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Special Exhibits
 

LOBBY GALLERY
 
The Art of Story Telling: Plains Indian Perspectives: (Dec. 1, 2011 through summer of 2012-NE Gallery)

For countless years Plains Indians have chronicled their histories in magnificent graphic pictorial styles. Powerful images carved in, or painted on, rock marked historical events and visions. Narrative scenes painted on buffalo robes, hides, and tips chronicled men’s personal exploits and feats—memorializing and making public their heroic deeds. This exhibit features stunning and powerful, and fascinating works of art from the Montana Historical Society’s collection along with the special addition of the magnificent Walter Bone Shirt Ledger Book which is generously on loan from the Mansfield Library. In these works, often the meaning of the artist’s intent is clear but equally often the original meaning remains an enigmatic mystery.


 



NORTHEAST GALLERY

     Excerpt from untitled ledger drawing
By Curley, Crow
Pencil, colored pencil, paper, 1886
Montana Historical Society Museum Collection, X1915.01.03
 

Mapping Montana: Two Centuries of Cartography (Dec 1, 2011 through spring of 2012- Lobby Gallery)


In December 1965 the Montana Historical Society marked the centennial of the creation of Montana’s first map, drawn by preeminent cartographer and surveyor, Walter W. de Lacy, with an exhibit of de Lacy’s maps. For the first time since 1965 the Historical Society is displaying a selection of the institution’s massive collection of over 5,000 maps. This unique collaboration between the Historical Society’s Research Center and the Museum will tell the story of Montana’s past from early exploration to the Indian wars to the arrival of the railroad and through the development of Montana’s industries of mining, cattle ranching, farming, and tourism. The exhibit will also document the creation of towns and cities, national parks and forests, and highways.

Walter W. de Lacy’s original manuscript map of Montana Territory, 1865
Montana Historical Society Research Center, B-1
 

MONTANA MOMENTS GALLERY


The Montana Moments Gallery is a special changing exhibit area located at the end of the Montana Homeland Gallery, adjacent  to the Montana Young at Heart hands-on interactive gallery.
 

Montana Modern
(through May 19, 2012)

  The Brick Breeden Field House at Montana State University-Bozeman
illuminates a winter night circa 1957.
Photo: Frank Jay Haynes Family Photographs & Papers, #1507-000691, Burlingame Special Collections at MSU Libraries

Modernist architecture took root in post -World War II America, fueled by a rapidly expanding national economy and a demand for new building stock following lean years of financial depression and war. In Montana, the post-war years saw an influx of population to the cities - particularly university towns, places associated with military bases, and those involved in the petroleum markets. These families needed places to live, attend school, and conduct business. Consequently, many residences, public buildings, and storefronts date to this era.

A talented pool of Montana architects versed in Modernist principles attended to these needs. Using the latest materials and technology of the era, they created exciting, sleek new buildings and adapted existing streetscapes to appear contemporary. Modernists reacted to America’s pre-war, classical architecture by looking to the future, doing away with formal symmetry and certain architectural traditions. Instead, Modernism emphasizes the efficient and rational. Montana Modern explores the architecture of Montana that was inspired by this part of our history.

Funding for this exhibit provided through the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, and made possible by the contributions of A&E Architects, CWG Architects, Midas Muffler, Wayne Gustafson, Keith Kolb, and Montana State University Libraries.