AHC Exhibits

Galleries and Loggia displays on the second floor are open from 10 AM to 5 PM on weekdays.

Current Exhibits in the AHC Loggia:

"Keeping History Alive: 136 Years of Progress"

This exhibit combines historic photos from the American Heritage Center’s collections with photos of the University of Wyoming campus taken in 2022, to show how the campus has changed (and stayed the same) over time. 

The University of Wyoming is a land grant university in Laramie, Wyoming, founded in 1886. Construction of the first building, Old Main, began in 1886 and the university opened its doors to the first students in September 1887.

Nowadays, the campus consists of more than 40 buildings and continues to grow.

The photographs were curated and shot by AHC photographer Theoren Sheppard. The building histories were written by University Archivist, John Waggener. 

The University of Wyoming is a land grant university in Laramie, Wyoming, founded in 1886. Construction of the first building, Old Main, began in 1886 and the university opened its doors to the first students in September 1887. Nowadays, the campus consists of more than 40 buildings and continues to grow.

Old Main is the university’s original building. When the university was established by the Wyoming State Legislature in March 1886, it created a University Building Commission that was authorized to secure a location in the city of Laramie to construct a building. A bid for the project was accepted on July 1, 1886. Denver architect Frederick Hale designed the building, and Cook and Callahan, of Laramie, was contracted to build the building at a cost not to exceed $50,000.

The cornerstone was placed on September 27, 1886. Sandstone was quarried near Laramie and Rawlins. The building was completed when the university officially opened on September 6, 1887.

The original structure included a tower. It began to lean, and temporary measures were taken to secure it, but in the spring of 1915, the trustees approved its immediate removal for safety reasons.

Initially, the building was referred to as the university building. As other buildings were added, it was commonly referred to as the main building. In 1922, the trustees approved the official name of University Hall. However, by the mid-1920’s students often referred to it as old main – a reference to it being the old, main building on campus. University Hall quickly faded. In 1949, when the original building was remodeled to be converted to a fully administrative building, Old Main was engraved in the stone above the main entrance. 

Come see the complete UW Buildings exhibit in person or see it online in Virmuze.

Sara Wiles' "The Arapaho Way"

Selected images from "The Arapaho Way: Continuity and Change on the Wind River Reservation" Published in October 2019 by the University of Oklahoma Press, The Arapaho Way: Continuity and Change on the Wind River Reservation relates stories of modern Northern Arapaho life through words and photographs. Since 1973 Sara Wiles has worked on the Wind River Rservation, home of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone, as a student of anthropology, a social worker, consultant for lanugage and cultural projects and photographer.

AHC traveling exhibit "Japanese American Girl Scouts at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp 1942-1945"

After Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese military in 1941, in the name of national security, people with Japanese ancestry, including many U.S. citizens, were uprooted from their homes and businesses and relocated to camps in other regions of the country. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center between Powell and Cody, Wyoming, was home to more than 10,000 Japanese Americans between August 1942 and November 1945. Scouting programs for both boys and girls were prominent throughout the United States during World War II and Heart Mountain Relocation Camp reflected the rest of the United States. World War II was a time in the United States of heightened patriotism and the Girl Scout program fit the model of patriotism for people who were eager to be seen as patriotic Americans.

Hopalong Cassidy merchandise "Artifacts of an Icon"

After William Boyd purchased the rights to the character of Hopalong Cassidy in the 1940s he reaped a fortune by merchandising the character and creating products for legions of children.  By 1950 the Hopalong Cassidy industry was valued in the tens of millions.  There were 2500 Hopalong Cassidy products including bread, milk, tuna fish, soap, peanut butter, and a candy bar.  Hoppy also had official bathrobes, wallpaper, roller skates with spurs, watches, trashcans, cups, dishes, Topps trading cards, a comic strip, comic books, and cowboy outfits. This exhibit showcases a selection of this merchandise from the William Boyd Collection. 

