The University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center is home to thousands of collections. Perhaps one of the most popular, and equally perplexing, collections is the Stan Lee Papers, the official archive of the celebrated author, editor, and Marvel Comics trailblazer.

In the early summer of 2023, Hazel Homer-Wambeam, Liam Leslie, and I were given the unique opportunity to work in this archive to curate an exhibit about Lee’s life. From the moment we embarked on this research journey, we were frequently asked one question: “Why on earth are Stan Lee’s papers in Wyoming?” Additionally, why would an iconic comic book author and businessman, based largely in Los Angeles and New York, choose an institution in Wyoming as the repository of his papers? Luckily for you, True Believer, my fellow interns and I had the same question and decided to investigate.

Stan Lee, born Stanley Martin Leiber on December 28, 1922, in New York City, is widely recognized as a significant figure in popular culture history. Born in poverty to Romanian-Jewish parents, Lee’s entry into the comic book world began in 1939 when, with assistance from his uncle Robbie Solomon, he secured a position as an assistant at Timely Comics. This newly established division belonged to Martin Goodman’s pulp magazine and comic-book publishing venture. Joe Simon, the editor at Timely, officially hired Lee, who had familial ties through his cousin Jean, Goodman’s wife.

Although Stan Lee’s initial role at Timely involved routine tasks like sharpening pencils and replacing ink, his aspirations as a writer remained his focus. He found himself in company with the likes of innovative and influential illustrator Jack Kirby and esteemed editor-writer Joe Simon. Kirby and Simon were the creators of the highly successful superhero Captain America, which debuted on December 20, 1940, in Captain America Comics #1. Lee’s journey as a comic-book writer commenced in May of the following year with his debut text filler ‘Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge’ in Captain America Comics #3. It was Kirby and Simon who provided the young office assistant, Lee, with his break, allowing him to contribute to the comic under the pen name “Stan Lee,” a name he would later adopt as his own in his professional career.

After Simon and Kirby departed Timely in late 1941 due to a disagreement with Goodman, the 30-year-old publisher appointed the then 19-year-old Stan Lee as interim editor. Despite his youth, Lee exhibited an innate talent for the industry, securing his position as the editor-in-chief of the comic-book division and serving as its art director for a significant duration until 1972. It was in this year that Lee eventually took over from Goodman as the publisher. He continued to write for Timely while serving in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, but in the late 1950s, Lee and Kirby began writing superhero comics, eventually changing Timely Comics to Marvel Comics. Entire volumes have been dedicated to Marvel Comics, exploring the dynamic between Lee and Kirby, among other aspects. However, for now, let’s just say, “The rest is history!”

Stan Lee gained worldwide fame by being the public, charismatic face of Marvel Comics. In addition to comic books, Marvel would branch out into film and television with Lee at the helm, even appearing in cameos in a significant number of Marvel projects. Stan Lee died on November 12, 2018, but his legacy is felt to this day. Stan Lee wrote and edited nearly 10,000 comic books. Marvel has produced more than 70 films and television shows and is worth an estimated $53 billion as of 2023.

By the time of his death, Stan Lee was a cultural hero to millions; however, the American Heritage Center’s relationship with him began when he was still the editor-in-chief and publisher at Marvel Comics.

To begin our investigation into why Stan Lee chose the AHC, we had to dig into the AHC’s donor files. These files, which exist for many collections, house the communications between the Center and its donors. Stan Lee’s donor file is a treasure trove, which establishes a long friendship between Stan Lee and the American Heritage Center.

The first-ever entry in the “Stan Lee Papers” is a letter from controversial former AHC director, Gene Gressley, to Stan Lee. In this initial correspondence, Gressley recalls previous conversations about Lee’s desire to preserve his legacy by archiving his material. Gene Gressley (1931–) is credited with procuring the vast majority of AHC collection material. His methods of collection, which included extensive correspondence and, at times, hitchhiking across the United States, brought him notoriety in the historical community.

