History Degrees in Wyoming

Wyoming Territory gave women the vote on December 10, 1869, the first government in the world to do it. The reasons were mostly not the ones you would hope for. The territory had six men for every woman and wanted publicity that would attract settlers. Democrats in the legislature calculated that women would vote for the party that enfranchised them. Some expected the Republican governor to veto the bill and embarrass his own party on the subject of voting rights, and he signed it instead. Others argued straightforwardly that if Black and Chinese men could vote, white women ought to as well. Then there is Esther Hobart Morris, long credited with winning the vote by extracting a promise at a tea party, a story invented in 1919, about fifty years after the fact. She did become the first woman justice of the peace in the country, in 1870. Right outcome, wrong reasons, and a founding legend added later. Sorting out which parts of that are true is ordinary historical work. In Wyoming there is exactly one campus where you would learn to do it.

Wyoming has 1 college or university offering history degrees, with 3 programs: 2 bachelor’s degrees and 1 master’s degree.

The University of Wyoming is the entire history offering in the state. No other state in the country depends on a single institution this way.

Where You Can Study History in Wyoming

There is one school, so there is nothing to rank and no shortlist to draw up. Below is the whole field.

University of Wyoming

Wyoming’s only history department runs three programs: a Bachelor’s in History, a B.A. in Art History, and an M.A. in History. It is the state’s only four-year public university and the only institution offering the subject at any level. Tuition is $7,768 in state, and 59% of students finish in four years, a figure that covers the whole institution instead of the history department.

Two things follow from being the only option. The department has to cover the field broadly, not specialize, which suits an undergraduate looking for a general history education and is harder on a student who arrives knowing they want a narrow field. And the campus happens to sit alongside the American Heritage Center, one of the largest non-governmental archives in the country, described in the resources section below. For a history undergraduate that is an unusual amount of primary material within walking distance.

• History programs: 3
• Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s
• Carnegie classification: R2, high research activity
• In-state tuition and fees: $7,768

Most Affordable History Degrees in Wyoming

Most affordable history degrees in Wyoming

Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	University of Wyoming	Bachelor's in History	$7,768

Annual in-state tuition and fees. One entry, because one is every school in Wyoming that teaches the subject. It is public, and no private college in the state offers a history degree.

History Education in Wyoming

Wyoming is the clearest case in the country of a state whose entire subject rests on one campus.

The University of Wyoming holds all 3 history programs. Alaska comes closest with 2 programs, but those are split across two schools, so Wyoming stands alone in having no second institution at all. Everything below follows from that.

There is no history doctorate in Wyoming, and the master’s is the ceiling. There are no online history programs in our listings either, which matters more here than in most states given the distances involved. A student in Wyoming who needs to study remotely is enrolling with an institution elsewhere, and our guide to online history degrees covers those options.

The catalog is small but not entirely plain. Alongside the general history bachelor’s and master’s, the University of Wyoming offers a B.A. in Art History, so there is one named field in the state rather than none.

On price, there is nothing to compare and the single figure is a good one. $7,768 a year places Wyoming among the less expensive states for a history degree, and it applies to the master’s as well as the bachelor’s.

Transfer runs through formal agreements, not a statewide block. Seven Wyoming community colleges hold Memoranda of Understanding with the University of Wyoming, all of them dated September 2021: Casper, Central Wyoming, Eastern Wyoming, Laramie County, Northern Wyoming Community College District, Northwest, and Western Wyoming. Alongside those sit more than 60 agreements covering specific majors.

What we would not tell you without checking is exactly how a completed associate degree lands against the University Studies Program, the university’s general education requirement. UW defines qualifying associate degrees in its own catalog under “Articulation: Earned Associate Degrees”, and that is the page to read before you enroll at a community college rather than after. Start with the University of Wyoming transfer office.

Becoming a History Teacher in Wyoming

Wyoming licenses through the Professional Teaching Standards Board, and history sits inside a broader credential instead of standing on its own.

• Social Studies Comprehensive, grades 6 through 12. Required test: Praxis 5581, Social Studies, qualifying score 153.
• Middle School Social Studies, grades 5 through 8. Required test: Praxis 5089 or 5589, Middle School Social Studies, qualifying score 153.

There is a useful efficiency here. A teacher already licensed for grades 6 through 12 in social studies can add the grades 5 through 8 endorsement on the strength of the same content exam, so covering both bands does not mean sitting a second subject test.

Because the credential is Social Studies Comprehensive, not History, a history major should expect the exam to reach into geography, government, and economics. Plan that coursework deliberately instead of assuming the major covers it.

Confirm current requirements with the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board before choosing a program.

History Careers in Wyoming

History Careers in Wyoming

Occupation	Wyoming jobs	Wyoming median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	1,600	$62,690	-13%
Postsecondary history teachers	30	$75,400	-10%
Curators	90	$61,910	-2%
Archivists	not published	not published	n/a
Historians	not published	not published	n/a

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Wyoming’s archivist and historian figures were withheld, both counts and wages.

Three rows are published and none of them is dramatic. Everything sits modestly below the national median, and the spread between them is narrow.

Curators come closest to national at 2% below, effectively level, on about 90 positions. That count deserves attention, because 90 curator jobs is a substantial number for a state this size. The American Heritage Center, the Wyoming State Archives, and the state museum together account for a good share of it, and it means collections work is a more realistic in-state career here than the size of the education system would suggest.

Postsecondary history teaching is 10% below national on 30 positions, a very small market, which is what you would expect where one university carries the subject.

Classrooms hold 1,600 of these jobs and pay 13% under the national median, so that one row covers most of what a history degree leads to here. Set against $7,768 tuition, the cost side of that equation is favorable even if the pay side is not.

History Resources in Wyoming

• American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Centennial Complex, 2111 East Willett Drive, Laramie, reading room on the fourth floor. This is the reason a history student in Wyoming is better placed than the program count suggests. It holds over 95,000 cubic feet of documents and artifacts across 5,000 collections and describes itself as one of the nation’s largest non-governmental archives. Collection strengths run from architecture and civil engineering to conservation, military history, Indigenous history, performing arts, Western sport including rodeo, and, unexpectedly, the comic book industry, including the Stan Lee Papers. Open to the public Monday to Friday, 9 to 4, following the university calendar. Make an appointment, because staff need to confirm that the material you want is available.
• Wyoming State Archives, Barrett Building, 2301 Central Avenue, Cheyenne. State, county, and municipal records alongside photographs, maps, newspapers, oral histories, and genealogical material. Open Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 4:30, and giving 24 hours notice is encouraged, particularly if you need anything stored off site, such as court cases. Paper and microfilm copies cost $1 each, but digital scans onto your own flash drive are free. Coats and bags go in lockers. Remote research requests are answered up to one staff hour each.

Frequently Asked Questions