Traveling Exhibits

For more information about these exhibits or to procure them, please call the Outreach & Interpretation Program at (406) 444-4789, or write to P.O. Box 201201, 225 North Roberts Street, Helena, Montana 59620-1201.

F. Jay Haynes: Fifty Views

These fifty views are taken from the Haynes Collection, which illustrate the development of the upper Midwest and the Northwest from 1876 to the turn of the century. Haynes was the official photographer for the Northern Pacific Railroad and for Yellowstone National Park. Through photographs he hoped to encourage immigration into the region and also to provide views of the area's scenic splendors both to visitors and to those eager to see the wonders they could not visit. The exhibit begins with images of Haynes' early career in the Dakota and Montana Territories; it continues with views of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska; and concludes with Yellowstone, the area of Haynes' most abiding interest.

Hope in Hard Times: New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936-1942

In the 1930s and early 1940s, four Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers were detailed to Montana to document the effects that the Great Depression was having on the Treasure State. These four photographers' Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, and John Vachon' captured the many facets of the Depression in Montana: rural and urban; agricultural and industrial; work and play; hard times and the promise of a brighter future. Today, these striking images present an unforgettable portrait of a little-studied period in our state's history. Selected from the FSA Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the photographs in Hope in Hard Times will offer viewers an unparalleled look at life in Montana in the years preceding World War II. Available for bookings beginning January, 2003.

Montana by Food: A Taste of the Past

In conjunction with the Montana Committee for the Humanities, Montana's Museum cooked up this celebration of the Treasure State's unique culinary traditions, from the 1880s to the recent past. Montana by Food serves up varied helpings of this all-important topic, including food production, distribution, preparation, service, and consumption. It examines the "what and why" of the eating habits of former generations of Montanans while illustrating how things have changed over the years, and how they haven't. The exhibit features appetizing images from the Photograph Archives of the Montana Historical Society, graphic reproductions of historic artifacts from Montana's Museum, and tasty vintage recipes from the MHS Library's Community Cookbook Collection.

On Track: The Railroad Photographs of Warren McGee

Jointly sponsored by the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Historical Society, On Track: The Railroad Photographs of Warren McGee features the stunning photographs taken by Warren McGee over a 60-year period, beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1990s. The exhibit celebrates the photograph collection as it chronicles and pays tribute to trains in 20th century Montana and the surrounding region.

Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The World of Evelyn Cameron

For more than thirty years spanning the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Evelyn Jephson Cameron photographed the landscape, wildlife, and people of eastern Montana. Evelyn took thousands of photographs of her world?the rural life, badlands, and ranch characters of the real west. Over 40 large format prints made from Cameron's original glass-plate and nitrate negatives are featured in this exhibit, which is based on the book Photographing Montana by Donna Lucey, a former editor with Time-Life Books. Both in Lucey's book and in the exhibit, Cameron's own words? culled from 30 years of her diaries and biography?are used to reveal Evelyn's personal feelings behind her photographs. Photographing Montana offers an intimate view of rural life on the Northern Plains.