American Heritage Center
University of Wyoming

Digital Manuscript Collections

Charles Belden

The Charles J. Belden collection at the American Heritage Center consists of approximately 3,000 original negatives. Most of these images were taken in the 1920s and 1930s on the Legendary Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Located at the base of the Absaroka Mountains, the 250,000 acre ranch proved fertile ground for Belden's photoraphy. By filming cowboys and cattle against the dramatic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, he created some of the classic images of the American West. 

Robert Dunlap Clarke

Clarke served as a paymaster along the Bozeman trail in eastern Wyoming in 1868. His diary provides a glimpse of U.S. Army life after the Civil War along the western frontier.

Victor Gruen

Gruen established one of the nation's leading architectural, planning and engineering firms and designed the first regional shopping center, the Northland Shopping Center in Detroit in 1954 and the first fully enclosed shopping center, Southdale Shopping Center near Minneapolis in 1956.

Fritz Lang  

Lang (1890-1976) was an Austrian-American film director who began his film career as a scriptwriter.  After fleeing Germany in 1933, he directed films in the United States from 1936-1956, until his differences with producers led to his leaving Hollywood.  He directed films in India until 1959 when he returned to Germany.  

Paul and Helen Henderson Oregon Trail Collection

Paul Henderson, a noted Oregon Trail historian, served as a consultant and the director of the film "The First Road West:  The Story of the Oregon Trail Through Wyoming."  The motion picture was filmed during the summers of 1975 and 1976 and intended to show the Oregon Trail in Wyoming from Fort Laramie to Fort Bridge, Wyoming.  In addition to the motion picture, also available are a press release and an information sheet on the film.  

Richard Throssel: Photographer of the Crows

Throssel served as photographer on the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana from 1909-1910 and portray the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indians from 1902-1933.

American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3924, Laramie, WY 82071.  Phone:  307.766.4114,  Fax:  307.766.5511, E-mail: shelstad@uwyo.edu.  Copyright © University of Wyoming, 1999-2001.  Created on October 07, 1999.  Last modified on June 03, 2002.