The world got a bit dimmer today with the loss of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee. Born Stanley Leiber in 1922, Lee began working for Marvel (then known as Timely Comics) in 1939 as an assisstant. He became an interim editor at age 19, and would later co-create some of Marvel's most famous characters, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the X-Men, among others.

Several years ago, the University of Wyoming acquired a collection of Stan Lee's personal and professional correspondences, original comics, and more. It was this collection that allowed me to change majors and graduate on time, as it gave me the material to develop an independent study to fill the remaining credits I needed to graduate. I spent many an afternoon among those boxes picking out items for an exhibit mock up assigned by my professor as one of my final projects.

The collection contains 196 boxes worth of Stan Lee and Marvel history, and is open to the public for viewing. The collection may be viewed during the American Heritage Center's regular hours, which can be found here. Any individuals interested at looking in materials from the collection are asked to submit a request for the materials they would like to look at by emailing ahcref@uwyo.edu with the number of the boxes and folders they would like to see. A guide to items in the collection available for viewing can be found here.

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