Lights, Camera, Activism: Gladys Margaret Crane’s Enduring Cultural Footprint

Posted on August 28, 2023 by ahcadmin

August 26th marks Women’s Equality Day, and in that spirit, our blog will delve into the papers of Professor Gladys Margaret Crane, a woman of many interests and talents. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1928. Crane attended high school and college in Washington, going on to receive a master’s degree in rhetoric and public address in 1955 from Northwestern University. She then graduated from Indiana University in 1968 with a Ph.D. in theatre. Her dissertation was titled “The Characterization of the Comic Women Characters of George Bernard Shaw.”

As she worked her way through her degrees she taught in various high schools and colleges, eventually becoming an assistant professor of theatre at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. She studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York.

Professor Gladys M. Crane. Box 32, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

In 1969 she was hired by the University of Wyoming, where she spent 24 years in the theater department. As a professor, she received praise from her students who described her as “a fantastic teacher” and “well read, entertaining and insightful.” Crane was Head of the Department of Theatre and Dance from 1987 to 1992. Much of her academic published work was related to George Bernard Shaw.

One of Prof. Crane’s many publications about Shaw. Box 18, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

She also directed five of George Bernard Shaw’s plays at UW, along with more than thirty plays by other playwrights.

A partial list of plays directed by Prof. Crane at the University of Wyoming, 1986. Box 1, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Crane was active in university life, serving as a UW Faculty Senator and on both the Women’s Studies Committee and the University Tenure and Promotion Committee. She took an interest in helping students, both undergraduate and graduate and was a faculty advisor. In 1991, the Cap and Gown Chapter of the Mortar Board recognized her for exceptional contribution to UW and service to the students.

Certificate from the University of Wyoming recognizing Prof. Crane, November 7, 1991. Box 1, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Crane retired from UW as Professor Emeritus of Theatre in 1993. She went on to attend Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, where she received a Master of Theological Studies degree in 1995. She returned to the University of Wyoming where she was a Professor in Religion and Drama for the Department of English and later in the Department of Religious Studies. The classes she taught included Feminist Christian Theology, Feminist Christian Thought, Gender and Religion and Drama and Religion. Among Crane’s papers was this description of “What is a Feminist?”

Box 11, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Crane defined feminist theology as “thinking about God that considers female human experience as significant a source for systematic reflection as male human experience.” She was beloved by the students in her religion courses. They appreciated her ability to facilitate classroom discussions around sometimes controversial topics. Crane’s later in life academic interests were feminist theology, women’s spirituality and religion and drama.

She received a Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for contribution to theatre in 1990. The Rocky Mountain Theatre Association gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. She was recognized by the Wyoming governor in 1994 with the Governor’s Award for contribution to the arts in the state of Wyoming. He cited her “tireless commitment to her teaching … and unflagging professional dedication to theatre and the promotion of theatre in Wyoming, the region and the nation.”

Gladys Crane receiving the Wyoming Governor’s Award from Governor Jim Geringer for her contributions to the arts, 1994. Box 1, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Beginning in 1997, UW hosted an annual Gladys Crane Mountain Plains Film Festival. The festival brought films and filmmakers from around the U.S. to Laramie. Crane was actively involved in selecting films for the festival. They included Academy Award winning documentaries and films that had debuted at international festivals in Europe. The festival films portrayed everything from queer experiences in Mommy Queerest to African American migration from the South to the North at the end of the 19th century in Daughters of the Dust.

Program from the Gladys Crane Mountain Plains Film Festival, September 1998. Box 18, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

In 2000, the Crane Studio, a 4,000 square foot rehearsal hall named for Professor Emerita Crane, opened in the UW Fine Arts building. Funds for the construction came from an anonymous donor.

Gladys Crane at the opening of the Crane Studio in the UW Fine Arts Building, 2000. Box 32, Gladys Margaret Crane papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Crane’s interests extended beyond academics. She took two bicycle tours of Europe – one in the summer of 1952 and again in the summer of 1960. Crane spent a sabbatical in London and attended the conferences of the International Society for Humor Studies. She played the saxophone, enjoyed downhill skiing, and served as president of the League of Women Voters of Wyoming. She even had a bit part in the Paramount Pictures film A New Leaf in 1971. Crane was also an active member of Laramie’s Trinity Lutheran Church, where she sang in the choir and taught Sunday School. She passed away in Laramie on October 18, 2018.

The Gladys Margaret Crane papers at the American Heritage Center consist of 41 boxes, including many of her teaching materials and dozens of scripts as well as documents associated with the League of Women Voters.

Post contributed by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in activism, Feminism, The Arts, Uncategorized, University of Wyoming history, women's history, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lucile Wright: Commercial Pilot and All-Around-Go-Getter

Posted on August 21, 2023 by ahcadmin

Lucile Wright was a “Lady of Firsts,” as one biographer called her, and acquired a long list of accomplishments in her lifetime. Described as being “nearer pint sized than quart,” her petite frame nonetheless housed a voraciously curious mind and bold personality that resulted in a life that could only be described as wide-ranging.

Born Lucile Miller in 1901 in Beatrice, Nebraska, Lucile’s family later moved to Billings, Montana, where she completed high school with honors in only three years. According to her, her parents were both terribly disappointed that she was not born a boy, so they decided to raise her as one. She learned to ride horses, fish, and hunt, along with other “masculine pursuits which in those days were more uncommon for a girl than they are now,” according to a sorority sister that wrote a brief biography of Lucile.

Many people who lived in the rural West at the turn of the 20th century would likely disagree that this was an unusual upbringing for a girl, but one thing Lucile did learn from her parents’ attempts to expose her to varied activities and skills was that if she wanted to do something, she would not let society’s opinions of her gender’s supposed limitations stop her.

Known as someone who was always doing more than one thing at a time, Lucile spent her high school years not only organizing a new “Girls Yell Club” (presumably cheerleaders or a pep squad), but also in performing public service during WWI, including knitting for the Red Cross.

After high school graduation, she went on to study languages and literature with “science on the side” at the University of Minnesota. She transferred to Washington University when her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she studied the same subjects but “went to art school on the side.” Along with her studies, she started a pep club (The Peppers), wrote for the school and local newspapers, joined the Rifle Team, and headed a Big Sisters group.

