Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/montana-historical-society/)
Next month, 16 objects from the Montana Historical Society’s vast collections will compete, March Madness-style, for the title of Montana’s Most Awesome Object. The competition, modeled on the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, will pit object against object from the Montana Historical Society’s museum, archives and library collections. (more…) Continue Reading →
On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I, and the still young state of Montana was shaken and shaped by the events taking place across the ocean in the war to end all wars. This Thursday, on the 100th anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I, the Montana Historical Society will present “What Can We Learn from World War I?” at 6:30 p.m. at MHS. (more…) Continue Reading →
For the Montana Historical Society, there was good news and bad news at the Legislature last week. The bad news was that, for something like the sixth consecutive session, legislators don’t want to allocate any money for a badly needed expansion and renovation of the Helena museum and research center. (more…) Continue Reading →
Gov. Steve Bullock’s request to the current Legislature to expand and upgrade the 65-year-old Montana Historical Society facility has been misrepresented by some as unneeded “pork. “ This characterization is both wrong and ridiculous. Fortunately, however, members of both political parties recognize the real and critical need to care for and provide access to priceless collections belonging to the people of Montana and provide continuing economic development—jobs during construction and development of enhanced tourism dollars in the future. (more…) Continue Reading →
Like a lot of other people, I was impressed with “Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana,” which was published in 2012 by the Montana Historical Society Press. It is full of superb photos by Tom Ferris and great stories by Christine Brown and Chere Jiusto and it features an amazing variety of barn styles from all over the state. (more…) Continue Reading →
As the rhetoric ramps up leading to the election and the next legislative session, so does the finger-pointing at the failure of the past legislature to pass meaningful infrastructure funding in the final form of Senate Bill 416. After passing the Senate by a vote of 47–3, SB 416 failed by one vote of the necessary two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. The bill had the support of 51 of 88 Republicans, 62 Democrats, and Gov. Steve Bullock. Yet it failed to reach final passage. (more…) Continue Reading →
When I got to the third paragraph of a new book from the Montana Historical Society Press, I was hooked. “Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams: Montana Women’s Stories” is a collection of 98 short pieces about notable women or topics germane to the history of women in Montana. The first piece is titled “Nineteenth-Century Indigenous Women Warriors,” and here’s that third paragraph: (more…) Continue Reading →
For a brief period in the 1860s, camels imported from North Africa were used as pack animals in the gold camps of western Montana. The camels proved useful, according to Ellen Baumler, an author and interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Society, but they fell out of favor for one simple reason. (more…) Continue Reading →
The summer of 1964 changed the face of the United States in ways that are still being played out today, and Montana’s Sen. Lee Metcalf was at the center of it all. (more…) Continue Reading →
In May 1968, while removing fill material with a front-end loader on Mel and Helen Anzick’s property near Wilsall, equipment operator Ben Hargis saw a prehistoric stone tool fall out of the bucket. Along the edge of a prominent outcrop, where Flathead Creek and the Shields River join, Ben found the gravesite of a 1- to 2-year-old male child, interred with more than 100 stone tools covered with red ochre. (more…) Continue Reading →
