Cheryl O’Brien, chair of the 2024 Wyoming Historical Society’s Homsher Committee, announced the five recipients of Homsher research grants for 2024. The total funding was $7000 which matched our budget allowance of $7,000. The recipients of Homsher research grants for 2024 were:
 

• Patrick Michael Pace, Cheyenne, WY- “Dissertation Research: Hellenic Cohesion: A Historic Approach to Transnationalism, Particularism and Cosmopolitanism in the Greek Immigrant Communities of Wyoming.” ($1,500)
• Karen Spragg & Angeline Hutzenbiler, Lovell, WY- “Lovell-Kane Area School Research.” ($1,500)
• Brian Beauvais, Cody, WY- “Thomas Jaggar Rephotography Project.” ($1,500)
• Ian Strahn, Burggasse, Austria- “From William F. Cody to Winnetou: American Frontier Representation in the German Cultural Imagination.” ($1,000)
• Tina Hill, Rawlins, WY- “Names Behind Bars: An Alpha Roster of Former Inmates from the Wyoming Frontier Prison.” ($1,500)
 

The committee recognizes amateur and professional historians through these grants that support the Society’s mission to make Wyoming’s past accessible to present and future generations. O’Brien said, “The Homsher Grant program provides great opportunities for original research about Wyoming’s fascinating history.”

Grant monies are drawn from a fund established by the late Lola Homsher, a noted historian and state archivist. One of Homsher’ s most significant contributions to preserve Wyoming history came when she spearheaded establishing the Wyoming State Historical Society in 1953. After her retirement Miss Homsher made a major donation to the Society that has been used as an endowment to help fund Society programs.

Members of the 2024 Homsher Committee were Cheryl O’Brien, Dubois, Patty Kessler, Laramie; Sara Davis, Cheyenne, and Brigida Blasi, Laramie. Applications and rules for Homsher Research Grants can be obtained by visiting the Society’s website at www.wyshs.org, and then by selecting “Homsher Endowment.” Please contact the Wyoming Historical Society at 307.322.3014 or Lucas Keeler, 2025 Homsher Grant Chair, at HankMasonAndTheBear@outlook.com for more information. Electronic proposals are due February 28, 2025.