She said she wanted to study medicine but acquiesced when her father suggested she study law instead and when she and her family moved to Washington, DC, she also took a Foreign Service course at Georgetown. Finally balking at her parents’ wishes, however, she decided to do what was necessary to pursue a career in medicine.

A page from Lucile Wright’s “Leader” notebook from Billings High School, where she wrote down several cheers she made up. This may be the “Girls Yell Club” she organized. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Lucile M. Wright papers, Accession Number 9799, Box 21, Folder “Notebooks.”

She had to tell a few falsehoods about her credentials to “hold down several men’s jobs at once” and occasionally bend the rules to transform her fascinations into real pursuits, which later led her to joke about her “checkered career.” For instance, she became the first female and first person without an MD or PhD to hold the job of research chemist at the City Hospital on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island in New York). She got the job by telling them she had “lots of experience” and writing her own reference letters. She was successful in the job, which included teaching nursing students and, when she got bored with her regular duties, she established and ran a department of clinical photography—where she was the only woman in New York to hold such a position. When she left, they hired three men to take over all her duties.

Lucile married Dr. Edward G. Winkler, who had been an intern at New York hospital and a new acquaintance of Lucile when she decided to turn away from her family’s financial support and run away to New York to pursue a career in medicine. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out Lucile soon after would become Mrs. Winkler during her stint as a research chemist.

Later, in Buffalo, New York, she worked as his receptionist and nurse. Again, “on the side,” she made medical motion pictures and helped prepare his lectures. By creating a chapter of her college sorority, they sponsored a club for underprivileged girls, similar to the Girl Scouts. She supported many organizations in her life, but those that focused on teaching practical skills and confidence to girls seemed to be a particular passion for Lucile.

Lucile Wright, left, presenting awards to members of the Jamestown Girls Club in 1971. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Lucile M. Wright papers, Accession Number 9799, Box 20, Folder “Photographs – Lucile M. Wright 1965-1975.”

After she broke her back falling from a horse, she had to spend a year convalescing. That must have made this ever-active go-getter unbearably restless. She and the doctor also divorced in 1940. It was during this time she decided she wanted to learn to fly, and to do so, she wanted to buy her own training plane. She started selling life insurance and began working as a photographer for the US Army in 1942 to help fund her new passion for aviation. Keeping up with three jobs to learn to fly (again, “on the side”) is admirable. When asked how she did it, Lucile responded, “I have to keep my nose to the grindstone to keep my plane in the air.” Lucile never let obstacles keep her from doing what she wanted.

In 1944, she married John H. Wright, who was the president of a bank and head of the Jamestown, New York, telephone company. He, too, had a passion for photography. And he owned two planes! They were a perfect match, despite his 40-or-so year head start on life. For their honeymoon, Lucile flew the couple to the west coast. She later said she loved her new home of Jamestown, New York, because it was the “most western town of any eastern town she had been in.”

Lucile Wright behind the controls of a plane when she worked as a commercial airline pilot out of the New York area, taken in 1950. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Lucile M. Wright papers, Accession Number 9799, Box 11, Folder “Photographs – Lucile Wright Aviation 1950.”

In Jamestown, she was active as ever. She again helped form a girls club and was active in several clubs, including the Jamestown chapter of the 99s, the International Association of Women Pilots. Her husband died just a few years later, in 1951, at age 83. His obituary describes his lifelong passion for aviation, resulting in his buying his first plane at the age of 73. It seems the timing of his first meeting with Lucile was kismet. He also helped form the local Civil Air Patrol and served on the Jamestown Municipal Airport Commission. Lucile became the first woman to serve on this commission when she took over her late husband’s unexpired term. This proved to be an important turn in her life since she served as chair of the airport commission for the better part of a decade and oversaw the creation and execution of a major improvement plan for the Jamestown Municipal airport.

A clipping saved by Lucile Wright, right, where she is shown with other people who worked on her improvement plan for the Jamestown Municipal Airport. The Jamestown Sun, September 9, 1955. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Lucile M. Wright papers, Accession Number 9799, Box 10, Folder “Newspaper Clippings – Jamestown Municipal Airport 1953-1962.”
A newspaper clipping Lucile Wright saved during her time as airport commission chairman in Jamestown, New York. It depicts the newly elected mayor, Carl Sanford, taking credit for the years of work Lucile put into the redevelopment and improvements of Jamestown airport. The Jamestown (N.Y.) Sun, September 24, 1957, p. 8. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Lucile M. Wright papers, Accession Number 9799, Box 10, Folder “Newspaper Clippings – Jamestown Municipal Airport 1953-1962.”

While serving on the airport commission and multiple other boards, Lucile also continued to work as the secretary-treasurer of her husband’s telephone company for 35 years. Though she took her first flight way back in 1938 (before she had a license to do it!), by the time of WWII, she was serving in the Civil Air Patrol alongside her husband. She was the only woman in western New York to do so.

She flew in several Powder Puff Derbies until 1954 but stayed active as a commercial pilot traveling all over the world until the 1970s. In 1976, she moved to Cody, Wyoming, where she, of course, was active in many local groups and clubs including the Republican Women’s Club, the Cody Music Club, and the Cody Country Art League.

She died at the age of 89 from Alzheimer’s and her ashes were spread over the mountains because, despite her globetrotting and kaleidoscopic life, Lucile always loved the West.

Post by Brigida Blasi, AHC Public History Educator

#alwaysarhiving

Sources:

“Lucile M. Wright,” Obituary. The Billings Gazette. June 23, 1990, p. 17.

“John H. Wright Dies at 83,” Obituary. Buffalo Evening News. February 19, 1951, p. 4.

Posted in aviation, Biography and profiles, Uncategorized, women's history, World War I, World War II | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Sky is the Limit: The UW Atmospheric Science Department and an Oral History Project

Posted on August 14, 2023 by ahcadmin

Donald Veal is a name that many University of Wyoming employees and citizens of the state remember. Veal had many “firsts” at UW. He earned the first Ph.D. from the College of Engineering when he completed his Civil Engineering degree in 1964. In 1981, he became the first alumnus to be named president of the university – a position he held until 1987. It is another “first” that ultimately led to an oral history project.

On July 1, 1971, the Department of Atmospheric Science was formed, and Veal was named its first department head. Veal remained chair of the department until 1980, when he accepted the position of Vice President of Research and moved from his College of Engineering office to Old Main.

