’d use his gun no more.

I don’t know what has become of the boys that stayed with us last night,
If I had just two boys with me, we’d guard the cabin right;
I’m lonesome, boys, it’s two o’clock, two men just came in view,
And riding fast as they went past were shot at by the crew.

I shot a man down in the barn, don’t know if I hit him or not,
Must look again, I see someone, it looks like there’s a blot;
I hope they did not get those men that across the bridge did run,
If I had a pair of glasses here, I think I’d know someone.

They’re just through shelling the house, I hear the splintering wood,
I guess they’ll light the house tonight, and burn me up for good;
I’ll have to leave when night comes on, they’ll burn me if I stay,
I guess I’ll make a running break and try to get away.

They shot another volley in, to burn me is their game,
And as I write, it’s not yet night, and the house is all aflame;
So goodbye boys, if I get shot, I’ve got to make a run,
So on this leaf, I’ll sign my name: Nathan D. Champion.”

The light is out, the curtain drawn, the last sad act is played,
You know the fate that met poor Nate, and of the run he made;
And now across the big divide, and at the home ranch door,
I know he’ll meet and warmly greet the boys who went before.

Transcribed from the audiotapes of Daniel L. “Lonnie” Devoe, 1985. Johnson County Public Library. Digitized recordings courtesy of the Wyoming State Archives, Wyoming Oral History collection, oral history 1164.

In Olive Woolley Burt’s 1965 book, American Murder Ballads and Their Stories, Burt recounts that during her years teaching high school in Star Valley, Wyoming, “The Blood-Stained Book” was a song relayed to her by a student named Leland White. “The Blood-Stained Book” is also analyzed in the Maragaret S. Plumb papers as part of her 1968 dissertation, Folksongs of Wyoming. In her dissertation, Plumb credits her source of the lyrics for “The Blood-Stained Book” to Buffalo, Wyoming resident Burton S. Hill. In a letter dated January 26, 1965, Burton S. Hill states that “The Blood-Stained Book” was popular folk song throughout Johnson County, but only for those “who considered themselves far removed from anything which pertained to the Cattle Baron.” Interestingly, Plumb notes that the lyrics were submitted by other contributors in Goshen County, Platte County, Laramie County, and Uinta County with “practically no variation in words.”

A sheet of paper containing typewritten writing and sheet music. The text reads "The Blood-Stained Diary (The Invaders), collected by Mrs. Olive Woolley Burt while teaching school at Afton, Wyoming, before 1927. Reprinted with permission of author and publishers from Burt's American Murder Balads and Their Stories, pp. 175–177. The song has reference to the so-called Johnson County War. Practically the same version was submitted by Mrs. Mabel Gurney, Newcastle, Wyoming.
Musical annotation for “The Blood-Stained Diary.” Box #1. Margaret L. Plumb papers, Coll. 400143, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

At the time that Plumb’s dissertation was published, the original tune that the “The Blood-Stained Book” was sung to was largely considered to be lost to time. In the same letter referenced above, Hill remarked to Margaret Plumb that he believed that the song “has no particular music, but any tune that fits the words.” The same musical annotation for the tune used in Plumb’s thesis was reproduced for the first time in print in Burt’s volume, but it was noted that the tune was unlikely to be the original sung by settlers in the 1890’s. However, in Ariel Downing’s 1997 dissertation Let ‘Er Buck: Music in Cowboy Culture of the Powder River Basin, Wyoming, Downing credits a folkway recording by Daniel L. “Lonnie” Devoe of Johnson County, Wyoming for her research.

The recording, now present in the Wyoming State Archive’s Oral History Collection, is a mournful ballad with a remarkably different melody than that sung to Burt during her days as a schoolteacher and later reproduced by Plumb. This demonstrates the ever-changing quality and exceptional adaptability of folk music as a historical record.  

Conclusion

The funeral of Nicholas Ray and Nathan Champion was so filled with mourners that men stood in the streets as ladies in mourning garb gathered inside. The reverend presiding the funeral delivered in his address, “These men have been sent to eternity. We know not why. They were not criminals.” Because the telegraph lines were cut by the cattlemen in preparation for the invasion, Ray’s family was unable to be informed of his death in time to attend his service. Undoubtedly a tragedy that deeply affected the community of Johnson County for generations, the death of Nick and Nate is immortalized in ballad through “The Blood-Stained Book.”

Sources:

Burt, O. W. (1958). American murder ballads and their stories. Oxford University Press.

Downing, A. A. (1997). Let ’er buck!: Music in cowboy culture of the Powder River Basin, Wyoming. Dissertation (Ph.D.) –University of Colorado, 1997.

Downing, A. A. (1998). Music as Artifact: The Johnson County War Ballads. The American Music Research Center Journal, 8, 35.

Plumb, M. L. (1965). Folksongs in Wyoming. Dissertation (Ph.D)–University of Wyoming, 1965.

