American Heritage Center

The American Heritage Center is one of the jewels in the University of Wyoming crown. Its award-winning building houses one of the nation’s largest and most respected manuscript and rare book archives. We hold over 17 miles of collections—from papers and photographs to audio and video recordings and artwork, to say nothing of the entire range of modern digital production.


Our primary emphasis begins with Wyoming and the West, and our collections preserve the history of ranching, mining, and energy development; land use, environmentalism and outdoor sports and recreation; railroad, highway and air transportation; and the role all of these play in the economic booms and busts to which this region is so prone. Since Wyoming was the first place in the world where women were given the right to vote, we hold significant collections on women’s role in suffrage and governance. The AHC also has nationally important collections in arts and entertainment, politics and journalism, and military history and popular culture. Superman, Spiderman, and the Marvel Universe live here in the collections of Mort Weisinger and Stan Lee. The collections of Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwick, and Buddy Ebsen also reside here. All of these are publically available to any researcher.


The center’s dedicated staff serve nearly 4,000 users each year, ranging from students working on Wyoming History Day projects to classes engaging with unique primary resources to some of the top scholars from across the globe. Support for the American Heritage Center funds a range of activities—all of which are necessary for the acquisition of new collections, the care of all materials stored here, and the ongoing task of making the archives available to citizens and scholars in Wyoming, the nation, and the world.


This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way the AHC does business. For decades, our patrons have come to our state-of-the-art reading room to peruse our collection. Since March 2020, patrons have had to rely on remote access of various forms, most of which involve internet access or digitization of materials.


UW Giving Day donations will go to support the ways that we reach out and serve our patrons when they cannot work in our reading rooms. Some funding will go into our digitization activities, some will support the development of the Virtual Reading Room, and some will support our efforts to improve our online finding aids. The center has also begun a new funding program this year to support student interns. A gift of $2,000 will pay for a student intern for a semester. If you would like your gift to support our students, please indicate in the comment section.


If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Tyler Spear, Director of Development for the American Heritage Center, at (307) 766-3901 or speart@uwyo.edu.


Links to Unit Pages (ex. website & social media):

• http://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/
• http://ahcwyo.org - The AHC’s blog, Discover History!
• https://www.facebook.com/ahcwy...
• https://twitter.com/ahcwyo
• https://www.instagram.com/ahcw...

Thank you for supporting our shared history!