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.
Don’t Let History Live in a Shoebox: How to Archive Your Family Treasures
Are you the designated “historian” in your family? Do you have piles of family photos, books, and papers taking up space in…
From the Badlands to the Tetons: A 1930s Family Road Trip West
Long before smartphones and GPS guided travelers across the country, the Pease family packed their car and headed west. Their destination? The…
Rare Book Highlights: The Indians’ Book
The Myth of the Vanishing Indian In the early twentieth century, North America was facing the consequences of the previous century’s rapid…
Revolutionary Readers: The Library as a Symbol for Freedom
In 18th-century America, a book was not merely an object for reading–it was a luxury item, a status symbol, and for the average colonist,…
Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers: Margaret Thompson-Murdock’s Competitive Shooting Legacy
Believe it or not, two of the world’s best sharpshooters were not men. First came Annie Oakley (1860-1926). Around age 8 she…
The Myth of the Fully Processed Archive
When you think of an archive, you probably imagine countless collections all perfectly organized and described down to the last scrap of paper. You may…