Good news! The University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center (AHC) has digitized and made accessible online 16 films and video from the American National CattleWomen records. The collection as a whole documents the promotional activities of the organization, especially the National Beef Cook-Off contest, in particular. The National Beef Cook-Off materials includes budgets, clippings, contestant entry forms, materials relating to the promotion of the cookbooks, photographs and negatives of the events, and contestant recipes. Some of the digitized film also documents the Cook-Off, but also covers the National Beef Ambassador Contest.
Third place cook-off winner, Frances Davis, 1974, American National CattleWomen records, Box 19, Folder 1. Collection #5552, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center,
A group of fifteen women met at the Four Bar Ranch near Douglas, Arizona, in October 1939 to form the Cowbelles, an organization to help promote the beef industry and friendship among cattle people; by 1951 it development into a national organization. The organization changed its name to the American National CattleWomen in 1986 to provide national leadership and coordinate promotion, education and legislative activities for women in the cattle industry. The collection documents the activities of the American National Cowbelles and the American National CattleWomen in promoting the beef industry and consumer education from 1951-1995. The collection includes correspondence, articles of incorporation, minutes, membership index and rosters, minutes and reports with state members and chairs, scrapbooks, news clippings, photographs, budgets, and audio visual materials relating to its annual conventions, committees, and promotional activities, especially the National Beef Cook-Off.
Links to digitized items and additional information about the American National CattleWomen records can be found in the on-line finding aid at: https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah05552.xml
–Jamie Greene, Archives Specialist, Digital Programs Department
