The American Heritage Center recently finished processing the papers of Harry C. Butcher. Butcher was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s staff during World War II and wrote of his experiences in his book “My Three Years with Eisenhower.”
In addition to materials related to Butcher’s experiences during World War II, there is also correspondence with Eisenhower during his presidency, personal correspondence to Butcher’s family and a great deal of material chronicling Butcher’s career in the broadcast industry, both radio and television, before and after World War II. Some of these materials illustrate a time when the US government was determining the best way to regulate radio and television broadcasting and these are issues Butcher worked with in his role as a radio and television station owner.
A great deal of the materials in this collection are from the 1950s, a time that the United States was engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Cold War manifests itself in the Butcher papers in interesting ways, but perhaps the most interesting way is in correspondence between Butcher and one of his acquaintances decrying the fluoridation of the water in Santa Barbara, California, where Butcher lived.
Take a look at these letters for yourself:
Letter from the Harry C. Butcher papers, Box 2, Folder 7.
Letter from the Harry C. Butcher papers, Box 2, Folder 7.
Letter from the Harry C. Butcher papers, Box 2, Folder 7.
Letter from the Harry C. Butcher papers, Box 2, Folder 7.
A conspiracy theory at the time had it that the fluoridation of American water was a communist plot that would turn Americans into mindless communists. This is a reflection of the Cold War paranoia that gripped American society at the time. Other examples of manifestations of this paranoia include the Hollywood blacklisting and other activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the mid-1950s.
An example of this paranoia in popular culture can be found in Stanley Kubrick’s satirical film “Dr. Stangelove,” which is centered around a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union put into motion by an American general fearful of communist infiltration by means of the fluoridation of American water.
Butcher, much to his credit, replies that God must want the water in Santa Barbara to be fluoridated because it is naturally present and states, somewhat sardonically, “I sincerely hope you succeed in saving the world.”
[Editor's note: The AHC invited UW students enrolled in Professor Rick Ewig's Archival Methods course to contribute a post for the AHC blog. Here is one such entry! Enjoy!]
One of the most underused collections at the American Heritage Center has a gold mine of information (some on an actual gold mine) spread across dozens of boxes and hundreds of folders. Titans of industry in the waning Gilded Age are highlighted in correspondence and business contracts, deeds, and minutes. Such men could be staying at a swanky hotel in our nation’s capital while sending and receiving letters from venture capitalists in London, cattle foremen in New Mexico, estate lawyers in Iowa, and desperate hucksters, inventors, and panhandlers from areas in between. Such was the lot of James and Helen Bosler of Carlisle Pennsylvania, and their heir apparent, Frank Bosler.
Frank Bosler, along with a few other notables such as Edward Ivinson, would become the closest thing Wyoming had to a Rockefeller or a J.P. Morgan. A level-headed businessman who made decisions by the numbers rather than by personal feelings, ran what amounted to a minor business empire that comprised large tracts of Southeast Wyoming, land and cattle in Iowa and New Mexico, and mine deeds in Colorado. His holdings included a dizzying array of companies that included the Iron Mountain Ranch, the Iron Mountain Alloy Company, and the Ashland Mining Company. Frank Bosler could be found sending letters and contracts that exchanged tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars, and later, he could send a letter to his bank enquiring about a discrepancy of one dollar and seventy-two cents, making him meticulous, miserly, or both.
Photograph of John Coble. Photofile: Coble, John. UW American Heritage Center.
Juxtaposed with this gentleman from back East, a tenderfoot some might have called him in his younger years, was the rough and tumble John C. Coble. Coble was the owner of the world famous bucking bronco Steamboat, the horse immortalized as Wyoming’s unofficial symbol. Coble, an undisputed leader of cowpokes and survivor of a grisly knife attack by the father of the boy allegedly murdered by Tom Horn, was Bosler’s business partner and primary operator of the Iron Mountain Company. Bosler, cultured and unemotional, and Coble, hardened cowboy and hothead, made for quite the odd couple. It is no wonder that their business partnership dissolved with Coble allegedly misallocating company funds in order to pay for Horn’s defense, Horn being a close, personal friend. Coble eventually won a civil case Bosler that went all the way to the Wyoming Supreme Court, which held that Bosler owed Coble over twenty thousand dollars in damages!
