American Heritage Center
University of Wyoming

Spring 1998 Heritage Highlights

  From the Director

I never met E. B. Mann, but I wish I had. I am sure he was a most interesting fellow. And, I would thank him personally for his generosity towards the American Heritage Center.

The son of Methodist minister, E. B. Mann was born in Hollis, Kansas in 1902. After graduating from Decatur County High School in Oberlin, Kansas, where he claimed to have majored in "football, baseball and girls," he attended the University of Florida. In 1927 he began writing western novels and short stories while living in New York City. Eventually, he became a columnist for Field & Stream magazine and managing editor of The American Rifleman.

 

E.B. Mann in his office, ca. 1975. E.B. Mann Papers, American Heritage Center.

In the early 1950s he served as director of the University of New Mexico press where he published pioneering research on the American southwest. In addition to his writing and editing abilities, Mann was a noted adventurer and outdoorsman who advocated the preservation of "sturdy American traditions."

Upon his death in 1989, Mann left a large part of his estate, along with his manuscripts and a collection of western books and art, to the American Heritage Center. The E. B. Mann endowment at the Center will generate nearly $25,000 annually for the support of the Center’s educational endeavors. E. B. Mann’s generosity will significantly enhance the cause of western history, a cause to which he devoted a lifetime.

  1998 Bernard J. Majewski Fellow Named

The International Archive of Economic Geology (IAEG) has awarded the Bernard J. Majewski Fellowship to Mike Mackey of Powell, Wyoming. A University of Wyoming alum, he is the author of several articles dealing with the history of Wyoming’s oil industry and recently published a volume, Black Gold: Patterns in the Development of Wyoming’s Oil Industry.

Mackey’s research at the AHC will focus on the work of Thomas Samuel Harrison (1881-1964) and his role in the development of Wyoming’s Oregon Basin oil field. Mackey plans to supplement the Harrison collection with material from Harrison’s son, Edward, an oil company owner and donor of much of the Harrison material at the Center. According to UW history professor Phil Roberts, Harrison holds a significant place in the history of the Wyoming oil industry, yet no single source chronicles this role. Mackey’s monograph will be a welcome and useful addition to the literature available for this era. As the Majewski Fellow, Mackey will deliver a public lecture at the American Heritage Center during the 1998-99 academic year.

  1999 Wyoming Historical Calendar Available, 4th Grade Class Analyzes Primary Source Documents

  Return to the Spring 1998 Heritage Highlights Index

American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3924, Laramie, WY 82071.  Phone:  307.766.4114,  Fax:  307.766.5511, Email: shelstad@uwyo.edu.  Copyright © University of Wyoming, 1999.  Created on June 27, 1999.  Last modified on August 23, 2000.