Posted in 19th century, American West, Johnson County, Livestock industry, Local Folklore, Music History, outlaws, Uncategorized, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dolly Parton in the Movies: Behind the Scenes with 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias

Posted on August 31, 2026 by ahcadmin

Post contributed by AHC Marketing Coordinator Miles Amende

Dolly Parton passed away last week after a lifelong career of singing, songwriting, acting, and philanthropy. Parton looms large in popular culture, and it’s unsurprising that she makes an appearance in the American Heritage Center’s collections. In her honor, we’re taking a look at the Herbert G. Luft Papers, which offer a small glimpse into an important part of the Queen of Country’s career.

Collection Background

Herbert George Luft was a journalist, film historian, and motion picture executive with a fascinating history of his own. Luft was interned at the Dachau concentration camp for six months in 1938, covered the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem, wrote a syndicated cinema column, and served as an officer of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Luft collected press kits—packets of promotional materials used by production companies to advertise upcoming movies to the news media. Among these are kits for 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, which include unique commentary from Parton on her life and foray into the movies.

A black document folder with the following text: Twentieth Century Fox film corporation presents special press material for use by the international press in the united states, 9 to 5
9 to 5 press kit folder. Herbert G. Luft Papers, Box 27, Folder 18.

9 to 5

Parton’s film debut, 9 to 5, is a comedy about three office workers who dream of getting even with their boss. Parton plays Doralee Rhodes, an executive secretary dedicated to her job and husband who finds herself the target of a rumor that she’s been sleeping with the boss.

By this point in her career, Parton was already a country music darling. She had released a series of hit records, toured across the world, and appeared in television specials with Cher and Carol Burnett. Parton herself wrote the title tune for 9 to 5, which eventually won a Grammy and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The film, however, propelled her to movie stardom and into the wider public consciousness.

The 9 to 5 press kit features a packet containing production information, cast biographies, and a 7-inch vinyl record pressed with four and a half minutes of interviews from Parton and co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

A 7-inch vinyl record. The label contains a logo for the Twentieth Century Fox company and the text Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation presents special material for use by the international press in the united states, 33 1/3 mono with full transcript, 9 to 5, featuring dollly parton (with theme song), prepared by Backstage Productions, Inc.
7-inch vinyl record containing interviews with Parton, Fonda, and Tomlin. Note the 33 rpm as opposed to
the more common 45 rpm for the 7-inch format. Herbert G. Luft Papers, Box 27, Folder 18.

The production book includes a segment where Parton explains her first experience making a movie:

“I’d never seen a movie being made before,” she says with a laugh. “I was so silly. I thought that movies were just done as the script goes. So I memorized the whole thing, my part and everyone else’s. I knew the whole movie word for word before I ever came out here, which I found hilarious once I saw how movies were made—out of sequence and everything. You open a door one week, and you walk through the door three weeks later.”

In her recorded interview, Parton displays her quick wit and easy charm:

Announcer: Dolly Parton, you are considered the musical “Sweetheart of America.” Does that justify the fact that you carry a gun in your purse?

Parton: [laugh]…Well, I consider it a compliment to be called the “Sweetheart of America.” I made a statement once years ago that I carried a gun in my purse, and you have to understand that I live way out in the country and I work a lot when I’m in Nashville, at TV stations late at night, and I have to drive home; so, I used to carry a gun, if for no other reason than to make a lot of noise to scare somebody off if I got blocked in the road, but I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody. I have no intentions of doing that. So, now I carry a gun, but it’s got water in it.

Parton also muses on the roles she is considering at the time:

Announcer: This picture, “9 to 5,” is a comedy. Is this the kind of role you wanted, or would you have preferred to do a drama?

Parton: No, I wanted to do a comedy. That would have been the only kind of role that I actually would have played for the first time out, because I’m sure, if I could just get my own personality and the playful side of me, it would have been good. But, I will eventually, if I decide I like the movies, get into more dramatic roles. I think I could do that as well.

In Fonda’s portion of the interview, the announcer asks if she thinks Parton has a future in the movies, to which Fonda responds, “I think Dolly Parton has a future in anything she sets her mind to. I think that she could be a great movie star.”

Six women pose for a photo in a publicity shot for a movie
Steel Magnolias press kit folder, which features a publicity photo of the main cast. Herbert G. Luft Papers, Box 38, Folder 3.

Steel Magnolias

Parton would, of course, go on to bring both warmth and levity to Steel Magnolias as beauty salon owner Truvy Jones. Between the two films, she had also starred with Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone, writing and performing songs for both films.

The Steel Magnolias press kit includes production notes, cast biographies, production stills, and prints of frames from the movie.

Two women holding cocktails gossip in a wedding scene from a frame lifted from a movie. The caption under the photo reads "Beauty shop owner Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton, l.) and Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis), the former mayor's wife, trade observations about the goings-on at their friend's wedding in "Steel Magnolias," a Rastar Production of a Herbert Ross Film released by Tri-star Pictures. Ray Stark Produced and Herbert Ross directed the film from a screenplay by Robert Harling based on his award-winning play. The executive producer is Victoria White."
Promotional image from Steel Magnolias included in the press kit introducing Parton’s and Olympia Dukakis’ characters. This still is printed on heavy, glossy photo paper. Herbert G. Luft Papers, Box 38, Folder 3.