During his trips, Gressley would meet rich and influential people who had material or money to donate. This raised the question: When and how did Gene Gressley and Stan Lee meet? Unfortunately, Stan Lee is not alive to tell us how exactly he met the eccentric historian, and currently, we have yet to locate Gene Gressley for comment, despite our best efforts. The origin of their relationship is one we had to infer through donor communications, which indicated that Gressley developed a friendship with the still up-and-coming publisher and producer in the early 1970s on one of these archival road trips. For now, what we know is that in 1982, Gene indicated in his correspondence that he had known Stan for “about 10 years,” putting Stan’s first interaction with the AHC to about 1972, a claim that would be substantiated again in 1994 when Gressley wrote to Lee after his dismissal from the Center.

On December 5, 1978, Gressley and Lee met in the Manhattan offices of Marvel Comics to hash out the details of the donation contract, which would give the American Heritage Center ownership over the material, with the Lee estate having access to copies as needed. By January 1, 1979, the contract was signed, and the Stan Lee Papers were born.

Over the next two years, Stan’s secretaries would contact the Center frequently to let them know that Stan and his staff were going through Stan’s letters to find worthwhile material. Gressley would respond in a 1982 letter, “My archival greed knows no bounds!” letting Stan know that the AHC would take all material. Gressley, multiple times, tells Stan that what he is trying to do is create a “biography of documents,” a phrase that the Stan Lee team at the American Heritage Center has come to revisit many times in this process.

Stan would joke that the AHC became his new way of “cleaning out his files,” but that he enjoyed the process of archiving his materials. Stan wrote to Gene in 1982, “Lordy! Lordy! Won’t historians of the future owe us a towering debt of gratitude!” Curating the collection became something of a fun activity within Stan Lee’s offices, with Stan recalling his secretary picking up a moldy memo and asking, “Can I send this to Director Gressley?” He joked that maybe they were sending too much material and that the University of Wyoming might consider finding a new campus to fit it all. These moments where Stan Lee describes the joy of curating and donating his material are the most fun, as they serve as a reminder of what this collection meant to Lee and that we are dealing with the objects of his life.

In 1983–84, communications with Stan Lee dropped off slightly, although there is some indication that Gene Gressley was still in communication with him socially. At one point, he even visited Lee’s home to see some of his writing materials. However, official communications regarding the collection taper off. This can be credited to the creation of Marvel Productions in Los Angeles, which was also being run by Lee.

In 1984, Marvel Productions suffered a massive studio fire, suffering a $300,000 loss of material, some of which was meant to be shipped to the AHC. Gressley and Lee wrote to each other during this time. These letters read less like official communications about the collection, but more like comforting letters between friends. Gressley told him he hoped that the “intrinsic and creative loss was minimal.” Lee replied, “Please take continued good care of my fantasma-goric papers – those in my possession are probably all I have left.”

After the fire, Stan Lee and his team began donating material more often for “safe-keeping purposes.” The massive loss of Marvel archival material in this fire may have impacted our collection at the American Heritage Center; however, the world is lucky that this collection exists. Otherwise, that loss of history could have been much worse. Writing about the collection after the fire, Lee said, “It makes me feel somehow – authentic! Now that I know somebody actually seems to really notice the material that I send, and some mysterious human being somewhere is honest-to-gosh cataloging it, we’ll knock ourselves out to send you more stuff than ever!”

Gene Gressley and Stan Lee continued to stay in touch, both officially and socially. Both men were entering new stages in their careers and congratulated one another on it. Stan Lee’s Marvel Age magazines and Marvel Productions films were taking off. Gressley had been elected president of the Western History Association. They would write to each other about these accomplishments, and at one point, Lee told Gressley that he was his “favorite penpal.”

