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McCracken Research Library

Find out what goes on in the Center of the West’s McCracken Research Library and get an insider’s look at the incredible photographs, archives, and manuscripts housed and processed by the library’s staff—who are still making some amazing finds within the collections.

Close up look at library books on a shelf.
March 23, 2026

Research Made Easy: Exploring the McCracken Research Library’s Collections

Archival and library research can feel overwhelming for even the most experienced researchers. Everyone from family historians, students, writers, and lifelong researchers all start somewhere,…

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March 4, 2026

Brida Gafford: The Wild Life of a Rodeo Superstar

“So they let you dress up like a cowgirl and when you say “I’m going to be a cowgirl when I grow…

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February 12, 2026

Inside the Reading Room: What to Know Before You Visit 

The McCracken Research Library has a reading room that is open to the public, meaning it’s for everyone, not just academics. The reading room…

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Buffalo Nation
January 29, 2026

Why These Objects? A Closer Look at the Buffalo Nation Spotlights

As the opening of the Buffalo Nation spotlights approaches, a deceptively simple question emerges: why these objects? What makes them “spotlights,” and…

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Crow Fair bulldogger 1, Crow Fair, Crow Agency, Montana, 2009. Photo by Ken Blackbird. Gift of Ken Blackbird, P.426.05389
January 7, 2026

Buffalo Bill Center of the West Mourns the Death of Photographer and Storyteller Ken Blackbird

He had a talent for narration, showering his audience with big laughs and putting his whole body into his storytelling…” — Hunter…

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McCracken Research Library Vault
January 5, 2026

Behind the Boxes: What an Archivist Really Does 

When I tell people I’m an archivist, there are usually two reactions I get. The first, and by far my favorite, is…

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