Wyoming
After five years archiving Wyoming history, library specialist fired in latest DOGE cuts – WyoFile
History jobs aren’t easy to come by. So when a position for a digital archivist opened at the University of Wyoming in 2020, Rachael Laing uprooted their life near Chicago for small-town Laramie.
Laing, who has a master’s degree in history, has spent the last five years undertaking a project to digitize hundreds of thousands of historic Wyoming newspaper microfilm pages and make them free to the public.
The project is part of National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to create a searchable online database of newspapers. Laing and other archivists contributed files to Chronicling America, which is now home to millions of pages of American newspapers published between 1789-1963. Laing’s position was seeded by a $209,000 grant from the Humanities Endowment.
The UW Libraries grant has been renewed in the five years since, paying for Laing to facilitate the total addition of nearly 300,000 pages of Wyoming newspapers to the database.
Last week, however, the grant was terminated as part of significant cuts made to the National Endowment for the Humanities by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
And Laing was abruptly out of a job.
Though Laing’s own life and career have been disrupted by the sudden firing, the archivist is more concerned about the fate of the project.
“I liked that the work seemed important,” said Laing, who uses they/them pronouns. “It felt like we were creating something that was going to be very helpful to a lot of people.”
The project is among the latest Wyoming casualties of DOGE, which Trump champions as a voter-backed effort to reduce federal bureaucracy and expenditures. DOGE cuts have resulted in an array of Wyoming impacts — from U.S. Forest Service employees losing their jobs in Jackson to federal office closures in Cheyenne and sudden funding cuts for organizations like Wyoming Humanities.
For Laing, it all happened incredibly fast, and they are still reeling. They are also saddened to think about the scope of programming nationwide that was axed without preamble.
“I’m just really disappointed that suddenly this federal agency that was dispersing grants to really amazing projects was just … washed away,” Laing said.
Frozen, aborted
Last week’s cuts targeted two federal agencies, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Studies. Actions included placing staff on administrative leave and cancelling grants, according to reports.
The National Endowment for the Humanities was founded in 1965, under the same legislation that enacted the more well-known National Endowment for the Arts. The Humanities Endowment has awarded more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historical sites, universities, libraries and other organizations, according to its website.
A significant piece of the Humanities Endowment’s overall funding, 40%, goes to state humanities councils like Wyoming’s. Those councils act as umbrellas, partnering with other organizations to support cultural events or awarding grants to projects. Humanities councils in all 50 states received notice last week that their grants were being terminated, according to reports.
“Your grant no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination due to several reasonable causes,” read the letter that Wyoming Humanities received, adding “the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
NEH funding makes up 80% of Wyoming Humanities’ budget, covering staff expenses, travel, marketing and other operational costs for the nonprofit. Staff is reconsidering the group’s future in the wake of the change.
Along with state councils, the Humanities Endowment funds individual projects in Wyoming. These include a recent grant to Meeteetse Museums to replace its roof and install solar panels and another grant to the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum to update Indigenous interpretation. Both were terminated, according to museum directors.
The federal agency also funded the UW Libraries grant. Laing’s first indication of trouble happened early Thursday, they said, when a person connected to a similar project in Florida contacted them asking if they knew what was going on. All that day, Laing heard grim updates from across the country from people who had been notified of cancelled grants.
“So it was kind of like watching the dominoes fall, and I was just sort of waiting to get the news,” Laing said. Their supervisor delivered that news on Friday. “My job had just been dissolved.”
Keeping history alive
Laing has spent much of the past five years in a windowless basement office, painstakingly digitizing microfilm newspapers for the project. It’s quiet work, and it suits them.
Laing gathered microfilmed newspapers from the Wyoming State Archive and worked with vendors to digitize and format the files. The result is that issues of newspapers such as the Platte Valley Lyre, Cody Enterprise and Cheyenne Daily Leader are now on the database. They reach back to 1873, when in a June issue the Daily Leader announced Byer’s Hotel and French Restaurant in Cheyenne was back open following a remodel, and that in Chicago, railroad executive Horace Clark had fallen ill.
With interest in genealogical research growing, Chronicling America eases access for amateur historians who no longer have to visit these libraries in person to scan microfilm records, Laing said.
During each two-year grant cycle, Laing endeavored to digitize 100,000 pages. The project was nearing the end of its third grant cycle, with about 10,000 pages remaining to satisfy the goal, they said.
Laing was actually planning to move on from the job at the end of the year. That fact may take some of the sting out of the loss, but still, they said, “there’s never a good time to lose your job.”
Since the termination notice arrived, Laing’s supervisors have been trying to come up with a plan and have been very supportive, they said. Laing and others are worried about the integrity of the collective work in the long run.
“For a long time, we thought that we were building something that was going to last,” Laing said, “and now for the last couple of days, we’ve been accounting for all of that data, just in case all of that work is lost.”
