University of Wyoming Digital Initiative - About

• Western Trails
  
  
  • 1000 items completed as part of a multi-state collaborative featuring maps, photographs, artwork, video, and a 1911 thesis on trails through Wyoming.
  
  

• Charles J. Belden
  
  
  • Images from the 1920s and 1930s of Belden’s Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. The images include depictions of everyday life on the ranch, raising antelope, dude ranching, and Belden’s family members.
  
  

• Richard Throssel
  
  
  • Images from Throssel’s photographic work from 1902-1933 mostly of daily life, ceremonies, portraits and village scenes of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indians.
  
  

• James Bertenshaw
  
  
  • Letters written between Bertenshaw and his wife Mary while James traveled from Indiana to the Montana goldfields in 1864-1865.
  
  

• J.S. Palen
  
  
  • A veterinarian from Cheyenne, Wyoming, Palen collected Cheyenne Frontier Days and other rodeo materials. Collection features photographs and postcards of parades, rodeos, and ranching.
  
  

• General Collections
  
  
  • This collection features the images most requested by AHC patrons for duplication in a wide array of topics.
  
  

• Rocky Mountain Herbarium
  
  
  • Images of specimen samples from the largest collection of Rocky Mountain plants and fungi in existence.
  
  

• Roscoe Turner
  
  
  • Images from Roscoe Turner (September 29, 1895 – June 23, 1970) was an aviator who was a three time winner of the Thompson Trophy.
  
  

• Heart Mountain Relocation Center
  
  
  • Images from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.  The  center was one of ten camps mandated by the War Department in 1942 to detain Americans of Japanese ancestry. It was located between Cody and Powell, Wyoming. The first internees arrived in August 1942. The camp closed in November 1945.
  
  

• Moreton Frewen
  
  
  • Contains letters relating to Frewen’s ranching interests in northeastern Wyoming during the 1880's, including the Powder River Cattle Company, Ltd. Many of the letters are to his wife Clara Jerome Frewen, and his brother Richard and others regarding business operations.
  
  

• Seymour Bernfeld
  
  
  • Images taken by Bernfeld, a U.S. Department of the Interior Agent, of towns, historic landmarks, national parks, reservoirs, dams, Cheyenne Frontier Days, and ranches during personal trips around Wyoming in the 1930s.
  
  

• Water Resources
  
  
  • Letters between Cody, Wyoming businessman George T. Beck and Buffalo Bill Cody regarding the founding of Cody, Wyoming, and the construction of the Cody Canal in the 1890s.
  
  

• John and Frances Casement
  
  
  • Letters between John, who directed the track laying of the transcontinental railroad from 1866-1869, and his wife Frances, who stayed behind in Ohio.
  
  

• Black 14
  
  
  • Contains materials regarding the dismissal of 14 black players from the University of Wyoming’s football team in October 1969. The players wanted to wear black armbands to protest the alleged racial policies of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, which operates Brigham Young University. The day before the game with BYU, the players met with coach Lloyd Eaton regarding the armbands and Eaton dismissed them from the team for violating team rules.

• Audio
  
  
  • Digitized audio recordsings from AHC collections, most proiminently tapes of musical performances and interviews with members of the Arapaho tribe concerning their language and culture by sociologist Zdeněk Salzmann. Other collections include interviews with people associated with the recovery of a 1955 United Air Lines crash in the mountains west of Laramie; audio tapes of a program describing the early history of Laramie, told by Clarice Whittenburg, a UW elementary education professor; speeches by architect Victor Gruen and Departmet of the Interior Cheif Floyd Dominy on water resources; oral history interviews with Wyoming pioneers; and kinterviews with UW graduate and former Department of the Interior Secretary James Watt.

Collection Building & Technology

Building a digital collection involves selection of materials, clearance of copyright issues, scanning, the creation of data about the digital item (called metadata), data storage, delivery of the images to the user, and ensuring that the digital objects can be sustained long-term. The digital objects created by the AHC are in accordance with national best practices, which it helped to create in partnership with the UW Libraries and the Collaborative Digitization Program in its best practices documents for digital imaging, metadata, and digital audio.

Faculty and staff from the Digital Initiative have selected materials for digitization they feel best represents the quality, diversity and breadth of the AHC and UW Libraries’ collections. Submissions are evaluated within the context of available staffing, resources, and technology.

For more information, see the AHC’s digitization documentation (pdf).

Contact us

For more information about the University of Wyoming Digital Initiatives Programs, please contact Mark Shelstad at shelstad@uwyo.edu or Stephen Boss at sboss@uwyo.edu.