Don Veal’s connection to atmospheric research at UW dates to the early 1960s, when he became acquainted with Professor John Bellamy, who was director of UW’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI.) At the time, the NRRI was beginning to study weather modification on top of Elk Mountain, northwest of Laramie. Bellamy encouraged Veal to join the research team. With Veal’s experience as a pilot, the NRRI also began conducting aerial research with a recently purchased university aircraft. After retiring from UW in 1987, Veal entered the private sector where he was involved in weather research instrumentation development with a firm in Colorado known as Particle Measuring Systems.

Don Veal with the UW Beech C-45 research aircraft at the UW Flight Center at the Laramie Airport, circa 1969. Gabor Vali Photo, Department of Atmospheric Science Records.

Veal passed away on January 20, 2019. Professor Bart Geerts attended Veal’s memorial service in Longmont, Colorado, on January 26, 2019. Geerts was the chair of the Department of the Atmospheric Science at the time. After the service, Geerts realized that with Veal’s passing, many important memories and critical details of the early years of the department were lost. Moved by the stories shared at the memorial service of Veal’s tremendous vision and efforts to establish and sustain an Atmospheric Science Department, Geerts recognized the loss of Veal’s institutional memory and began the effort to ensure other stories could be preserved.

Geerts knew how important it would be to connect with other individuals who were associated with the early years of the department. He contacted me and asked if I could assist in preserving the early history of the department. After meeting with Geerts and others from the department – including Al Rodi, Perry Wechsler, and Jeff Snider – over the course of several months, we agreed that conducting oral history interviews would be a worthwhile project.

I was given contact information for approximately ten former employees and graduate students who could provide key information about the early years of the department. The arrival of COVID-19 initially slowed the project. I conducted my first interview on September 27, 2021. The first interview was, perhaps, the most important. It also was the most fortuitous. Professor Gabor Vali, like Veal, arrived at UW prior to the establishment of the department. Vali was hired in 1969 as an assistant professor. After retiring from UW in 2006, he moved to Spain.

I reached out to Vali to encourage him to share his memories of the department. Though my goal was to conduct as many in-person interviews as possible, I knew that would not happen with him living so far away. In a stroke of luck, when I contacted him by email, he happened to be in the area on vacation where he was visiting family and friends. He was gracious enough to take a few hours to meet with me in Laramie.

Professor Gabor Vali and graduate student, Vickie Sutherland Johnson on top of Elk Mountain, circa 1977. Photo by Dave Rogers, Department of Atmospheric Science Records.

During the oral history interview, Vali made an important observation about institutional memory loss and the importance of oral history interviews. When I asked Gabor to share his thoughts about Don Veal, he responded very emotionally, saying:

I spoke to Don less than a month before he died. I went to visit him at his home in Longmont. His memory was just as sharp as ever. So, when you say, ‘you lost memory’ (referring to Don’s passing), his was it. I never had a good memory. He had an incredible memory – to detail and connections. Incredible.

His emotional account of Don Veal reminded me of the importance of oral history projects. Another professor associated with the very early years of the department was John Marwitz. Sadly, he passed away before I had a chance to meet with him. His passing was yet another reminder of the importance of interviewing people sooner rather than later.

Professors John Marwitz (L) and Donald Veal, July 2007. Photo by Ken Grandia, Department of Atmospheric Science Records.

Like so many projects, this project took on a life of its own. During interviews, other important names would come up in conversation. It seemed that every time I would interview somebody, the person would ask, “Have you interviewed (fill in the name) yet?” What started as a list of ten names quickly grew to include many more interesting perspectives from individuals connected with the department. At the conclusion of the project on December 6, 2022, when I conducted the final interview, I had met with 44 individuals. Interviews were conducted in-person at various locations, via telephone, and through Zoom video conferencing. Oral history interviews bring life and character to a story, and they help fill in voids that are not recorded in reports and other historical documents.

John Waggener (L), interviews retiring professor, Jeff Snider, and Department Head Jeff French in 2022.

The approximately 70 hours of audio content will be made available to the public later in 2023 within the Department of Atmospheric Science Collection at the AHC. A link to the inventory for those records can be found at https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv601332

Post contributed by John Waggener, University Archivist & Historian.

#alwaysarchiving

Those interviewed include:

  • Wendy Abshire (M.S. 1989)
  • Susan Allen (graphic artist and office assistant 1978-2015)
  • Darrel Baumgardner (M.S. 1980, Ph.D. 1988, Research Scientist 1978-1981)
  • Bill Bellamy (son of NRRI Director John Bellamy)
  • Jerry Berger (former UW Art Museum curator and friend of Don Veal)
  • Bruce Boe (M.S. 1981), Kermit Brown (friend of Don Veal and UW Trustee)
  • Richard Clark (Ph.D. 1987)
  • Don Day (student and teaching assistant 1990-1992, owner of Day Weather)
  • Terry Deshler (M.S. 1975, Ph.D. 1982, Research Scientist and Professor 1982-2014)
  • Richard Dirks (Professor, 1969-1976)
  • Tom Drew (UW Pilot 2002-present)
  • Trude Eidhammer (Ph.D. 2002)
  • Jeff French (Ph.D. 1998, Research Scientist and Professor 2005-present)
  • Bart Geerts (Professor 1999-present)
  • Bill Gern (UW Vice President for Research and Development 1995-2017)
  • Ken Grandia (M.S. 1973)
  • Sam Haimov (Research Scientist 1995-2022)
  • Larry Irving (Technician 1966-2000)
  • Vickie Johnson (M.S. 1978)
  • Robert Kelly (M.S. 1978, Professor 1984-2017)
  • Dan Knollenberg and Robert Knollenberg (friends of Don Veal and owners of Particle Measuring Systems)
  • William Mahoney (M.S. 1983, Research Associate 1983-1984)
  • Brooks Martner (Research Scientist 1974-1987)
  • Karen Marwitz (Widow of Professor John Marwitz)
  • Tom Parish (Professor 1980-2017)
  • Marcia Politovich (Ph.D. 1986, Graduate Research Assistant and Research Associate 1978-1986)
  • Ken Pomeroy (M.S. 1999)
  • Al Rodi (Ph.D. 1981, Professor 1981-2018)
  • Dave Rogers (M.S. 1973, Ph.D. 1982, Research Scientist 1973-1983)
  • Wayne Sand (Ph.D. 1980, Research Meteorologist, Pilot, Professor 1976-1987)
  • Ken Sassen (Ph.D. 1976)
  • Russell Schnell (M.S. 1971, Ph.D. 1974, Research Assistant, Research Scientist, 1969-1974)
  • Robert Serafin (National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR, who collaborated with UW on numerous projects)
  • Jeff Snider (Ph.D. 1989, Professor 1990-2022)
  • Tom Spangler (M.S. 1972), Gabor Vali (Professor 1969-2006)
  • Rimvyda Valiukenas (Staff Assistant and Business Manager 1987-2016)
  • Marthajayne Vaughan (UW Classmate and friend of Don Veal)
  • Sherrill Veal (Don Veal’s daughter)
  • Perry Wechsler (Engineer, Research Scientist 1982-2016)
  • Joney Wilmot (Widow of Roger Wilmot, Natural Resources Research Institute)
  • Tom Yoksas (Graduate Assistant 1977-1981, Systems Administrator 1981-1987)
Posted in aviation, oral histories, Uncategorized, University of Wyoming history, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Celebrating National Book Lover’s Day with Medieval Treasures