The production book explains that writer Robert Harling suggested his own hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana be used as the filming location for the fictional Chinquapin Parish. The cast and crew were readily welcomed into the community. Parton dropped by the local beauty parlor (which served as inspiration for Truvy’s Beauty Spot in the Film) on a surprise visit and, after initially leaving everyone speechless, made fast friends with the local patrons, saying “They were happy to see I was a real Southern girl like them.” She also trained with local beauticians for her role, musing:

“If I had not gone into the music business, I probably would have been a beautician. So Truvy was a bit like me—a big-hearted country girl trying to keep peace in the neighborhood and stirring up just as much trouble with everyone else with gossip and all.”


Reference
Herbert G. Luft Papers. Coll. 9033. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.


Author’s Note: There are a lot of Dolly Parton albums. Don’t sleep on New Harvest…First Gathering, the A side of which feels incredibly fresh, even today.

Posted in 20th century, Advertising, Film History, Film Music, Women in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Morality of A.C. Ivy

Posted on August 24, 2026 by ahcadmin

Post contributed by Ansley (Crow) Smoll, winner of the AHC’s 2026 Undergraduate Research Award for her project “The Morality of A.C. Ivy: How One Man’s Stance on Medicine Explains the Largest Scam in Cancer History.”

History often asks for a clear distinction between heroes and villains. Doctor Andrew Conway Ivy makes that distinction difficult.

When I first encountered the story of A.C. Ivy in my History of Cancer course with Dr. Hosanna Krienke, he seemed like a walking contradiction. He was a respected physician, a leading medical researcher, and even one of the doctors associated with the development of the Nuremberg Code following WWII. Yet only a few years later, he became one of the most vocal supporters of Krebiozen, an unproven cancer “treatment” that was later revealed to be fraudulent.

A scan of a document with the headline "The Nuremberg Code — An Ivy Contribution
An archival document outlining Ivy’s contribution to the Nuremberg Code

In only a few years, Ivy went from being a man who (quite literally) wrote the book on medical ethics to a spokesperson for a snake-oil cancer drug. His outspoken defense of Krebiozen cost him his reputation, and even those who knew Ivy during his lifetime struggled to understand his actions.

That contradiction was what caught my attention. As someone majoring in psychology, I’m fascinated by human behavior—particularly how people justify their actions. It’s easy to dismiss historical figures as irrational or unethical when we already know how the story ends, but I found myself disbelieving that narrative. As I learned more and more about Ivy, it seemed unlikely to me that the man was a scammer or a fraud.

A collection of papers with transcription notes. The papers are old and are bent and torn at the bottom right corner.
Archival documents transcribing the Nuremberg Medical Trials

With this question in mind, I was led to explore A.C. Ivy’s collection in the American Heritage Center. Like many students, I had never really done research with primary sources before. The historical research I was most familiar with was that of books and journal articles. While those sources provided valuable context, the materials in the AHC’s library showed me a whole other side of the story.

Reading Ivy’s papers felt very different from reading about him in a textbook. Within boxes of files, I found everything from his books and unpublished papers to letters and thank-you notes. As I worked through the collection, I expected to find the moment where Ivy apparently abandoned the ethical principles that had defined his career. However, that moment never came. Instead, I found remarkable consistency within the man’s writings.

The more I read, the more I realized that Ivy’s support of Krebiozen was not a sudden departure from his beliefs but an extension of them. At the core of his beliefs as a Researcher and physician, Ivy held several principles. He believed doctors had a moral obligation to do whatever they could to help their patients. He argued that every treatment carried some degree of experimentation due to the fact that no physician could ever promise a cure. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, he thought that if a doctor sincerely believed a treatment might help, then withholding it from the patient would be unethical.

Although nobody can claim definitively to know Ivy’s reasoning, it seems likely that it was these ethical stances that led him to defend the sale of Krebiozen. He staunchly believed that there was a possibility Krebiozen could help these people, and therefore withholding the drug from them (even if only for modern clinical trials and testing) would be unethical and ultimately useless.

A box with a label that contains the text "American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, A.C. Ivy Papers, Acc. #8768 Box 11.
A box containing archival materials from the A.C. Ivy collection

That doesn’t mean Ivy was right. History has shown that Krebiozen was not the breakthrough its advocates hoped it would be, and Ivy’s reputation never fully recovered from his involvement. But understanding why he defended it transformed the way I viewed the story. Through researching Ivy, the disgraced scam-backing doctor, I found Ivy, the strictly principled man who was blinded by his own moral code.

That shift in perspective became the central argument of my research project. Instead of asking whether Ivy was a hero or a villain, I argued that his role in the Krebiozen controversy is best understood through the moral framework he had spent decades developing. His story illustrates that good intentions, even when deeply sincere, are not always enough. Ethical convictions can still lead people astray if they are not balanced by evidence, accountability, and a willingness to question one’s own assumptions. I am deeply grateful to the AHC for giving me the resources to conduct my research. Thanks to them, I was able to use Ivy’s story as a lens for larger questions about ethics, psychology, and medicine—questions that remain just as relevant today as they were in Ivy’s lifetime.

Posted in 20th century, medical history | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The First Face of “Today” — Dave Garroway

Posted on August 17, 2026 by ahcadmin

In the early 1950s, morning television consisted of a test pattern broadcast to screens across the nation. So, when NBC launched Today at 7am on January 14, 1952, it was a TV first. The show’s host was bespectacled, bow-tied, six-foot-two-inch Dave Garroway. He was both affable and authoritative.

