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- The Nat King Cole They Knew
- Behind the Scenes at the Cone: Photo and Audio at the American Heritage Center
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Category Archives: Collections Highlights
The Nat King Cole They Knew
When Nat Cole was a teenager in Chicago, he couldn’t always afford to get into the clubs where the great jazz pianists played. So he found another way in. His first wife, Nadine, recalled that he would slip around to the alley behind the … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, Music History, Racism
Tagged 20th century music, African American history, Bobby Troup, Capitol Records, Chris Clark-Tidyman, Civil Rights, Ernest Tidyman, Ernest Tidyman papers, Jazz History, Music Biography, Nat King Cole, Nat King Cole Trio, Oral History, Popular music history, Route 66
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Confronting Difficult History: Blackface in Wyoming’s Photographic Past
When I first encountered these photographs in the American Heritage Center’s collections, I was genuinely jarred. As a white person researching these images from 1920s-30s Wyoming, I found myself uncomfortable and unsettled. My immediate reaction was emotional rather than academic … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, Racism, Uncategorized
Tagged 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, American Heritage Center, Bighorn Basin, blackface, Carbon County, CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, difficult history, Encampment Wyoming, Hugo G. Janssen, Lora Webb Nichols, Lovell Wyoming, minstrelsy, New Deal, Photographic collections, race history, Wyoming history
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Vera Marshe and the Lucky ‘E’
Few performers can claim they’ve danced with Fred Astaire, acted alongside the voice of Winnie the Pooh, and collected autographs from Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Vera Marshe did all three. She was a Minnesota native, and an early performer. … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, Hollywood history, Performing Arts, Uncategorized, Women in Hollywood
Tagged 1930s Hollywood, Adele Astaire, astrology, Comedy performers, early television, Entertainment History, Fred Astaire, Golden Age of Hollywood, Minnesota performers, Ozzie and Harriet, Sterling Holloway, The Band Wagon, Vaudeville, Vera Marshe
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125 Years of Yokohama Development
Yokohama is a historic seaport of the Kanto region of Japan, historically serving as a port city for receiving foreign visitors and dignitaries. While today the city’s fame pales in comparison to its neighbor, Tokyo, Yokohama was many visitors’ first … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, International Perspectives, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged 1900s travel, American travelers abroad, Asian history, comparative history, Grand Hotel Yokohama, Historical Photography, Japan, Kanto region, photographic comparison, port cities, Sallie Sharpe Diary, then and now, Urban Development, Yokohama
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“I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”: The Enduring Appeal of a Holiday Hit
As we enter the holiday season, it’s nearly impossible to escape the sounds of holiday standards warbling through PA systems and speakers wherever you go. Holiday music is an incredibly lucrative industry with a wide-ranging and enduring appeal, and many … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, Holidays, Music History, Uncategorized
Tagged 1940s, American Songbook, Armed Forces Network, Bing Crosby, Christmas traditions, Danny Kaye, film history, Fred Astaire, Holiday music, Hollywood, Irving Berlin, Jacques Kapralik, Nathan Van Cleave, Popular music, Robert Emmett Dolan, Rosemary Clooney, Tin Pan Alley, Vera Ellen, VistaVision, White Christmas, World War II, WWII
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AHC and Grand Encampment Museum Unite to Share Lora Webb Nichols’s Remarkable Wyoming Archive
Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962) was a prolific diarist and photographer who lived most of her life in southcentral Wyoming. She accumulated more than 24,000 negatives, representing the many shades of life in the frontier mining town of Encampment. Today, the … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, Photography, Uncategorized, Wyoming history
Tagged copper mining, Diaries, early Wyoming, Encampment, Frontier photography, Grand Encampment Museum, homesteaders, Lora Webb Nichols, Lora Webb Nichols Papers, Medicine Bow National Forest, Mining History, Nancy F. Anderson, Sierra Madre Mountains, Women photographers
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Carroll Baker – More Than a Sex Symbol of the Silver Screen
With her large blue eyes and lithe figure, Carroll Baker was a Hollywood sensation. Papers of the day described her as “a little like Marilyn Monroe, a little like Jean Harlow, and altogether a platinum blonde.” She earned millions from … Continue reading
Posted in Biography and profiles, Collections Highlights, Film History, Hollywood history, Uncategorized
Tagged 1950s, 1960s, Actors Studio, Actresses, Baby Doll, Carroll Baker, Cheyenne Autumn, film history, Giant, Hollywood, Jack Garfein, John Ford, Method acting, Tennessee Williams, The Carpetbaggers, Women in Film, Wyoming history
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From Turkey to Timbales: Thanksgiving Traditions in the Toppan Rare Book Library
As Thanksgiving approaches, here a look at some culinary treasures at the Toppan Rare Book Library—two cookbooks that show how Americans have celebrated the holiday across different eras. A Child’s Party Paradise Let’s start with the more playful of our … Continue reading
Territory Girl, Statehood Pioneer: Mary Godat Bellamy’s Wyoming Story
Imagine hearing the actual voice of someone who watched Civil War soldiers march past her childhood home, then lived to see the atomic age. That’s exactly what you can experience with Mary Godat Bellamy’s 1947 recordings—a remarkable audio document from … Continue reading
Posted in Collections Highlights, Oral history, Uncategorized, Women in History, Wyoming history
Tagged American Heritage Center, audio recordings, Civil War memories, Digitized collections, Fort Sanders, Frontier Life, Laramie Wyoming, Lola Homsher, Mary Godat Bellamy, Oral History Interviews, SoundScribr, Women in Politics, women's suffrage, WyoHistory.org, Wyoming Legislature, Wyoming Pioneers, Wyoming Statehood Day, Wyoming Territory
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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 →