Posted on August 7, 2023 by ahcadmin

August 9th is National Book Lover’s Day. To celebrate, the Toppan Rare Books Library is presenting a couple of our (personal) favorite books from the collection: a 15th century Belgian prayer book and an illuminated religious song book, also from the 15th century.

Illuminated manuscripts were extremely valuable books in the medieval world, each meticulously handcrafted from binding to text. Thanks to the expansive Fitzhugh collection, Toppan boasts a couple of extraordinary examples. These particular manuscripts have been broadly dated to the 15th century.

Before the printing press began to revolutionize and democratize printed culture in the early sixteenth century, books were the possessions of the wealthy classes and the Church. They were frequently produced in the scriptoria of monasteries by monks and nuns trained as scribes, or in universities after 1200. Luckily for us, unique scribal hands can sometimes be attributed to particular monastic members or by colophons in the bindings. Through colophons and scribal hand comparison studies, Cynthia J. Cyrus identified 460 manuscripts made by 286 female scribes across forty-eight German women’s convents.

Something that many are drawn to at first glance are the colors on the pages – just as vibrant all these centuries later. Each of these pigments had specific recipes, meanings, and values.

Gold was the most valuable since it was real gold that had been pounded into fine leaves and carefully applied to the design. In other cases, it was pounded into a powder and made into a paste using a liquid like mercury or vinegar. Ultramarine was an extremely difficult pigment to mix for various reasons. Lapis lazuli was expensive, and it was back-breaking to acquire it from the mountains in the Sar-e-Sang region of Afghanistan. It was also made up of a plethora of impurities. The artist had to separate the deep blue color from these impurities which took about three days to complete. For this reason, the recipe to make ultramarine blue was shrouded in secrecy. Due to its brilliance and value, artists relegated this blue pigment to the robes of one precious figure in particular: the Virgin Mary.

Another fascinating color to behold in illuminated manuscripts is green. Based on the way the pigment has interacted with the paper in the Toppan Library’s Fitzhugh manuscripts, it is likely that it is what was known as verdigris. Verdigris is created through the intentional corrosion of copper with air, moisture, and acid – or vinegar. Cennino Cennini, a fourteenth century artist, noted that because verdigris was produced using copper, it was liable to break down over time. Such breakdown appears in the form of chemical reactions between the paper, binder material, and color. Examining degradation patterns today depends on factors such as pollution, environmental conditions, and storage methods. In the case of the Toppan manuscripts, there is minimal degradation aside from the pigment gradually bleeding through the parchment. This is influenced by the fact that the book has been kept under controlled low humidity in a dry Wyoming environment. Those in locations with higher humidity might observe the color beginning or already eating through the page entirely.

Illuminated manuscripts were owned and commissioned by the wealthiest of medieval people. Books of hours like these were one of the most common types of bound volumes produced in the Middle Ages. They were meant to structure the days or years of the owner and encourage private and individualized devotion times throughout a given timeframe. Frequently found are lists of saints and their feast days as well as the legends of some saints that the owner found especially venerable.

Especially interesting is the frequency with which books of hours were owned by women. Mothers were in charge of their daughters’ educations. Wealthy mothers might commission a personalized volume that taught girls how to be pious and good wives and mothers themselves, and they may choose specific saints’ legends to meet this end. Illuminated manuscripts were valuable enough to be included in dowries, and books of hours could be given as wedding gifts to the bride. Excitingly, recent noninvasive scientific examinations of the books themselves and substances found on them have shown evidence of illuminated books’ role in the elite birth room. Prayers and legends – such as that of Saint Margaret of Antioch, the patron saint of childbirth – could hold incredible power for a woman in labor who believed that the saint’s protective powers could transfer to her if she bound the text to her thigh or abdomen.

Illuminated manuscripts are more than just books. They are works of art, expressions of faith, and windows into the past. They reveal the skills, creativity, and devotion of the people who made them and used them. They also show the challenges and changes that these books faced over time, from the invention of the printing press to the preservation efforts of today. The Toppan Rare Books Library is proud to have these illuminated manuscripts in its collection and to share them with the public on National Book Lover’s Day and beyond. If you are interested in seeing these manuscripts in person or learning more about them, please visit the website for more information.

Post contributed by Toppan Library Assistants Marcus Holscher and Emma Comstock.

#alwaysarchiving

Sources consulted:

[Anonymous illuminated ms. prayer book. Belgian], [15th century?], Fitzhugh Collection. ND3380.M36x. Toppan Rare Book Library, University of Wyoming.

[Anonymous illuminated ms. song book], [15th century?], Fitzhugh Collection. ND3380.M37x. Toppan Rare Book Library, University of Wyoming.

Banik, Gerhard. “Discoloration of Green Copper Pigments in Manuscripts and Works of Graphic Art.” Restaurator 10, no. 2 (1989): 61-73.

Brown, Michelle P. The British Library Guide to Writing and Scripts: History and Techniques. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

Cennini, Cennino D’Andrea. The Craftsman’s Handbook. Translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960.

Cyrus, Cynthia J. “Appendix B: Forty-eight Women’s Convents with Active Scriptoria in Late Medieval Germany.” In The Scribes for Women’s Convents in Late Medieval Germany, 217-220.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.

