In my preparations to become a backpacker seeking adventures in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains, my research led me to take the footsteps of a man from the golden age of American mountaineering, whose chronicles and photographs bade me to these mountains with a romantic charm.
Finis Mitchell drew on decades of experience in the Wind Rivers, describing the trails, routes, wildlife, glaciers, lakes, and streams in Wyoming’s fabulous two-and-a-quarter million acre Wind River Range, published into a guidebook called Wind River Trails.
Over the course of his life, Mitchell climbed 244 of the 300 peaks in the range, with four ascents of Gannett Peak, the highest mountain in the state.
Front and back of a postcard illustrating a view of the Cirque of the Towers taken by Finis Mitchell from Mitchell Peak in the Wind River Range. Finis Mitchell papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
As a vigorous wilderness advocate, he put together breathtaking slide presentations showing people their own public lands. Mitchell would pour out his philosophy at the public meetings with amazing attention to detail.
Of the 105,345 pictures he took as a hobby, 8,884 have been digitized for your viewing pleasure. For more of Mitchell’s stunning Wind River photography, explore our Virmuze exhibit “Finis Mitchell, Lord of The Winds,” which features additional images from his collection. To learn more about Mitchell, see the Finis Mitchell papers at the American Heritage Center.
Post contributed by AHC staff member Matthew Troyanek.
Being a land-grant university, the University of Wyoming is no stranger to military service. Currently home to the Army ROTC Cowboy Battalion and the Air Force ROTC 940th Cadet Wing, military service at UW stretches back to the university’s early days including a School of Military Science and Tactics established in 1891 and the establishment of ROTC on campus in 1916.
As early as the Spanish-American War, students from UW served their country in war. With the onset of both World War I and World War II, military training that occurred on campus changed to deal with the necessities of war time. The campus reflected this change as more of those that walked campus made their way overseas.
UW, proud of the men and women that represented the brown and gold, recognized those that had served their country through pamphlets released on campus.
The pamphlets created for both World Wars included brief histories of the conflicts.
Pages from a UW pamphlet regarding American entry into World War II and subsequent UW reaction, University of Wyoming War Activities Council Records, Accession #300002, Box 27, Folder 10.1, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Pages from a UW pamphlet regarding American entry into World War II and subsequent UW reaction, University of Wyoming War Activities Council Records, Accession #300002, Box 27, Folder 10.2, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The pamphlets also included a listing of every student, professors, and alum that had served in any capacity with special recognition for those that paid the ultimate price.
While these pamphlets serve as reminders of those that served their country with ties to UW, on Veteran’s Day we celebrate those from across the country that have donned the uniform in the name of the United States Armed Forces.
– Originally submitted in 2017 by Katey Myers, American Heritage Center student aide.
The topic of “packing” the U.S. Supreme Court has become a hot button issue in the 2020 presidential campaign. But this isn’t the first time members of the federal government and the public have debated the matter.
The Judicial Act of 1869 established that the Supreme Court would consist of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Justices were, and are, slated to serve lifetime appointments. This court structure reinforced the idea that the judicial branch was apolitical and one of three co-equal branches of American government.
However, beginning in 1935, the Supreme Court struck down several pieces of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation for being unconstitutional. Roosevelt’s frustration with the court grew.
Soon a controversial plan was formed. FDR proposed adding as many as 6 additional judges to the court, thus “packing” it in favor of his policies. He intended to neutralize the justices who disagreed with him.
Roosevelt selected the morning of February 5th, 1937, for the announcement of his bombshell, first to a group of congressional leaders and then at a press conference. His Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 was to put restrictions on the court when it came to age. Out with the old, and in with new more progressive judges.
FDR’s plan met instant opposition in Congress and with the public.
A surprising opponent was Wyoming’s senior U.S Senator Joseph O’Mahoney, a typically loyal FDR lieutenant. A Cheyenne newspaper editor and later attorney, O’Mahoney had risen through the Democratic ranks beginning as an aide to U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick before becoming a stalwart in the national party as a committeeman and campaign organizer. When his mentor Kendrick died in 1933, O’Mahoney was appointed to fill his Senate seat. During his early tenure in the Senate, O’Mahoney supported most of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, with the notable exception of the “court-packing plan.”
