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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility: HRSJ AHC Resources

About These Resources

The resources on the page showcase some of the available collections at the American Heritage Center related to Human Rights & Social Justice. Visit the AHC's main LibGuide to learn more about how to use and search for more of our primary source materials, or get started with your research by looking through our finding aids on Archives West. You can get in touch with the AHC's Reference Services at 307-766-3756 or ahcref@uwyo.edu if you have questions.

The American Heritage Center aspires to approach all areas of our work in ways that are respectful to those who create, use, and are represented in our collections. For a variety of reasons, however, users may encounter offensive or harmful language or content in some of our finding aids, catalogs, and collection materials. Note that the AHC does not censor or alter contents of the collections, as they provide context and evidence of a time, people, place, or event. Therefore, we encourage users to bring questions and concerns about descriptions in our finding aids to our attention via email or anonymous web-form. For more information, read our full statement on potentially harmful language and content.

AHC Archival Collections

Armband

Black 14 Eaton Armband, Irene L. Kettunen Schubert Black 14 Collection, Collection 10405

Murray C. Bernays Papers, Collection 03817
Murray Cohen Bernays (1894-1970) was a partner in a New York law firm and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. In this capacity, he planned the legal framework and procedures for the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. The collection consists of indexes, agendas, planning documents, legal documents, memos, reports, newspaper clippings, and publications. Included are photographs of Bernays and colleagues. There is also Bernays' correspondence, both personal and professional, regarding the Nuremberg Trials.

Black Lives Matter Protests Records, Collection 12819
The collection includes news coverage and photographs documenting the Laramie, Wyoming Black Lives Matter Protests, which were a series of public demonstrations organized in order to draw attention to criminal justice and racial justice issues around the state of Wyoming and Laramie.

Irene L. Kettunen Schubert Black 14 Collection, Collection 10405

Irene Schubert was a former employer at the University of Wyoming. In October, 1969 fourteen Black college football players were dismissed from the University of Wyoming football team because they wanted to wear armbands when playing against Brigham Young University to protest the alleged racial policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in promoting members to the priesthood. Sympathetic protests took place in Wyoming.

Friends of the Earth-United States Records, Collection 11733
The Friends of the Earth records contain materials and files related to a multiplicity of environmental and human rights issues, including correspondence, memos, newspaper and magazine clippings, Blackwelder's research files and correspondence, Board of Director meeting minutes as well as printed brochures intended to solicit public and private support for FoE causes.

George F. Guy Papers, Collection 04776
Guy, an attorney, practiced law in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for fifty-three years. During World War II he served with the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate Corps. In 1945 he served as one of six defense lawyers for Japanese General Tomobumi Yamashita who was captured in 1942. Yamashita was sentenced to death in 1945 for war crimes committed by his soldiers in the Philippines. The collection includes correspondence, exhibits, statements and other legal documents, interviews, newspaper clippings, and photographs all relating to the Yamashita case.

Thomas F. Stroock Papers, Collection 10356
Thomas F. Stroock, Wyoming State Senator, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, and businessman. During his 1989-1992 ambassadorship in Guatemala, Stroock was noted for his advocacy of human rights and social justice in this Central American country. The collection contains correspondence and other documents related to human rights in boxes 63, 64, and 105.

Women's March, Wyoming (2017) Collection, Collection 12666

The Women's March was a worldwide protest on January 21, 2017 to highlight women's issues and discontent with the newly elected United States President, Donald Trump. The general discontent regarded the statements he made and the rhetoric of his campaign concerning women and human rights. People marched across the nation to advocate for legislation and policies that would protect human rights (including women's rights), immigration reform, healthcare reform, reproductive rights, environmental concerns, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, and workers' rights. Marches were held across the state of Wyoming including Cheyenne, Casper, Cody, Jackson, and Laramie.

Richard S. Putney oral history, Collection 400094

This collection contains an oral history interview with Richard and Audrey Putney conducted by Irlanda Jacinto, University Archivist for the University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center. The interview topics include but are not limited to a memorial service for Martin Luther King Jr. after his assassination, the Black 14, peace movements, Vietnam War protests, civil rights demonstrations, gays in Wyoming, race relations, and the University of Wyoming. The Putney family included Reverend Richard S. Putney, his wife, Audrey Putney, and their two sons. Richard Putney and his family lived in Laramie in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Tom Pugh Papers, Collection 11685

Tom Pugh was born on April 26, 1930 in Peoria, Illinois. He worked for the "Peoria Journal Star" as a reporter and editor from 1947-1982. Pugh became a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Illinois Advisory Committee in 1975 and served as Chairperson in 1982. Pugh was a free-lance writer and consultant after retiring in 1982.

