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Pictorial History

Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana

by Chere Jiusto and Christine W. Brown
photographs by Tom Ferris

Historic barns exhibit a rugged beauty that comes with age and quality craftsmanship. Barns also speak to generations of hard work, as people balanced their lives against the forces of nature, the bounty of the earth, and whatever luck came their way. Their experiences are at the heart of the history of Montana.

Historic barns abound with stories, reflecting the ways Montanans have forged partnerships with this land. Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana recognizes these invaluable buildings and honors those who built, used, and cared for them. Contemporary color images and historic photographs of over 140 individual barns capture the buildings’ majestic exteriors as well as telling details of their construction, interiors, and use. Accompanying histories of the barns’ owners reveal the story of Montana itself: from the 1860s gold rush that lured the territory’s earliest farmers, to the optimism of the early-twentieth-century homesteading boom, and finally through the years of drought and agricultural depression that fundamentally reshaped the agricultural landscape.

With an unassuming elegance that stems from the wisdom and economy of purposeful design, historic barns embody the best of Big Sky country. Yet these magnificent structures are disappearing from the horizon at an alarming rate. Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana documents the diversity, beauty, and dignity of the state’s heritage barns while issuing a clarion call to preserve these essential Montana icons before it is too late.

Hand Raised can be ordered directly from the Montana Historical Society by calling toll-free 1-800-243-9900 or by following the link below.

320 pages, full color, 500+ illustrations
cloth, ISBN 978-0-9759196-9-9, $39.95

front cover: Conveniences Sorely Needed

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Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana's Historic Highway Bridges, 1860-1956

By Jon Axline

Old bridges do more than just span rivers. They provide an important historical connection between the hopes and dreams of the people who built them and those who continue to benefit from their use today. Montana's historic highway bridges are symbols of the cooperative spirit that led to the economic and social stability of communities throughout the Big Sky Country for over a century. Other bridges, such as those built during the Great Depression, are physical reminders of significant periods in American history and tell stories about the breadth of Montana's transportation past. Nonetheless all are representatives of the best in engineering practices and are testaments to the science of practical bridge design. From the aesthetically delightful Fort Benton Bridge to the more mundane Fred Robinson Bridge in the Missouri Breaks Country, Montana's bridges signify the best in American bridge engineering. Today, Montana's bridges are a visible, often overlooked, and fast disappearing part of the state's historic landscape. Yet the story they tell is significant to understanding the dynamics of Montana's development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the optimism many had in its future.

174 pages, 80 illus., maps, index
paper, ISBN 0-9721522-6-1, $22.00;
cloth, ISBN 0-9721522-5-3, $39.95

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front cover: Conveniences Sorely Needed

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Helena: An Illustrated History

by Vivian Paladin and Jean Baucus

"Helena is perhaps this nation's finest living example of Western pioneers putting back as well as taking. This illustrated history, set in historical context, enlightens us about those visionary pioneers and the many who have followed."
Max Baucus, United States Senator, Montana

"Helena: An Illustrated History is a priceless historical collection of faces and stories about our special state's capital and the lives and events that have shaped it-and us."
Marc Racicot, former Montana governor

239 pages, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-40-3, $22.95

front cover: Helena

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

by Mary Murphy

Winner of the 2003 Montana Book Award

In the 1930s and 1940s, four Farm Security Administration photographers were detailed to Montana to document the effects of the Depression on the state. The four, 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.

Men and women who became some of America's best-known photographers, Rothstein, Wolcott, Lee, and Vachon's photographs are both stunning pieces of art and important historical documents. Today these striking images present an unforgettable portrait of a little-studied period in the history of Montana. Selected from the FSA Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the photographs in Hope in Hard Times offer viewers an unparalleled look at life in Montana in the years preceding the United States entry into World War II.

256 pages, 144 illus., map
cloth, ISBN 0-917298-80-2, $39.95
paper, ISBN 0-917298-81-0, $22.00

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front cover: Hope In Hard Times

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Montana's State Capitol: The People's House

by Patricia M. Burnham, Kirby Lambert, and Susan R. Near

An imposing symbol, Montana's Capitol reflects the values and aspirations of the Treasure State's founders. Its neoclassical design echoes the architecture of early Greece and Rome, while the murals and statues that embellish the building's grand interior spaces commemorate important events and people in the state's history.

Lavishly illustrated with both historic and modern photographs, Montana's State Capitol: The People's House provides a long overdue tribute to the crown jewel of Montana architecture. Essays explore the building of the Capitol and the creation of the sculpture and murals that adorn its halls-murals that include one of artist Charles M. Russell's most admired works. Published to honor the building on its centennial anniversary, Montana's State Capitol will provide readers with a fresh appreciation for this "Temple of Democracy."

112 pages, 88 illustrations
paper, ISBN 0-917298-83-7, $19.95

Praise for Montana's State Capitol
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front cover: Montana's State Capitol

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