Colour: The Art & Science of Illuminated Manuscripts. Edited by Stella Panaytova, Deirdre Jackson, and Paola Ricciardi. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016.

Donohoe, Róisín. “‘Unbynde her anoon’: the Lives of St. Margaret of Antioch and the lying-in space in late medieval England.” In Gender in medieval places, spaces and thresholds. Edited by Victoria Blud, Diane Heath, and Einat Klafter, 137-156. London: University of London Press, Institute of Historical Research, 2019.

Fiddyment, Sarah, et al. “Girding the loins? Direct evidence of the use of a medieval English parchment birthing girdle from biomolecular analysis.” Royal Society Open Science 8 (2021): 1-14.

Finlay, Victoria. The Brilliant History of Color in Art. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2014.

Finlay, Victoria. Color: A Natural History of the Palette. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004.

Groag Bell, Susan. “Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture.” Signs 7, no. 4 (Summer 1982): 742-768.

Posted in 15th century, Artists, Book arts, Book history, Toppan Rare Books Library, Uncategorized, women's history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Behind the Scenes at the Cone: Organizing and Processing History

Posted on July 31, 2023 by ahcadmin

Organizing and arranging historical documents can be difficult. And at a world-renowned archive like the one at the University of Wyoming, there are a select number of people who can manage it.

One of them is AHC Processing Archivist Roger Simon. His particular specialties are politics and pop culture. In fact, Roger is the AHC’s go-to person for anything to do with Hollywood film history. Currently, he is processing the papers of Robert Bloch (1917-1994), best known as the author of the 1959 novel Psycho, which was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film of the same name. 

The Bloch papers include the author’s many books that were translated into various foreign languages for international editions. Included are books in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Japanese, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, and Swedish. Robert Bloch papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming (Photo courtesy of Leslie Waggener).

Simon explains, “What we do as processors is called ‘arrangement and description.’ If I’m going to process a collection of materials from a particular donor, my goal is to arrange them in a way that I hope will make sense to any researchers who use the collection.”

He compares it to completing a puzzle.

“When I begin work on a collection, normally I first take an inventory of the materials in it by opening the boxes and going through them. That’s one of the things that I find most interesting – the process of finding out what’s in the collection, and it’s kind of like seeing how the pieces of a puzzle fit together.”

What does that puzzle look like when it’s complete? An example is the finding aid for the papers of Buddy Ebsen, an accomplished dancer and stage, film, and television actor best known for his roles in the TV series Davy Crockett, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Barnaby Jones. Ebsen was also an artist, musician, sailor, and author. It took Roger many months to figure out how to solve the puzzle of putting that collection together, but he eventually was able to organize it into a set of series that describes Ebsen’s multi-dimensional life and career.

A photograph of Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. Ebsen was replaced for the part after he experienced a severe health reaction to the aluminum dust used as part of the costume. Buddy Ebsen papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Arranging and describing a collection is fascinating work, but it can have its tedious moments. “If the collection has a massive amount of correspondence and it’s just a mess, there’s no other way to do it except just to sit at a desk and sort the letters – usually by year and month,” Simon notes, adding, “I can’t read through every single document – that would be almost impossible. But I look at each document to see what it is and where it belongs.”

In addition to the volumes of correspondence are gems like this. It’s a cover of the March 1989 issue of The Reluctant Famulus, one of many fanzines that Bloch collected. Robert Bloch papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
And these. Make you want to sit down and read while organizing a collection. Robert Bloch papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

“I normally work on one collection at a time. Depending on the size of the collection, it may take me as little as a few weeks or as long as a year or more to fully arrange and describe it. It took me about a year and a half to fully process Buddy Ebsen’s papers.” 

While organizing all the items in a large collection may seem overwhelming, Simon has his methods for sorting through them all.  “I like using filing cabinets, which allow me to organize the materials as I inventory them,” he explains. 

Roger Simon shows how he organizes the collections he works with. These files contain Bloch’s correspondence (Photo courtesy of Leslie Waggener).    

But that is only for print documents.  Digital materials are a completely different ballgame – or are they?

“It’s really no different from processing paper materials. Our digital archivist provides me with the digital files (through a process called ‘ingestion’), and then I go through them and figure out where they belong within the arrangement of the collection. For example, correspondence may be paper, or it may be digital – for example, emails. In collections of older materials, there probably won’t any born-digital documents, but more recent collections will likely have them.”

To learn more about the AHC, see our website.

Post contributed by AHC intern Carissa Mosness and AHC Processing Archivist Roger Simon.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in American Heritage Center, Archival work, behind the scenes, faculty/staff profiles, Interns' projects, science fiction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lucy Tells: The Story of a Woman Comic Book Writer

Posted on July 24, 2023 by ahcadmin

Lucy Thomas was a woman author and columnist in the heavily male-dominated comics industry of the 1950s. Born on June 19, 1920, in New Jersey, Lucy Thomas later resided in Colorado in the 1950s where she was heavily involved in her local church and volunteered for the Red Cross during World War II. She documented stories while volunteering abroad though freelance writing but was primarily employed by comic book writers Charlie Brio and Bob Wood and by extension, their comic book publisher Lev Gleason.

Thomas ran an advice column called Lucy Thomas Tells, which was geared towards giving romantic advice as filler in romance comics, which she also helped author. “How to Get Your Man,” “Great Lovers of History,” and “What Gifts Should a Girl Accept?” are some of her column headlines.  

“Lucy Thomas Tells” from issue #3 of Boy Meets Girl Comics, 1950. Image from https://c.im/@ruralgloom/109956331121865216.

In addition to dispensing advice to the lovelorn, Thomas authored features for comics geared towards boys, though it was unclear why she was not credited as the author. The features were “type” (filler stories), approximately two pages in length that separated the two main stories of the comic. Both the comics and the features were held liable by the Comics Code, which was issued in 1954 and comics adhered to it in order to be a respectable publication. Comic book publishers did not necessarily have to adhere to the code as it was voluntary, but Lev Gleason worked to ensure that his comics did.

The cover of each comic published by Gleason has a sign: a star with a rectangle, both with text on the top point, to show that the comics were adhering to the code and were safe for children to read, and that they would not be a bad influence on the child’s psyche. Comics like Daredevil, Black Diamond, Uncle Charlie’s Fables, Crime Does Not Pay, and Boy all attempted to promote positive behavior as dictated by the Comics Code, and discourage delinquent activity such as vandalism, petty theft, loitering, and other crimes. The code also discouraged explicit gore, extreme violence, or depicting authority figures such as the military, police, or government as corrupt.

