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Author Archives: ahcadmin
On the Air and in the Aisles: How Kraft Music Hall Sold a Show and a Brand
A standard of the Golden Age of Radio, musical-variety radio programs surged in popularity in the early 1930s as consumers gained access to affordable radio units. These shows, often blending comedy with music, remained beloved throughout the Great Depression. Typically … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Entertainment history, Golden Age of Radio, Hollywood history, radio history, television history, Uncategorized
Tagged 1930s, 1940s, American Heritage Center, Bing Crosby, Brand Integration, Carroll Carroll, Hollywood, J. Walter Thompson, John Scott Trotter, Ken Carpenter, Kraft Foods, Kraft Music Hall, Miracle Whip, Musical Variety, NBC radio, Paul Whiteman, Radio Advertising, Radio Networks, Radio Sponsorship
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Tall Tales and Other Oddities – The Fabulous Jackalope of Wyoming
On 307 Day – March 7 – we invite you to consider the jackalope. Many are the visitors to Wyoming who have been taken in by the legend of the jackalope. Mounted specimens of the elusive creature can be found … Continue reading
Posted in Local Folklore, Uncategorized, Western Americana, Wyoming Culture, Wyoming history
Tagged 307 Day, American Heritage Center Collections, Converse County, Douglas Wyoming, Folk legends, Historical Collections, Jackalope, Mythical creatures, Tall tales, Western artifacts, Western folklore, Western Memorabilia, Wyoming tourism, Wyoming traditions, Wyoming Travel
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Through the Stereoscope: White Tourists, Native Prisoners, and the Colonial Gaze
One afternoon at the American Heritage Center an old photograph retrieved from deep in the archive propelled me on a fascinating research journey. It also led me to reckon with the power of photography as a colonial tool and to … Continue reading
Posted in Historical analysis, Native American history, Photography, Uncategorized
Tagged 19th century photography, American West, Archival Research, Catherine Weldon, Colonial gaze, Dakota Territory, Fort Randall, Frontier photography, Gilded Age, Historical Collections, Historical Photography, Indigenous representation, Lakota, Native American representation, Photographic archives, Sitting Bull, Stanley J. Morrow, Stereographs, Stereoscope, Susan Sontag, Thomas King, Visual culture, W.R. Cross
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Beyond Prissy: The Literary Ambitions of Butterfly McQueen
In a small collection at the American Heritage Center – apparently the only archival collection of her papers anywhere – actress Butterfly McQueen preserved a series of typescript works that made me wonder: of all her experiences, why did she … Continue reading
Posted in American Social History, Black History Month, Collections Highlights, Entertainment history, Uncategorized, women's history
Tagged 1970s, American Heritage Center Collections, Archival collections, Black history, Black History Month 2025, Black Women in Hollywood, Butterfly McQueen, Civil Rights, Gone With the Wind, Harlem, Hollywood History, Social Commentary
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Veiled in Gold: The Mysterious History of Disappearing Fore-Edge Decoration
The anatomy of a book includes the fore-edge, or the vertical outer edge of a closed volume. The American Heritage Center’s Toppan Rare Books Library holds fourteen specimens of disappearing fore-edge paintings. Eight of these were collected by Charles Chacey … Continue reading
Posted in Art History, Book arts, Historical Crafts, Library Collections, rare books, Uncategorized
Tagged Art preservation, Art revival, Bibliophilia, Book aesthetics, Book collecting, Book decoration, Book design, Bookbinding, C.B. Currie, Cultural Heritage, Fore-edge painting, Historical bookmaking, rare books, Samuel Mearne, Toppan Rare Books Library, Vera Dutter, Victorian book arts, Vintage books, William Edwards
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Samuel A. Peeples: From Western Frontiers to Sci-Fi Stardom
In 1965, a Western writer helped launch an unexpected science fiction phenomenon. Samuel A. Peeples (1917-1991) was an American screenwriter and novelist whose career spanned genres and mediums, leaving a lasting impact on both Westerns and science fiction. Samuel’s career … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment history, science fiction, television history, Uncategorized, Western fiction, Western genre, Writers and authors
Tagged 1960s Television, American Heritage Center, Brad Ward (pen name), Custer, Film archives, Flash Gordon, Gene Roddenberry, Jason of Star Command, Lancer, NBC, Pop culture history, Samuel A. Peeples, Science Fiction Writers, Screenwriting, Spectre (1977), Star Trek, Television pilots, Television writing, The Tall Man, Western novels, Western Writers, Where No Man Has Gone Before, William Shatner
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On the Road: How Wyoming’s New Roving Archivist Program is Supporting Local History
Imagine trying to preserve a century-old photograph album in a historic building with challenging climate controls or figuring out how to digitize thousands of irreplaceable documents with limited resources. Across Wyoming, local institutions face daily challenges as they work to … Continue reading
Posted in Archival work, Community Impact, Local history, Uncategorized, Wyoming history
Tagged Archives, archivist, community, Digitization, heritage, historical, history, localhistory, museums, nhprc, outreach, preservation, records, shrab, Wyoming
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Olive Clapper: At the Center of 20th Century Politics and Peace Efforts
Few individuals witnessed and participated in pivotal 20th century events as intimately as Olive Ewing Clapper (1896-1968). Born in Kansas City and educated at the University of Kansas, Olive married her childhood sweetheart Raymond Clapper in 1913 after they eloped … Continue reading →