Caricature of Dave Garroway from The New Yorker, September 5, 1959. Box 1, Dave Garroway papers, Collection No. 10344, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

In Today’s early days, the show delivered news reports based on newsreels, wire photos and news telephoned in from overseas. It was broadcast from a specially designed studio, which was built into the ground floor of the glass-fronted R.C.A. Exhibition Hall in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. The public could watch the operation of the show as they stood on the sidewalk outside the studio. With a set full of monitoring screens, teletype machines and bulletin boards displaying newspapers from around the world, NBC’s press department declared that the Today studio would become the “nerve center of the planet.”

Photograph of Dave Garroway on the set of the first Today broadcast on January 14, 1952, from The Miami Herald, January 13, 1982. Box 2, Dave Garroway papers, Collection No. 10344, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

From the beginning, the production of Today involved as many as forty people. Jack Lescoulie served as the show’s sports announcer. James Fleming was the newscaster. The program was not immediately a success. Critics complained that the communications center “looked like a command post for an invasion.” There were technical problems with some of the equipment. Garroway calmly coped with the early chaos of the show. Eventually, it became a grab bag of news, interviews & reviews. Interspersed between it all were weather forecasts and advertisements. Garroway was the commentator, interviewer, reader of news headlines and master of ceremonies, all rolled into one. Viewership of Today gradually increased and companies ultimately signed up to have Garroway pitch their products on the air. Sponsors of the show were varied – so Garroway voiced ads for Jell-O, Bayer aspirin, Puss ‘n Boots cat food, and Rock of Ages tombstones.

Garroway’s skill at segueing from selling consumer products to serious subjects like Apartheid in South Africa or military preparedness in the United States and Russia was legendary. His wide-ranging interest in everything from astronomy to jazz was reflected in topics covered by the show. On Today he could speak knowledgeably to almost anyone about anything. Garroway did not take himself too seriously, though. He was not afraid to indulge in some clowning around with the show’s chimpanzee mascot, J. Fred Muggs. The chimp was an instant hit on Today from his first appearance in 1953.

Photograph of the early Today cast, including host Dave Garroway, J. Fred Muggs, Helen O’Connell, Frank Blair and Jack Lescoulie, from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 13, 1982. Box 2, Dave Garroway papers, Collection No. 10344, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

People who had never before watched television in the mornings became avid viewers. Garroway received fan mail and complaints. One woman wrote in that her “husband is forever popping out of the bathroom while shaving and going into the living room, leaving a trail of lather and drippings on the carpet, to take in bits of your program. It’s a wonder he doesn’t slash his throat.”

New Yorkers and out-of-town visitors to Rockefeller Center occupied the sidewalk when Today went on the air, angling for a view of the show in production and any celebrity guests. Bystanders held up homemade signs sending greetings to those they hoped may be watching at home. The camera operators of Today obliged by panning the streetside audience periodically, giving those on the sidewalk their own sliver of TV fame. Sometimes Garroway himself joined the crowds outside for special demonstrations or commercials that needed more space than the studio would allow.

Today’s three hour, Monday through Friday, broadcast schedule gave ample time for Garroway to cover a multitude of topics beyond the news. He interviewed entertainers, authors and politicians.

List of some of the entertainers appearing on Today in 1959. Box 2, Dave Garroway papers, Collection No. 10344, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The range of guests was vast. Frank Lloyd Wright appeared on Today and so did beauty pageant winners. It was with Garroway on Today that President John F. Kennedy introduced his entire Cabinet to the American people.

Garroway was a fervent advocate of free speech as a pillar of democracy. His felt his own obligation was to present all sorts of ideas – the popular and the unpopular – with the goal of encouraging critical thought and discussion. In an article for Look magazine in June of 1960, he warned Americans that freedom, “like a muscle, must be exercised, lest it atrophy.” He asserted, “it’s the habit of not exercising freedom that makes a people easy prey for dictators.”

By 1960, Garroway’s Today salary exceeeded $300,000 a year. In an interview for Ladies Home Journal he said, “I inform, I exhort, I sell … I amuse – sometimes. I philosophize. A potpourri of talent, if you like, for which, I nevertheless maintain, I am terribly overpaid.” Garroway’s Today signature sign-off was a single word – “peace,” voiced as he held out his right hand, opened like a benediction.

Photograph of Dave Garroway, host of NBC’s Today, posing for his signature sign-off, “peace.” Box 2, Dave Garroway papers, Collection No. 10344, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Garroway left Today in 1961 to spend more time with his children after the death of his wife, but the show lives on. Today’s legacy is the inspiration it provided for every morning news and talk show on television in the modern era. The Dave Garroway papers at the American Heritage Center consist of eleven boxes, and include scripts & scrapbooks from Today, articles about Garroway, and press covering the 25th and 30thanniversaries of Today. There are also photographs, audio and visual materials, and information related to Garroway’s career before and after Today.

Post contributed by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington.

Posted in 20th Century Broadcasting, Advertising, Journalism, television history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gene Gressley, Former AHC Director, Passes

Posted on August 10, 2026 by ahcadmin
Gressley at the former home of the AHC in Coe Library. AHC Photo Files.

