The American Heritage Center (AHC) is the University of Wyoming's (UW) repository of manuscripts collections, rare books, and the university archives. Many universities have primary source repositories. Few have repositories as extensive and significant as the AHC. More importantly, few universities have such repositories as welcoming and accessible to undergraduate and graduate students. Internationally known for its historical collections the AHC first and foremost serves the students and citizens of Wyoming. The AHC sponsors a wide range of scholarly and popular programs including lectures, symposia, and exhibits. Not a dusty attic or an exclusive sanctuary, the AHC is a welcoming, lively, place where both experts and novices engage with the original sources of history.

The AHC is offering customized apparel, prints, mugs, stamps, and cards through partnership with online vendor Zazzle.com.

Available for purchase are photographs by Western photographers Charles Belden and Richard Throssel, watercolors by artist Thomas Kennet-Were, a 1936 hand-colored map of Wyoming created by Grace Raymond Hebard, and images from Western rodeos.

The professional archivists and librarians at the AHC provide bibliographic instruction to over 80 UW classes annually, and work with UW faculty to develop projects for their students using AHC collections. The AHC, in fact, is used more actively by undergraduates than similar repositories at such renowned universities as Yale, Princeton, Michigan, and Texas. The AHC works with 40+ courses in 17 different departments at UW: Art, African-American Studies, American Indian Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Geography and Recreation, History, Lab School, English, Music, Nursing, Pharmacy, Secondary Education, Sociology, University Studies, Women’s Studies, Zoology. The AHC also works with 60 public school classes annually.

The AHC’s mission is to make its holdings a visible, vital, and accessible resource for students, scholars, and the public. We are housed in an internationally acclaimed piece of architecture, designed by Antoine Predock, which opened in 1993—the Centennial Complex houses both the American Heritage Center and the University Art Museum.