These oral history recordings are available through the Montana History Portal.
Our memorabilia collection includes advertising materials from regional businesses. Of special interest are Walk Over Boot shop signs from the 1920s and a full-sized, horse-drawn, Baker Transfer vehicle used into the 1950s. Other items include jewelry, medical equipment, domestic housewares, historic maps, social group histories, tourist pamphlets, family heirlooms, school yearbooks, mining equipment, architectural drawings, and rare books.
The 1914 luggage tag from the Yellowstone Trail Association shows an early automobile at the Gardiner or Roosevelt Arch with the phrase, “We Want In.” Cars were officially authorized for use in Yellowstone National Park in 1915.
(Photo: Nock muzzleloader, 10 gauge double barrel gun with metal breastplate and tamping rod. Harry Frahm collection. 2002.35.03.)
Our gun collection includes an 1831 69 caliber Harper’s Ferry smooth bore percussion musket and 1873 Springfield carbine serial #201042 and several revolvers, target pistols and shotguns from the Harry Frahm collection.
(Photo: W.B. Ten Eyck stock saddle, Billings, Montana Territory, (Montana became a state in 1889). Owned by George Kirby, who ranched at Kirby on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation (Montana) from 1889-1918 when he sold his ranch. Founder of the Kirby Land Cattle Company, Kirby was interviewed in 1938 by a historian for the U.S. Congressional Records in Washington D.C. 82.87.)
This collection includes furniture made by Thomas Moleworth, an artisan from BIllings and Cody, Wyoming, and western tack made by noted saddle-makers in the region, W.B. Ten Eyck and the Connolly Brothers of Livingston and Billings.
(Photo: Masonic Temple, Billings, architect John Gustave Link. WHC 99.55.18.)
This collection features two well known 20th century architects, Chandler Cohagen and John Gustave Link. Chandler Cohagen designed homes and businesses and renovated several historic buildings in Montana. 400 architectural drawings highlight some of Cohagen’s best work.
The museum houses original photographs from John Gustave Link, a prominent Billings architect. Link designed several courthouses in Montana and Wyoming. Link’s architectural plans and drawings are housed at Montana State University-Bozeman.
The J.K. Ralston Collection includes paintings depicting significant events in Montana. The artist’s cabin studio and personal effects are housed at the Western Heritage Center. It is one of the most significant collections of the famous western artist.
(Photo: Painting by LeRoy Greene. Mrs Christian Yegen (WHC 78.83.05))
The western art collection includes original paintings by Billings artists, Leroy Greene and James Kenneth Ralston and photographs by L.A. Huffman, a Miles City photographer known for his hand-tinted images of eastern Montana in the late 1800s.
The Cecil Dunn Collection features Northern Arapaho beadwork gifted to Royal Balcom, who served as warden at St. Michael’s Mission at Ethete, Wyoming on the Wind River Reservation between 1910 and 1926. This collection includes a hide depicting the Eastern Shoshone Sun Dance painted by Charles Washakie, son of the Chief Washakie. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Smithsonian Institution, and Carob County Museum of Rawlins, Wyoming also have painted robes by Charles Washakie in their collections. View selected items from the WHC collection Images courtesy of the Chief Washakie Foundation, Wyoming.
Regional Native American Items
The museum features fine examples of the beadwork, clothing, and unique items from Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Nez Perce cultures.
Ed Kopac Collection (WHC 1982.58):
This collection of 75 photographs, taken between 1930 and 1940, document agrarian activities undertaken at the Kopac Ranch and Campbell Farm Corporation in Big Horn County. Specific images include farm vehicles, equipment, and machinery of the dryland farm operations near Hardin.
Joseph Henry Sharp Photograph Album (WHC 1995.26)
In 1901, Joseph Henry Sharp, the famous artist, had a cabin studio built at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Under direction of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Indian Commission, Sharp painted several American Indians living in the region. This photo album holds 74 black-and-white images, taken between 1901 and 1909, of Sharp’s travels and Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Blackfeet tribal members that would be depicted in some of Sharp’s paintings. In 1909, Sharp left Montana for Taos, New Mexico. In 2025, the Western Heritage Center will feature an exhibit about the photo album and work of Joseph Henry Sharp.
