Teaching Liberty: 100 Years of Civics Education at the University of Wyoming

September 17, 2025

By Kylie L. McCormick

Just after the fourth of July, I received an interesting invitation to partner with the University of Wyoming for its celebration of Constitution Day. The director of the American Heritage Center, Dr. Paul Flesher, was familiar with my years of research on Grace Raymond Hebard and recommended me for the project that would focus significantly on her contributions to civic education in Wyoming.

Back in 2004, Constitution Day became a federal holiday to honor the singing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787. The law establishing the day of observation requires that publicly funded educational institutions provide opportunities for students and the public to learn more about the US Constitution.

Poster announcement with life-size cutout of a woman — The “Teaching Liberty” exhibit at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne. Photo courtesy of Nathan Doerr, Capitol Curator

For the last several months, I have had the joy of working with Martha McCaughy with the University of Wyoming, to create an exhibit, “Teaching Liberty” now on display at the State Museum and State Capitol Building in Cheyenne, as well as at the American Heritage Center, the University of Wyoming Library, and the Women’s History House in Laramie. Our exhibit will be on display during the Constitution Day event at the Wyoming State Capitol, where another exhibit I worked on will also be unveiled: the Constitution Kiosk located in the room where Wyoming’s Constitutional Convention met in September 1889.

It just so happens that 2025 is a special anniversary for Wyoming’s civic education as well. One hundred years ago, on February 25, 1925, Governor Nellie Tayloe Ross signed into law requirements for Wyoming schools to teach both the US and Wyoming Constitutions.

Read the exhibit text below and if you are in Cheyenne or Laramie, be sure to stop by to see the exhibits in person!

Woman in a high-collared drass reads a book she holds in her hands

Teaching Liberty: 100 Years of Civics Education at the University of Wyoming

Never Stop Learning: Grace Raymond Hebard, PhD

“In order that one might be adequately prepared for citizenship, she must first go through a process of education.”

Grace Raymond Hebard, April 30, 1930

Grace Raymond Hebard never stopped her ‘process of education’ during her forty-five-year career at the University of Wyoming.

During that time Hebard earned her doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University (1893) and took a summer course on Constitutional History in 1894 from future US President, Woodrow Wilson, at Colorado College. In 1898, she became the first woman admitted to the Wyoming Bar. Despite never arguing a case in court, she went on to be the first woman admitted to practice law in front of the Wyoming Supreme Court in 1914. “On being asked by a friend if she expected to practice, her reply was: ‘I studied law to increase my knowledge.’ She finds the knowledge of law a help in her work particularly in her ‘specialty’ constitutional law,” recalled M.G. Preston in 1930.

Elaborately lettered certificate with decorative images and a golden sticker seal — Hebard’s certificate of admission to the Wyoming Bar. This certificate has several hand-written corrections: “Territory” was crossed out for “State” and “him” was corrected to “her.”American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

100 Years of Educating Citizens

Hebard shared her knowledge and patriotism with others. Her first book, The History and Government of Wyoming, became an essential textbook used in classrooms across the state. The History and Government of Wyoming had 10 editions between 1904 and 1923, each with multiple printings. Letters from former students reveal that Hebard was developing a class on the history and government of Wyoming for the University many years before it officially became a required course in 1925.

Three men, a woman and a boy in formal dress pose, standing behind a woman seated at a desk. She looks down, holding pen to paper. — Governor Ross signing her oath of office on January 5, 1925. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Hebard’s advocacy for civic education became official Wyoming law that same year. On February 25th, 1925, the nation’s first woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, signed an act into law requiring publicly funded schools in Wyoming teach both the U.S. and State Constitutions. Wyoming is one of the first states to adopt a law requiring civic education at the college level. Today there are only ten states that require civic education by law.

Hebard impacted thousands of students throughout her time at the University. Wyoming Legislator C.D. Oviatt, class of 1893, wrote to congratulate Hebard on her 25th anniversary with the University, telling her that “…the inspiration of such close personal contact with you and your ideals of higher education and good citizenship, of so many students has made better men and women of them, as their lives testify.”

Through the efforts of Grace Raymond Hebard, the University of Wyoming has led the way on civics education for more than 100 years.

A group of adults and a boy seated in a wooded area watch a woman, who is seated on a large wooden box, speak — Hebard was known among students for her passionate storytelling.American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

All photos and quotes courtesy of The American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming