Nisei Soldiers of World War II: Overcoming Prejudice, Upholding Patriotism

Posted on May 30, 2022 by ahcadmin

As we honor the fallen for Memorial Day, the American Heritage Center would like to shine a spotlight on a small but mighty group, the Japanese American soldiers of World War II. Known collectively as Nisei, a term originating in the Japanese language for “second generation,” they were American-born children of Japanese immigrants. It is estimated that there were nearly 33,000 Nisei in the American military over the course of World War II. While some were drafted, many of them were volunteers. Most Nisei soldiers were from Hawaii, but thousands were also from the mainland.

The service of the mainland Nisei in defense of the United States was particularly remarkable as their families had been made to move from their homes on the West Coast to internment camps by the War Relocation Authority. While they faced internment and discrimination at home, many of the Nisei soldiers took on the most dangerous missions overseas, eager to prove their loyalty to the United States. By 1945 the War Relocation Authority had compiled a newsletter documenting the many heroic accomplishments of the Nisei.

Cover of a newsletter titled “Nisei in the War Against Japan” published by the Department of the Interior War Relocation Authority, April 1945.
Box 1, Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Nisei involvement in the war dated back to the very beginning. Two Nisei National Guard members in Hawaii are credited with capturing the first Japanese prisoner of World War II in 1941. A one-man Japanese submarine had stranded itself on a coral reef off the island of Oahu. The National Guardsmen swam out into the Pacific and secured the surrender of the Japanese submariner. Nisei distinguished themselves first on the battlefields of Europe and, eventually, in the South Pacific. Often it was the Nisei soldiers who were sent to persuade the Japanese to surrender. Nisei translated captured documents and acted as interpreters when questioning the captured Japanese.

Japanese American families made enormous sacrifices despite the fact that they were often interned. Of particular note is the family of Ginzo Nakada, originally of Azusa, California, and interned at Heart Mountain Relocation Center, near Cody, Wyoming. A surely record breaking nine of the Nakada boys enlisted in the United States Army, serving in as far away as Australia and France.

Article from the Los Angeles Times newspaper featuring the seven brothers of the Nakada family serving in the military, February 10, 1945.
Box 1, Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

While family members waited behind barbed wire in the mainland U.S., Nisei soldiers distinguished themselves serving their country. How strange and discouraging it must have been for those Nisei soldiers who returned from overseas to visit their families – families held captive in places like the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona and the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming.

Article from the Baltimore Sun newspaper featuring Sergeant Kazuo Komoto home on leave visiting his younger brother at the Gila River Relocation Center, 1945.
Box 1, Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

Nearly 800 Nisei servicemen were killed in action over the course of World War II. Among the fallen was Frank T. Hachiya who was fatally wounded on Leyte in the Philippines. He had been an interpreter on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff but had volunteered to cross a valley under enemy fire to scout an enemy position. A Japanese sniper unloaded a barrage of bullets into his abdomen. Hachiya returned fire, killing the sniper, and then walked back to be treated by medics. Unfortunately, his wounds were too serious, and doctors were unable to save him.

Newspaper article from the Hood River Oregon News reporting on the death of Nisei soldier Frank T. Hachiya, February 1945. Box 1, Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Another Nisei soldier, Technical Sergeant Yukitaka “Terry” Mizutari was killed while commanding a group of men during a Japanese counterattack. He was posthumously awarded both a Silver Star and a Purple Heart by his commanding general. Mizutari was not alone in receiving accolades. The Nisei soldiers of World War II were among the most decorated in military history. The Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated all Nisei fighting force, was awarded so many Purple Hearts, they were nicknamed the “Purple Heart Battalion.” Their motto was “Go for Broke” and on the battlefield they gave it their all.

Despite their many contributions to the war effort, the Nisei soldiers on leave faced hostility back in the mainland U.S. (In contrast, the Nisei returning home to Hawaii faced less discrimination – there were no internment camps for Japanese Americans in Hawaii during World War II.) In Denver, a barber attacked a Nisei soldier who wanted a haircut. And in Hood River, Oregon, the American Legion post voted to strike the names of 16 fallen Nisei soldiers from their county memorial roll. The Nisei soldiers did have support in some corners, particularly in the press. Editors from papers as varied as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Washington Post pointed out the exceptional service of the Nisei, noting they “have made a magnificent record in this war. Their fellow Americans ought to hear about it – if only to assure their families better treatment here at home.”

Editorials from various newspapers supporting the Nisei soldiers compiled in the newsletter titled “Nisei in the War Against Japan” published by the Department of the Interior War Relocation Authority, April 1945.
Box 1, Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

If you are interested in learning more about the Nisei soldiers of World War II, consider a visit to the American Heritage Center or to our on-line collection of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records to further explore the wartime contributions of these often unsung heroes. You can also explore the broader story of the camp where many of these soldiers’ families were held in the American Heritage Center’s online exhibit “Heart Mountain Relocation Center: Wyoming’s Japanese Internment Camp.”

Post contributed by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Asian American history, Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Japanese American history, Japanese internment, Racial bias, Uncategorized, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What to Know Before You Go: Visiting the American Heritage Center’s Loggia

Posted on May 23, 2022 by ahcadmin

Looking for an enjoyable spot to add to your must-visit list this summer? Here at the American Heritage Center, located in the Centennial Complex on the campus of the University of Wyoming, we have just the spot you are looking for. From classic works by painter Alfred Jacob Miller to regularly updated exhibits, there is sure to be an area of interest for everyone. Continue on to learn more about what to expect when you visit!

Birds-eye view of fireplace in American Heritage Center’s Loggia. This view is from the 5th floor to the building’s 2nd floor.

