The American Heritage Center (AHC) is UW’s archives, rare books, and manuscripts repository. Most universities have special collections. Few have special collections as extensive and significant as the American Heritage Center. More importantly, few universities have special collections as welcoming and accessible to undergraduate and graduate students. Not a dusty attic or an exclusive sanctuary, the AHC is a welcoming, lively, place where both experts and novices engage with the original sources of history.

The opportunity to do hands-on, primary source research at the AHC, with assistance from expert reference archivists and rare book curators, is one of the ways UW offers personalized, connected education. Students have the opportunity to work with collections of international importance- last year scholars and other researchers from 48 states and 21 nations used the AHC’s collections. Recent documentaries on PBS’s American Experience and on the History Channel have featured AHC collections.

The AHC’s collections are of interest to far more than history majors. Last year students from courses in 16 departments--African-American Studies, American Indian Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Art, Geography and Recreation, History, the Lab School, English, Music, Nursing, Pharmacy, Secondary Education, Sociology, University Studies, Women’s Studies--did research in the American Heritage Center. The AHC, in fact, is used more actively by university students than similar repositories at Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.

AHC collections go beyond Wyoming’s or the region’s borders and support a wide range of research and teaching activities in the humanities, sciences, arts, business, and education. Major areas of collecting include Wyoming and the American West, the mining and petroleum industries, U.S. politics and world affairs, environment and natural resources, journalism, transportation, the history of books, and 20th century entertainment such as popular music, radio, television, and film.

The AHC’s mission is to make this material a visible, vital, and accessible resource for students, scholars, and the public. We are housed in an internationally acclaimed piece of architecture, designed by Antoine Predock, that opened in 1993--the Centennial Complex houses both the American Heritage Center and the University Art Museum.

To learn more, call (307/766-4114), visit (2111 Willett Drive), or browse our web site (www.uwyo.edu/ahc).