Writing about Royal Visit of Brazilian Emperor to America, 1876
By Phil Roberts, 3-18-2024 Recently, I found research notes of an article I wrote for the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 7 (October …
By Phil Roberts, 3-18-2024 Recently, I found research notes of an article I wrote for the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 7 (October …
By Phil Roberts, 3-12-24 I’m quite familiar with “wardrobe malfunction.” For me, it became an issue in my first year on faculty at UWyo. Before …
By Phil Roberts, Feb 28, 2024 : On this day in 1986, I began a job—quite by accident—that made enough money to pay off student …
By Phil Roberts, 2/16/2024 It started with a very lucky break, but quickly became more complicated. A few years ago, we had just landed in …
By Phil Roberts, 12/15/23 We were excited each year for the last day of school before Christmas vacation. First, in Lusk, it was a movie …
Phil Roberts, 11-22-2023 Electronics class that late Friday morning in Worland High School, the last 50-minute class before noon, was routine enough. Each of the …
(and How Lawmakers Chose It from Among Severance Taxes, an Income Tax, Gambling and a Lottery) Roberts, Phil (2004) “A History of the Wyoming Sales …
By Phil Roberts, Oct. 18, 2023 Many years ago, I just went to work in the State Historical Department in Cheyenne and our old car …
By Phil Roberts, Oct. 15, 2023 Sometimes, when you have no intention of doing anything but sitting down with a good book, you find yourself …
Phil Roberts, 8-26-23 For a brief moment yesterday, I was transported back to Nov. 5, 1964, and Mr. Siegle’s typing class. We had just moved …
By Phil Roberts, 8-19-23 In late 1971, I was a “short-timer” in the US Marine Corps while the last units of the Corps had been …
Phil Roberts, 8-12-23 Our polydactyl cat, Cubby, had six toes on each foot. Found in the wild near Medicine Bow, his immediate family was presumably …
The carillon on the UW Student Union used to play tunes at 8 a.m., presumably to get faculty, staff, and students cheered up for the …
Many years ago now, I’ received an e-mail from Mark Linz and Neil Hewison at American University in Cairo Press. The manuscript they were awaiting …
By Phil Roberts, 7-11-23 While traveling in the southern Caucasus mountains in western and northern Azerbaijan some years ago, I encountered several small villages that …
Television came to most Wyoming and area communities in the 1950s by way of over-the-air broadcast, caught on antennas mounted on towers or housetops. Some …
By Phil Roberts, 5-22-23 Odd things happen when people try to impress, particularly, newly hired directors of state agencies like Vincent Foley was at the …
By Phil Roberts, 5-15-23 Rainbow Bridge is a spectacular landmark in the Utah desert right next to the shore of Lake Powell, the lake formed …
By Phil Roberts, 5-14-23 Indexing–the work, the rewards. We’re frequently asked why there is a plaque next to the front door proclaiming the building as …
By Phil Roberts- May 13, 2023 May 13 is the anniversary of the only time I was ever hit by a car—in the crosswalk on …
by Phil Roberts, 5-9-23 “I’m a REAL historian,” I said with the arrogance only found in a green, first-year doctoral student in almost any field. …
“The courtroom bore little resemblance to the one I’d seen earlier out in the Baku suburbs last week. The room, with walls painted green to …
By Phil Roberts Avocado Hill. That picture of the Wyoming Highway patrolman narrowly dodging that out-of-control semi, reminds me of an incident from the past. …
The world can be brutal to those few, like me, who have a head that is heavier than his feet. I’m among the estimated three …
By Phil Roberts I’ve been thinking of the “good days” in Egypt today–after walking around this afternoon in biting Wyoming fall winds. Cairo has years’ worth …
By Phil Roberts, 8-10-22 The saga of Anchor Dam in northwest Wyoming, well known to most people, has become symbolic of what happens when engineering …
David, I just found this on the computer. I had written it in August 2005, after the reunion and just before classes had started. Just …
Political Musings from Egyptians Late in the afternoon of the 3rd day in Cairo, I finished entering my grades online and then took a walk …
Presentation to Laramie Lyceum, April 19, 2016 Race Horses: Sir Barton Perhaps the most famous of this group is Sir Barton, 1919 winner of the …
By Phil Roberts, 9 May 2022 We walked that warm summer afternoon, along the rough trail leading to the top of the Hat Creek Breaks …
March 15, 2003 Hi, everyone. Phil here, from Cairo. We just returned from a very nice sunset picnic on a felucca in the Nile. It …
During the first 85 years of statehood, Wyoming was authorized only one federal judgeship as one judicial district. Only three men occupied that position during …
Cheyenne was the birthplace of at least one Navy admiral—Francis X. McInerney, who was born in Cheyenne in 1899. While he was stationed worldwide in …
By Phil Roberts It is almost unnoticeable in this photo of Barol Lodge at the AMK ranch (inside the borders of Grand Teton National Park), …
By Phil Roberts About the same time that inventor Thomas Edison was constructing his Pearl Street station and developing equipment for it, while he was …
By Phil Roberts, 1/15/22 ….If there is a moral to the story, it would be not to tell a box office star how to shoot …
Betting (and opposition to it) has a long tradition in Wyoming. Take the lottery once conducted over ice on Fremont Lake. In a rather lengthy …
Phil Roberts—1/3/22 How do you free a busload of new faculty from being stuck most of the day in the mud behind Como Bluff? Fortunately, …
For Christmas 1984, Capitol Times published a series of brief accounts from readers responding to the question of what was their most memorable Christmas? Liz …
By Phil Roberts, December 1978 (with revisions, November 2018) Christmas was celebrated in the early days in Wyoming, in the 19th century, much like it …
By Phil Roberts Laramie women made history in March of 1870 when five of them became the first women in the world to serve on …
This editorial was published in the Seattle Press-Times, May 10, 1895, p. 2, c. 2: “During the last ten years a remarkable change has taken …
By Phil Roberts, Reprinted from Buffalo Bones column, October 20, 1979 The first printed newspaper in Wyoming hit the streets on June 12, 1863. Unlike …
By Phil Roberts, Nov. 19, 2021 Hired gunman Tom Horn was hanged on the “Julian gallows” inside the Laramie County Jail 118 years ago tomorrow. …
Invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in the 1830s, the telegraph was already maturing as a communication tool when it became a key component to …
A few months ago, I wrote about the merits of silver dollars, widely used in most of Wyoming in the 1950s. I neglected to mention …