Dr. Gene M. Gressley (1931-2026)

It is with sorrow and respect for his achievements that the American Heritage Center (AHC) announces the death of its long-serving and influential director, Gene Maurice Gressley. He passed away on May 13, 2026, just shy of his 95th birthday. Dr. Gressley led the Center from 1956 to 1988, during which time it grew from a small regional entity to a respected national archive.

Gene was born on June 20, 1931, in Frankfort, Indiana. He was educated at Manchester College (B.S. 1952), Indiana University (M.A. 1956), and the University of Oregon (Ph.D. 1964). He married Joyce Elinor Burrous in 1952 and they had two children. Joyce Gressley passed away in 2000. After moving to Oregon, he met Mae Wygant and they became life partners.

When Dr. Gressley arrived at the University of Wyoming in 1956, the archive contained only 284 collections. When he left more than 30 years later, the Center counted over 10,000 collections consisting of more than 80,000 cubic feet. The holdings had broadened from their primary emphasis on Wyoming and the West to a national focus that includes American entertainment and popular culture, economic geology, journalism, transportation, the agricultural industry, and conservation and natural resources. Notable collections came from Jack Benny, Barbara Stanwyck, and Stan Lee as well as from William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the Anaconda Copper Company, the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association and the American Sheep Industry. In 1976 – the bicentennial year – the archive was renamed the “American Heritage Center” to reflect this new, broader collecting approach.

During his career, Dr. Gressley published six books—the most notable being Bankers and Cattlemen (1966)—and numerous articles.  He was active in the Western History Association, serving as its president in 1984-1985, and served on the board of its journal, Western History Quarterly. At UW, Dr. Gressley held the position of the head of American Studies from 1969 to the early 1980s. When he stepped down from the AHC’s directorship in 1988, he served as special assistant to the UW president for five years before entering retirement and relocating to Oregon where he continued to write historical articles and provide book reviews. When his health began to decline, he and Mae relocated to Chicago in 2013 where he passed away.

By Paul V. M. Flesher Director, American Heritage Center

Posted in Obituaries | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“The Wrongs Which We Seek to Condemn”: Nuremberg and the Challenge of Justice After Nazi Germany, Part Two

Posted on August 10, 2026 by ahcadmin

Content Warning: This blogpost features discussion and images related to the Holocaust. Some readers may find this material distressing.

This is the second part in a two part series on the Nuremberg Trials.

Final Argument for the United States of America on the Indicted Organizations from 1946. Bernays’s strategy of declaring the Reich Cabinet, Political Leadership, the Schutzstaffel (S.S.), the Sicherheitsdienst (S.D.), Gestapo, and the Sturmabteilung (S.A.) as criminal organizations appears prominently in this document. Murray C. Bernays Papers, Coll. No. 03817, Box 6, American Heritage Center.

The International Military Tribunal began on November 20, 1945. In his opening statement, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson underscored the importance of the trial in establishing new legal norms. “The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated,” Jackson argued. His hope was that the prosecution of war crimes would establish new processes through which any nation, including those victorious in World War II, could be held accountable should they commit crimes against the peace of the world.

Courtroom 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, where the Nuremberg Trials were carried out. Author photograph, June 2026.

Twenty-two defendants ultimately appeared before the tribunal. Three of the original 24 men indicted were unable to be tried. Robert Ley, the head of the German Labour Front, committed suicide in his cell before the trial began. Industrialist Gustav Krupp was deemed unfit to stand trial during preliminary hearings due to severe health issues. Martin Bormann, private secretary to Hitler, was tried in absentia because he could not be located, though it was later discovered that he died while trying to escape Berlin in 1945. The other defendants included prominent Nazi officials including Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer and others. Over the following 10 months, prosecutors presented extensive evidence from military records, witness testimony, photographs and films, and German documents. Among the trial’s most significant moments was the November 29, 1945 screening of Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps, a film compiling footage recorded during the liberation of concentration camps in Europe.

On October 1, 1946, the tribunal delivered its verdicts: 12 defendants were sentenced to death, seven received prison sentences, and three (economic minister Hjalmar Schacht, former German Chancellor Franz von Papen, and radio propagandist Hans Fritzsche) were acquitted. Hermann Göring died by suicide the night before his scheduled execution, while the remaining 11 condemned defendants were executed on October 16, 1946.

These verdicts did not bring an end to the prosecution of Nazi crimes. Its judgments became a critical foundation for the development of international criminal law, and between 1946 and 1949, the United States conducted twelve subsequent trials at Nuremberg. The subsequent trials prosecuted physicians who took part in medical experimentation, judges and lawyers responsible for the implementation of Nazi racial policies, industrialists who benefitted from forced labor, and members of the aforementioned “criminal organizations.”

The American war-crimes program also included the trials held at Dachau Concentration Camp between 1945 and 1948, addressing crimes committed by concentration camp personnel. These trials dealt more intimately with crimes at the operational, rather than conspiratorial, level. Among the defendants was Austrian Nazi Party district leader Franz Strasser, who was convicted of killing five U.S. airmen after they had surrendered willingly. Video of Strasser’s execution is available in the AHC’s digital collections, though viewer discretion is advised. Also available in the Charles K. Vilim collection is silent footage of Dachau defendants testifying, including Ilse Koch, whose case became a media sensation due to reports of her particularly cruel treatment of prisoners while her husband was the commandant of Buchenwald.