Cover of Boy Comics #76, April 1952. Note star insignia on the top right indicating that the comic adheres to the Comics Code. Box 1, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Cover of Daredevil Comics #88, July 1941. Note that there is no Comics Code insignia on this issue as it pre-dates the code. Box 1, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Feature written by Lucy Thomas in Black Diamond Western #34, 1952. Note that she was not credited on this filler that she authored. She was not credited for this story anywhere in the comic book. Box 1, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Cover of Black Diamond Western #34, 1952. Box 1, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Excerpt from “Black Diamond” no. 34. Written and Edited by Charlie Brio and Bob Wood. Box 1, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The Comics Code was also used to promote traditionally American ideals, such as being anti-communist and anti-Nazi, as seen in Crime Does Not Pay and Daredevil, and to promote American exceptionalism, which can be seen in Black Diamond and Boy. While she did not pen the main stories of the comics, Thomas followed similar guidelines in her features. Both the comics and the features slip in subtle promotions of “ideal” behavior in children regarding how they should behave in school, with their parents, and with other authority figures. Brio-Wood did not have to alter their story lines to any major extent to adhere to it.

Lucy Thomas, while an established and accomplished short story author, still encountered problems navigating the comic publishing world. She received credit for authoring her advice column, and for co-authoring romance comics written for young women, such as Boy Meets Girl and Lover’s Lane. Her features that appeared in comics meant for young boys, however, did not acknowledge her as the author. She also experienced multiple problems regarding payment for her stories, as well as the use of her. This also happened to another female writer on the Brio-Wood payroll.

Letter written by Lucy Thomas to Charles Brio and Bob Wood. Box 2, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The problems regarding the use of Thomas’ name arose due to a shift in management and editorial staff, which she and her co-author Ada Nevill strongly disagreed with. The problem arose after Brio-Wood and Lev Gleason Publications partnered to continue to publish stories. Brio-Wood, who were Thomas’ initial editors, were the editors in name only. The actual editor of the advice columns, stories, and features was Henry Lieferant, an employee of Gleason. After the merge, Nevill removed herself from writing for the magazine, but Gleason continued to use her name. Thomas took over her work, which increased sales for both Boy Meets Girl and for Nevill’s comic, Lover’s Lane. This increase in sales incentivized Lev Gleason Publications to move the comics to a monthly release. Because Thomas had taken over Nevill’s work, both her and Lieferant’s work doubled.

Lieferant and Thomas did not get along, which only increased tensions as fan mail and advice letters were being signed as “Ada Nevill” or “Lucy Thomas” without the knowledge of either woman. According to Thomas’ correspondence, the editorial staff was switched to Lev Gleason without their knowledge as well. More problems arose when Gleason was accused by the New York World-Telegram for aligning with communists in 1950. This suspicion was reinforced by the fact he had been a member of the party in the 1930s, and that he was a member of an anti-fascist league.

Permissions letter written by Lucy Thomas to Lev Gleason, Box 1, Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers, Collection #6731, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Thomas was concerned that she would be associated with a publisher who promoted communist ideals to children, and that her name would be slandered thereafter. She was also displeased with the use of Nevill’s name over her own, as Nevill had larger impact on Lover’s Lane as an author than Thomas did on Boy Meets Girl. Adding to the issues was that Lucy Thomas was in habit of using her given name when authoring comics while ‘Ada Nevill’ was a pen name, thus protecting the real author – Ada Fisher. Thus, Fisher, would have relatively more protection if Lev Gleason was accused of promoting communism.

Thomas did eventually relent in January 1950 and gave Lev Gleason permission to use her name and likeness, even in the event that Brio-Wood withdrew their own permissions. Thomas moved to Denver from New York City in 1952 following her marriage to J. Clark Blickensderfer, where she became involved in local opera and symphony clubs.

She still wrote filler stories for comics following her move to Denver, electing to mail them to the publisher rather than work in the office. To learn more about Lucy Thomas and her work, see the Lucy Thomas Blickensderfer papers at the American Heritage Center.

Post contributed by AHC Archives Aide Jade Vandel.

#alwaysarchiving

References:

The Comics Code of 1954
Posted in Comic book history, Communism, Uncategorized, women's history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Behind the Scenes at the Cone: Arranging Items from History

Posted on July 17, 2023 by ahcadmin

In a place like the American Heritage Center (AHC), which houses tens of thousands of historical documents, it can be hard to navigate them and figure out what each collection is. Thankfully, the Center has Jamie Greene, the Manager of Arrangement and Description.

Jamie Greene, Manager of the AHC’s Arrangement and Description Department (Photo courtesy of Carissa Mosness).   

“Basically, our job is to rehouse, arrange, describe, catalog, and create finding aids for our collections, and that’s what makes them a little more usable to the researcher,” Greene explains. “So, the catalog record is how patrons find collections in our systems. And then the finding aid is how they navigate the collection and try to locate whatever their research interests are.”

In simple terms, Greene is in charge of arranging and describing collections so that researchers know what’s in them.

And while the process might sound simple, it’s actually much more intricate, as I learned from Jamie. There are two units within the AHC’s Arrangement and Description Department that make collections available: Content Listing and Processing. Those words may not sound exciting, but the results certainly are for researchers and history lovers alike.

Jamie explains, “The Content Listing Unit inventories and makes available newly acquired collection materials, while the Processing Unit arranges and describes collections that have been at the AHC for years.”

As we learned in last week’s post, a set of materials comes in the AHC’s door and Bailey Sparks in the Accessioning Unit does all that’s needed to make sure the materials are legally transferred to the Center and a record is made of their new status as a AHC collection.

From there, the collection goes to Content Listing. This is where Jamie and her assistants come into the picture. Content listing is a fairly new procedure at the AHC, and for archives in general. It means that, instead of waiting potentially years for newly acquired collections to be fully arranged and described (i.e., “processed”), the new collection will get a brief description and inventory – enough to get it in the hands of researchers sooner rather than later.

“The Content Listing Unit inventories new collection material using an archival practice called MPLP (More Product, Less Process),” Jamie describes. “This allows us to rehouse and get just enough descriptive information to quickly catalog and create or edit a finding aid for new collection materials and note if more detailed arrangement and description is required later when resources allow.”

