Reposted from the American Heritage Center blog
Welcome to the American Heritage Center’s finding aids! What is a finding aid you ask? Finding aids are like a table of contents for the boxes of an archival collection. Finding aids help folks find out information about specific collections we have and what materials are contained in the collection. Archivists create these aids so researchers can figure out if the collection is related to their work.
As archivists finish processing the collection, they create the aids. But the AHC collections are ever growing and they’re always adding more ‘tables of contents.’ So the AHC thought they’d showcase what’s getting added so you know what their archivists are working on.
The strengths of the AHC collections include Wyoming and the American West, politics and public policy, ranching and energy, entertainment and popular culture, industry, transportation, and military history. The documents and archives they hold serve as raw data for scholarship and heritage work, and support thriving communities of place, identity, and interest in Wyoming and beyond.
Finding Aid Updates (from collections processed 12/14/18 – 1/31/19):
James Folger papers regarding the Cooksley sisters. The Cooksley sisters ranched and guided hunters near Kaycee, Wyoming.
Dale B. Fritz films about Afghanistan. Fritz was part of a University of Wyoming team that consulted on agriculture in Afghanistan.
Aviator Ernest E. Harmon. Harmon piloted the first airplane to fly around the rim of the continental United States in 1919.
Soil scientist Gerald Nielsen. Nielsen was part of the University of Wyoming team that worked in Afghanistan in the 1950s-1960s.
Agronomist Lee J. Fabricius and Patsy Fabricius. Patsy Fabricius was secretary for the University of Wyoming team that worked in Afghanistan in the 1950s-1960s.
Oil executive A.G. Setter. Setter was president of the New York Oil Company, which operated out of Casper, Wyoming, from 1918.
Petroleum industry executive W. Alton Jones. Jones was president of Cities Service Company.
Petroleum industry executive William H. Isom. Isom was president of Sinclair Refining Company.
Petroleum oil field worker J. Tom Wall. Wall’s nineteen-page narrative describes his experiences in the Salt Creek oilfields.
Oil prospector Leslie D. Welch. Welch was active in Wyoming and Montana in the 1910s and 1920s.
Martin G. Wenger’s Recollections of Robert Livermore. Wenger recalled a time of labor troubles in Telluride, Colorado, mines.
Oil promoter Robert S. Anderson. Anderson attempted to develop oil in Devil’s Basin, Montana, in 1916.
John H. Hull family papers (this collection has also been digitized and is available online). Correspondence, a memoir, and other documents of a soldier in the American Civil War and his Indiana family.
These and other AHC collections can be discovered in the University of Wyoming Libraries catalog. The AHC is open for walk-in research Mondays 10 am – 7 pm and Tuesdays through Fridays 8 am – 5 pm. For distance research assistance please contact our reference department at ahcref@uwyo.edu or 307-766-3756.
The AHC offers travel grants to help defray the costs of travel to Laramie for research. Travel grant applications are due by April 15, 2019.
The American Heritage Center hopes to make their finding aids a regular feature they’ll run on their blog every four to six weeks.