Joseph O’Mahoney, ca. 1940. Joseph O’Mahoney papers, Box 390, Folder 45, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
O’Mahoney’s resistance to the plan was not without anguish. He was acutely aware of the political adage that nothing is more rewarded than loyalty, nor more punished than disloyalty. He choice was to surrender to political expediency or heed his reverence for checks and balances and for the Supreme Court as an institution. Adding to his angst was his strong desire for a Supreme Court seat. Long after the Court fight, newspapers mentioned O’Mahoney’s name whenever a vacancy occurred on the Court. A succinct summary of his procedural objections to FDR’s plan can be found in the transcript of a radio address from May 6, 1937, with the unconfusing title “The Judiciary Bill Should Not Pass.” The transcript can be found in the O’Mahoney papers at the American Heritage Center.
The Wyoming Senator tried a tack with FDR of proposing an amendment that would limit the terms of all federal judges to fifteen years, make their salaries subject to the income tax, and provide for compulsory retirement at the age of seventy-five. All were substantive measures, O’Mahoney argued, that Roosevelt wanted. The President didn’t budge.
O’Mahoney pushed his amendment adamantly in the halls of Congress but gained little traction. At last, in the middle of April 1937, he concluded that the amendment tactic was doomed. That he had clung to the amendment approach as a practicable compromise for so long provides eloquent testimony to his extreme reluctance to break with Roosevelt. But break he did.
Eventually President Roosevelt got his way by packing the Court the old-fashioned way, through attrition, naming nine members.
Post submitted by AHC Simpson Archivist Leslie Waggener. She thanks AHC Archives on the Air writer Kathryn Billington for her contributions. Also contributing to the post is text from Dr. Gene M. Gressley’s article “Joseph O’Mahoney, FDR, and the Supreme Court” published in the Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 2 (May 1971), pp. 183-202.
Brooklyn-born Albert Maltz grew up in affluence. His Russian immigrant Jewish parents had made good in their new American home. Maltz’s education credentials were those of an elite. He studied philosophy at Columbia University, graduating in 1928. He then attended the Yale School of Drama, where he earned a master’s degree in the craft of playwriting.
Despite his well-to-do beginnings, the plight of those less fortunate tugged at him. His own father had begun as a grocer’s boy before becoming a successful contractor and builder. Maltz was also influenced by fellow Yale student George Sklar, whose radical politics ignited his own budding leftist leanings.
Albert Maltz, ca. 1930. Box 60, Albert Maltz papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Adding to the mix, Maltz read the works of political philosopher Karl Marx and later told journalist Victor Navasky, “I still think it to be the noblest set of ideals ever penned by man…. Where else in political literature do you find thinkers saying that we were going to end all forms of human exploitation? Wage exploitation, exploitation of women by men, the exploitation of people of colour by white peoples, the exploitation of colonial countries by imperialist countries. And Marx spoke of the fact that socialism will be the kingdom of freedom, where man realizes himself in a way that humankind has never seen before. This was an inspiring body of literature to read.”
As a young playwright in the New York theater community, Maltz became known for staging pointed dramas acted by progressive companies such as the Theatre Union and the Group Theatre. By 1935, Maltz had joined the American Communist Party. Professional people, journalists, teachers, writers, artists and working people on factories and farms had come to respect the Communist Party for their words and deeds over the past decade in support of the working man. Maltz channeled his political views into his writing. His short story “The Happiest Man on Earth,” about unemployment during the Depression, won the 1938 O. Henry Award.
Soon, in 1941, Maltz moved to Los Angeles to take a job with Warner Brothers. His first screenwriting credit was for the gritty noir film This Gun for Hire (1942). For his script for Pride of the Marines (1945), Maltz was nominated for an Academy Award. He received an Academy Award for his 1942 work on The Defeat of German Armies Near Moscow and in 1945 for The House I Live In, a 10-minute film with singer-actor Frank Sinatra opposing anti-Semitism through the use of a staged incident of young bullies chasing a Jewish boy, prompting Sinatra to speak and sing about why such behavior is wrong.
Meanwhile Maltz had not abandoned his career as a writer of published fiction and stage drama. In 1944 he published the novel The Cross and the Arrow chronicling German resistance to the Nazi regime. It was distributed in a special Armed Services Edition to more than 150,000 American fighting men during World War II.