The Centennial Complex opened in 1993 and was designed by Antoine Predock. It’s home to the American Heritage Center and The University of Wyoming Art Museum. The building itself is known for its unique architecture emulating that of a mountain and plains at the base. Inside the mountain is where you will find the Loggia, complete with a cozy fireplace, cinderblock pillar forest, and sky at the canopy above. The space was designed to make visitors feel as though they were outside while indoors.

Front desk at entrance to Loggia. You may see the blog’s author there when you visit!

Along the walls and throughout the main floor of the Loggia are various exhibits and informational panels. Visitors can explore our current exhibits along the outer walls while based at the corners of the space are informational panels describing the collection areas that the American Heritage Center is home to. The areas the AHC collects include transportation, Wyoming and the West, the entertainment industry, conservation and the environment, and mining, petroleum, and energy and more. In addition to our collection areas, visitors are able to read more about what we do and the programs that take place at the AHC.

Adjacent to the Loggia are Gallery One and the Rentschler Room. Gallery One exhibits are comprised of works by Alfred Jacob Miller, Frederic Remington, and Richard Throssel. Recently renovated as a way to bring about more space to highlight artworks, Gallery One is furnished with seating for those to take in the artwork around the space. originally built in the William Robertson Coe Library, the Rentschler Room was brought to the AHC when it opened in 1993. The space was designed as a replica office of the late George A. Rentschler after the donation of his works by his widow Rita Cushman. It houses 13 paintings by Henry Farny and one by Frederic Remington.

To explore more, see our full collection of online exhibits or check out what’s currently on display.

View of Gallery One showing paintings by Alfred Jacob Miller.
Rentschler Room with views of paintings by Henry Farny.

Visiting the American Heritage Center this summer should be at the top of your list. With exhibits curated to give patrons a comprehensive view of what the AHC does and collects, and highlights classic western artworks, the Loggia is an enjoyable experience for all. To learn more about visiting the space and for hours of operation, please visit our website at https://www.uwyo.edu/ahc.

Post contributed by AHC docent Kenzie Venters Bowlby.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in American Heritage Center, architectural history, Architecture, Centennial Complex, Uncategorized, University of Wyoming, University of Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

From Pastures to Prosperity: A History of Powell, Wyoming

Posted on May 16, 2022 by ahcadmin

In honor of the incorporation of Powell Wyoming on May 10, 1910, here is a brief history and glance at the city. The history of Powell, Wyoming is long and storied. The Powell area was first discovered by white men in the early 1800s, prior to that, it was home to the Crow, Blackfeet, and Shoshone nations. John Colter, a frontiersman, made the first documented trip into the area in the early 1800s when he was returning to a trading post on the Yellowstone River from Native American winter camps.

In the late 1870s, the first reported herd of cattle moved into Powell Valley from Oregon, and in 1888 the U.S. Senate had the United States Geological Survey study the feasibility of irrigating arid lands using dams, canals, and hydraulic works. The Powell area joined the development with the Shoshone Project and Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshone River in 1904, which was one of the first three projects authorized by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. This project allowed Camp Colter to be set up near the present townsite, which served as headquarters and a tent camp for the men working on both the Shoshone and Garland Canal projects. In 1908 water from the Garland canal was made available to settlers in the area. Homesteading began and agriculture became the driving economic force with the availability of water for the land.

With the completion of these projects, the camp became the logical site for a town. However, because the name Colter had already been used for a railroad siding, a search began to name the new town. The name Powell came from Major John Wesley Powell, early day explorer, conservationist, and head of the Reclamation/Geodetic Service at the time of consideration of the Shoshone Project; however, Major Powell never explored the Powell Flats given his name.

The first town lots for Powell were put on the auction block in May 1909 and the town grew. The first action to incorporate the town came in 1909 and it was incorporated into Big Horn County in 1910. In 1911, Powell became part of the newly organized Park County. Since that time, more land has been irrigated for farming, cattle ranching followed, and an oil industry boomed and declined in Elk Basin. Agricultural products from the Shoshone Irrigation Project are widely distributed, and Powell became a business community of approximately 6,000 serving a large agricultural area. The City of Powell is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, 75 miles east of Yellowstone National Park and 98 miles south of Billings, Montana. Lying between the Big Horn Mountains on the east and the Absaroka Range on the west.

The Shoshone Irrigation project is a driving force of this region of Wyoming, including Powell. Pictured here are some images from the United States Bureau of Reclamation of the project and the region. The first image is from a sugar beet farm near Powell in 1949. The beet farmer stands in his crop, which is irrigated by water from the Shoshone Irrigation project.

Image from the Bureau of Reclamation – Heart Mountain Division (Includes Powell And Edward Boehm Unit), ca. 1949. Joseph C. O’Mahoney papers, Collection #275, Box 390, Folder 12, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The second image below depicts a Model T on Cody Road in Shoshone Canyon on its way to Yellowstone. The photograph was taken by A.G. Lucier in 1926. The image of the beet field and that of Shoshone Canyon depict the final products of these water projects that allowed the Powell area, and the City of Powell, to prosper. A.G. Lucier took many photos of the Shoshone River projects, including the dam, the reservoir, and the power plant. These images can be found in the W.D. Johnston papers and the Joseph C. OMahoney papers at the American Heritage Center.

Model T on Cody Road heading to Yellowstone, passing the Shoshone Irrigation Project. Photo taken in 1926 by A.G. Lucier.
W.D. Johnston papers, Collection #11314 , Box 3, Folder 5, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Other collections that promote the history of Powell include the Ludwig & Svenson Studio photographs, the Hugo G. Janssen photographs, and the Wyoming Pioneers Oral History Project. Depicted below are a few images from these collections in celebration of Powell, Wyoming.

