Undergraduate Research Award Winners

2021

Alexandra Box, BFA in Studio Art candidate (graduates in 2022)

Project Title: Ex Libris Fitzhugh

The Fitzhugh Collection in the American Heritage Center’s Toppan Rare Book Library has a wide variety of books with unique provenances. The use of a bookplate, sometimes known as an “Ex Libris,” meaning from the library of, denotes personal ownership and claim to a book by an individual or library. Bookplates are made in many printmaking based processes including relief (woodcut), intaglio (engraving and etching), and lithography. Alex researched the symbolism of the heraldic animals and elements of the bookplates, finding commonalities and themes throughout the entire collection, and learned about the components of heraldic shields and colors. She documented more than 50 books from the Fitzhugh Collection and the bookplate characteristics that were present in each over the course of six weeks. From this she created an exhibit in the Toppan Library of 14 books with bookplates of styles that include Armorial (1800-1900) and Wreath and Ribbon (1770-1810). The exhibit is also available online at https://virmuze.com/m/uwyo-american-heritage-center/. The exhibit was created for Alex’s printmaking internship under Professor Mark Ritchie of UW’s Visual and Literary Arts program.

2020

Ben Nathan, Graduate Student, University of Wyoming Department of Visual and Literary Arts
Project Title: Views of the West: Then and Now

A print-art project that draws upon imagery evoked by personal journals housed at the AHC. Ben created prints inspired by Gerhard Luke Luhn’s account of an elk hunt he and fellow soldiers enjoyed while stationed at Fort Laramie in the late 1860s. He also created prints based on Edith K.O. Clark’s diary entries recounting a three-day automobile journey from Cheyenne to Denver in 1916. Lastly, he created additional intaglio prints based on his own Wyoming experiences on a chilly February day. Each of the series is housed in a specially created binder to display and protect the prints, all packaged in a leather cover based on Luhn’s leather-bound journal.