Project MUSE®: Montana: The Magazine of Western History - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Montana: The Magazine of Western History.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVolume 71 (2021) through current issueLatest Articles: Montana: The Magazine of Western HistoryTWOProject MUSE®Montana: The Magazine of Western History2328-42930026-9891Latest articles in Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Feed provided by Project MUSE®From the Editor’s Desk
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981134
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Dear Montana Readers,It is my pleasure as editor to present you with the seventy-fifth anniversary issue of Montana The Magazine of Western History. As we were planning out this issue, we were struck by the fact that when the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees decided to create this magazine in 1951, they were only seventy-five years removed from such major events in Western history as the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Nez Perce War. Indeed, people who experienced these events were still living when Montana released its first issue. We are temporally as close to the founding of this magazine as they were to the 1870s.This issue celebrates two intertwined events: the anniversary of Montana and the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallFrom the Editor’s Desk2026-01-25text/htmlen-USFrom the Editor’s Desk2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®58122026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Enriching Montana History
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981135
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Envisioning a space that reflects Montana and tells our stories is not an easy task. The hard-working and dedicated staff at the Montana Historical Society have devoted the past five years to ensuring the vision for the Montana Heritage Center became reality. From its architectural design to the experiences inside, the Montana Heritage Center captures and shares Montana’s landscapes and the stories that shape who we are today. The building is immersive and exploration-driven within a comfortable, community-centered space.As we begin to welcome guests, we are planning how to leverage this vibrant space to amplify our core values of preserving the past and sharing Montana’s stories. In charting our next steps, we aim
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallEnriching Montana History2026-01-25text/htmlen-USEnriching Montana History2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®68162026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25A “Modern Museum” for Montana: A Brief History of the Montana Historical Society’s Art and Artifact Collections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981136
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“The importance of this institution to the territory is incalculable. Properly conducted it may be made an epitome of the territory itself, and henceforward at all time illustrate its progress and development more thoroughly than could be done by any of the ordinary researches of visitors, strangers and savants.”Founded by the first territorial legislature in 1865, the Montana Historical Society (MTHS) spent much of its first century searching for a suitable, permanent home to house its collections and serve its patrons. The January 8, 1953, opening of the Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building, located across the street from the state capitol, fulfilled this dream—for a time. Coupled with the hiring of historian
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallA “Modern Museum” for Montana: A Brief History of the Montana Historical Society’s Art and Artifact Collections2026-01-25text/htmlen-USA “Modern Museum” for Montana: A Brief History of the Montana Historical Society’s Art and Artifact Collections2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®1008892026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Helena’s Three Theaters of Urban Renewal
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981137
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Photographer George A. Grant captured this sweeping view of downtown Helena from atop Water Tank Hill in 1952. Two decades later, a process known as urban renewal would transform the Queen City’s main business and entertainment district. Some residents still bemoan the loss of the city’s former character. 954–279, MTHS Photograph ArchivesThe old downtown in Montana’s capital city took its final bow half a century ago and was replaced by something new and different. Like hundreds of cities in mid-twentieth- century America, Helena tore up and rebuilt its core using a federally funded, locally directed program known as urban renewal.Locals expressed high hopes at the start of the project, but as it progressed
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallHelena’s Three Theaters of Urban Renewal2026-01-25text/htmlen-USHelena’s Three Theaters of Urban Renewal2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®948602026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Spirited Debates: Montana Prohibition, Politics, and Repeal 1925–1938
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981138
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A horse-drawn float sponsored by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) makes an appearance in an Independence Day parade in Columbus, Montana. The wagon is meant to be a hearse, carrying a coffin representing legal liquor. The WCTU’s powerful influence resulted in Montanans voting Prohibition into law in November 1916. The law took effect in December 1918, whereas nationwide Prohibition began in 1920. The WCTU’s efforts in Montana appealed to women weary of fallout from alcoholic husbands and fathers. Their campaigning frequently included nativist and elitist rhetoric.Unknown photographer, July 4, 1916. 951–822, MTHS Photograph ArchivesOn a frigid January day in 1925, newly elected Democratic governor John