Powell High School men’s basketball team taken at the Ludwig & Svenson Studio in Laramie in 1922.
Ludwig & Svenson Studio Photographs, Collection #167, Box 34, Negative Number 9473, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Shoshone Dam and Reservoir, as well as Cody Road off to the side. Photo taken by A.G. Lucier in 1926.
W.D. Johnston papers, Collection #11314, Box 3, Folder 5, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Unidentified men’s group in Cowley or Powell. Do you know what the meeting is about?
Hugo G. Janssen Photographs, Collection #11712, Box 2, Folder 4, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Post contributed by AHC Archives Intern Brittany Heye.

#alwaysarchiving

Source consulted: https://cityofpowell.com/about-powell/

Posted in Agricultural history, Interns' projects, Local history, Uncategorized, water resources, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Your Loving Frank: Romance on the Transcontinental Railroad

Posted on May 9, 2022 by ahcadmin

It might surprise you to find romance amid the story of the back-breaking and dangerous labor involved in building the transcontinental railroad. But we have one for you. We’re commemorating the anniversary of the joining of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad lines on May 10, 1869. When the golden spike was driven that day, it meant the connection between California and the rest of the United States was complete. One of the heroes of the story was a hard-bitten, Civil War veteran who had a soft spot in his heart for the wife he left at home in Ohio.

Brigadier General John S. “Jack” Casement (1829-1909) had already served honorably in the Civil War by the time he became a tracklaying contractor during the building of the transcontinental railroad. Working for the Union Pacific Railroad Company, it was Jack’s job, along with his brother and business partner Dan Casement, to build most of a rail line that spanned 1,776 miles from Omaha, Nebraska, to the meeting point with the Central Pacific rail line at Promontory Point, Utah.

On the left: Photograph by Andrew J. Russell dated 1867-68 titled General John S. Casement and His Outfit. On the right is a drawing of Casement signed “Brady. N.Y.” Although barely five feet tall, Casement was tough as nails and worked his men hard. He carried a bullwhip to intimidate tracklayers.
Photo File: Casement, John S., American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Until the Casement brothers took on the work, the Union Pacific had made only slight progress since breaking ground in December 1863. When Jack was hired in early 1866, he applied his existing railroading expertise as well as military skills and discipline to the work.

Jack was a married man with a young family during his years with the Union Pacific. In 1857, Jack had married Frances Marion Jennings (1840-1928), an educated young woman from Painesville, Ohio. She received a formal education at the Painesville District School in Ohio, a rarity for children during this time. She later graduated from Painesville Academy in 1852 and attended Willoughby Female Seminary from 1855 to 1856. Jack met Frances, who was called “Frank,” while he was working as a railroad contractor in Ohio. Shortly after completing her studies, Frances married him. It was a love match from the start, although Frank had no idea at the time how often she would be left alone to pine for him.

Copy of wedding photograph of Frances Jennings Casement and John S. Casement. The photo is most likely reversed.
Box 1, Folder 24, John Stephen and Frances Jennings Casement papers, Collection #308, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Jack’s work as a railroad builder meant long absences from home. The work was all-consuming as he oversaw the phases necessary for railroad construction including leveling the grade, bridge building, tunneling, laying the rails, and more. There were also supplies to be ordered and shipped, men and work animals to be fed and housed, and negotiations with the company bosses who had high expectations for him to complete the railroad line in a timely fashion.

Union Pacific’s Chief Engineer Grenville Dodge wrote in his book How We Built the Union Pacific Railway, “Central Wyoming was desolate, dreary, not susceptible to cultivation and only portions of it fit for grazing.” In winter, the cold was beyond belief. In warmer months, it was unimaginably hot. In the desert, the ambient temperature was around 110 degrees, while the temperature inside an engine cab topped out at 150 to 160 degrees.
Photo File: Railroad-Company-Union Pacific, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

Jack and Frank wrote many letters to each other during his absences. The letters illustrate the experiences of a “railroad widow” and her driven, yet loving husband. Equally interesting are Jack’s descriptions of the countryside and people he encountered while building the Union Pacific rail line.

On March 4, 1866, Frank writes Jack of her loneliness for him, but also for their firstborn child Charlie who had only recently died at the age of four in December.

“You have been from home only four days and I already begin to think of your coming home, counting the days and longing for the four weeks to pass…I am lonesome without you and dread the thoughts of a separation from you. Perhaps it is wrong when I have so short a time to stay at home but I cannot enjoy even home without you. Who can wonder at it when we have lived so long apart. I went to Charlie’s grave Friday after noon…I have never missed Charlie so much since he died as I have since you left me, he was so much company for me when you was away but I can’t see him about me or hear him talk of what he will do when Papa comes home, and how much comfort he was to me when I could go to bed with my arm over him and fall asleep thinking of his Papa, and how I loved that Papa and his boy. Thinking too how could I live without either of them & oh how soon I have found out. But dear Jack the Lord has helped us to bear this heavy affliction and I hope he will spare us to each other for many years.”

