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.

Hal Evarts’s Skunk Ranch
In 1903, when Hal Evarts was fifteen years old, he and a friend made camp on the Arkansas River. “Fur sign was…

The Twilight Life of Charles King
Popular nineteenth century writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Mark Twain were so popular they got their own library call number. This…

This Library is Anything but Quiet – Points West Online
Originally published in Points West magazineSpring 2005 This Library is Anything but Quiet By Nathan Bender, Former Curator, McCracken Research Library Norman…

Anson Eddy Takes Off
A Future Executive? When I was doing research on Anson Eddy, I found record of someone by that name working as an…

The Man Who Wasn’t Jim Bridger
A Well-watered Area Jim Bridger had seen the handwriting on the wall. Between the early 1820s and late 1830s, fur brigades had…

The Day I met Willis McDonald
Shortly after I started at the McCracken Research Library, our Director, Mary Robinson, came into my office one day. “Do you want…