Western History and Genealogy

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About the Staff Bloggers

Ann Brown
I taught elementary school for many years, then went back to school, myself. I received an MLS from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, I worked for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. as a librarian for the Pesticides and Toxic Substances Information Center. Then, I was a school librarian. In Colorado, I was a records manager for the Environmental Protection Agency before coming to the Denver Public Library to work as an archivist in the Western History/Genealogy Department for the past six and a half years.

Wendel Cox
Wendel Cox is Senior Special Collections Librarian in the Western History & Genealogy department. He writes frequently about new books in Western history, notable media coverage of Western issues, and online resources for Western history. Rumors to the contrary, he is not obsessed with the history of Los Angeles.

Kellen Cutsforth
Mr. Cutsforth is an Assistant Archivist in Western History and Genealogy on Level 6. He has worked in other museums and archives (Colorado Fuel and Iron Archive, etc...). He has been in the library system for 5 years and is going on his 6th. He works with all the incoming material so he knows the collection as well as anyone. He works with everyone from staff to out-of-state researchers and answers many types of inquiries. Mr. Cutsforth also helps to process collections, do presentations and displays. He is a member of the Denver Posse of the Westerners and enjoys mainly Old West (gun fighters, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, etc.) and Agricultural histories. He loves working in Western History and Genealogy and really enjoys everyone there.

Roger Dudley
Roger is a Denver native who graduated from West Denver High School, Mesa College, and the University of Northern Colorado. After working in video production for most of his adult life he was severed from his job and went back to school to get a masters degree in library science. Hired as an archivist before graduating, he discovered that he had been a librarian all his life – he just didn’t know it! Roger loves working as an archivist and on the WHG reference desk, with great expertise in Denver television history.

Erin Edwards
Erin Edwards is the Acquisitions Specialist for the Western History and Genealogy Department. She enjoys working with people and places in the Denver area and helping them find a good home for their most prized papers and possessions. When she's not at the library, she enjoys spending time with her own most prized possession: her son Noah.

Kinsey Hamilton
I am an artist and a designer who just happened upon a job at the Denver Public Library, and I love it! I have a passion for great design, painting, making music with my band, knitting, yoga, gardening and cooking delicious local foods. I work in the Digitization Lab in the Western History and Genealogy department, and am privileged to work with some really beautiful archival materials, which I am looking forward to sharing!

Dennis Hagen
Dennis Hagen is a certified archivist who manages the Library’s 10th Mountain Division Resource Center, which is one of the largest military archives of its kind in the United States.

Born in Minnesota, Dennis was raised in North Dakota and received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the University of North Dakota in 1968.

During the Vietnam War, Dennis served as an Air Force intelligence officer and received a Bronze Star medal. He earned a Master’s Degree in American History from Colorado State University in 1974. After a varied career, which included ten years as a restaurant manager and owner, and fifteen years as a sales manager and national sales director, Dennis decided it was time to return to his primary interest, which is Western History.

Dennis obtained his Masters Degree in Library and Information Sciences from Denver University in 2004, graduating with honors as one of the program’s oldest students. He immediately landed what he considered to be his dream job as an archivist at the Denver Public Library’s Western History and Genealogy Department.

James Jeffery
James K. Jeffrey has been with the Denver Public Library since 1985 and genealogy collection specialist since 1988. He was the 2004 recipient of the P. William Filby Award for Excellence in Genealogical Librarianship from the National Genealogical Society. James is currently President of the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies and active in the National Genealogical Society. He is passionate about connecting researchers with resources to explore their ancestors and the world in which they lived.

Claudia Jensen
Claudia Jensen is the Senior Catalog Librarian/Archivist in the Western History and Genealogy department.

Martin Leuthauser
Martin Leuthauser currently works as an Archivist/Catalog Librarian in Western History and Genealogy at the Central Branch of the Denver Public Library. He has an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University and an M.A. in History from the University of Denver. Leuthauser has formerly worked as Curator for the Carson Brierly Dance Library, Penrose Library-Special Collections and Archives, University of Denver; Cataloger for Federal publications and serial sets at the Government Publications Library at Norlin Library, University of Colorado (Boulder); and as Technical Services Librarian at Arapahoe Community College.

Sally McDonald
Sally McDonald is a recent addition to the Western History and Genealogy Department. Beginning work on the Creating Communities Project on September of 2008 as a Digitization Technician she has been involved in the evolution of the project. Before her work at Denver Public Library she has held a variety of jobs in an out of the library environment. Working with companies such as Xcel Energy, Brigham Young University, the University of Denver, and the USDA Forest Service. A native of Northern California Sally not only attended Brigham Young University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, but also graduated with a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Denver.

Randel Metz
Randel Metz is a cataloger’s assistant in the Western History Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library, where he has worked since 1993. After three years as a shelver, he brought his skills to the Photo Digitization Project, where he cataloged more than 20,000 photographs and developed an extensive web site. Now, he delights in grooming the Department’s incomparable book collection, connecting with his roots as a shelver by using the techniques of cataloging to enhance customer access to our many treasures.

Benjamin Miller
Benjamin Miller is a Digital Imaging Tech for WHG. He enjoys exploring History, the world of Photography, Italian food, old bicycles, Fine Art and things that make no sense at all. He hails from the much lower Platte Valley in Nebraska and joined the staff of DPL in 2003.

James Rogers
Temporary Program Administrator for the IMLS Creating Communities project at the DPL Western History and Genealogy Department. I supervise the operation of the scanning lab and assure the quality and content of the digitized images for the project. Passions: photography, travel, Apple computers, technology, railroads, German shorthair pointers.