Box 1, Folder 2, John Stephen and Frances Jennings Casement papers, Collection #308, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Jack’s deep love and respect for his beloved Frank are evident in his letters, but he has many more distractions to keep his mind off his loneliness. His letters swing between lamenting his absence from home and wife to expressing excitement or more often frustration at whatever work issue is at hand. He typically wrote quickly at the beginning or end of a long work day, so his letters are usually no more than a paragraph in length. This was a source of constant dissatisfaction for Frank as she yearns for more information about his experiences and whereabouts as well as reassurance of his continued devotion to her. In the letter below dated April 13, 1867, he vents irritation over the flood of rain preventing his work progress while also expressing his longing to see her and their newest child John Frank born September 29, 1866. He writes,

“It is raining this evening and making the prospect as gloomy as possible. The Missouri is coming over its banks and rising all the time. Miles of road is washed away in the Platte Valley so that we cannot get over the road for a few days even if it stops raining. We are all in a heap-generally but will be all right in a few days…I would like to be with you and little John tonight. I am lonesome without you Darling. I love you both very much, write often…”

Box 1, Folder 4, John Stephen and Frances Jennings Casement papers, Collection #308, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Frank’s letters often hint directly but lovingly of her longing to have Jack home all the time, not just for a few weeks here and there. She writes on May 7, 1868, that this longing is only made more acute by the time they spent apart during the Civil War,

“I hope you won’t work too hard darling, but still I am glad to know you have men plenty to do so much work in a day for the road can’t be done a minute too soon to suit me. For four years I lived thinking ‘when the cruel war is over’ what happiness we will have together – and now I look forward with some hope to the time when the U.P.R.R. is done.”

Box 1, Folder 7, John Stephen and Frances Jennings Casement papers, Collection #308, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

On August 1, 1868, Jack writes from the end-of-track town of Benton, located 11 miles east of present day Rawlins, Wyoming. The town had only sprung up a month before Jack arrived and would die about a month later. During its brief existence, the tent town attained a population of 3,000 who enjoyed its 25 saloons and five dance halls. The more unfortunate residents—about 100 of them—died in the town’s frequent gunfights. Jack describes his impressions to Frank,

“I arrived at this place yesterday morning and went to the end of track 30 miles beyond here, so I have had no opportunity to write before…This is an awfull [sic] place, alkali dust knee deep and certainly the meanest place I have ever been in. I am so thankful that my Darlings are where they are. Dan thought of moving here but dare not do it and has concluded to move to our club house at Laramie or send Mollie home whichever she may desire…”

Box 1, Folder 11, John Stephen and Frances Jennings Casement papers, Collection #308, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Under Jack and Dan Casement, the work on the Union Pacific line was completed in record time. After completion of the transcontinental railroad, it probably comes as no surprise that Jack continued to be active in railway work. He even played a role in the construction of a second route to the Pacific, this time in Costa Rica in 1897. Frank became a renowned suffragette. In 1883, she organized the Equal Rights Association in her hometown of Painesville, Ohio, and in 1885 helped found Ohio Women’s Suffrage Association, serving as president from 1885 to 1889. She died in 1928, thus saw ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920 granting women across the United States the right to vote.

There are many more fascinating letters to view between the Casements. This post only touched the surface. You can come to the American Heritage Center to view the letters in person or view them digitally on the Wyoming History website where they are not only digitized but described in detail.

You may also be interested in the AHC’s virtual exhibit “The Art of the Railroad” and “Hell on Wheels: Union Pacific Towns in Wyoming.” The first explores the cultural impact and romantic mythology of railroads that emerges from stories like Jack and Frances’s correspondence, while the second examines the rough, temporary boom towns like Benton that Jack described in his letters.

Post contributed by AHC Simpson Archivist Leslie Waggener.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in 19th century, Biography and profiles, Railroad History, Uncategorized, Western history, Westward migration, women's history, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Posted on May 1, 2022 by ahcadmin

The month of May is a time to celebrate the history, traditions, cultures, and contributions of all Asian American and Pacific Islander immigrants and citizens in the United States. This month was chosen because it commemorates the immigration of the first Japanese people to the U.S. on May 7, 1843. Also significant is that on May 10, 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed, a feat that would not have been possible without the work of hundreds of Chinese laborers.

Here I’d like to highlight collections pertaining to one of the most memorable historical periods in the state of Wyoming—the incarceration of Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain Relocation Center during World War II.

Heart Mountain was located in northern Wyoming between Powell and Cody. Many of the collections highlighted in this post document internee’s experiences and shed a light on the reality of Japanese internment. The first I’d like to feature is the Estelle Ishigo sketches, which were gathered for use in her book Lone Heart Mountain; many of them were published there originally. The original drawings were created by Estelle while she was interned at the camp for nearly four years with her Nisei husband Arthur Ishigo. This sketch, “Boys rescuing kite from barbed wire,” captures the irony of two boys innocent play at the edge of their prison enclosure.

Estelle Ishigo photographs, Collection No. 10368, Box 1, Folder 2, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Bill Manbo’s papers include color slides of scenes from Heart Mountain. As a teenager, Bill Manbo Sr. was a Japanese American internee there. He surreptitiously took photographs of everyday life and events in the camp, including children at play, events, and camp buildings. Pictured here is a color photo Bill took of internees ice skating. To ease the monotony of life at Heart Mountain, those incarcerated found means of entertainment as they could.

Bill Manbo papers, Collection No. 9982, Folder 1, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of ten camps mandated by the War Department in 1942 to detain Americans of Japanese ancestry, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first internees arrived in August of 1942, and many remained until the camp closed in November of 1945. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records at the AHC contain the Heart Mountain charter, community minutes, notes on resettlement plans, transcripts of a trial, and more. Depicted below is a news digest in Japanese that can be found in the collection. Also shown is a document that lays out the different “committees” that governed daily life at Heart Mountain.

Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, Collection No. 9804, Box 1, Folder 10, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center Records, Collection No. 9804, Box 1, Folder 2, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

See our joint research guide with the University of Wyoming Libraries to discover more AHC resources on Heart Mountain and AAPI history. Some of our collections are available for browsing on our digital collection platform. Have questions about the collections showcased here? Please contact us at ahcref@uwyo.edu.

Post contributed by AHC Archives Intern Brittany Heye.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Asian American history, Immigration, Japanese internment, Racism, Uncategorized, Western history, World War II, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Focus: The Photography of Lora Webb Nichols

Posted on April 25, 2022 by ahcadmin

Explore history through the lens of Lora Webb Nichols, a longtime resident of Encampment, Wyoming, in an American Heritage Center’s virtual exhibit. The curated exhibit showcases a selection from Nichols’ extensive collection of photographs, providing a glimpse into the past, all preserved at the Center.

Lora Webb Nichols labeled this photograph: “Me on same rock.” Note the camera box on the right.
Box 3, photo #65, Lora Webb Nichols papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962), a native of Boulder, Colorado, lived most of her life in Encampment, Wyoming, and in 1899, at the age of sixteen, Nichols began photographing the people and places around her. 

Lucy Davies writing in The Daily Telegraph, described her work as recording Wyoming’s “inconsequential chores and rituals (washing, shoveling snow, braiding hair) rather than grand events. Even so, her frank, bold pictures capture the clean-cut thrill of pioneer life, of America’s hugeness and scope.”

Guy Nichols shown stacking wood. Lora married her cousin Guy in 1914 at the courthouse in Walden, Colorado, about 50 miles south of Encampment. They had four children: Ezra, who was born in 1915, followed by Clifford in 1917, Frank in 1919, and Dick in 1921. Guy stayed in Encampment after Lora’s move to California. He died there in 1955.
Box 4, photo #2309, Lora Webb Nichols papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Around 1905, Nichols built a darkroom and worked as a photographer and a photo finisher. In 1925, she founded three businesses in Encampment: The Rocky Mountain Studio which developed film and loaned cameras; The Encampment Echo newspaper; and The Sugar Bowl, selling soda and ice cream.

Picnic group on hillside showing showing family friend and relatives.
Box 16, photo #17585, Lora Webb Nichols papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

When cowboys and young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps passed through town, Nichols would loan them a camera and ask them to return with photographs.

In 1935, Nichols moved to Stockton, California, and worked in a children’s home, eventually becoming its director. However, she returned to Encampment in 1956, where she died in 1962.

The Lora Webb Nichols collection at the American Heritage Center contains transcripts of her diaries (1897-1907), an unfinished manuscript, “I Remember” (ca. 1962, covering events from 1859-1905), and many photographs and negatives documenting Nichol’s life in Wyoming, California, and the Rocky Mountain region. More than 21,000 of these images have been successfully digitized and placed online.  They can be accessed via the Center’s online platform, Luna.

The American Heritage Center invites everyone to enjoy these unique images of everyday life in Wyoming by this remarkably talented and prolific artist.

Post contributed by AHC Assistant Director and Collections Manager William Hopkins.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Local history, Photographic collections, Photography, Uncategorized, women's history, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Transforming the Wrinkled Hide of Hecuba: Cosmetic Politics in 16th and 17th Century England

Posted on April 18, 2022 by ahcadmin

William Salmon’s widely popular and multipurpose Polygraphice1 went through several versions by the early 1700s. Salmon included in this practical guide recipes for a wide range of topics including art, cosmetics, and medicinal concoctions along with the principles of alchemy, a scientific practice still held in high regard in the late seventeenth century. His volume focuses, in part, on cosmetics and face painting. In its introduction, Salmon explains:

Though you may look so much like the Image of death, as that your Skins might be taken for your Winding-sheets, yet by our directions you may attain such a rosid colour, and such a lively cheerfulness, as shall not make you look like natures workmanship, but also put admiration into the beholders, and fix them in a belief, that you are the first-fruits of the resurrection. Thus we teach you lipid mortalls to retrace the steps of youthfulness, and to transform the wrinkled hide of Hecuba into the tender skin of the greatest beauties […].

Cosmetics flourished in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. Owing to its popularity among everyday people, Salmon’s Polygraphice did not fall short on keeping up with the latest fashion trends. The popular obsession with cosmetics, both positive and negative, informed the wider societal fear of the deconstruction of racial and class boundaries. Of particular interest in the book are the recipes for skin whitening. These recipes can help us to put early modern conceptions of race and class into perspective.

To make a very good Wash to whiten the skin, and give a good complexion.
            Take Limons, hens eggs boiled, of each twelve, Turpentine eight ounces, distill all in Balneo Mariae, with which wash: when you wash, you may drop into it a drop, two or three of oil of Oranges or Cinnamon, for fragrancy sake (pg. 403).

Skin whitening cosmetics grew in popularity during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. Art historian Romana Sammern defines 16th and 17th century beauty when she says that wrinkle-free white skin, rouged cheeks, and red lips epitomized beauty standards of the day. The Queen’s unmistakable image of milky-white skin and fiery red hair was, in reality, an attempt to cover small pox scars. However, Elizabeth’s appearance quickly translated into the beauty standard among women in Elizabethan England and subsequent eras.

Illustration of Queen Elizabeth I, Nicholas Hilliard, 1592.
Courtesy WikiArt Visual Art Encyclopedia
(https://www.wikiart.org/en/nicholas-hilliard/elizabeth-i-1592)

A primary ingredient in the Queen’s facial cosmetics, lead (also called ceruse) was the most popular make-up element. Sammern notes that lead substances were easy to apply to the skin and created a smooth, unblemished texture. A fucus – lead-based face paint – was created in various ways; recipes included talc powder, vinegar, chaphire oil, pearls, bull’s galls, and wine spirits. These, in various amalgamations, were boiled and distilled. The resulting white substance was then applied to the face to create a pleasing complexion.