Evidence used in the Dachau Trials, now stored in the special exhibition at the former Dachau Concentration Camp. Author photo, June 2026.

The legacy of Nuremberg continued long after the immediate postwar trials ended. As Cold War priorities shifted, many former Nazis were reintegrated into German society, and the prosecution of Nazi crimes became increasingly dependent on national courts and the denazification process. Nevertheless, later trials demonstrated that accountability for Nazi crimes remained an ongoing process. The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem was an important turning point in the process. Israeli agents captured Eichmann from Argentina in 1960, and brought him to Jerusalem for trial. Unlike the Nuremberg proceedings, which focused heavily on documents and the responsibility of state leaders, the Eichmann trial placed survivor testimony at the center of the public record. More than one hundred witnesses testified about the Holocaust, bringing the experiences of victims before an international audience and contributing to broader public awareness of the genocide. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1962.

Visiting the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg offered a tangible connection to these historical events. Standing in Courtroom 600 with my classmates offered an opportunity to reflect on the human experiences and debates that shaped postwar justice efforts then, and the continued pursuit of justice today. The legacy of Nuremberg, Dachau, and later prosecutions such as the Eichmann trial continues to influence contemporary conversations about human rights, international law, and the responsibility to confront mass atrocities. The Murray C. Bernays Papers here at the American Heritage Center tell one part of that story– asking us all to consider how we respond when confronted with the consequences of hatred, violence, and state-sponsored persecution.

To learn more about the Holocaust and the postwar justice process, please visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, whose extensive archive and encyclopedia was an invaluable resource to this post. I would also like to extend a thank you to Dr. Melissa Hampton and Dr. Adam Blackler for their incredible support and instruction, both for this study abroad course and as members of my thesis committee.

Post contributed by UW History M.A. candidate and AHC Archives Aide Rhiannon Skye McLean.

Posted in 20th century, Post World War II, War Crimes | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Wrongs Which We Seek to Condemn”: Nuremberg and the Challenge of Justice After Nazi Germany, Part One

Posted on August 3, 2026 by ahcadmin
United States Department of War copy of Robert H. Jackson’s opening statement for the International Military Tribunal. Murray C. Bernays Papers, Coll. No. 03817, Box 6, American Heritage Center.

Content Warning: This blogpost features discussion and images related to the Holocaust. Some readers may find this material distressing.

This is the first part in a two part series on the Nuremberg Trials.

In June 2026, I traveled to Germany and Poland as part of a study abroad program led by Dr. Adam Blackler and Dr. Melissa Hampton for the course Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Throughout the program, we visited sites that reflected the history of Nazi persecution, resistance to National Socialism, and the pursuit of justice in the aftermath of the Second World War. Among these locations was the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, where, beginning in November 1945, the Allied Powers convened the International Military Tribunal.

Standing outside the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, I discussed the significance of the International Military Tribunal as part of the Nazi Germany and the Holocaust study abroad course. The site represents both a courtroom where Nazi leaders were held accountable and a lasting reminder of the challenges involved in confronting international violence through law. Photo by Dr. Adam Blackler.

Inside Courtroom 600, the site of the trial proceedings, 24 leading figures of the Third Reich were indicted on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy. The tribunal represented a landmark moment in international law, establishing a new framework for holding individuals accountable for state-sponsored violence and atrocities.

The story of Nuremberg’s legal foundation can be explored through the collections of the American Heritage Center, which houses the papers of Murray C. Bernays. A colonel and lawyer in the United States Army, Bernays played an influential role in developing the legal strategy used to prosecute Nazi leaders and worked alongside Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief United States prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal. After returning from Germany, I turned to the papers of Colonel Bernays at the American Heritage Center to better understand the legal debates and strategies that shaped the Nuremberg Trials.

Murray C. Bernays (left) and Justice Robert H. Jackson (right), the chief counsel for the United States at Nuremberg, at Bovington Airport after returning from a trip to Nuremberg. Murray C. Bernays Papers, Coll. No. 03817, American Heritage Center.

When Germany surrendered in May 1945, the unprecedented task of holding the Third Reich accountable loomed before the Allied Powers. The scale of Nazi Germany’s crimes presented a unique challenge. The Nazi regime and its collaborators were responsible for the murder of approximately six million Jews during the Holocaust, as well as millions of other victims, including Soviet civilians, prisoners of war, political opponents, people with disabilities, and religious and sexual minorities. These staggering figures reflected both the actions of Nazi leadership, and the ideological, military, and administrative structures that enabled persecution and mass murder on an unprecedented scale.

