ML Archives and Special Collections

Archives and Special Collections has recently made available the papers of Clifton R. Merritt, an environmental activist from the Helena Valley in Montana.  Merritt was instrumental in the preservation of public lands throughout the United States as well as in his home state of Montana.

Merritt helped found the Montana Wilderness Association in 1957 and also served in various positions for the Montana Wildlife Federation from 1950 to 1964. With these organizations, Merritt was a leader in getting the Montana Stream Preservation Act adopted and halting the establishment of the Spruce Park and Glacier View dams on the Flathead River, as well as spearheading the movement to get the 15,000 acre Jewel Basin Hiking Area established.   

 Map of Proposed Jewel Basin Hiking Area, undated, Clifton R. Merritt Papers

In 1966, Clifton Merritt established and oversaw The Wilderness Society’s regional office in Denver, Colorado.  Through the efforts of Merritt and his 15-person staff, working closely with local groups, millions of acres were added to the National Wilderness Preservation System.  Among those added were the Scapegoat, Absaroka-Beartooth, and River of No Return Wildernesses in Montana.

 Map of Proposed Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Montana Wilderness Association/The Wilderness Society, 1974, Clifton R. Merritt Papers

After leaving The Wilderness Society, Merritt co-founded the American Wilderness Alliance (known after 1983 as American Wildlands) in 1979.  The organization worked with conservation groups throughout the Rocky Mountain West to preserve public lands for wildlife habitat and recreation. American Wildlands was instrumental in getting the 161,000 acre Elkhorn Wildlife Management Unit established in Montana.

  On the Wild Side Newsletter, American Wildlands, Clifton R. Merritt Papers

 In 1990, Clifton Merritt began the Corridors of Life Program. The program would use Geographic Information Systems to map wildlife migration corridors between roadless areas and established wilderness areas. As of 2009, American Wildlands’ Corridors of Life Program continues to work to restore and maintain wildlife corridors.

 Proposed wildlife corridor from Yellowstone to the Yukon.  From an American Wildlands Corridors of Life Program member mailer, Clifton R. Merritt Papers

Merritt continued to assist in local conservation efforts until his death in August of 2008. 

Posted by Amy Casamassa

Daniel Bandmann, An Actor’s Tour; or, Seventy Thousand Miles with Shakespeare. Boston: Cupples, Upham and Co., 1885. (SpColl-MT Coll: 910.4 B214a)

The 1905 New York Times obituary for Daniel Bandmann describes him as “a Shakespearean actor of note and one of the best-known residents of Montana”. In this 1885 work, Bandmann relates a tour around the world on which he performed Shakespeare’s plays in locations like New Zealand and India. After moving to the Missoula area Bandmann continued acting, putting on numerous local productions, as well becoming the owner of two ranches. Among other things, Bandmann is cited as the person who first introduced McIntosh apples to the state¹.

But An Actor’s Tour is also an example of one reason that digitized books usually aren’t a substitute for the physical object. Our copy includes a two-leaf program inserted between the endpapers and the frontispiece:

The program describes the performances of “Herr and Mrs. Bandmann” (Bandmann’s wife acted as well) at the Princess’s Theatre in London. In addition to being visually interesting and offering information about performances in which Bandmann took part, the program includes advertisements for such products as “Rimmel’s Aquadentine”, a tooth-whitener, and “Rimmel’s Fancy Crackers” (Eugene Rimmel, “Perfumer by Appointment to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales”, and an interesting figure himself, sponsored the program). A copy of the book is available online through Google Books, but it doesn’t contain the program where it appears in our copy.

[Peter Skene Ogden], Traits of American-Indian Life and Character. By a Fur Trader. London, 1853. (Call #: SpColl-Phillips, 970.00497 O345t)

and

James Marsh, Four Years in the Rockies. New Castle, PA: W.B. Thomas, 1884. (Call #: SpColl-Phillips, 978 M365f)

These two new acquisitions illustrate the role of the fur trade in early history of what is now Montana.

Peter Skene Ogden was a fur trader with the Northwest Company, and he traveled throughout the northwest extensively during the 1820s. In late 1824 or early 1825 he passed through the area that is now Missoula. Traits of American-Indian Life provides sketches of life in the area, the fur trade, and the Native American inhabitants of the region. This particular copy is interesting for two other reasons: first, it has an ownership stamp of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Northwest Company’s rival, on the title page (image). Second, most of the book is unopened (image), meaning that the leaves haven’t been separated into individual pages, an indication that this particular copy was never actually read. This new addition joins other Special Collections materials relating to Ogden, including his Snake Country Journals and biographical works such as T.C. Elliot’s Peter Skene Ogden: Fur Trader.

Four Years in the Rockies narrates the adventures of Isaac Rose, a trapper who explored the west with notable characters such as Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. The title page describes it as “ONE OF THE MOST THRILLING NARRATIVES EVER PUBLISHED,” and it includes many descriptions of Native Americans, especially the Blackfeet.

Caricatures and Cartoons of Men in Montana was first published in 1907, and according to WorldCat there are only a handful of copies (about six) now known to exist. As the title implies, the book consists of caricatures of prominent Montanans (but only men). This sample—featuring Superintendent of the Deer Lodge Prison, Thomas McTeague—provides an example, but you can see more on display in exhibition case in the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room.

Click to Enlarge

Explore Montana’s mercantile history in Before Box Stores and Supermarkets, a new exhibition on display in the Theta Rho Room on Level 4 of the Mansfield Library.

Using items and images drawn from Archives & Special Collections, the exhibition highlights the history of commerce in Montana, from the founding of the area’s earliest trading post exactly 200 years ago, to the early twentieth-century mercantiles and general stores that were mainstays of their communities. The display includes early maps and accounts of trading posts, turn-of-the-century photographs, and advertisements featuring both everyday necessities (coffee – 2lbs for 65 cents) and the latest fashions.

Before Box Stores and Supermarkets will be on display through mid-February. For additional information please contact Archives & Special Collections: (406) 243-2053 or library.archives@umontana.edu.