American Heritage Center: Toppan Library

Appointments are required for any class or group visits, as well as individual researchers needing to see specific items. Please contact Reference Services to make an appointment at 307-766-3756 or ahcref@uwyo.edu.

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. 

The library is home to the University of Wyoming's rare books collection, consisting of over 50,000 items and is sponsored by the Clara Toppan endowment. The majority of the materials are printed books, although there are newspapers, magazines, broadsides, illuminated manuscripts, and other materials. Collecting subjects include the American West, British and American Literature, Exploration and Travel, Religion, Hunting and Fishing, historic children's books, and examples of the book arts.

Image: Illuminated Manuscript from the 1400s

Much of the library houses donated material. Large named collections are kept intact:

• Frederick W. Toppan Collection
• Charles and Paul Clay Collection
• Beatrice Beuf Collection
• William Fitzhugh Collection
• Lloyd Taggart Collection
• Joseph Roebling Collection
• Tristram and Charles Howard Colket Collection
• Owen Wister Collection
• Lewis Einstein Collection
• C.C. Kuehn Collection
• Maud Littleton Collection
• Lewis Knapp Collection
• Wilbur, Emma, and S.H. Knight Collection
• Arthur and Helen Rippey Collection
• Revilo Pendleton Oliver Collection
• Walter Levy Collection
• Ed and Shirley Cheramy Collection
• Louise Jackson Collection
• Gene Gurney Collection