But things would get shaken up in 1988 when interim AHC Director Lewis M. Dabney wrote to Lee to inform him that Gene Gressley had taken another “honored position” at the University of Wyoming. We know that Gressley had been dismissed from the AHC for his interference with donors and donor materials but was maintaining his faculty position. Lee and Gressley’s friendship continued after Gressley’s firing; this was revealed in Gressley’s dismissal from the University, where it had also been revealed that he was still receiving material from Stan Lee after he departed from the American Heritage Center.

This, however, did not slow down Stan Lee’s love for the AHC. Lee continued to give monetary and material donations annually to the Center and developed friendships with the new staff and directors. Letters exchanged between Stan Lee and Mike Devine show Lee frequently sent signed comic books and drawings to Devine’s young son, and he updated Devine on his upcoming movie cameos. Stan Lee’s relationship with the American Heritage Center was growing.

Stan Lee and AHC Director Mike Devine planned a visit by Lee to the University of Wyoming, where he headlined a series of educational events for the Laramie community. This visit included visits to the UW Lab School, a dinner with students at the Beta House, a reception in the American Heritage Center Loggia (which, at the time, was a new addition to the University of Wyoming campus), and a lecture in the Arts and Sciences Auditorium. And to make the visit even more fun, Stan Lee brought Spider-Man with him to promote the visit and take pictures with fans. Stan Lee frequently traveled across the country to speak at public schools and college campuses to promote literacy, storytelling, and comic books as an academic medium. Lee, who never attended college himself, likely due to his family’s economic status and the onset of World War II, eventually gained the nickname “Stan, the Speaker-Man” for these visits.

This visit to the American Heritage Center lives on in the memories of many Wyoming Stan Lee fans, some of whom reached out to our team to share stories of meeting Stan Lee and images of their signed comic books. The photographs of this visit show Lee meeting fans of all ages, enthusiastically signing their comic books, and chatting with them. These images also show him standing among his vast archive; by this point, the Stan Lee Papers were already reaching a colossal size, and it is now nearly two hundred cubic feet of material.

After the visit, Stan Lee wrote, “Yes, as far as I’m concerned, good ol’ Wyoming U. is my alma mater. I just wish I could remember where I stored my cap and gown!” Laramie was much more than just the home of his archive; to Lee, the American Heritage Center was meeting the goal of his work being received as academically legitimate.

Throughout the following years, although he never visited again, Stan Lee and his team would continue their donations to the AHC. It is unclear why Stan Lee’s donations ceased in 2011, although reports from the time show that he was beginning to struggle with his health alongside the beginning of the now iconic Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, despite the end of his donations, Lee and his team remained friends with the American Heritage Center. In January 2012, he spoke about the AHC in an interview with The Wall Street Journal: “You may wonder why I picked that university but, when they asked if I would archive my material there, they said that Jack Benny had his archive there. And I was a big fan of Jack Benny’s and I figured, if he’s there, I want to be there.”

In 2015, Lee even did a telephone interview with a young Hazel Homer-Wambeam, one of our interns, for her Wyoming History Day project about his life—a connection she made through the Center.

Stan Lee is one of the most important literary figures of this generation, and the opportunity to study his life has been a marvelous opportunity. Lee’s work tells the story of American popular culture, social justice, and literature, and as academics, we can glean a great deal of knowledge about our world from it. Exploring these documents has allowed me to develop a greater understanding of Stan Lee’s life, both in the big picture and in the day-to-day, creating what Gressley called a “biography of documents.” None of this would have been possible without the American Heritage Center’s persistent efforts to not only obtain collections but also maintain positive friendships with those who donate.

Stan Lee’s legacy lives on in the American Heritage Center’s Stan Lee Papers forever and is accessible to the public upon request.

To learn more about Stan Lee’s life, business ventures, and social views and to see highlights from the collection, visit the AHC exhibit Stan Lee: Beyond the Book opening May 1, 2024, in the American Heritage Center Loggia. The exhibit runs through November 1, 2024.

‘Nuff Said.

Post contributed by AHC Intern Rhiannon McLean.