Miscellaneous Archives - Western Heritage Center

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.

Luggage tag, Yellowstone Trail, 1914. 99.20.01.

(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.

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.

James Kenneth Ralston painting. 2005.02.021.

John Popovich and J.K. Ralston, consultants during the filming of Little Big Man, 1969. 2005.02.008.

(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.

Northern Arapaho horn spoon. WHC 2000.17.12

Wind River Shoshone painted hide, made by Charles Washakie, circa 1910. 2000.17.26.

Chief Plenty Coups life mask, Crow, circa 1904. WHC 1991.80.01

Yellowstone Valley Memorabilia