People

Albert Wilbur Steele (1862–1925) was an early twentieth-century artist and editorial cartoonist for Denver newspapers. The first American cartoonist to appear daily in a newspaper, Steele drew front-page cartoons that appeared above the fold in The Denver Post for nearly thirty years. Celebrated by...

Mary Carr (1838–1933) was a dedicated philanthropist, cofounder of Longmont ’s first public school and one of its first teachers, charter member of the National Woman’s Relief Corps , and an activist for women’s suffrage and equality. She helped shape modern Colorado by aiding in the establishment...

Edward “Eddie” Patrick Francis Eagan (1897–1967) is the only person to have won gold medals in two different sports at the summer and winter Olympics. Born in Denver , Eagan attended Longmont High School and the University of Denver before going on to Yale, Harvard, and Oxford, where he earned his...

Lena Alma Allen Webster Stoiber Rood Ellis (1862–1935) was the “Bonanza Queen” of Silverton . Known as “Captain Jack” or “Jack Pants” to the miners who worked for her, she was a tough boss who worked in conjunction with her second husband, Edward G. Stoiber, at the Silver Lake Mine. He managed the...

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, stripped-down design, evident in...

If there is a name in Colorado history that is synonymous with cattle and ranching, it is John Wesley Iliff (1831–78). At the time of his death, Iliff owned approximately 35,000 head of cattle and thousands of acres stretching from northeast Colorado to Wyoming. His method of ranching forever...

Katherine Slaughterback (1893–1969) was a dryland prairie homesteader on the Colorado plains . In 1925 she became known as Rattlesnake Kate after she killed 140 rattlesnakes , allegedly in self-defense, in Weld County . Her story, which is likely an embellished combination of myth and fact, made...

Charles Boettcher (1852–1948) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for founding the Great Western Sugar Company and the Boettcher Foundation, an organization that made the Boettcher name synonymous with generosity in Colorado. Boettcher built his wealth through a series of sound...

Jane Woodhouse McLaughlin (1914–2004) moved Colorado toward a more rights-based society for individuals with mental illness. As an assistant city attorney for Denver , first president of the Colorado Association for Mental Health, and a Democratic state representative, McLaughlin helped reform...