Vickie Zimmer, chair of the Wyoming Historical Society’s Homsher Committee, announces the four recipients of research grants for 2022. They are:

Chad Seifried, a professor at Louisiana State University and Associate Editor of Journal of Management History, and Editor Emeritus for the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, received a grant for his project titled The Modernization of College Football Stadia at the University of Wyoming.

Lea Schoenewald, an author and historian from Thermopolis, received a grant for her project titled The Story of Coal in Gebo, Crosby, and Kirby, Wyoming. 

Cate Loetscher, an author and historian from Recluse, received a grant for her project titled Ranch Women of the Powder River Breaks.

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. Zimmer said, “Creating opportunities for original research is a mainstay of the Homsher Grant program.”

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 Homsher Committee are Vickie Zimmer, Torrington; Patty Kessler, Laramie, 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 linda@wyshs.org for more information. Electronic proposals are due February 28, 2023.