An AHC student intern assisting in content listing a new collection. This process is one way UW students get hands-on training in working with archival materials (AHC photo).

So, what happens when collections get the full treatment and they are processed? “You can think about what’s called ‘processing order,’” Jamie told me. “Either you try to maintain the order that the materials came to you, because usually they can be in some kind of order, or if they’re not in order, your job as a processor is to formulate one. Then a processing plan is made by creating record groups of series and sub-series. Once you’re happy with that, you start creating a catalog record, and that’s what goes into the catalog system we share with the University of Wyoming Libraries.”

Boxes of new material for the Union Pacific Historical Society collection that Jamie Greene is processing. (Photo courtesy of Carissa Mosness)

But one thing makes the AHC’s collections stand out from books and other published materials housed at the UW Libraries. “What makes cataloging archives unique from a library is we also create what’s called a ‘finding aid’ for each collection,” Jamie notes.

From Jamie, I learned that a finding aid is a document that archivists provide to researchers so they can have a description of a collection’s contents and where to locate an item within the collection. Researchers can know box by box what’s in a collection and sometimes even folder by folder if the finding aid is detailed enough. The AHC has collections that can be more than 100 boxes. Can you imagine trying to find something specific if you had to examine even 10 boxes? Thank goodness for finding aids!

This section of the finding aid for the records of the Union Pacific Historical Society shows how each box in the collection is described. On the left, is a table of contents that allows a researcher to go directly to the part of the finding aid most helpful to them (AHC photo).

While describing a collection and creating a finding aid may seem simple and easy, Greene wants people to know that it’s not and, depending on the collection, it can be a time-consuming process.

“It just depends on the size of the collection,” Greene notes. “A collection can be one folder to 1000s of boxes. So, clearly, if it’s one folder, you can probably get it done in four hours to a day. One thousand boxes are going to take a few years. Honestly, it depends on the size and the complexity of the collection.”

The inventory tag from the Union Pacific Historical Society that Jamie Greene is working on. From the numbers on this tag, AHC staff can tell that the collection number is 10713, that the collection arrived on December 9, 2022, and that this particular box is number 354. These numbers remain as a permanent part of the collection’s record at the Center. (Photo courtesy of Carissa Mosness).

During her time at the Center, as an undergrad student employee, a digitization tech and supervisor, a processor, and in her current position as Manager of Arrangement and Description, which she has held the past two and a half years, she has seen a lot of different collections.

“There are ones that stand out because they’re a mixture of what I thought was cool, but they also were difficult. There were difficulties in getting them taken care of on the shelves and processed,” Jamie describes, “I can’t really name a favorite, to be honest. They’ve all kind of blended together.”

That is not to say Jamie doesn’t love her job, because she does.

“I’m working with the collection materials,” she remarks. “I like arrangement and description, the cataloging, and the creating of the finding aids,”

To learn more about the AHC, see the Center’s website at  http://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/.

Post contributed by AHC intern Carissa Mosness.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in American Heritage Center, Archival preservation, behind the scenes, faculty/staff profiles, Finding Aids, Interns' projects, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Behind the Scenes at the Cone: Intaking History

Posted on July 10, 2023 by ahcadmin

The American Heritage Center (AHC) is home to thousands of different historical materials ranging from letters, diaries, and photos to oral history recordings and original artwork, just to name a few. But how what happens when collections come through the AHC’s door? And how do they get that little number—“Accession Number”—that make them unique? Well, that is all done by the AHC’s Accessions Unit Supervisor, Bailey Sparks.

Bailey Sparks is pictured above in a selfie she took at the AHC.  (Photo courtesy of Bailey Sparks)

Bailey is also one of the first people at the AHC to see the new historical materials when they arrive on campus and is responsible for everything from helping to decide which materials the Center will accept to transferring physical and intellectual ownership to the AHC and the legalities associated with that.

“Legal ownership of the material is super, super important,” Sparks explains, adding, “There are documents that sign over the legal ownership of the material to the AHC. Within those documents, donors can say if they have dispositional instructions for them, meaning if the Center was to dispose of the material because it’s not archival, then the donor has a say in where it goes.”

“Most often, if they have any instructions, it’s to return the materials to the donor. They can also retain copyrights if they so choose. So as long as I can keep on top of when things have arrived and keep track of the status of the legal documents that pertain to various materials, then we’re in pretty good shape.”

One of the many filing cabinets where Bailey houses copies of the legal documents. (Photo courtesy of Carissa Mosness)      

Back to those mysterious little numbers. I asked Bailey what an “accession number” is. I learned that it’s a sequential number each collection receives that indicates the chronological order of the acquisition. The AHC is now in the 13,000s+ so that’s a lot of acquisitioning going on. She related to me, “If the material is a new collection, then it gets its own totally unique number and a little number at the end that denotes which day it arrived. If something is going into an already existing collection, then it gets assigned that existing collection number and a specific number based on the date that it arrived.” You can think of it like a unique number that a book receives once a library catalogs it. That catalog number is how the library tracks the book and the accession number is how an archive tracks its collections.

Photos bubble-wrapped from shipping await accessioning. (Photo by Carissa Mosness)

Sparks is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology at UW and hopes to one day obtain her master’s in library science, which led her to her current position, which she started at the end of November in 2022.

“I like the energy at the AHC,” Sparks exclaims, “It vacillates between routine, which I like, but it can also change quite suddenly as well. I mean, there are difficulties with any position, but this job has been really nice because I am able to have somewhat flexible hours.”

A box of newly arrived materials is in a room specially designated as a staging area for incoming collections. (Photo by Carissa Mosness)

Sparks also took time to praise her coworkers at the Center, noting how helpful they have been over the past couple of months.

“People here are quite supportive of me,” Sparks affirms, “If I need some instruction on something, then I have some people that I can go to. And if there’s something that I’ve missed, they can come to me and say, ‘I think that you might have missed something’ and it’s not a big deal, which has been very nice.”

What happens to a collection once Bailey has done her job? That’s next in our series describing what happens inside the Cone on the Range.

The AHC is a pretty dramatic building!

To learn more about the AHC, see the Center’s website at  http://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/.

