College of Arts and Sciences - History
The need for additional space for expanding liberal curricula and a desire to provide jobs during the Great Depression prompted University of Wyoming trustees to apply for grant and loan funds from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in 1933. Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney secured $300,000 in PWA funds, including an $86,000 grant, for construction of a liberal arts building and auditorium.
The cornerstone of the Arts and Sciences Building was laid November 1935 and the building was dedicated at baccalaureate services June 1936. Dean Justus F. Soule extolled the "ideal of a liberal education" in his dedicatory address. Completion of the Arts and Sciences Building, at the time the largest on the university campus, solidified the role of the liberal arts at the university.
Wyoming architect William Dubois' design consists of a central auditorium with wings on each side. The Arts and Sciences Building exemplifies proportions of the Beaux Arts architectural tradition. Dubois also included elements of modern approaches to architecture such as columns crowned with features similar to archaeological discoveries of Mayan architecture. F. J. Kerchof of Denver constructed the building of native Wyoming sandstone.
Centennial Celebration, September 27, 1986
