This is a 1993 video commissioned for the opening of the American Heritage Center’s then new building, the Centennial Complex. Hugh Downs, a longtime ABC News correspondent and commentator, whose papers are at the AHC, narrates the video.
Because it is many years old, some changes must be noted and lacuna filled in to provide an up-to-date accurate presentation of the Center and its operations.
- The “Hebard Library,” an extensive collection of publications about Wyoming and by the University of Wyoming, is now the Chisum Special Collections housed at the William Robertson Coe Library on UW’s central campus.
- While the Center’s collections documenting Wyoming and the West by far the largest portion of our holdings, we have also selected judiciously a handful of topics for which we seek nation-wide primary sources.
- The video notes the AHC’s use of “acid free folders and Hollinger boxes,” but it should be noted that over the years many of the tools and systems used to administer our collections have evolved.
- Collection catalog records, mentioned as being available in “OCLC and CARL,” are presently available in Archives West.
- The “International Archive of Economic Geology” no longer exists as such, though the collections that once formed the IAEG remain housed and accessible at the AHC.
- That restaurant mentioned in the video existed for only 12 months, after which it closed.
- The AHC is not a museum, but continues to house and exhibit a truly outstanding small collection of Western art, particularly by Alfred Jacob Miller, William Henry Farny, George DeForest Brush, and Charles Remington.
Not mentioned in the video are services and programs that now form the core of the AHC’s mission, which has evolved greatly over the years since this video was produced. For example, the Center has a robust digital program that includes the curation of “born digital” primary sources (such as digital photos, electronic mail, and the like), as well as the digitization of analog collections. Our digital collections are accessible at https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet.
The video correctly encourages viewers to “contact the Center’s reference archivists”—to do so send an email to ahcref@uwyo.edu, call 307-766-3756, or send surface mail to Reference, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3924, Laramie, WY 82071.