蜜芽TV

Nellie: The first woman governor at america's milestones

Drawing primarily from the AHC鈥檚 Nellie Tayloe Ross papers, the exhibition examines Ross's life and career through key moments in American history. Born in 1876 during the nation's Centennial, Ross became the first woman governor in the United States in 1925 and later served for two decades as Director of the United States Mint. She lived to see the nation's Bicentennial in 1976.

The exhibition uses the nation's 100th, 150th, and 200th anniversaries to trace Ross's development from her early life through her years in public service. It highlights her governorship during a period of economic hardship in Wyoming, her transition to federal leadership during the Great Depression, and her long tenure overseeing the Mint through major national events, including the Second World War.

Items on display include photographs, her Oath of Office, a scrapbook documenting her inauguration, the certificate signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointing her to the Mint, and a coin bearing her likeness.

"Nellie Tayloe Ross is a central figure in Wyoming and American history," said Kail Moede, exhibit curator. "In curating this exhibit, I wanted to frame her life through key national milestones, especially as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. To highlight Nellie is to highlight Wyoming's place in American history. The exhibit, designed to reflect her scrapbooks, brings those connections together."

Ross later chose to donate her papers to the American Heritage Center, ensuring her legacy would remain in Wyoming. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, her life continues to offer a clear connection to the nation鈥檚 second century and its evolving history.

"Nellie: The First Woman Governor at America's Milestones" is on display through April 2027 in the AHC's Gallery One.

Turning the Pages of america: Celebrating 250 years of the USA with a roadtrip across the country through books 

Curated by Laurel Carr, an intern at the Toppan Rare Books Library at the AHC, "Turning the Pages of America" celebrates the Semiquincentennial with a literary roadtrip across the country. The exhibit features a book for each of the 50 states from several of the rare book collections. Each book is representative of its state and shows the diversity of the country and its different regions. The books are from various genres, including fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, and photography, and date from 1627鈥�1963.

Wyoming鈥檚 featured book is Women of Wyoming by Cora M. Beach, which highlights significant and influential women from Wyoming, such as Nellie Tayloe Ross and Grace Raymond Hebard. Other books include Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, for Alabama, which is his autobiography describing his life, from growing up in slavery to founding a university, and As Maine Goes by Alta Smith and Esther Dunham, which presents photos of the state to show its essence and scenery.

 鈥淏ooks have long been a key way to communicate culture and character,鈥� AHC Director Paul Flesher said. 鈥淪eeing books from every state provides an itinerary that reminds us of the shared elements of our national culture and the variety of our states鈥� cultures that seasons every citizen鈥檚 life.鈥�

The books present the exhibit鈥檚 attendees with diverse views and lived experiences of the country through the medium of storytelling. They also highlight notable aspects of each of the 50 states and show the importance of literature throughout the history of the U.S.

"Turning the Pages of America" will be on display through Friday, December 18th, 2026.

George A. Rentschler Room

The American Heritage Center鈥檚 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鈥檚 Indian paintings are considered some of the most accurate of the genre. His paintings of Native Americans were highly sought after during Farny鈥檚 lifetime, although his work disappeared into near obscurity after his death. Collectors rediscovered Farny in the 1960s because of increasing interest in the 鈥渢rue West.鈥�
• 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 artwork appeared in Harper鈥檚 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 Gallery

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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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.

Floor 1: Gothic on the High Plains: UW鈥檚 Collegiate Gothic Legacy

Throughout its history, 蜜芽TV has turned to Collegiate Gothic鈥搃nspired architecture to give its campus a sense of permanence and tradition. Pointed arches, towers, and stone fa莽ades reflected national trends linking Gothic forms with scholarship and tradition. While not a strict imitation of European Gothic, the style influenced the proportions, massing, and details of academic buildings.

What truly set the early UW campus apart was its use of locally and regionally quarried sandstone. The red and buff tones of this stone, drawn from local quarries, gave the campus its distinctive appearance鈥攁 palette that remains a defining feature today. Buildings such as Old Main, Wyoming Union, Knight Hall, and the Engineering Building reflect this blend of Gothic inspiration and Wyoming stonework, creating a visual identity rooted in both global tradition and local landscape.

That legacy continues in the university鈥檚 newest student residence halls, which incorporate the same sandstone hues and stylistic echoes. Together, these buildings link generations of students through a campus environment that is at once historic, distinctive, and unmistakably Wyoming.

 

Floor 2: Wyoming in the Mail: Postcards Through the Ages

Postcards have long offered travelers and residents alike a way to share Wyoming with the wider world. From sweeping views of Yellowstone and the Tetons to bustling images of Cheyenne Frontier Days, postcards capture the state鈥檚 rugged beauty, vibrant communities, and changing identities.

The J.S. Palen Collection at the American Heritage Center preserves thousands of these miniature artworks, spanning from the early 20th century into the modern era. Richly colored lithographs, black-and-white photographs, and later chrome-style prints all reflect how Wyoming has been marketed, imagined, and remembered.

Together, these postcards provide more than picturesque souvenirs. They are records of how Wyoming wanted to be seen鈥攁nd how people wanted to remember it鈥攁cross more than a century.

 

Floor 3: Beyond the Summit: The Life and Legacy of Betsy Cowles Partridge

Betsy Cowles Partridge (1902鈥�1974) was a mountaineer, writer, photographer, and lecturer whose adventurous spirit carried her to peaks across the world. A Vassar graduate, she began her climbing career in the 1930s on the mountains of Colorado and Switzerland and went on to scale ranges in Wyoming, the Canadian Rockies, the Andes of Colombia, the Himalayas, and East Africa. She was a member of Charles Houston鈥檚 1950 expedition to Mount Everest, one of the earliest American teams to attempt the peak.

Partridge鈥檚 achievements extended beyond climbing. Under the name Elizabeth S. Cowles, she published widely on mountaineering and delivered lectures illustrated with her own photographs and slides. Her writings and images reveal both the grandeur of high-altitude landscapes and the human challenges of exploration. Diaries, scrapbooks, and photograph albums document decades of travel, from the Tetons to Kathmandu.

Her collection at the American Heritage Center preserves the record of a woman who combined scholarship, artistry, and daring in equal measure. Through words and images, Betsy Cowles Partridge left behind a legacy that continues to inspire new generations to look to the mountains鈥攁nd beyond.