Dr. Jeffrey Stickler has recently completed a book with the title “Whispers of the Past and Reflections on Nature: Names in Bozeman’s Backyard, The Madison, Gallatin and Bridger Ranges”. In this presentation, he regales us with stories behind some of these local names.

Recorded on April 3, 2019 at the Museum of the Rockies as part of the Gallatin History Museum series.

Ed Saunders is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, and combat veteran who lives in Laurel, Montana. On the centennial year of America’s victory in World War I, he tells some of the epic true stories of intrepid Montana women who served in uniform in that terrible upheaval, mostly as nurses in the Army Nurse Corps. Over 200 of these women served stateside in crowded, understaffed, diseased-filled base hospitals, and overseas in war-torn France, enduring terrible and deadly battlefield conditions. They served an indifferent federal government denying them equality with men. After the war, the women came home alone, unheralded, and mostly forgotten. They faced another battle—a battle for recognition.

Recorded on March 6, 2019 at the Museum of the Rockies as part of the Gallatin History Museum series.

Not all history is dramatic deeds; many of the most interesting insights come from learning how people carried out more mundane activities. As part of the Gallatin History Museum lecture series, MSU Professor Mary Murphy and local community historian Richard Brown shared stories and research around two recently discovered cookbooks from early Bozeman.

One of the cookbooks belonged to Emma D. Weeks Willson of Bozeman, Montana. Emma collected these recipes from friends and family and recorded them, likely beginning in 1916. Another cookbook discussed is the Montana Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs cookbook. The ways in which these two cookbooks were linked forms a fascinating tale from Bozeman history.

Recorded on February 6, 2019 at the Museum of the Rockies.

On October 10, 2018 as part of the centennial celebrations commemorating the Armistice  titled Memories and Legacies of World War I, Todd Harwell gave a lecture at the Museum of the Rockies called, “No More War, No More Plague: The Spanish Influenza Pandemic’s Toll on Montana.” Todd Harwell is the Administrator of the Public Health and Safety Division in the MT Dept. of Public Health and Human Services. He was introduced by Dr. Steven D. Helgerson, who served for 9 years as Montana’s State Medical Officer, and is the author of the book, A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND THE EPIDEMICS MONTANA 1917-1918, an historical novella. Their article, co-authored with Greg s. Holzman, with many of the slides shown in the lecture can be viewed here: https://mhs.mt.gov/Portals/11/education/WWI/HarwellFlu.pdf

A native Montanan and an acclaimed novelist (In Open Spaces, High and Inside), Russell Rowland spent the better part of two years studying and traveling around his beloved home state, from the mines of Butte to the pine forests of the Northwest, from the stark, wind-scrubbed badlands of the East to the tourist-driven economies of the mountain West. Along the way, he considered our state’s essential character, where we came from and, most of all, what we might be in the process of becoming. In this presentation he read from his newest book, Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey.

Recorded at Museum of the Rockies, September 6, 2017.

As a linguistic historian, Chrysti M. Smith revives the myths of the ancients and explains how those stories live on in dozens of common English words. Combining images of Western mythological characters and contemporary culture, Smith reveals an often forgotten world of words. You can find more from Chrysti the Wordsmith at her website, wordsmithradio.org. (more…)

Dale Martin from the History Department at Montana State University describes a portentous time in Montana during the First World War. After an introductory overview, he first examines the common belief that more men from Montana served in the military during the war, proportional to population, than from any other state. (more…)