Other impacts
It has been less clear how cuts to the second federal agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will affect Wyoming. WyoFile requested an interview with State Librarian Abby Beaver and had not heard back by publication time. But in an open letter on its website, the Wyoming Library Association said IMLS funds are granted to the Wyoming State Library and pay for a statewide database, staff development and training opportunities.
Last year, 633 nationwide grant recipients entered into legally binding agreements with IMLS, according to library advocacy group Every Library. “The sudden termination of these grants not only breaches these agreements but also undermines the essential services that libraries and museums provide to communities across the nation,” the organization said in a statement accompanying a petition. The petition oppose the “unlawful” actions.
The National Humanities Alliance, meanwhile, rallied against the Humanities Endowment cuts.
“We condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms,” the coalition of cultural advocacy groups said in a statement. “Cutting NEH funding directly harms communities in every state and contributes to the destruction of our shared cultural heritage.”
For Laing, the prevailing feeling is disappointment. They brought up a recent talk they gave to a Wyoming historical society, where members kept Laing and their supervisor late with questions.
“They seemed really excited about the potential of the project,” Laing said, “and to know that that’s just something that might completely go away seems like a lot of wasted time and effort.”
JACKSON, Wyo. – Jackson Hole Public Art (JHPA) is proud to announce the
public installation of 250 Portraits, a community art project featuring self-portraits created and submitted by Wyoming residents from across the state. Launched in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, the project invited Wyomingites of all ages and backgrounds to submit portraits of themselves or other Wyoming residents, resulting in a vibrant and deeply personal collection of artwork.
Portraits were submitted by artists ranging in age from 5 to over 80, representing residents from 16 of Wyoming’s 23 counties. Participants included individuals, families, school groups, and educators who worked with their students to take part. The result is a wide-ranging snapshot of the people who call Wyoming home, from young children just beginning to express themselves through art to lifelong residents reflecting on decades of experience and identity.
The portraits are now on display in five large-scale grid installations located throughout downtown Jackson. They can be found at the Center for the Arts, JH Book Trader, the Antler Inn, the alley at Pinky G’s, and the Jackson Hole Elks Lodge. The exhibition will remain on view throughout the summer, giving locals and visitors alike the opportunity to take in the full collection at their own pace.
The exhibit, 250 Portraits, was designed to highlight both individual identity and collective belonging, weaving together faces from communities large and small into a single, statewide visual portrait of Wyoming’s people. By placing the work in accessible, high-traffic locations in downtown Jackson, JHPA hopes to spark conversation among residents and visitors about what it means to be part of a community that spans such a wide and varied landscape.
A self-guided walking map is available to help visitors navigate between the five sites and experience other public art projects throughout Jackson. For more information and to access the 2026 Public Art Map, visit https://www.jhpublicart.org/art/2026map.
Pair your portrait with an audio story! Please consider adding your voice to another state-wide project celebrating the stories of everyday Wyomingites: Re-Storying the West.
All over Wyoming, there are little free libraries in neighborhoods for those who are looking for a new book. The process is simple. Take a book and leave one for others to experience.
READ MORE: Wyoming’s Little Libraries
We also have neighborhood food pantries for families in a pinch who need a little help. Again, the process is easy. Take a meal, and when you’re able, leave one for another family in need.
READ MORE: A New Local Neighborhood Food Pantry System in Wyoming
Several of the North Platte River’s access points have loaner life jackets. Once again, it’s simple. If you need a life jacket, take one, then return it to another access point for others who need it.
READ MORE: Return The Loaner Life Jackets After You Use Them
These are fantastic programs across the state that show how much communities care about others. I found another program that I think would really fly here, and it’s already going strong in some places around the country, like Montana.
The process, just like these other programs, is simple but very effective. With Wyoming fisheries being so popular, these could help make it an even bigger global sensation.
Flybrary – Take a fly, leave a fly.
I saw this article on FlyLordsMag.com and thought it was fantastic.
Montana artist Brandi Massey is passionate about fly fishing, and she used her own experience of leaving her fly box at home when leaving for a fly fishing trip. After that experience, she remembered seeing a “Flybrary” on her social media timeline and decided to jump into action and do her own version of the “Flybrary” to ensure other fly fishing trips don’t get ruined because of not having any flies.
She had her dad build the box, got her permits, and put up her first “Flybrary” on the Blackfoot River, and has more in the works.
In the article, Brandi explained why she decided to do it.
I’ve been fly fishing since I could hold a fly pole in my hand. Always trying to catch more fish than my dad. I love the fly fishing community and this is a great way to stay connected to the community. I’m an artist and this is an amazing way to show a piece of myself to the world.
Have you ever seen a “Flybrary” out in the wild? LET ME KNOW HERE
The 22 Top Game Fish Of Wyoming
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