The Aspen Center for Physics started in 1962 as a place for theoretical physicists to spend the summer thinking and talking together. Based at a small campus on the south end of Aspen Meadows, it was originally part of the Aspen Institute before becoming…

Elizabeth Paepcke (1902–94) is best known for working with her husband, Walter, to transform the former mining town of Aspen into a cultural hub after World War II. Trained in art and design, she was perhaps most influential in getting Walter interested…

The Goethe Bicentennial Convocation and Music Festival was a three-week celebration of the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 200th birthday in 1949. Held in Aspen under a huge canvas tent designed by Eero Saarinen, the event was organized…

Herbert Bayer (1900–85) was an artist, architect, and designer best known in Colorado for his work in Aspen during the decades after World War II. Born in Austria and trained at the Bauhaus, Bayer brought to the United States a modernist belief in simple…

Walter P. Paepcke, a Chicago businessman, was pivotal in developing Aspen into a resort known for its exceptional skiing and as a hub for intellectuals, artists, politicians, and celebrities. Paepcke’s efforts have made Aspen stand out among Colorado’s…

The Wheeler/Stallard House is a three-story Queen Anne style residence built in 1888–89 by Jerome B. Wheeler on the west side of Aspen. Edgar and Mary Ella Stallard occupied the house from 1905 to 1945, when Walter Paepcke acquired it for use as overflow…