All these events represent a fraction of the interactions found in the Bosler Family Collection that bring to life the changing Wyoming landscape at the turn of the last century. Dig in, and enjoy this precious stone at the AHC in the Gem City of the Plains.
–Oscar Lilley, HIST 4055 Student
[Author's note regarding sources consulted: Frank Bosler Papers, 1864-1930. Collection Number 5850. American Heritage Center. University of Wyoming. Boxes 61-63, and 115 were highlighted in this blog post.]
Have you ever wanted to relive a special moment in Cowboy or Cowgirl sports history? Such as the 1988 football game of UW vs. Air Force, when UW came back and won? Or perhaps the 2007 NIT championship game of the Cowgirls vs. Wisconsin? If your answer is yes, then you’ll be pleased to know that an online inventory of all game films and documents in the Intercollegiate Athletics collection is now available.
Not a sports fan? You still may find some items of interest, such as this 1977 football season highlight video showing the campus and students:
Getting the Ball Rolling to Improve Access
Previously, accessing the UW Intercollegiate Athletics material was like catching a Hail Mary in a Wyoming blizzard–very difficult! All that existed was a 35-page paper inventory created by a student in 2002 for 228 boxes of film. Neither the collection nor inventory was organized in any way. Although the inventory was originally created electronically in Microsoft Word, the electronic version was not readily available and paper copies were used for search and retrieval. It’s not the 1980s. We live in a world where keyword searches and 24/7 access of information is the norm. It was time to bring the Intercollegiate Athletics collection to the 21st century.
Old inventory for the UW Athletics Collection.
The bulky inventory was not available to patrons but rather used by AHC archivists when a patron requested a film. Because there are approximately 25 requests a year for films and other materials, our A/V archivist used it often and had it practically memorized. While this is one way to find what you’re looking for in an unorganized collection, those unfamiliar with the collections’ contents would have to scan dozens of pages to find what they needed, and there was no guarantee that we even had what they were looking for (more on this later).
The Intercollegiate Athletics collection totals over 200 cubic feet. If you laid each box from end to end it would span the entire War Memorial football field, plus another thirty yards. Not only was it a large, unorganized collection, but there were inaccuracies in the titles and dates, and many of the films were unidentified. Needless to say, organizing and identifying the thousands of films and other materials was a lot of work.
New and Improved: The Collection
The new, accurate online inventory (a.k.a. finding aid) can be found here: http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah515001.xml. The collection is divided into three series: films, sports records, and athletic director’s email. Most films are organized by sport, and then chronologically. There are various types of films and videos including 16 millimeter reel-to-reel tape, Beta, VHS and even DVDs. The new finding aid identifies each film and video by type.
The UW Intercollegiate Athletics collection is mostly comprised of game films, and most are of UW football and men’s basketball games. There is a fairly complete run of football games dating from 1938 to 2004 and a fairly complete run of men’s basketball games dating from 1978-2003. The BYU vs. Wyoming game of the October 1981 blizzard, when the Cowboys came back from a 14-point deficit to beat Jim McMahon and the Cougars; the 1987 men’s basketball team’s run in the NCAA tournament, when the cowboys were led by Fennis Dembo and Eric Leckner; and the March 2, 2002 game against Utah to win the regular season Mountain West Conference title and host the biggest crowd to see a game in the UW Arena are just some of the historical highlights included this collection.
Game films of women’s basketball are also included with a fairly complete run from 2003 to 2008. The collection also includes films documenting baseball, cross country, golf, skiing, hockey, rodeo, soccer, swimming/diving, tennis, track, and volleyball from the 1980s-2000s. Wrestling is also represented and there is footage dating back to 1949. Additionally, it includes films of coaches’ shows, senior banquets, and season highlight tapes.
The collection also contains physical and electronic records about UW sports, such as several scrapbooks of newspaper clippings dating 1920-1948 about UW football and basketball. A small portion of football and men’s basketball schedules, game brochures, and narrator information sheets for games are in this collection. There are also audio cassette tapes of interviews with coaches and players.
2006-2007 University of Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team. University of Wyoming Intercollegiate Athletics Records, Collection No. 515001.
Why Does the AHC Have This Stuff?
The American Heritage Center houses the university’s archives- permanent records documenting university history. Sports are a fundamental part of most universities, and the University of Wyoming is no exception. In fact, it could be argued that, because Wyoming has no professional NFL or NBA teams, the Wyoming Cowboys are even more essential to document.
Unfortunately, acquisition of game tapes and records has been inconsistent and unstructured. We are very fortunate to have what we have, and hope to acquire both films and records documenting games and the administration for years to come. Like most sporting events, it just takes teamwork and a game plan!
Score Sports Memories and Memorabilia for Yourself
Whether you want to reminisce with friends over a favorite Cowboys memory or see what the fashions of the 1970s were, the Intercollegiate Athletics Collection is a slam dunk for interesting (and sometimes amusing) content. Contact our friendly reference archivists for more information on how to access and even get copies of specific films and other materials. In the meantime, here’s a major moment in Cowboys’ basketball history that, although young Cowboys fans may not have known of it, will forever be remembered within the UW Archives:
~ Laura Uglean Jackson, University Archivist (with help from John Waggener, Photo Archivist, and Aaron Kruger and friends, UW Cowboy fans)
[The Preservation Week blog series concludes with this final post. We hope that you have enjoyed this feature! As always, please feel free to share your own stories about your personal collections in the comments section!]
For many years I have been doing family history and from the beginning used the American Heritage Center (AHC) as a resource. About 10 years ago I began working on ranch histories for Albany County, Wyoming, and have found AHC to be a great place for me to do research for this project too. It is amazing what you can find in the collections at AHC. Every time I go to AHC or to their website I always find something that either relates to my family and/or to the Albany County Ranch Histories I am presently working on.
The photo collections have been a great place for me to find family and ranch pictures. Recently I came upon a picture titled “German Picnic” at AHC and in it I found my grandparents, great grandmother, a great aunt and uncle and other relatives. What a find that was because my grandparents were both very young in the picture and seeing them was such a thrill. Therefore I ordered a copy on a CD and now I have that picture in my family history collection. I have enjoyed sharing it with others in the family.
German Picnic, possibly 1890s, Ludwig Svenson Collection. UW American Heritage Center.
When you do a search online using the words “Albany County Wyoming” or “Wyoming History” it is amazing how much information is at AHC. For instance I found one of my relatives in that search: Edward H. Borgeman. His papers are located at the AHC! Another search for ranchers connected to Albany County turned up the papers of Oda Mason, Andrew Spring Gillespie, King Brothers Company, Ted Olson, Alvy Dixon, Bosler Family, Harry Richardson, Robert H. Homer, and Hans Olson.
I highly recommend the American Heritage Center for historical research of family, ranches, and many other subjects. Happy hunting!
[The Preservation Week blog series continues! Please feel free to share your own stories about your personal collections in the comments section!]
Everyone has a personal archive; a collection of records that they choose to maintain because they feel that the records have historical significance to them as an individual. They may document family history, work, a personal event, or the personal effects of a national or worldwide event. However, many people do not realize that what they are creating and maintaining are essentially archival collections. They have subconsciously developed a “collection policy” in their mind of what has significance to them and have made a conscious effort to save, maintain, store, and access these materials for long-term personal use. This is essentially what an archival institution tries to do for a community and many times these personal collections may end up at an archival institution for research use.
I am part of this everyone; my personal archive contains numerous family collections of photographs, correspondence, and memorabilia covering at least four generations of family history (including my own). One of my most prized collections is my great-grandmother’s (Shirley Campbell Riedesel) photo albums and diary. She created three photo albums that span her teenage years until her death in 1944 and a diary that recalls her life raising a family on a ranch north of Laramie, Wyoming in the mid 1930s.
Ranch scenes and picture postcard.
Unfortunately, she died of cancer at the age of 44 when my grandmother was only 10 years old, making her collection our families’ only known personal record of her life and my grandmothers life as a little girl. Not only does this collection provide a pictorial history with personal anecdotes about my family history, it also provides historical documentation about everyday life in Albany County, Wyoming from 1920-1940. One great example is in a photo album labeled “Ranch – Laramie, Wyoming 1936.” On the last page of this album are two photographs of sheep hung up by their hind legs with the caption “Uncle Sam Killing Sheep, 1934”. This is a great representation of local ranches dealing with New Deal Federal Government directives to slaughter sheep as a way to reduce surplus and raise livestock prices during the Great Depression. I get the sense my great-grandmother was not overly happy about it based on the photos and the caption she wrote.
Caption from photo: “Uncle Sam Killing Sheep, 1934.”
The diary only covers a few years of her life living on the family ranch and raising her children. My great-grandmother was rather lonely and sad during this time. She complains of her husband, my great-grandfather, always being gone and expresses grief over the loss of a child. The photo albums, on the other hand, tend to show only the joyous moments in the family; family outings and gatherings, family photos, ranch work, animals, and the ranch house and buildings. We can gather a lot of historical data from both the albums and the diary regarding my great-grandmother’s life as a young women, wife, and mother. Her story can also add details about the overall experience of many women that moved to Wyoming and lived during the Great Depression. I find that many personal archive collections contain such stories that may seem only significant to the individual but can also have significance to a broader scope of research and knowledge.
[We continue to celebrate Preservation Week with a series of blog posts from community members that discuss their personal archives and family histories. We hope that you enjoy this blog series! Please feel free to share your own stories about your personal collections in the comments section!]
I never met my grandmother, Florence Hicks Hecox. She died in 1932 leaving a husband and six children on the family homestead in the Upper Green River Valley above Pinedale, Wyoming. I am lucky to own two of the few items that once belonged to her. I have a crazy quilt that was made in the early 1900s while Florence was a young woman living in Lyman, Wyoming. There are pieces of lace added to the basic quilt pieces of silk, taffeta, velvet and satin. Notes and dates have been embroidered on some pieces. Unfortunately, the quilt was not always given good care and has damage from mice. The silk pieces are nearly all gone due to deterioration. Family tradition says that the quilt was made from ties but the documentation done by the Wyoming Quilt Project last spring does not support story. The fabric is very fragile and I need to find a way to clean and support the quilt so it will remain a part of the family for a few more generations.
Hecox family crazy quilt and wooden rocking chair, sized for a child.
The second item I have is a child’s rocking chair that was given to Florence at some time in the late 1890s or early 1900s. It is made from soft pine with a cane seat. My father was not certain how it came to their family but that it had always been in their house when they were growing up. The chair was used by my Uncle Richard’s family and then my father fixed it up for our family. A few years ago I brought it to Laramie and had it restored by a company in Fort Collins. They replaced the plywood seat with a new cane seat, cleaned off the years of dirt and polished the hardware. I was told that these little rockers are rather rare since most were broken and thrown away. I feel very lucky to have this little chair and will use it when I have grandchildren of my own.
Most of the Hecox family stories and the few pictures that remain of my grandmother are published in a book that was written by my uncle Richard Hecox and edited by his granddaughter Disney Burnett. The book is titled Memories of Kendall Valley and was originally published in 1978 with a second edition in 2005. I keep the quilt documentation and the information about the little rocking chair with this book so my family will be able to read about these two treasures in the future.