The question facing the Allied powers was how to assign responsibility for crimes committed by such an expansive state apparatus. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and other high-ranking officials responsible for Nazi atrocities had died before they could be held accountable. According to the German Federal Archives, 10 million Germans held membership in the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) at some point between its founding and its collapse in 1945. Many more accommodated, collaborated with, or benefited from the Nazi regime. For some, support for Adolf Hitler’s government was connected to the regime’s claim of restoring national unity and economic stability following the Great Depression. For others, the adaptation meant conforming to life under the dictatorship. However, the extent of the German public’s involvement presented a significant challenge for postwar justice. Legal notes found in Bernays’ papers reveal that Allied lawyers grappled with how to determine which Germans were believers in the National Socialist political project, or just complicit in order to survive under a dictatorship. The denazification process addressed German civilian involvement, but the International Military Tribunal remained focused on high profile defendants.

Widespread Nazi membership, paired with the dangers associated with political opposition, made a comprehensive prosecution of all individuals connected to National Socialism impractical in the International Military Tribunal. Instead, the Allied powers focused their efforts on those who held positions of authority and responsibility within the state. By prosecuting leading military, political, and economic figures, the Allies sought to demonstrate that individuals could be held accountable for crimes committed by the government.

The creation of an international tribunal raised significant legal challenges. Many of the crimes committed by Nazi Germany did not fit within existing categories of international law. Traditional categories of war crimes did not fully address the persecution and murder of European Jews and other targeted civilian populations. Prosecutors therefore developed new legal concepts. “Crimes against humanity” described the murder, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations. “War crimes” described violations of the customs of war. “Crimes against peace” were defined as the initiation of aggressive wars. Allied lawyers were concerned that the introduction of the new legal categories could be interpreted as applying laws retroactively, or ex post facto, and thus undermine the legitimacy of the proceedings. The International Military Tribunal required a balance between the need for justice and the necessity of establishing legal proceedings that could create lasting norms and withstand judicial scrutiny.

The original bench from Courtroom 600, on which Nazi defendants were seated for the course of the trial. Author photo, June 2026.

A fourth charge of “conspiracy” would prove significant. Bernays, working within the U.S. Army’s legal planning efforts, argued that the Nazi regime could not be simply understood as a collective of individuals committing separate crimes, but as a coordinated system whose leaders had participated in a criminal enterprise. Under this approach, prosecutors could argue that individuals who participated in planning of these crimes could be held responsible for crimes committed in furtherance of that plan, even if they had not personally carried out every criminal act. The conspiracy charge offered a way to connect high-ranking Nazi officials to the system of violence created by the regime, rather than requiring prosecutors to prove that each defendant had personally carried out specific atrocities– a hard task, given the administrative structure of the Third Reich.

Murray C. Bernays’ notes on the criminality of organizations. Bernays notes that only voluntary membership can be prosecuted, rather than coerced membership through threat of safety, and examines existing U.S. law about criminal organizations. [Bernays box 5]

Bernays also proposed prosecuting Nazi organizations as criminal entities. His plan recognized that the Nazi regime operated through interconnected institutions. This established the collective nature of the Nazi system, while still providing a legal foundation to prosecute individuals who had participated. Although Bernays’s proposal was modified during Allied negotiations, its central ideas influenced the final legal framework of the London Charter, which included conspiracy among the charges brought against the defendants. The final legal framework also retained provisions allowing the tribunal to declare Nazi organizations criminal. The Reich Cabinet, alongside paramilitary, police, and intelligence agencies were considered criminal organizations under this framework. Bernays did not participate in the final International Military Tribunal, though he was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit for his work on the legal procedure before returning to his law practice in New York in 1945.

Part two in this series will appear on the AHC blog next week.

Post contributed by UW History M.A. candidate and AHC Archives Aide Rhiannon Skye McLean

Posted in 20th century, Post World War II, War Crimes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Night of the Hunter” 71st Anniversary

Posted on July 27, 2026 by ahcadmin

July 26th marked the 71st anniversary of the premier of the horror-thriller The Night of the Hunter based on the novel by Davis Grubb. The film stars Robert Mitchum as the killer conman posing as a preacher, Harry Powell. Powell, during a brief incarceration, learns of a stash of $10,000 hidden by the condemned Ben Harper, played by Peter Graves, whose children hold the secret to the location of the hidden money. Seduction, charm, and murder are all tools utilized by Powell in his pursuit of the money. The movie was considerably a star-studded production with Shelley Winters as the widow Willa Harper and Lillian Gish as the fierce Rachel Cooper. Unfortunately, like a lot of art, this film wouldn’t gain true appreciation until many years after its initial release.

A page from a screenplay. The page includes the following text: The night of the hunter, based on the novel by davis grubb, screenplay by james agee. In the bottom left corner is the text: (first draft)
Paul Gregory papers (Coll. 8500) Box 20 “The Night of the Hunter” First Draft

The Night of the Hunter premiered in Des Moine Iowa on July 26th, 1955, as part of a fundraising event in the hometown of the movie’s producer, Paul Gregory. Failing to capture a broad audience and panned by critics, this would be the only solo directed film by Charles Laughton. The film would live on by the efforts of devoted fans being shown in museums and revival houses. The cult film would be subjected to reassessment through the 1970s, gaining greater appreciation as new generations discovered this Southern Gothic masterpiece. The film’s legacy of rediscovery would continue through its influence on modern directors and the spread of physical media.