Another excellent Fucus made of Pearl.
Dissolve Pearl in distilled Vinegar; precipitate with oil of Sulphur per Campanam; then sweeten and digest with spirit of wine; abstract the spirit, and you have a magisterial Fucus will melt like Butter. (pg. 397).

Red and white tones had significant societal implications. In one sense, it was believed that the face could be “read” to determine a person’s humoral state.  Humoral medicine tied the four bodily fluids to the four elements which in turn related to four colors: black, yellow, white, and red. A second reason a milky-white skin tone was important was because a white complexion was an indication of a leisurely, upper-class lifestyle while a ruddy or tanned complexion pointed to the working class, laborious lifestyle that men and women of lower ranks endured. During this time, anxieties over class-hopping emerged. Some anti-cosmetic discourse centered on class demarcations and how some women used white make-up to impersonate the upper classes.

While the whiteness of a person’s skin was indicative of health, beauty, and rank, a fair complexion was also a marker of racial superiority among early-modern English people. Cosmetics defined the ‘here’ versus ‘there’ ideology of 16th and 17th century society. Early-modern writers conceptualized that all people, regardless of region of origin, were born “white” but used cosmetics and paints to make their skin appear darker as in the case of North American Indians and African peoples. Thus to the sixteenth and seventeenth century analytical mind, race was something actively done to the body and was not biological.

One must keep in mind the context of this era; colonial explorers were only just beginning to encounter new kinds of people, and the reasons for differences in appearance were widely debated by early-modern thinkers. The use of cosmetics and anti-cosmetic rhetoric informed the larger fundamental fear of the deconstruction of racial boundaries. To value whiteness was to imply the purity of English people as opposed to the “Otherness” of darker toned populations.

William Salmon’s Polygraphice is a valuable source in understanding the early-modern mind that placed race and rank in society above all else. His inclusions of skin whitening recipes can tell us this much. Cosmetics from this era place this kind of demarcation in society in a wider perspective.

1Hunter Collection, uncat., Toppan Rare Books Library.

References consulted:

Poitevin, Kimberly. “Inventing Whiteness: Cosmetics, Race, and Women in Early Modern England.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 11, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2011): 59-89. https://doi.org/10.1353/jem.2011.0009.

Sammern, Romana. “Red, White and Black: Colors of Beauty, Tints of Health and Cosmetic Materials in Early Modern English Art Writing.” Early Science and Medicine 20, no. 4/6 (2015): 397-427. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24760388.

Post contributed by Toppan Library Intern Emma J. Comstock.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Book history, Racial bias, Student projects, Toppan Rare Books Library, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Frontier Life Chronicles: The Legacy of Mable Wyoming Cheney Moudy

Posted on April 11, 2022 by ahcadmin

Mable Wyoming Cheney was born on May 2, 1878, in Atlantic City, near South Pass, Wyoming. Her father, Ervin F. Cheney (1844-1922), came west to Fort Sanders as a soldier after the Civil War. He helped survey the town of Laramie and entered the lumber business there in partnership with John Connor. In the 1870s, he moved to the South Pass area, where he operated a wagon and blacksmith shop. He married Mathilda Jane Henry in 1875, and the couple had four daughters and one son.

Photograph of South Pass City in 1870 taken by William Henry Jackson.
Photo File: South Pass City, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The family moved to Lander shortly after Mable was born in 1878. She graduated from Lander High School and entered the University of Wyoming in 1897, where she took a normal (teaching) degree in 1900. While Mable was at UW, the sole building was Old Main.

The campus of Wyoming University as it would have appeared to Mable Cheney during her time on campus.
Old Main was the campus!
Elmer F. Lovejoy papers, Collection #176, Box 2, Folder 9, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

She married fellow UW alum Roscoe “Ross” Moudy in 1903, and they settled in Laramie, where Ross taught chemistry at the University of Wyoming and held the appointment of state chemist.

Ross Moudy was one of “The Invincibles” as the University of Wyoming’s football team was known in 1897 and 1898. Mable Cheney Moudy papers, Collection #173, Box 5, Folder 2, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Because of her family background, Mable took a great interest in the state’s history, and she soon began to collect manuscripts and write stories particularly about the Lander area. She wrote and collected materials about her father’s life, and she wrote an autobiography of her own life, including her childhood in Lander. Chief Washakie was a frequent visitor to the Cheney home, and Mable recalled that she learned Indian words before she learned English and always wore moccasins as a child because they were easier to get than children’s shoes and far more comfortable.

Photograph of Chief Washakie in 1870 taken by William Henry Jackson.
Photo File: Washakie, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The autobiography also covers the years when Mable Cheney was a UW student and the adventures she had traveling between Laramie and Lander. One of the passengers with whom she traveled was a young priest from Ireland, who expressed amazement that a young woman would travel so far without a chaperone. “I am very well chaperoned,” she replied, citing two other male passengers, the driver, and the priest himself, all of whom she was sure would protect her in any case of difficulty. The other passengers “loaded” the stranger as much as possible with stories of storms, wild animals, and robberies, but the stage reached Lander safely without encountering any of these dangers, although one team of horses ran away after being harnessed and nearly overturned the coach.