Despite his contribution to the war effort, Maltz was subpoenaed in 1947 to testify at hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was created to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of having Fascist or Communist ties. While refusing to answer questions on First Amendment grounds, Maltz was able to get a statement on the record: “I am an American, and I believe there is no more proud word in the vocabulary of man.” Nevertheless, he was tried and convicted of contempt of Congress.
Mug shot of Albert Maltz taken at Mill Point Federal Prison in West Virginia on July 17, 1950. Albert Maltz papers, Box 1, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Before he was sent to the federal lockup in Ashland, Ky. — the same facility that housed Adrian Scott, a fellow member of the Hollywood Ten — Maltz recruited his friend screenwriter Michael Blankfort to front for him on a screenplay for the film Broken Arrow starring James Stewart. The sympathetic treatment of Native Americans in the Western earned Blankfort (in actuality Maltz) an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay.
After prison, Maltz moved to Mexico City, where he wrote novels and uncredited screenplays for The Robe (1953) and other films. By 1970, producers agreed to give Maltz credit for writing Two Mules for Sister Sara, a Western starring Clint Eastwood.
His papers at the American Heritage Center include material pertaining to the Hollywood Ten and Maltz’s blacklisting from Hollywood, including photos, correspondence, court documents, advertisements, and pamphlets. Reel-to-reel audio tapes of his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 is also included.
Dr. Harrison Brown found ways to separate plutonium to devise the world’s first atomic weapons and then spent the rest of his life urging the abolition of those same deadly devices.
He was born in Sheridan, Wyoming, on September 26, 1917, the son of Harrison H. Brown (1880-1927), a rancher and cattle broker, and Agnes Scott Brown (1889-1963), a piano teacher and a professional organist. His father died when he was ten years old, and mother and son moved to San Francisco, where Mrs. Brown supplemented her income as a dental assistant by teaching music and playing piano for silent movies.
Trained as a chemist, Brown did undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, and then earned a doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The subject of his thesis, thermal diffusion of argon and construction of a spectrometer for isotope analysis led, in 1942, to an invitation by Manhattan Project chemist Glenn Seaborg to join him in the Metallurgical Laboratories at the University of Chicago. Brown joined the project and moved later with the research group to Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where he devised ways to produce plutonium. The techniques he helped develop were used to produce the plutonium used in the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, 75 years ago on August 9, 1945.
After the two bombs were exploded and the war with Japan ended, Brown and other Manhattan Project scientists expressed their grave concern about the future. Although they had strong justifications for their involvement in the bomb project, they were powerfully committed to preventing further development and spread of nuclear devices. To that end, Brown joined the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS), becoming its executive vice chairman alongside its chairman, Dr. Albert Einstein. The Committee was formed to aid the public’s understanding of atomic issues by raising and directing funds for public education.
In this 1946 discussion, Dr. Harrison Brown states, “We all must realize that the very existence of the atomic bomb jeopardizes [man’s freedom] in all its aspects. The fundamental issue before us now, as I see it, is that at all costs we must prevent another war. Nothing must be permitted to divert our attention from that fact.” Box 1, Harrison S. Brown papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
By December 1945, Harrison had completed a 160-page book, Must Destruction Be Our Destiny? (Simon and Schuster, 1946), warning about the extreme dangers of nuclear weapons. His passion led him to give 102 lectures within three months throughout the United States. He used royalties from the book sales to support the work of ECAS, which later became a working committee within the Federation of American Scientists whose aims and efforts were directed to proper regulation of atomic power and weapons.
On February 27, 1950, the New York Times published an article titled “Ending of All Life by Bomb Foreseen” in which scientists ponder the central question of the Cold War, that of mutually assured destruction if the Soviet Union or the United States employ nuclear weapons. Box 1, Harrison S. Brown papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
He maintained his anti-nuclear posture for the rest of his life and at his death in 1986 was editor in chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a publication produced by many who had helped develop nuclear bombs but who had become adamant in their opposition to them.
Learn more about Dr. Harrison Brown’s career and activism in his papers at the American Heritage Center. His papers contain his publications including books and journal articles as well as correspondence, subject files, a scrapbook, and audiotapes of interviews with Brown.
I’ve walked through Laramie’s Greenhill Cemetery many times over the years and have been curious about the headstones carved to look like tree stumps. I finally decided to do a little research. You may already know this, but each intricately carved tombstone indicates that the deceased was a member of the Woodmen of the World fraternal society.
As is the way nowadays, I googled to find out more. I came across an interesting descriptive article from 2016 about fraternal orders, particularly the Woodmen organization, by Lisa Hix of the Houston Chronicle. I’ve excerpted from the article below.
Death was everywhere in 19th-century America: Fatal injuries, disease epidemics, and the Civil War made families acutely aware of mortality. For women and children, the death of a husband and father could tumble them into poverty. Only the wealthiest Americans bought private life insurance. Women were not allowed to take out policies on their husbands, and if the husband bought the policy on himself, the money wouldn’t be protected from creditors.
And then, grieving families faced another layer of shame. In 19th-century America, taking charity was perceived as weakness. The thinking was, if a lack of industriousness made you destitute, well, then you got what you deserved.
However, the middle and working classes did have a workaround. Men could join secretive clubs like the Freemasons and Oddfellows that provided networking, entertainment, and a moral education. If a man proved himself to be hardworking and of good character through his initiation trials, his social standing meant his family could quietly receive financial support from the lodge without the stigma of accepting charity.
Permelia Roberts, the widow of Laramie resident John S. Roberts, received $3,000 in benefits from the Woodmen of the World organization after the death of her husband in 1897. Today this would be about $85,000. Article from the Laramie Boomerang, May 21, 1897.
After the devastating Civil War, well-established fraternal orders began to formalize their benefits into insurance subsidiaries. New secret societies known as “mutual beneficiary societies,” created with the explicit purpose of offering life insurance policies, sprang up around the U.S. Largely excluded from the original fraternal orders, women and African Americans even launched their own aid societies. Still, to join any fraternal order and receive its insurance benefits, you had to prove that you were no slouch — a hard worker with high morals such as thrift, self-reliance, discipline, and generosity.
Royal Neighbors of America was founded by women in 1895 and was one of the first to offer life insurance to women. Shown is a parade float from 1926 for Camp 2838 of Laramie. Box 8, Ludwig & Svenson Studio Photographs, American Heritage Center,University of Wyoming. (I see another blog post in my future. I have to find out more about the RNA.)
But fraternal orders weren’t all about restraint. Before the days of TV, radio, or fantasy football, fraternal lodges offered plays, rituals, and camaraderie, and allowed men to let loose, which kept members coming back for more. The clout of being an insider and the endless pursuit of mystical, esoteric knowledge ensured that men would make their insurance payments for decades to come. The Woodmen came late to the party—incorporating in 1883 as the Modern Woodmen of America—but their leaders’ entrepreneurial innovations breathed new life into the fraternal insurance game. Founder Joseph Cullen Root, a Lyons, Iowa, businessman, seized the opportunity to create his own fraternal order when the mutual aid society Knights of Honor, which almost went under due to the 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic, was selling its local lodge.
To avoid a similar financial pitfall, Root made fitness a requirement to join his order, recruiting rural young men from the “healthiest states,” which meant those outside industrial New England. In the Woodmen, he fused Christian philosophy and pioneer values with ancient agricultural rites. “At that time, Root’s thought was that a cleared conscience and a cleared forest were synonymous,” says Bruce Lee Webb, who co-authored the 2015 book, As Above, So Below: Art of the American Fraternal Society with Lynne Adele. “The axe is an instrument that clears the forest but is also useful for constructing buildings and making progress.”
Band of Laramie’s Pilot Camp No. 46 of Woodmen of the World, 1917. Ludwig & Svenson Studio Photographs, Box 33B, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
After an internal dispute with the other Modern Woodmen of America leaders, Root left the organization in 1890 and moved to Omaha to form a nearly identical “speculative woodcraft” order: Woodmen of the World. One of his innovations was to provide free tombstones—Root believed passionately that no member of his order should be buried in an unmarked grave. So, for 10 years, the Woodmen gave its members grave markers in the shape of tree stumps, inspired by the Victorian Rustic movement. (For another two decades, the members put down $100 apiece to reserve theirs.)
At a Woodman’s funeral, his personalized 4- to 5-foot tall tree stump headstone would be revealed in an elaborate ritual. The local stone carver, who might alter the pattern, would add embellishments reflecting the Woodman’s personality, such as axes and doves.
Headstone of Laramie hardware merchant C.R. LeRoy who died in 1894.Detail of LeRoy’s headstone.Headstone of Laramie resident John S. Richards who died March 2, 1897, of measles.Epitaph for John S. Richards.Details of Richards’ headstoneBack of Richards’ headstone. Note the intricate carving of the bird, stump, and flower.Bottom of Richards’ headstone with characteristic signs of a tombstone designed for Woodmen of the World.Photographs taken in Laramie’s Greenhill Cemetery by AHC Archivist Leslie Waggener, July 25, 2020.
Laramie wasn’t the only Wyoming town with a Woodmen chapter. A search in the Wyoming State Library’s digitized newspaper database “Wyoming Newspapers” reveals that there were Woodmen camps in Douglas, Rawlins, Sheridan, Green River, Newcastle, Casper, Grand Encampment, Big Piney, and most likely other towns I may have missed.
Woodmen of the World exists today as WoodmenLife (officially Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society) and is still based in Omaha, Nebraska.
By the way, if you’re looking for images related to fraternal orders in Southeastern Wyoming, a great resource is the Ludwig & Svenson Photographic Collection at the American Heritage Center.
– Post contributed by AHC Archivist Leslie Waggener.
Have you ever wondered about what happens to the digital files that get donated to the American Heritage Center? Or what happens with files that were created on software that no longer exists? Can the AHC deal with 5” floppy disks and ZIP disks? What about email and websites?
A trip to the Born Digital unit reveals a trove of equipment and software that lets the AHC care for digital files – whether common or obscure. Among its assortment of hardware are drives and players that read both 3” and 5” floppy disks, Zip disks, Blu Rays, SATA and HDD internal computer hard drives, and DAT tapes. Its collection of software programs likewise opens a wide variety of files from the defunct – ClarisWorks and Lotus Word Pro – to the popular – Photoshop and Word – to the emerging – Microsoft Outlook email and WARC website files.
Assortment of obsolete and current media that the AHC’s Born Digital unit handles on a daily basis.
In a strange sense, digital files are very fragile. It might not seem that way given how widespread they are, but it’s very easy to accidentally delete a file or make an unintended edit. It’s also not uncommon for a computer to make an error and corrupt a file so that you can’t open it, or the font suddenly looks like Wingdings characters – ehimrtvyz.. It’s the responsibility of the Born Digital unit to protect the digital files in the archive so that researchers can read them, be inspired, and make discoveries now and far into the future.
What steps does the Born Digital unit take to preserve digital files?
Transfer
Computer errors can come up when you transfer files between folders or across devices. To prevent this, the Born Digital unit checks the digital fingerprints of each file that gets transferred from a disk, like a CD or a flash drive, and put onto the workstation computer. If the fingerprint remains the same after the transfer, all is good. If the fingerprint is different, the digital archivist will investigate what went wrong and fix it.
Prepare
Digital files have a lot of metadata. Simply put, metadata is data about data. It tells us who created a file, when it was created, what software it was created on, how big it is, and so on. This information gives archivists clues about how to preserve it, as well as context into how one file might connect to a second file within a folder. The Born Digital unit collects this metadata and organizes it to prepare the file for researcher access.
Do these look familiar? The AHC keeps a trove of current and outmoded equipment in order to ingest born digital files and then transfer them to formats readable by today’s researcher.
Migrate
Files need to be in a stable format that can be opened twenty plus years into the future. This means migrating old or obscure formats from their original type to one that is very commonly used or open source. Open source means that the software code is openly available and if it becomes necessary, software developers can look at the code to recreate a way to read the file. In practice, this means converting an old .doc file into a .pdf. Microsoft may let you open a .doc file on Word now, but it’s an old format and it’s very probable that the company will no longer support it at some time in the future.
At this point, files get renamed as well. Renaming involves replacing spaces and special characters, like an ampersand or an asterisk, with safe characters, like an underscore or a dash. Some special characters or sequences of special characters mean a specific thing to a computer. By replacing them with safe characters, we remove the potential risk of a computer misreading a file.
AHC Digital Archivist Rachel Gattermeyer preserving born digital files for research use.
Investigation
Sometimes a file won’t open or tell you what kind of format it is. Sometimes you have a corrupted file and you want to dig around for clues to see if you can open any part of it. In these cases, digital forensics tools are used to take a deeper, computer-level look at a file.
Storage and Maintenance
Once a file is stable and renamed, and all the metadata is collected, it gets saved into three identical copies that have the same digital fingerprint. The three copies act as backups in case one of the files gets deleted or accidentally altered.
It might seem at this point that everything is finished and there is no more work to be done. This is not so. Digital files require ongoing maintenance. The files’ digital fingerprints need to be continually checked to show that they haven’t been corrupted or changed. File formats might need to be converted as software versions are updated or as companies go out of business. The servers or hard drives where the three copies are stored need to be replaced every 5-7 years before they die or crash. The care for digital files is an ongoing task.
The AHC works hard to makes sure that digital files are ready for you now and far into the future. Ask us how you can access our many exciting digital collections. To learn more about digital preservation, contact the AHC’s Digital Archives Coordinator Dinah Miles at dmiles1@uwyo.edu.
On June 2, 2020, the Council of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) issued a statement condemning harassment and violence against the Black community. The American Heritage Center expresses solidarity with SAA in its condemnation.
SAA Council’s statement reads in part:
During this time of dramatic and traumatic historical significance, the Society of American Archivists remains committed to its core organizational value of social responsibility, including equity and safety for Black archives workers and archives of Black Lives. A truly open, inclusive, and collaborative environment for all members of the Society cannot exist without justice for those affected by anti-Black violence. As the Council, we are committed to developing and advocating for solutions that contribute to the public good and affirm the importance of Black Lives.[1]
The vitality of American archives depends on the safety of archives workers and an explicit commitment to social responsibility, justice, and anti-racism in the work that we do and the organizations we work within. We intend to create and convene a space for constructive discussion toward progressive change in the archival profession and true inclusivity of the archival record, in a profound engagement with our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The American Heritage Center endorses the SAA Council Statement on Black Lives and Archives. The AHC believes in inclusivity and equity. The Center practices respect and provides our best service to everyone who comes in our doors.
The road to Bruce Lee’s screen stardom began in Oakland, California, where his Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute began attracting the attention of the martial arts world. His appearance in the first-ever Long Beach International Karate Championships in 1964 wowed the audience with demonstrations of his “one-inch punch” and astute lectures regarding his fighting philosophy. One of the attendees was celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring who spread the word in Hollywood about this amazing martial artist. William Dozier, producer of the hit show Batman, got hold of some tournament footage and had Lee come in for a screen test.
Article about William Dozier as Executive Producer of the successful television series “Batman.” Box 8, William Dozier papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Bruce Lee screen-tested for the role of Charlie Chan’s son in a series to be titled “Number One Son,” but the series was scuttled. However, the success of Batman gave Dozier the go ahead to launch his new hero/sidekick series, The Green Hornet, which was already a successful comics and media franchise. It featured Britt Reid, owner/publisher of The Daily Sentinel, who fights crime as “The Green Hornet.” His secret remains unknown except to his faithful valet, Kato—a kung-fu expert and driver of “Black Beauty,” the duo’s well-armed car. Bruce Lee would be Kato.
Van Williams and Bruce Lee in fighting stance for a publicity photograph, 1966. Box 18, William Dozier papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Filming immediately met a hitch. Lee refused to fight in slug matches as seen in typical westerns. The essence of his martial arts philosophy was efficiency not sloppy punching. But Lee’s moves were a blur to the TV cameras. So, he shot his fight scenes in slow motion and grudgingly included flashy flying kicks for visual impact.
It was the first time kung fu was seen in the West outside Chinatown movie theaters. Younger viewers were astonished by what they saw. Bruce Lee’s Kato became the series’ real star and he was soon making personal appearances across the country. Van Williams, who played The Green Hornet, took Lee’s fame in stride. They became good friends and Williams went to bat with the show’s producers to give Lee more screen time and lines. In turn, Lee taught Williams some basic techniques that he is sometimes used in the series.
Bruce Lee teaches Van Williams some of his show-stopping moves, 1966. Box 18, William Dozier papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
In 1967, a two-parter was shot in which The Green Hornet and Kato teamed up with Batman and Robin. Batman was the more popular of the two shows and the fight took place on that show. The original script had Batman and Robin winning the fight. Bruce Lee wouldn’t have it. He walked off the show. As a compromise, the scene was rewritten to have the fight end in a draw. On set, leading up to the fight scene, Lee played a joke on Burt Ward as Robin. Lee didn’t say a word, he just stared at Ward and acted angry all day. When they started filming Lee acted like he was going to fight for real, which panicked Ward until Lee laughingly revealed it was all a joke.
Despite considerable interest in Bruce Lee, The Green Hornet aired only one season from 1966-1967. It never found a larger-than-niche audience.
Green Hornet’s Executive Producer William Dozier writes to Bruce Lee of the series’ demise, March 7, 1967. Box 8, William Dozier papers, American Heritage Center, University of WyomingLetter of gratitude from Bruce Lee to William Dozier in which he states that part of his role on the series was “…of minimizing and hacking away the unessential,” May 13, 1967. Box 8, William Dozier papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Nestled
between the Laramie Mountains to the east and the Snowy Range mountains to the
west, Laramie is a gateway for visitors and residents alike to explore the
beauty of Wyoming’s nature. Yet at the University of Wyoming’s American
Heritage Center, there is another type of beauty waiting to be explored; the
beauty of rare books from the past.
The Common Book of Prayer and the Administrations of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the use of the Church of England, Together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David, Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches (Common Book Prayer for short) is one of the many rare books housed in the Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center. For most Anglican Churches in the British Commonwealth the Common Book of Prayers has been the standard liturgical text since 1662[1]. The copy housed in the library was published in 1678 by printers Christopher Barker and John Bill of London and was acquired in 2014.
Custom protective box for Book of Common Prayer. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The age of this copy and its remarkable condition are indeed rare, however, it is the workmanship of the bookbinder that qualifies this book as a treasure. Early books were printed and remained unbound or in their original boards until the purchaser of the book sent it to a bookbinder for binding. Known for his beautiful leather tooling and fore-edge painting this bookbinder, whose name has been lost to time and is known as Queen’s Binder B, and their craftsmanship has transformed the book from a mere series of text into a beautiful work of art. The cover is bound in black Moroccan leather with intricate floral tooling stamped in gilt and painted silver.
Queen’s Binder B – the cover is bound in black Moroccan leather with intricate floral tooling stamped in gilt and painted silver. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
All the fore-edges are gilded, painted with colored flowers, and gauffered, indenting the gilded edges with a heated tool. Visitors to the American Heritage Center Main Reading Room (4th floor) can view this beautiful book by appointment.
Queen’s Binder B — fore-edges are gilded, painted with colored flowers, and gauffered, indenting the gilded edges with a heated tool. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Queen’s Binder B — bottom/tail-edge of book. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Other books at the University did not arrive in such pristine shape. Found in the University of Wyoming Botany Department’s library in 2014, The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) was sent for conservation work before it was transferred to the American Heritage Center Toppan Library. The spine binding was taped with pressure tape that caused a black residue to form on the split suede, the front cover or board was detached, and some of the pages were pulling away from the binding.
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) before conservation work. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) after conservation work. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) with black residue on spine. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) before page repairs. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) after page repairs. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Written in 1757 by John Hill, the British Herbal was not well received at the time. A partial explanation may be attributed to Hill himself. An apothecary, botanist, writer and part-time actor, Hill, who often referred to himself as Sir John Hill, was not well regarded with his contemporaries of the time. Hill was often referred to as “only a little paltry dunghill.”[2] It appears that Hill not only took such criticism well but relished in the fame that it brought him and his books.
While Hill and his books may not have been appreciated during his day, visitors to the American Heritage Center can experience the beauty of the British Herbal. The split suede cover protects the large volume describing the types of plants and their characteristic. Along with the detailed copper engraving of plants, the British Herbal also has beautiful copper engravings on the title pages.
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) cover with an employee’s hand showing the scale of the book. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) copper engravings on the title pages. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
The British Herbal: an History of Plants and Tree, Natives of Britain, cultivated for Use or raised for Beauty (British Herbal) copper engravings on the title pages. Toppan Rare Books Library, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
John Hill’s British Herbal and the path it took show why it is such valued treasure. Whether you are visiting Laramie, or you call Laramie home, please remember the beautiful rare book treasures that are waiting for you to experience at the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center. Access to rare book holdings is via the Reference Services unit. Please contact us 307-766-3756, ahcref@uwyo.edu, for assistance.