Post contributed by AHC intern Carissa Mosness.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in American Heritage Center, Archival preservation, behind the scenes, faculty/staff profiles, Interns' projects, Student projects, Uncategorized, University of Wyoming | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Empowering Narratives: Celebrating LGBTQ+ History with the Award-Winning American Heritage Center and Gregory Hinton

Posted on July 3, 2023 by ahcadmin

Preserving and celebrating diverse narratives is crucial to understanding our shared history and fostering inclusivity in society. In a remarkable collaboration the American Heritage Center at along with playwright and producer Gregory Hinton, have been recognized for exceptional work in LGBTQ+ archival preservation and representation. Recently, we were honored with prestigious awards for initiatives that include the successful Wyoming tour of the play A Sissy in Wyoming and the establishment of the “Out West in the Rockies” LGBTQIA+ archive. Let’s dive into the significance of these accolades and the impact of the work.

A Sissy in Wyoming is a compelling verbatim play that vividly portrays the remarkable life of Larry “Sissy” Goodwin (1946-2020), a Wyoming power plant operator, educator, activist, and crossdresser. He was a regular guy, a man’s man, who just happened to express himself through feminine clothing. He embraced the nickname “Sissy,” reclaiming it as a source of empowerment, taking away the sting of the slur often associated with it. Playwright and producer Gregory Hinton collaborated with AHC archivist Leslie Waggener, who conducted oral interviews with Sissy’s wife, Vickie Jones Goodwin. The play beautifully captures the complexities and triumphs of Sissy’s journey, highlighting his courage and the challenges he faced in a society that often struggles with understanding gender identity and expression.

Vickie and Sissy Goodwin vacationing at Devils Tower National Monument, June 2018.

From September 30 to October 9, 2022, A Sissy in Wyoming embarked on a statewide tour, touching the lives of communities in nine towns across Wyoming. The performances, open to the public for free or nominal charge, provided a platform for audiences to engage with the play’s themes and explore the profound issues it addresses. After each reading, Gregory Hinton and Vickie Goodwin participated in Q&A discussions with the audience, encouraging dialogue and understanding among community members. In addition to the AHC, the tour received generous support from Wyoming Humanities, the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, the Wyoming Arts Council, and the Wyoming Historical Society.

Flyer for the Cowboy State tour of A Sissy in Wyoming.

The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), a national organization that celebrates achievements in historical preservation and interpretation, honored the AHC and Gregory Hinton with the Award of Excellence in the Rapid Response project category. This prestigious accolade recognizes the impact of A Sissy in Wyoming in preserving diverse narratives and promoting inclusivity in historical representation.

Gregory Hinton was also honored with the Diversity Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA), recognizing his outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archival profession and the archival record itself. Hinton’s pivotal role in establishing and developing Out West in the Rockies with the AHC played a significant part in this well-deserved recognition.

Gregory Hinton reading from A Sissy in Wyoming backgrounded by an image of Sissy Goodwin wearing one of his favorite outfits. Central Wyoming College, Riverton, October 7, 2022.

Out West in the Rockies is a regional LGBTQ+ archive co-founded by Gregory Hinton and the AHC in 2015. This archive covers Wyoming and eight surrounding Rocky Mountain states, serving as a vital resource for collecting and preserving the history and culture of the LGBTQ+ community. The program shines a light on the often-underrepresented LGBTQ+ narratives within the American West.

Marquee of the Broadway Theater in Rock Springs. Vickie Goodwin and Gregory Hinton pose before that evening’s reading of the play on October 6, 2022.

The recent awards bestowed upon the American Heritage Center and Gregory Hinton reflect the AHC’s commitment to preserving LGBTQ+ history, promoting inclusivity, and advancing dialogue about important social issues. Through the powerful portrayal of Larry “Sissy” Goodwin’s extraordinary life in A Sissy in Wyoming and the establishment of Out West in the Rockies, we are working to create transformative spaces for understanding.

See the AHC website at https://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/collections/topics/lgbtqia-collections.html for a highlight of collections housed as part of the Out West in the Rockies program.

Posted in announcements, Archival preservation, LGBT, LGBTQIA+, Out West in the Rockies, Uncategorized, Western history, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pieces of the Hindenburg: Treasure Hunting in Wyoming

Posted on June 26, 2023 by ahcadmin

While doing research in 2013 at the American Heritage Center for the National History Day competition, I came across an amazing discovery.

London Homer-Wambeam

Many History Day students strategically (and wisely) first pick a collection at the AHC and then base their competition topic on it. That year, I had already settled on the topic of the Hindenburg disaster and was not expecting to find any research materials relevant to my topic. After all, there were no significant connections between Wyoming and the disaster, which occurred in New Jersey on May 6, 1937.uch to my surprise, the AHC held a collection of materials from one of the federal investigators who investigated the Hindenburg crash. The investigator, Denis J. Mulligan (1900-1983), had a long career in civilian and military aviation. He served as Chief of the Enforcement Section, Investigator and Legal Advisor of the Bureau of Air Commerce of the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1934 and was its final director until 1939.

The cause of the Hindenburg crash is still unknown – although sabotage, lightning, a puncture, or a fuel leak have all been speculated as the cause. Mulligan had his own idea. He had traveled on the Hindenburg just months before the crash. From this, Mulligan thought that faulty work from making the blimp longer and the mixture of air and hydrogen inside caused the fiery crash.

Mulligan’s papers at the AHC had not yet been fully processed, so discovering actual burnt materials from the crash was an incredibly exciting moment. Did these fragments help me unearth some new perspective on the disaster? No, but discovering something so tangible from an event which occurred nearly a century ago is something few people are lucky enough to experience. It provided me with a personal connection to history that captivated my scattered teenage attention span and inspired a lifelong interest in history.

Singed postcards found at the site of the Hindenburg crash. Box 2, Denis J. Mulligan papers, Collection No. 9121, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

I created a documentary to publicize these Hindenburg documents, which were unknown to Hindenburg researchers previously, but more importantly, to share my love for the AHC and its wealth of resources.

Looking back on it now, it’s clearly the creation of a high school student with the technology I had available at the time, but the message about the AHC’s incredible collections still holds true.

Please note that the documentary incorrectly states that the Hindenburg disaster happened in 1939.

Post contributed by London Homer-Wambeam, June 2023. Additional text about the Denis Mulligan papers added by AHC Simpson Archivist Leslie Waggener.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Aircraft accident, American history, aviation history, found in the archive, National History Day, Uncategorized, Wyoming History Day | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment