More than 100 years ago, Grace Raymond Hebard—UW faculty member, administrator, librarian, and Wyoming historian—began collecting the papers and reminiscences of Wyoming’s pioneers. Her research on the history of Wyoming, the West, emigrant trails, and Native Americans became the nucleus for what is known today as the AHC.
The AHC was officially established in 1945. In the decades that followed, nearly 70,000 cubic feet of historically important documents and artifacts were acquired. The AHC is among the largest non-governmental archives in the nation, and between the Mississippi and the West Coast only the collections at the University of Texas— Austin compare in size and national importance.
Our mission is to preserve a clearly defined set of primary sources and rare books—reflecting the written, visual, and audio history of Wyoming, the Rocky Mountain region, and select aspects of the American past—and to make those sources accessible to all. Our diverse collections support casual inquiry and international scholarship; most importantly, we play an active and creative role in the teaching and research missions of the university. You can read our official Mission Statement here.
