Supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a program of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
Women of Wyoming: Then & Now is actively preserving and celebrating the voices of the everyday woman who has made a remarkable impact on the way Wyoming’s history is to be understood. Ultimately, the hosts of this new web-based production want the next generation of viewers to feel that history is:
- Exciting and Relatable
- Worth Preserving
- Happening Right Now
Currently in development (2022-23), the interviews being collected for Women of Wyoming: Then & Now will invite and encourage digital audiences to explore and preserve their historical connections in Wyoming and beyond. *See a sample video.
The specific experiences, perspectives, and voices of women who make and witness history MATTERS and should be intentionally and responsibly recorded.
The anticipated release date for this program is March, 2024.
Read more in the Star-Tribune.
I believe women should be able to tell their own stories without a first pass through the filter of a man. It’s as simple as that. We need more women to protect the interpretations of those before us and to continue holding our seat at the table. I look forward to the official launch in 2023!
Janelle Molony, Women of Wyoming Program Director (2022)
New Media Project Description
(From the Wyoming Historical Society)
Project leaders Janelle Molony, Leslie Waggener, and others will conduct interviews via Zoom with and about Wyoming women, both living and historical. Interviewees are responsibly selected based on their contributions toward a diverse and otherwise unique female perspective on events, themes, or narratives related to state history.
Interviews are tailored to celebrate the work of women historians, to promote vetted and authentic sources for current researchers, and to encourage new generations of inquisitive women to participate in the exploration and preservation of their own history. Each interview will be added to a section of the Society’s web page providing online content to WSHS members and the public.
Guests to include:
Historians, archivists, researchers, activists, suffragettes, politicians, educators, minority representatives, Oregon Trail/Overland-CA Trail diarists, media members, Tribal members, authors, women in agriculture, and more!*
Click to visit the Wyoming Historical Society’s webpage.
Janelle Molony, M.S.L., WoW Program Director, member of Western Writers of America, 1864 trail diary historian, and contributor to the Annals of Wyoming. Her latest nonfiction, Emigrant Tales of the Platte River Raids, features a collection of eyewitness testimonies detailing a three-day assault on the Oregon and Overland-California Trails.
Leslie Waggener, faculty archivist at the American Heritage Center (AHC) at the University of Wyoming and former President of the Wyoming Historical Society. Leslie has worked with all types of historical materials in areas of reference, processing, and acquisition. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Archeological Studies and an MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin. She specifically manages the Alan K. Simpson Institute of Western Politics and Leadership collection at the AHC. (The Simpson Institute focuses on the acquisition, preservation, and research use of the papers of prominent individuals, businesses, and organizations that have provided leadership – political, economic, social, and cultural – for Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West.)
Linda Fabian, Executive Director of the Wyoming Historical Society and native Wyomingite. In earlier years, she was the Chief Public Information Officer for the Wyoming Department of State Parks & Cultural Resources and credits that 20-year experience with developing her love of Wyoming’s history. She has co-authored three books: Douglas, Cheyenne Frontier Days, and the Wyoming State Capitol Building.
(By Janelle Molony)
(Co-author Leslie Waggener)
(Co-author Linda Fabian)
Sample Interviews
Please note that these are preliminary edits of promotional videos intended to educate viewers, spread awareness, and prepare participants. The final presentation may look and feel very different based on the vision and talents of the digital editing team.
Guest: Former Sec. of State, Kathy Karpan on Political Progress
Guest: Brigada Blasi on Black Coal Miners in Dana, WY
Learn More
*More information is anticipated in 2023 through the Wyoming Historical Society’s professional communications. For detailed inquiries about this project, please program director, Janelle Molony.