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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.

April 21, 2025

Philip R. Goodwin, or, A Child Prodigy Runs Afoul of the 20th Century

It was December, and I had just walked into the shelving room of the Madison, Wisconsin, Public Library. My job. The room…

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February 20, 2025

The Reinvention of Mickey Cochrane

At night, when he was a kid, Mike Cochrane would practice running down Mt. Prospect Street in his hometown of Bridgewater, Massachusetts….

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July 25, 2024

Caroline Lockhart: 5 Facts about Cody’s Western Novelist

In 1895, 25-year-old Caroline Lockhart wears a 246-pound diver’s suit twice her size and climbs over the edge of a tugboat, looking…

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Adolph and Elizabeth (Plinky) Topperwein were a couple and sharpshooting duo. MS 20 Winchester Repeating Arms Company Collection. P.20.2986
July 18, 2024

The Fabulous Topperweins: a couple famed for their sharpshooting skills

The Fabulous Topperweins: a couple famed for their sharpshooting skills A Museum Minute By Olivia WeitzWyoming Public MediaJuly 18, 2024 A 1-minute…

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A performer who may be Oglala Lakota Chief Iron Tail plays ping pong with a fellow castmate as Joe Black Fox and a group Native performers, cowboys, vaqueros, and Cossacks watch the match. MS 6 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.69.1031
July 10, 2024

A Spirited Wild West Volley – Points West Online

Originally published in Points West magazine History EditionWinter 2022 A Spirited Wild West Volley By Mack Frost The performers and crew who…

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Black & white graphic featuring WHD Koerner's 1931 painting of two mounted explorers with flintlock rifles across their laps leading another man and a pack string.
July 5, 2024

Enduring West: Exploration and its Impact

The American West has always been a destination to explore – by scholars, naturalists, scientists, and others. Discoveries made within the last…

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