Excelsior and Yee-haw!: The Stan Lee Papers at the American Heritage Center

By Katie Frank
September 2, 2013

I'm fortunate in that comics are a part of both my hobbies and my day job -- in my real life, I'm a PhD candidate specializing in media industries. Part of my dissertation revolves around the comic book industry, a topic that takes me to many fascinating places. One such place I visited recently was the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center in Laramie, WY. The AHC houses the Stan Lee Papers collection, donated by Stan the Man himself for preservation and research; currently, the collection is comprised of 91 archive boxes that have been sorted and labeled for use, with a number of boxes that are still being processed. These 91 boxes contain material dating from the late 1960s through the early 2000s, covering a the majority of Marvel Comics' existence as well as some of Lee's other projects.

Lee's papers are accessible to the general public (not just academic types), and the American Heritage Center is a very user-friendly archive. I contacted them a few weeks before my visit and was pointed to a guide to the collection, policies for photocopying and photographing, and other helpful tips. I made a list of some of the boxes I knew I wanted to look at and sent them to the archivist I'd emailed with, and they were ready for me upon my arrival. The archivists warned me that the building was under construction -- it's getting a new roof -- and that materials could take some time to pull, but I never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a new box.

The staff also recommended restaurants and things to see in Laramie, and were just generally a pleasure to interact with. The building also houses the University of Wyoming's art museum, which was a nice space to take a break during long research days. While food and drink are not allowed in the archive, there is a strip mall not far from the building that has a number of food options. There wasn't much to see on campus during the summer, and downtown Laramie was a bit of a trek and also quite small, but if you're a more outdoorsy type than I there's a lot of nature activities nearby.

The archives themselves were quite well-organized; at first I was surprised that there were a lot of repeat copies of documents, particular intra-office memos, but then I realized that that was a factor of having been produced with carbon paper or having multiple typewriter drafts (since the mistakes need to be crossed out rather than erased and look messy). I was glad that these copies were preserved, as sometimes the original drafts had insightful information that was edited out for the finished correspondence.

I only used the first 16 boxes, which mainly contained business correspondence, licensing and copyright information, fan mail, and promotional materials, but the collection also has manuscripts for various projects, interviews and articles written by or about Stan Lee and Marvel, television appearances, and more. One thing that might be of interest given the current explosion of Marvel movies is a number of early treatments and ideas for live-action Marvel movies, including a lot of press regarding the James Cameron Spider-Man movie that never got off the ground.

Through my research at the archive, I learned a lot about the way that Marvel operated from its early days to almost the present day; I also found some fun tidbits such as a memo regarding Lee's favorite kind of bath towel and a number of art and story submissions from fans. There's also a lot of material that sheds light on some crucial moments in Marvel's history, such as disagreements between Jack Kirby and Lee regarding the creation of classic characters, Marvel's bankruptcy, and Lee's venture into early online comics.

While the University of Wyoming is a bit out of the way for many, I would encourage any fans of Marvel or folks who are interested in learning more about the comic industry to check out the Stan Lee Papers collection. It's free to use (photos and copies have a nominal fee) and easy to navigate, and a lot of fun if you geek out about minutiae like I do.

The Stan Lee Papers Collection — Summary and catalog of the collection's holdings