Bennett Hammer LGBT Clippings Collection, Collection 12716

From 1970-2009, Hammer collected articles on gay-related issues from local and national papers to preserve the dominant discourse in United States culture during these years of the LGBT civil rights movement. Bennett Hammer grew up in Long Beach, New York. In 1967 he moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico where he completed his B.A. in Spanish and English (1969) and a M.A. in Bilingual Education (1974) from New Mexico Highlands University. He taught Spanish at levels kindergarten through university. In 1975, he began working as a real estate broker in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the 1990s, Hammer was a member of the New Mexico Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance, The Duke City Gay and Lesbian Business Association, and the Common Bond Community Center. Hammer served on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of New Mexico (1994-2006), and was New Mexico's representative to the National ACLU Board for three years (2003-2006). The ACLU of New Mexico honored Hammer with its Civil Libertarian of the Year Award (2005), and he received the Russell Gray Community Service Award from the Common Bond Foundation (2007). In 2009, the "Hammer Archives" became part of the LGBT Educational Archives Project which was devoted to the preservation of LGBT archives.

John Wilkens Colorado Amendment 2 Newspaper Article Collection, Collection 12670

John Wilkens was a graduate student in Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder in the early 1990s when Colorado's Amendment 2 was being proposed, debated, approved and ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1996. Amendment 2 was a voter approved measure barring local governments from granting protected status to people who identify as LGBT. While at CU, Wilkens began keeping newspaper clipping files on the debate and the surrounding conversation on LGBT issues in Colorado for a future project. The collection dates from January 1991 to June 1996 and are sourced from mostly the major newspapers in Denver and Boulder. The collections contains thousands of newspaper articles from between 1991 and 1996 involving LGBT rights in Colorado and the wider conversation taking place throughout the US.

Lois Carolyn Mottonen Papers, Collection 12703

Lois Mottonen was born and raised in Rock Springs, Wyoming. She attended the University of Wyoming and was the only women in her class to receive a bachelor's degree in accounting. Because accounting firms would not hire women in the early 1950s, Mottonen received a job as an Internal Revenue Agent and manager for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, working there from 1951-1979. She was nominated for the U.S. Treasury Department's annual Women's Award for promoting women's equity in government. Mottonen became a proponent for equal opportunity for women in the work place and was the second woman in Wyoming to be granted a CPA license. From 1981 to 1995, Mottonen worked for the Wyoming Department of Education. She was also the first woman in government to be elected president of the American Women's Society of Certified Public Accountants (AWSCPA). Mottonen advocated for women's equality and helped to break barriers for women in accounting.

 

AHC Digital Exhibits and Blog

Virmuze Digital Exhibits

In Memorial: Matthew Shepard

This exhibit details the story and lasting memory of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, who was beaten and left to die in a field outside Laramie, Wyoming, during the night of October 6-7, 1998. 

In Pursuit of Equality
This exhibit shows the story of three women - Nellie Tayloe Ross, Thyra Thomson, and Liz Byrd - who, as elected office holders, challenged and changed the conventional understanding of equality in Wyoming.

AHC Discovery History Blog
There are many blog posts that relate to Human Rights & Social Justice on our blog. Use the search bar on the blog site to check them out.

Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr./Wyoming Equality Day by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington

Celebrating LGBTQ Pride: The S.J. Moffat Collection by Morgan Walsh, AHC Archives Aide

Opening Chutes and Closets – Gay Rodeo by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington

Forty Years of Diversity at UW by Chelsea Nelson, AHC Carlson Intern

Black History Month Highlight: Elizabeth Byrd, Wyoming Politician by Rachael Dreyer, Reference Archivist

2018 Marks the 20th Remembrance of Matthew Shepard’s Murder by Sara Davis, AHC University Archivist

 

Search the AHC's collections using UW Libraries QuickSearch

Additional search tools (such as physical card catalogs, subject/photo/biographical file indexes, etc.) are available on-site at the American Heritage Center. If you are unsuccessful in your search, please contact the Reference Services Unit for assistance, or visit us on-site. Online cataloging projects are ongoing.