A caricature drawing featuring the side profile of a man's head. The face features big eyebrows, a lumpy nose, and pronounced lips and chin
Jacques Kapralik papers (Coll. 4064) Box 11 Folder 2 Charles Laughton caricature

The film is likely to find new audiences again as discussion will build around the adaptation in the works to be directed by Scott Derrickson. Derrickson, well known for psychological horror films such as The Black Phone and Sinister, is writing the script with his writing partner C. Robert Cargill.  Together they have established a strong line of films that give good reason for excitement at the prospect of this new adaptation. How will their version match up against the 1955 film? We shall see.

The American Heritage Center has a wealth of materials related to the production of The Night of the Hunter. A teletype in the Columbia Pictures Records (Coll. 9355) discusses the original deal between the studio, Paul Gregory, and Lloyd Wright which shows Charles Laughton was already attached to direct and Robert Mitchum was willing to commit to summer filming. The sheet music of the score for the film can be found in the Walter Schumann papers (Coll. 3280).  The AHC also holds the papers of Paul Gregory (Coll. 8500), which has the first draft of the script for the film.

Post contributed by AHC Reference Archivist Rob Kelly

Posted in Film History, Horror | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Remembering and Celebrating Wayman C. Wing

Posted on July 20, 2026 by ahcadmin

Did you know the University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Applied Science has a Hall of Fame? We want to focus on a specific individual in the Hall of Fame who has had many successes inside and outside of Wyoming, fought against racial prejudice, and put forth efforts to pave a future for Wyoming students from any walk of life.

Wayman Chung Wing (1923-2020) is a scholar in the College of Engineering and Applied Science Hall of Fame. Wing, a first-generation Chinese American, grew up in Evanston, Wyoming. Following his high school education, Wing attended the University of Wyoming (UW) in 1941 to pursue a degree in engineering. Wing and his five siblings all graduated from college as first-generation Chinese Americans. However, Wing’s UW college career was put on pause when he decided to join the army after news of Pearl Harbor reached the U.S. in 1941. Wing states in his 2006 memoir, housed in the American Heritage Center, “I joined the Army Air Corps and waited to be called up.”

In 1943, two years after Wing joined the Army Air Corps, he was sent to New York. Wing shares in his memoir that “I was an engineering student with a background in science courses, I was one of a group of 175 sent by the Army Air Corp to an accelerated meteorology course at New York University” (Pictured below, bold in the original). Wing also expressed that he enjoyed his nine months in NY because he met more Chinese friends and experienced Chinese culture more than ever before in Wyoming. He then claims to have passed the meteorology program despite “the large amount of beer [he] consumed.”

After completing his Army Air Corps training, Wing was deployed overseas to a British base on the island of Azore during WWII. Then, after the Allied Forces’ D-Day victory, Wing returned to Wyoming to finish his college career. In 1947, Wing graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering.

Wing’s engineering degree from the University of Wyoming. Box 3, Wayman C. Wing Papers, 1941, 1982-2006, Coll. No. 11463, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Wing was compelled to continue his education journey. He applied and was accepted into Stanford University, where he earned his master’s degree in Engineering. According to Wing, his education at UW prepared and propelled him to study at Stanford: “I found the engineering studies much easier than at UW.” He even had the time to take extra courses in law and business despite the rigorous nature of his engineering master’s program. The extra courses would inspire Wing to start his own engineering firm years later.

After graduating with his M.S. in engineering in 1948, Wing worked for about a decade before he started his Engineering firm in 1960 called Wayman C. Wing Consulting Engineers. Wing’s firm was highly successful as its clients included the Hilton and Sheraton hotel chains. His firm received prestigious national awards for developing earthquake-absorbent structures worldwide. Some of the most notable include the Meridien Hotel in Egypt, the Great Wall Hotel in China, the Hartford National Bank, the Indonesian Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, and the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Along with his firm’s success, Wing was admitted into the Omega Chapter of Sigma Tau (now known as Tau Beta Pi). Wing was admitted for his success as a UW student and for the help he received from UW faculty members who fought alongside him for his admission into the honorary fraternity. Wing had to fight for admittance because, in 1942, he first tried to join the society but was barred from joining because of a “Caucasians Only” clause in their constitution. However, in 1949, Wing was finally inducted into the society. The images below show Wing recollecting his realization as to why he was not first accepted into the honorary fraternity, followed by his correspondence with the chapter when his case was appealed.

Wing’s acceptance into the honorary fraternity was not his only achievement. In 1999, Wing was inducted into the College of Engineering and Applied Science Hall of Fame because of his revolutionary work as a seismic design engineer and his many accolades throughout his career.

A copy of a newspaper clipping about Wing and the rest of the second class of the Engineering Hall of Fame in 1999. Folder 1, Wayman C. Wing Papers, 1941, 1982-2006, Coll. No. 11463, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Wing’s work ethic, determination, and vocalization against discrimination are exemplary traits of a Wyoming Cowboy that should be celebrated today and every day. To learn more about Wayman C. Wing and his contributions to engineering and the larger Wyoming community, you can find the Wayman C. Wing Collection at the American Heritage Center.

Post contributed by English graduate students Katelyn Hayward, Cheyenne Hume, and Makayla  Kocher.

Posted in Academia, Uncategorized, University of Wyoming Alumni, World War II | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment