In Tracing Artistic Memories and Mysteries of Yellowstone and Glacier, retired MTHS historian Dr. Ellen Baumler explores how painting, photography, literature, oral culture, and music have given us powerful incentives to visit Montana’s parks and preserve these majestic resources.

Chief Earl Old Person, Life-Time Chief of the Blackfeet Tribe, sat for an interview in 2002 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of North American Indian Days in Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Norma Ashby interviewed Chief Old Person for KRTV of Great Falls as he commented on the meaning and celebrations of Indian Days, one of the largest powwows in Montana. Filmed by photographers Lindsay McNay and Tim Luinstra, the video special was sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Dan Fiehrer.

University of Colorado PhD student Kerri Clement examines horse herd restoration efforts on the part of Crow Agency superintendent Robert Yellowtail. While Yellowtail concentrated on particular breeds and worked to obtain high-bred horses, this short-lived project reflects the longer and deeper history between Crow people and equines. Between 1875 and 1910, cattle raising on the Flathead Reservation grew from supplementing a tribal economy based on hunting and gathering to the foundation of a new economy.

Retired MHS museum technician Vic Reiman begins with a short sketch of the development of black powder and firearms—going all the way back to China—and then concentrates on the first four models of lever-action rifles made by Oliver Winchester and their use by American Indians, settlers, and bad men on the western frontier.

Early railroad companies quickly realized that the beautiful scenery along their routes would be an attraction to Americans enthralled by the romance of the West. Montana Historical Society outreach and interpretation program manager Kirby Lambert illustrates how advertising campaigns featuring beautiful promotional art lured adventure-seekers—and paying customers—to experience firsthand the spectacular scenery of national parks and other scenic wonders of the West. (9/27/2019)

Before 1889, Montana exerted little oversight of those who claimed to be healers. Starting that year, however, the state required all medical practitioners to register with the newly formed State Board of Medical Examiners. Dr. Todd L. Savitt, historian of medicine at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, reveals a group demographic picture of the doctors who did (and did not) register and tells stories of some particularly interesting physicians in that group.

To attract workers, entrepreneurs, and tourists, a community needs positive brand identity. When well presented, local history is a powerful tool that can be used to distinguish your town from “Everywhere U.S.A.” Billings’ Mayor William Cole tells the story of how the Yellowstone Kelly Interpretive Site was designed, funded, and constructed on the rimrocks overlooking Billings and how plans are now being prepared for the development of the William Clark Recreational Area on the Yellowstone River.

Irish and Chinese immigrants played a significant role in the development of nineteenth-century Montana. While the scholarship on Irish in Montana is extensive and there is a sizable body of work on Chinese in Montana, yet to appear is a study of these diasporic groups in Montana from a comparative perspective. Addressing this gap in the literature and bridging the divide between Irish American studies and Chinese American studies, Barry McCarron shares his research findings on relations between, and the comparative experiences and contributions of, Irish and Chinese in Montana. McCarron is an assistant professor of history and faculty fellow in Irish Studies at New York University and a 2017 MHS Research Center Bradley Fellow.

Dr. Timothy McCleary presents recent archaeological findings at the home of Chief Plenty Coups, the last principal chief of the Apsáalooke. McCleary—head of the General Studies Department at Little Big Horn College—analyzes these findings within the context of both historical documents and contemporary celebrations to allow for an understanding of the political process of historic Apsáalooke chiefly feasting.

It is said that newspaper reporters, in their hurried, inevitably flawed way, are writing the first draft of history. Veteran reporter Ed Kemmick talks about some of his favorite history-tinged newspaper stories, from the tale of the so-called Petrified Man discovered near Fort Benton to the exploits of Horace Bivins, buffalo soldier, top army marksman, and, in retirement in Billings, a master gardener. Kemmick has worked as a reporter and editor in Montana for more than thirty-five years and is the author of “The Big Sky, By and By.” He is retired as of July 2018, when he suspended publication of his four-and-a-half-year-old online newspaper, Last Best News.

MSU history professor Dale Martin draws upon themes and stories from his 2018 book “Ties, Rails, and Telegraph Wires: Railroads and Communities in Montana and the West,” published by the MHS Press. The book explores how railroads shaped and sustained the human landscape and economy of the West, Montana, and Billings well into the middle of the twentieth century. Railways provided essential transportation to communities and businesses. Passenger trains carried people, mail, express, money, newspapers, and milk in steel cans. Town residents knew the telegraphers and other station staff, track maintenance workers, and crews on local trains. People went to the station to meet arriving family members, see campaigning politicians, greet returning sports teams, or just to watch travelers and fellow citizens. Martin also covers the railways, trains, stations, and railroaders in the Billings-Laurel area and the activities at the Billings Union Station a century ago.