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallSpirited Debates: Montana Prohibition, Politics, and Repeal 1925–19382026-01-25text/htmlen-USSpirited Debates: Montana Prohibition, Politics, and Repeal 1925–19382026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®956662026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Montana in the Twentieth Century
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981139
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As those familiar with the story know, the Montana Historical Society has deep roots in the state’s history. Those roots go back to early territorial days when such prominent men as the Stuart brothers, Granville and James, met with Wilbur Fisk Sanders, Francis M. Thompson, Hezekiah Hosmer, and Walter DeLacy in a general store in the burgeoning Montana mining town of Virginia City. Already claiming a population of thousands, Virginia City was a young town, incorporated only a year and a half before. These were prominent, even pretentious men, well aware they and others around them were making history. They may also have been concerned about the new territory’s reputation, given the brutal vigilante movement that
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallMontana in the Twentieth Century2026-01-25text/htmlen-USMontana in the Twentieth Century2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®904892026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion by Elliott West (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981140
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The premise of Elliott West’s Continental Reckoning is both mundane and profound: “the great coincidence” of acquiring three-quarters of a billion acres and the California gold rush, all in less than thirty months, triggered not only the familiar tale of the co-creation of the American West and modern United States but unexpected insights into how domestic events contributed to the emergence of a new world order. Continental Reckoning is a big book with big ideas, a scholarly and aesthetic achievement delivered with a masterful weaving of conceptual frames, telling details, and vibrant prose.The book’s twenty-three chapters are arranged in three sections that trace the ecological, social, and cultural disassembly
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallContinental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion by Elliott West (review)2026-01-25text/htmlen-USContinental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion by Elliott West (review)2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®61252026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25This Place The Gods Touched Earth: Poetry by Montana’s Poets Laureate 2005–2025 ed. by Krys Holmes and Eric Heidle (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981141
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According to one source, all but four states had established the poet laureate position by 2017, and the timeline shows that Montana was late to join the party. But this slender volume, published by the Montana Arts Council (MAC) and MTHS Press, shows that though Montana came late, they wear quality apparel. The Arts Council has sponsored the poet laureate position since its inception in 2005, and this collection furthers its public relations role. It serves as a strong introduction to some of Montana’s leading poets of the past generation or two and includes a brief history and definition of the position (79).A poet myself, I count a number of these eleven poets laureate as personal friends. I ran a visiting
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallThis Place The Gods Touched Earth: Poetry by Montana’s Poets Laureate 2005–2025 ed. by Krys Holmes and Eric Heidle (review)2026-01-25text/htmlen-USThis Place The Gods Touched Earth: Poetry by Montana’s Poets Laureate 2005–2025 ed. by Krys Holmes and Eric Heidle (review)2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®57842026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Notes
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981142
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Kate Hampton, National Register nomination, 8. For a more detailed treatment of the Society’s early history, see
ClarkRobert Morse
The Montana Historical Society
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science
Markel Dekker, Inc.
1985
281
291;
ShoversBrian
Saving Montana’s Past: The Creation and Evolution of the Montana Historical Society and Montana The Magazine of Western History
Montana
52
1
Spring
2002
48
59; and
LambertKirby
Appropriate, Curious, and Rare
A History of Montana in 101 Objects: Artifacts and Essays from the Montana Historical Society
Montana Historical Society Press
2021
1
11.
Kate Hampton, National Register nomination, 8. For a more detailed treatment of the Society’s early history, see
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallNotes2026-01-25text/htmlen-USNotes2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®1170492026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25Montana Historical Society Member Recognition
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981143
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Laugh Kills Lonesome, Oil on Canvas, 1925. C.M. Russell, Montana Historical Society MacKay Collection. Accession Number: X1955.01.01The Montana Historical Society would like to express immense gratitude toward every member who has contributed to the Society. Thanks to this support, we can offer free entry to the Montana Heritage Center when we open in December of 2025! The following upper-level members joined or renewed during July, August, and September 2025. Thank you.Leroy BartaRon & Valerie FickRyan D. GoldbachMichael D. ArchdaleJames BeckRoger R. CampbellJohn F. EastmanCharles & Renee ErdmannSusan GibbGregory & Patricia HoltJames HuffmanMargareta JamnerThomas C. Power III & Lonna PowerKathy & Wylie
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/872/image/coversmallMontana Historical Society Member Recognition2026-01-25text/htmlen-USMontana Historical Society Member Recognition2026-01-252026TWOProject MUSE®38442026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-01-25