State flag program comes to libraries

Crook County Library will host the program “The Wyoming State Flag and the Women Who Made It Fly” by Kylie McCormick on Friday, November 8 at 2 p.m. at the Hulett Branch Library and 7 p.m. in the library meeting room in Sundance. The program is free and open to the public.

Before being deployed to France, Edward Marsh Turner, M.D. ensured that every person in the Wyoming National Guard Medical Corps was issued the first Wyoming flags printed in the state, hand-held on papery silk, a small piece of home to carry into the horrors of war.

The pocket-sized Wyoming flag carried into World War One featured the original design as passed by the 1917 Wyoming State Legislature and envisioned by designer Verna Keays Keyes, with the bison facing out away from the staff to symbolize freedom. Yet in 1919, with a stirring speech on behalf of the soldiers returning home from war, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard presented the new Wyoming Governor with a flag featuring a bison hitched, its nose in the wind.

Discover the origins of Wyoming’s flag as it weaves through suffragette politics and war, along with the ambitions and dreams of two incredible Wyoming women, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard and Verna Keays Keyes. Grapple with questions of legacy, symbolism and citizenship with Historian Kylie Louise McCormick on Friday, November 8 at 2 p.m. at the Hulett Branch and 7 p.m. at the Sundance Branch for the Crook County Library.

McCormick is a historian based out of Casper. Born and raised in Casper, Kylie returned home after studying in Roanoke, Virginia; Berlin, Germany; London, U.K.; and Lincoln, Nebraska.

She holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees, summa cum laude, and a Master of Arts degree in History. Upon returning home to Wyoming, Kylie has dedicated herself to education and Wyoming history.

For more information please call Jill Mackey at 283-1006 or email [email protected].