According to Wyoming native, author, and museum professional James H. Nottage, Mable told interesting stories to his Laramie Junior High class in 1964. She thrilled the students with stories of her intrepid father who was involved in scrapes with Native Americans who were conducting raids along the newly constructed transcontinental railroad. He later became a friend of the Shoshone and, according to Mable, hunted with them. She also recalled for the students the first motorcycle in Laramie and how she and others cheered as the driver went around and around the block, waving and yelling. It turns out he could not figure out how to stop the beast!

Motorcycles of the day as seen in the interior of a Cheyenne motorcycle shop, ca 1905.
Mark A. Chapman papers, Accession Number 00003, Box 1, Folder 10

Mable was a diligent diarist in her later years, and her annual diaries from 1947 to 1972, the year of her death, form part of her papers at the American Heritage Center. Her papers also contain manuscripts and letters of other early residents of Wyoming. Many of these items were solicited by the Jacques Laramie Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Laramie, Wyoming) to record the history of the state’s people, and they contain rare first person accounts of late 19th and early 20th century Wyoming.

Post submitted by AHC Simpson Archivist Leslie Waggener.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Biography and profiles, Laramie, Uncategorized, University of Wyoming history, Western history, women's history, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Flying Saucers – For Real! The Papers of Jack D. Pickett

Posted on April 4, 2022 by ahcadmin

Jack Dean Pickett was born in Casper, Wyoming in 1926. As a young man, he worked for the Burlington Railroad Roundhouse, where on June 6, 1944, he was responsible for blowing the steam whistles announcing D-Day. He joined the Navy and spent World War II battling the Japanese as a gunner’s mate on destroyers stationed in the South Pacific. Following the war, he owned an advertising and publishing company. It was as the publisher of the MacDill Air Force Base’s noncommissioned officer (NCO) newsletter that he began researching what would become a lifelong passion – disc shaped experimental aircraft.

In 1967, as part of his duties as publisher of Air Force publications, Pickett explained that he was asked to create an issue of the “NCO Club News” that included a feature on experimental aircraft. While on the outskirts of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, he had seen an amazing sight. There, he professed, were four disc-shaped aircraft resembling flying saucers in the base’s salvage yard. They ranged in size from twenty feet across to more than one hundred feet.

Illustration of the area on MacDill Air Force Base where Jack Pickett saw the disc-shaped aircraft in 1967.
Box 1, Jack D. Pickett papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Pickett had questions. In the Adjutant General’s Office at MacDill Air Force Base, Pickett recalled “An amiable colonel went over to a file cabinet and got out a whole bunch of photographs…I began to see literally hundreds of photographs of all types of flying saucers. I pointedly asked him ‘Are these where the flying saucer stories came from? Is this what they were?’ And he said ‘Yes’.” Pickett continued “The photographs were easily identifiable as Air Force photographs. I was told that these particular aircraft could go fast enough and high enough to actually achieve spaceflight.” When he inquired as to why they had been discontinued, Pickett claimed that he was told the aircraft had maneuverability problems.

Sketches made by Jack D. Pickett of one of the jet disc aircraft he had seen at MacDill Air Force Base.
Box 1, Jack D. Pickett papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Viewing these aircraft and photographs left Pickett convinced that sightings of flying saucers were that of experimental military aircraft. So sure was he that he wrote an article about it, “Flying Saucers – For Real” published in Search Magazine in 1982. Frustrated that the Air Force would not declassify and release photographs and specifications for the aircraft, Pickett launched a nearly two-decade long letter writing campaign to Air Force personnel and government officials.

Letter from MacDill Air Force Base Staff Sergeant Mark C. Goldstein to Jack D. Pickett regarding Pickett’s request for information on “experimental aircraft” he had seen at MacDill Air Force Base, April 1, 1982.
Box 1, Jack D. Pickett papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Letter from Jack D. Pickett to Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney regarding a request to declassify information about disc wing aircraft, November 27, 1992.
Box 1, Jack D. Pickett papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Pickett’s interest in experimental aircraft extended beyond the boundaries of the United States. He studied the history of Germany’s investment in saucer shaped aircraft research during World War II. The Germans were specifically interested in vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL). German runways had been reduced to rubble by Allied bombing campaigns. They needed planes that could take off without runways.

Pickett also collected articles that explained UFO phenomena in the Soviet Union. In 1967 there were a series of Soviet sightings, all of which coincided with tests of a secret Soviet military vehicle, known as the Fractional Orbit Bombardment System (FOBS). FOBS was designed to be an orbital hydrogen bomb carrier – a type of Soviet weaponry now banned by international treaty.

Although Pickett’s accounts of American disc shaped “experimental aircraft” remained unproven, the U.S. military did indeed contract to have a saucer-shaped aircraft created. At the beginning of the Cold War in 1947, Avro Canada came up with an idea of high-altitude, disc-shaped aircraft that could purportedly dash off at 1,500 mph to bring down a Soviet bomber and return to a vertical landing without the need for a large landing field. The U.S. Air Force was sold on the idea and bankrolled development. They called it “Project Silverbug”.

The resulting “Avrocar” was tested between 1959 and 1961 but proved to be tremendously expensive to build and never able to lift itself more than a few feet off the ground. Pickett was well aware of the “Avrocar” and was sure that the experimental aircraft he believed he had seen were not part of Avro Canada’s program.

Depiction of the Canadian built “Avrocar”.
Box 1, Jack D. Pickett papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Still, when “Project Silverbug” materials were finally declassified in 1997, Pickett wrote letters to the Air Force Magazine hoping to gain the magazine’s assistance in identifying any former pilots or air and ground crew that might have interacted with saucer shaped aircraft from 1945 to 1967. His request yielded little information. By 2003, Pickett, now even more frustrated, teamed up with an illustrator, Michael H. Schratt. Schratt created remarkably lifelike illustrations based on Pickett’s sketches and remembrances.