AHC traveling exhibit "Japanese American Girl Scouts at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp 1942-1945"

After Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese military in 1941, in the name of national security, people with Japanese ancestry, including many U.S. citizens, were uprooted from their homes and businesses and relocated to camps in other regions of the country. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center between Powell and Cody, Wyoming, was home to more than 10,000 Japanese Americans between August 1942 and November 1945. Scouting programs for both boys and girls were prominent throughout the United States during World War II and Heart Mountain Relocation Camp reflected the rest of the United States. World War II was a time in the United States of heightened patriotism and the Girl Scout program fit the model of patriotism for people who were eager to be seen as patriotic Americans.

Permanant Exhibits at the AHC

George A. Rentschler Room

The American Heritage Center’s George A. Rentschler Room is home to significant western paintings, including thirteen by Henry Farny and one by Frederic Remington. These paintings appear as they did in the library of Mr. Rentschler, a New York City businessman and western enthusiast.

Henry Farny (1847-1916)

After studying in Rome, Dusseldorf and Munich as a young man, Farny settled in Cincinnati. In 1881, he began traveling into the American West, including Wyoming. During his travels, Farny sketched, took photographs and collected Indian artifacts and photographs. Returning to his Cincinnati studio, Farny worked from his own illustrations and memory, relied on his collection of artifacts, and occasionally employed live models to create his unique style of Western art.

Despite this method of production, Farny’s Indian paintings are considered some of the most accurate of the genre. His paintings of Native Americans were highly sought after during Farny’s lifetime, although his work disappeared into near obscurity after his death. Collectors rediscovered Farny in the 1960s because of increasing interest in the “true West.”

Frederic Remington (1861-1909)

Frederic Remington studied art at Yale University and took his first trip into the American West in 1881, the same year as Farny. Although a failed businessman, he became famous as an illustrator of the West. His first full-page cover art work appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1886 when he was just 25.

In the 1890s, he became a favorite of the American cavalry in the West, especially the troops led by General Nelson Miles. His numerous paintings of soldiers at this this time often used a monochromatic palate, which gave a sense of realistic, almost photographic, quality. The Rentschler Remington painting belongs to this period.

Alfred Jacob Miller

The Alfred Jacob Miller paintings from the Everett D. Graff family and Robert C. Graff art collections appear on permanent display in the American Heritage Center’s new Gallery One. A young American artist, Miller was commissioned by a Scottish noble, William Drummond Stewart, to document his expedition from the Missouri frontier to the 1837 Green River Rendezvous near modern Pinedale Wyoming. During the six-month journey with Stewart and the American Fur Company, Miller made more than 200 watercolor sketches. He used these sketches as the basis for large oil paintings he painted to hang in Stewart’s Murthly Castle in Scotland. Miller was the first European American artist to capture the interior of the Rocky Mountains. Some of the Murthly Castle paintings are now at the American Heritage Center.

Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center Exhibits

The American Heritage Center is pleased to work with the UW Foundation to curate photograph and image exhibits for the Gateway Center. Three exhibits are now on display.

History Happened Here!

This exhibit features photographs drawn from numerous University of Wyoming collections—collections from UW departments, professors, presidents, students, and alumni—and now all held at the American Heritage Center. These photographs, both posed and candid, give snapshots of life in Wyoming and at UW since its founding in 1886. They offer invaluable glimpses into the everyday life of the university and around the state.

 “Cowboys & Cattle: Charles Belden’s Wyoming.”

The Charles J. Belden Collection consists of approximately 3,000 original negatives. Most of the images were taken in the 1920s and 1930s on the legendary Pitchfork Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. The Charles J. Belden Photographs Collection exemplifies the natural talent that Belden had for photography. His keen eye made for pictures that were beautifully contrasted and artistic. The Pitchfork Ranch was the star of a majority of Belden's photos, where he captured snapshots of all the hard, yet enjoyable, moments of ranch life in Wyoming. 

“Wyoming’s National Park.”

This exhibit celebrates Yellowstone’s 150^th anniversary. It is no secret that Yellowstone National Park is one of Wyoming’s most esteemed treasures, so it is no surprise that the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center features an abundance of collections that contain significant aspects of Yellowstone’s history.

Virtual Exhibits