Montana Historical Society marks 150th birthday
Gov. Steve Bullock and several of the state’s leading legislators met in the Capitol rotunda on Feb. 2 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Montana Historical Society.
The bill establishing the Historical Society was signed into law by Montana Territorial Gov. Sidney Edgerton in Virginia City on Feb. 2, 1865, only months after Arizona created the West’s first state historical society.
In addition to birthday cake, a Crow Indian prayer, singing of the state song “Montana” and speeches given by an MHS historian dressed as Edgerton, participants also heard some political sparring.
Montana Senate President Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, spoke in favor of creating the Betty Babcock Heritage Center, which would expand MHS’s current facility, but she spoke against tying funding for the project to Bullock’s Build Montana plan.
“We shouldn’t support this project because of political expedience,” she said. “We should support it for what it is — a symbol of our state’s proud, proud heritage.”
Bullock responded by saying his bill “has nothing to do with political expediency.” He said the problem with MHS’s facility has gone on for decades and his plan, contained in House Bill 5, calls for replacing the facility.
“We’ve certainly outgrown its current space, and we’re long overdue for an upgrade and expansion,” he said. “So much of our history is boxed up and in storage because we don’t have the space to put it on display.”
Governed by a 15-member board appointed by the governor, MHS became a state agency in 1891. State law tasks MHS with “the acquisition, preservation and protection of historical records, art, archival and museum objects, historical places, site and monuments, and the custody, maintenance and operation of the historical library, museums, art galleries and historical places, sites and monuments.”
MHS acquired the governor’s mansion in Helena in 1913 and was given oversight over the Moss Mansion in Billings in 1985. MHS led the effort to protect the historic towns of Virginia City and Nevada City beginning in 1995.
MHS publishes the award-winning quarterly journal “Montana, The Magazine of Western History,” which is distributed in all 50 states and 17 foreign countries. It also publishes scholarly books through its Montana Historical Society Press, with editors reviewing 10 book-length manuscripts every year.
MHS’s preservation duties include providing technical expertise to private or public owners of historic or prehistoric properties, and assisting in nomination of sites to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.