Illustration of a mock-up of a saucer shaped aircraft, based on Jack Pickett’s description, February 2003.
Box 1, Jack D. Pickett papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Schratt and Pickett published an updated version of “Flying Saucers – For Real” on the UFO Wisconsin website concluding, “The time has come for the U.S.A.F. to fully declassify and release into public domain, the technical details, photos and motion picture/newsreel footage pertaining to these specific aircraft.” Pickett also appeared on a History Channel television special titled “Real UFOs”.

Sadly, Pickett passed away in 2008. His quest to collect military proof of what he had seen at MacDill Air Force Base in 1967 went unfulfilled.

Post contributed by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington.

Discover another perspective on unexplained aerial phenomena in our Virmuze exhibit about Richard F. Haines, “The UFO Research of a NASA Scientist.” While Jack Pickett believed UFO sightings were experimental military aircraft, Haines approached the mystery from a different angle—using his NASA credentials and scientific methodology to compile and analyze hundreds of UFO reports spanning from WWI to the 21st century.

#alwaysarchiving

Posted in Cold War, Conspiracy Theories, military history, UFO, Uncategorized, Unidentified Flying Objects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jack Benny: Accidental Radio Extraordinaire

Posted on March 28, 2022 by ahcadmin

On March 29th, 1932, Ed Sullivan invited Jack Benny to his radio program, launching a prolific radio and entertainment career. Benny went from a small-time vaudeville performer to a radio host, USO performer, movie man and more. Today, we honor his big moment in history with a brief look at his life in entertainment.

Jack Benny was born Benny Kubelsky in Chicago, Illinois in February 1894. Benny was born to a pair of Jewish immigrants who encouraged their son to play the violin, thus beginning his life of entertainment. Jack showed talent enough to get to the vaudeville stage where he began to craft the type of performer he would become. On the vaudeville circuit he played popular songs, told self-deprecating jokes, and developed a stage personality that was both suave and fragile. From vaudeville he went to Broadway, then on to the silver screen. In 1929 Benny was performing at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles where his agent had convinced an MGM executive to come see him, and he went on to sign a five-year contract with them. His first role was in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. This was not a lasting bit of luck and Benny wound up back on Broadway before being approached to do radio, which he didn’t jump on right away, unconvinced about the medium’s viability. But in 1932 Jack gave it a shot and it changed his life.

Jack Benny and the cast of one of his shows, including wife Mary Livingstone (center).
Box 65, Folder 22, Jack Benny papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Jack Benny’s radio show was supported by a star-studded cast that included his wife, Mary Livingstone (Sadya “Sadie” Marcowitz by birth). They first met in 1922 when Jack would walk out halfway through her violin performance. They met for the second time four years later, in 1926, and Benny fell for her instantly. The couple was married in 1927 and Sadie collaborated with Benny for most of his career. The couple only had one child; they adopted their daughter, Joan born in 1934.

Early photograph of Mary Livingstone and Jack Benny.
Box 65, Folder 22, Jack Benny papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The Jack Benny Program ran on NBC from 1932 through 1948 and then moved to CBS where it ran from 1949 through 1955. The program was among the most popular during its long run. The final show of Jack’s program aired on May 22, 1955, twenty-three years after his debut. From 1956 through 1958, CBS also aired repeat episodes titled The Best of Benny. Jack also appeared on USO tours, hosted television programs, was in the movies, and after his radio career ended, performed as a stand-up comedian until the year he died.

Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone arriving to an event, ca. 1950.
Box 65, Folder 22, Jack Benny papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Jack Benny died at home December of 1974 after cancelling a show in Dallas due to feeling unwell (it would later be discovered he had pancreatic cancer). By early December, with no idea what was wrong with him, he was complaining of stomach pains, and on December 22nd, he went into a coma, passing away on the 26th at eighty years old. While in that coma Benny was visited by many of his star-studded friends and colleagues, including then Governor Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and his best friend of more than fifty years, George Burns. Jack’s wife Mary Livingstone, who received a single long-stemmed rose from her husband every day after his death per his will, died eight and half years after her husband, leaving behind their daughter Joan.

Jack and Mary in Palm Springs, California.
Box 65, Folder 22, Jack Benny papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

In Benny’s own words in the book Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story, written by his daughter Joan, he tried to explain his successful life saying, “Everything good that happened to me happened by accident. I was not filled with ambition nor fired by a drive toward a clear-cut goal. I never knew exactly where I was going.”[1] Benny is now a member of both the Television Hall of Fame, the Broadcasting and Cable Halls of Fame, and received three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His induction into the Radio Hall of Fame came posthumously in 1989.

Joan Benny newly wedded to Seth Baker, 1954. Joan and her father were extremely close.
Courtesy Los Angeles Herald Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

Polished scripts hammer away on Benny’s portrayal of himself as both stingy and vain, concerned about his hairline and adamant that he was no older than 39; whatever he thought of himself, he lived a life of fame and popularity, bringing laughter to audiences over the radio, on Broadway, in the movies and on TV for more than thirty years. You can see one of Jack Benny’s television programs titled “Shower of Stars” in the video below courtesy of the American Heritage Center, from the Jack Benny papers collection.

Post contributed by AHC Archives Intern Brittany Heye.

[1] Benny, Joan, and Jack Benny, Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story, Warner Books, 1990. ISBN: 978-0-446-51546-7.

Posted in Entertainment history, Hollywood history, Motion picture actors and actresses, radio history, television history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment