Montana Historical Society
Archives
MC 270
Montana Study
Montana Study research collection
1943-1954
3.5 linear feet (8 boxes)
This collection (1943-1954) consists of records created by
the Montana Study project. The Montana Study was a sociological project, conducted by the
University of Montana with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Records include
correspondence, conference materials, local study group records, minutes, reports, speeches
and writings, and miscellany. (Photocopies of records at various institutions)
14:3-2
English
Historical Note:
The Montana Study was a sociological project, conducted by the University of Montana under
funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, to use the humanities to contribute to
improving the lives of people in small communities.
The project was the vision of Ernest O. Melby, Chancellor of the University of Montana
System. Melby believed that by creating a common awareness of Montana's heritage the people
of the state would develop a deeper devotion to the welfare of the community, state, and
country. From this awareness and devotion there would come concerted action to correct
community problems and to reverse some of the forces of social decay, which he saw as a
threat to the democratic way of life.
In the early 1940s, Montana State College in Bozeman conducted a Rockefeller Foundation
grant-funded project entitled "Northern Plains in a World of Change", which was designed to
study the region, enumerate its problems, and look at possible solutions. At a faculty
meeting in Bozeman Chancellor Melby met David H. Stevens, Director of Humanities for the
Rockefeller Foundation. This meeting eventually led to the funding of The Montana Study by
the Rockefeller Foundation.
In planning the project Melby and Stevens consulted Baker Brownell of Northwestern
University, a noted authority on the problems of rural life. Brownell turned Melby's vision
into a practical project by formulating specific objectives and devising means of carrying
them out. His objectives for the Study were: 1) to get the University off the campus by
extending its educational services directly to the people in their home towns, 2) to find
ways of stabilizing the family and the small community, and 3) to study ways of raising the
"appreciative and spiritual standard of living of the people of the state and thus keep a
larger number of able young people in their home communities."
On July 1, 1944, Melby resigned as Chancellor and became President of Montana State
University at Missoula. He was immediately made responsible for The Montana Study. He hired
Baker Brownell as project director. Two half-time positions were filled by Paul Meadows, a
sociologist from Northwestern University, and Joseph Kinsey Howard, an author and journalist
from Great Falls. The project was supported by a state-wide advisory group the Montana
Committee.
The Montana Study was conducted in three phases: a community field work phase using local
community study groups, a special projects phase, and a leadership training phase. Local
study groups were set up only in towns which requested them. Eventually groups met in
Lonepine, Darby, Stevensville, Conrad, Lewistown, Libby, Hamilton, Victor, and two on the
Flathead Indian Reservation: the Dixon group consisting of white community members,
part-blood Indians, and Bureau of Indian Affairs staff and the Full Blood Flathead Indian
Group at Arlee. The local study groups met to discuss the problems of their local
communities, to study their local history, and to propose solutions. Several of the groups
produced historical pageants as a way of raising the self-awareness of the community.
The special projects and leadership training phases did not develop to the extent that the
study groups did. However, they did result in a number of studies and publications,
lectures, conferences, and academic course outlines for local school teachers and community
leaders.
At the end of the second year of the project Baker Brownell returned to Northwestern
University and was replaced as Acting Director by Ruth W. Robinson, leader of the Conrad
Study Group. Paul Meadows and Joseph Kinsey Howard also left the Study and were replaced by
Frank H. Smith, an educator in community arts and recreation, and Bert B. Hansen, a Montana
State University drama professor.
The Montana Study officially ended July 19, 1947, due in part to political controversy
over its mildly left wing orientation and its academic "egg-head" image. However, many of
the people involved in the Study continued working on the project without official funding,
and the Montana Study continued to function on an informal basis into the early 1950s.
This is an artificial collection, created by photocopying records from several different
institutions to gather in one place all pertinent records of The Montana Study.
Records include correspondence (1943-1954) among Baker Brownell, Bert Hanson, Ruth
Robinson, Joseph Kinsey Howard, the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Montana, and
others concerning the planning of the grant, the administration of the Study, and the
progress of the various local study groups. In addition, there are conference materials;
employee records; financial records; records of local study groups in Arlee, Conrad, Darby,
Dixon, Hamilton, Lewistown, Libby, Lonepine, Stevensville, Troy, Victor, and Woodman;
scattered minutes; organizational materials; reports; speeches and writings by Brownell,
Hanson, Robinson, Howard, and others; and miscellany.
A small subgroup of Secondary Materials includes a Masters thesis by Carla Homstad entitled
Small Town Eden : the Montana Study (University of
Montana, 1987) and a manuscript of the 4th edition of Life in
Montana, as seen in Wibaux, a Small Community by John L. Schwechton and Ray Gold
(1976).
This collection is aranaged into two subgroups and multiple series.
Subgroup 1) Montana Study
Series 1) General Correspondence
Series 2) Conference Materials
Series 3) Diaries
Series 4) Employment Records
Series 5) Financial Records
Series 6) Local Study Group Materials
Series 7) Minutes
Series 8) Organizational Records
Series 9) Reports
Series 10) Speeches and Writings
Series 11) Subject Files
Series 12) Miscellany
Series 13) Clippings
Subgroup 2) Secondary Works
Series 1) Writings
Originals are available at the various contributing institutions.
Collection is open for research.
Any citation of this collection must include a credit to the source of the original.
Publication of any material from the collection must have permission of source of
original.
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers.
Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request
This is a composite research collection consisting of photocopies of records at the Montana
Historical Society (University of Montana System Records, and Joseph Kinsey Howard Papers);
University of Montana; Montana State University; Rockefeller Foundation; Northwestern
University (Baker Brownell Papers); University of Michigan; and Bitter Root Historical
Society (Jim Parker Papers). Materials were also photocopied from the private collections of
Steward Brandborg, Inez Ratekin Herrig, and Jim Parker. The research to locate the materials
and the photocopying was done by Douglas Dodge and Carla Homstad, with support from the Liz
Claiborne and Arthur Ortenberg Foundation.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society
Archives catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places
should search under these terms.
Montana Study
Arlee (Mont.)
Conrad (Mont.)
Darby (Mont.)
Dixon (Mont.)
Flathead Indian Reservation
(Mont.)
Hamilton (Mont.)
Lewistown (Mont.)
Libby (Mont.)
Lonepine (Mont.)
Stevensville (Mont.)
Troy (Mont.)
Victor (Mont.)
Rural conditions--Montana
Sociology, Rural--Montana
Sociologists
Montana
Civic
Activism
City and Town
Life
Colleges and
Universities
Detailed Description of the Collection
The Montana Study
General Correspondence
1 / 1-11
Miscellaneous (correspondents include Ernest Melby,
University of Montana, David H. Stevens, Rockefeller Foundation, Baker Brownell,
Joseph Kinsey Howard, et al.)
1943-1945
2 / 1-10
Miscellaneous (correspondents include George Selke,
University of Montana, David H. Stevens, Rockefeller Foundation, Baker Brownell,
Joseph Kinsey Howard, G.M. Brandborg, Ruth W. Robinson, Frank H. Smith, Bert Hansen,
et al.)
1946-1947
3 / 1-10
Miscellaneous (correspondents include George Selke,
University of Montana, David H. Stevens, Rockefeller Foundation, Baker Brownell,
Joseph Kinsey Howard, G.M. Brandborg, Ruth W. Robinson, Frank H. Smith, Richard
Posten, et al.)
1947-1954
Conference Materials
4 / 1
Conference on American Thought, Princeton, N.J.
1944 May
4 / 2
"First Carload Dinner for the Montana Study groups"
1946
4 / 3
Roundup of Regional Arts conferences
1950-1952
4 / 4
Rural Education and Life Conference, Helena
1946
Diaries
4 / 5
Daily log of activities
1944 April- 1947 July
Employment Records
4 / 6
Payroll
1944-1947
4 / 7
Staff appointment recommendations
1945-1946
Financial Records
4 / 8
Financial statements and budgets
1944-1947, 1950-1953
4 / 9
Grant-in-aid to University of Montana from
Rockefeller Foundation
1944-1952
4 / 10
Travel authorizations
1945-1947
Local Study Group Materials
5 / 1
Arlee Full Blood Flathead Indian Study Group
(includes minutes, historical articles, stories)
1947
5 / 2
Conrad Study Group (includes minutes, reports,
letter)
1945-1946
5 / 3-4
Darby Study Group (includes minutes, report, "Darby
Looks at Itself" drama)
1945
5 / 5
Dixon-Agency Study Group (includes minutes,
historical articles, general information on Flathead Reservation, resolution)
1946-1947
5 / 6
Dixon-Agency and Arlee Study Groups (includes "A
Tale of the Shining Mountains" drama)
1947
5 / 7
Hamilton Study Group (includes minutes, reports)
1945
5 / 8-9
Lewistown Study Group (includes minutes, historical
articles, "Echoes from the Mountains" drama by Tom Moore)
1945-1947
5 / 10-11
Libby Study Group (includes minutes, historical
articles, report on forest products industry, annual wild life report, Greater Libby
Association materials)
1947-1957
5 / 12-13
Lonepine Study Group (includes minutes, historical
articles, reports, "Lonepine Historical Drama")
1945-1947
5 / 14-15
Stevensville Study Group (includes land utilization
report, "A Tale of the Bitter Root" drama)
1946
5 / 16
Troy Development Association (includes minutes)
undated
5 / 17
Victor Study Group (includes historical notes)
1945-1946
5 / 18
Woodman Study Group (includes minutes, historical
articles, poems)
1946
Minutes
6 / 1
Montana Committee Organizing Conference
1945 February
6 / 2
Montana Study Group
undated
6 / 3
Montana Study Liaison Committee
1947
Organizational Records
6 / 4
Organizational chart and program objectives
undated
Reports
6 / 5-6
"Life in Montana" Series I-II study guides
1945, undated
6 / 7
"Life in Western Montana" (reports of meetings in
Hamilton, Darby, and Lonepine)
1945
6 / 8
"Memorandum to the Rockefeller Foundation" (report
for grant application)
circa 1943
6 / 9
"Montana State College and the Northern Great
Plains Region" (and related reports)
1943
6 / 10
"A Plan of the U.S.D.A. Council, Ravalli County,
Montana for carrying out the provisions of Memorandum No. 1132, of the Secretary of
Agriculture"
1948
6 / 11-13
Progress reports
1944-1947
6 / 14
"A Proposal for Continuance of the Montana Study"
by George A. Selke, chancellor University of Montana (also includes related,
undated, unattributed proposal)
1949, undated
6 / 15
"Report of the Second Annual University Institute
for Social Welfare"
1948
6 / 16
"R[ockefeller] F[oundation] Appropriation to
Montana State University for Regional Studies, 1944-1947"
1949
6 / 17
"A State Takes Stock of Itself" (excerpt from
Trustees Bulletin)
1946
6 / 18
"University of Montana Descriptive Statement of
Project for which Financial Aid Is Requested from the Rockefeller Foundation"
1948
Speeches and Writings
6 / 19
O.E. Baker, "The Conservation of the Family"
1945
6 / 20
O.E. Baker, "The Family, the Church, and the State
(Government)"
1945
6 / 21
O.E. Baker, "Population Trends, National, State,
Local"
1945
6 / 22
O.E. Baker and Arthur E. Morgan list of lectures
1945
6 / 23
A.B. Bowman, "Summary and Brief Description of the
Forest Management Plan for the Kootenai Sustained Yield Unit"
1947
6 / 24
Iver M. Brandjord, "An Interstate Currency
Resembling Federal Reserve Currency for the United States of Western Europe"
1948
6 / 25
Baker Brownell, "The College--a Report on a
Failure"
1945
6 / 26
Baker Brownell, "The College and the Community"
1946
6 / 27
Baker Brownell, "The Community Drama in Adult
Education"
1946
6 / 28
Baker Brownell, "Community Drama in Montana"
undated
6 / 29
Baker Brownell, "The Human Community" (excerpts)
1950
6 / 30
Baker Brownell, "Lonepine, Montana" (handwritten
draft)
undated
6 / 31
Baker Brownell, "Montana Plan (drafts and outlines)
1944
6 / 32
Baker Brownell, "The Montana Project"
1946
6 / 33
Baker Brownell, "The Montana Study"
1944
6 / 34
Baker Brownell, "The Montana Study Groups"
1946
6 / 35
Baker Brownell, "Organization and Procedures of
Montana Study"
1948
6 / 36
Baker Brownell, "A Project in Educational
Reorganization"
1945
6 / 37
Baker Brownell, "Social Implications of Forestry in
the Inland Empire"
1946
6 / 38
Baker Brownell, "Tentative Outline of Montana
Project in the Humanities"
1944
6 / 39
Baker Brownell, "Three Corrupting Principles of
College Life"
1946
6 / 40
Baker Brownell, "The Value of the Humanities"
1945
6 / 41
Karl Detzler, "The Whole Town Goes to School" (re
Nadeau, Pennsylvania)
circa 1948
6 / 42
Bert Hansen, "Community Unification through
Dramaturgy"
undated
6 / 43
Bert Hansen, "Darby, Montana, Looks at Itself"
1946
6 / 44
Bert Hansen, "An Evaluation of the Montana Study"
circa 1947
6 / 45
Bert Hansen, "Preliminary Notes on the San
Francisco Speech"
1946
6 / 46
Bert Hansen, "Sociodrama in a Small-Community
Therapy Program"
1947
6 / 47
Bert Hansen, "Sociodrama in a Speech Communication
Program"
1947
6 / 48
Bert Hansen, "A Tale of the Bitter Root: Pageantry
as Sociodrama"
1947
6 / 49
Joseph Kinsey Howard, "Community is Stressed in
Indian Education"
1945
6 / 50
Joseph Kinsey Howard, "New Concepts of Plains
History"
1946
6 / 51
Joseph Kinsey Howard, "On Montana Education: an
Address"
1945
6 / 52
Joseph Kinsey Howard, "University Fund Allocation"
1949
6 / 53
Harold F. Kaufman and Lois C. Kaufman, "Toward the
Stabilization and Enrichment of a Forest Community" (re Troy and Libby)
1946
7 / 1
Edward A. Krug, "The Public School and Community
Improvement: Report on Preliminary Inquiry Carried Out by School of Education as One
Aspect of the Montana Study"
undated
7 / 2
Ernest Lauer, "The Emotional and Ideological Forces
Active in the State of Montana"
1944
7 / 3
Paul Meadows, "The People of Montana: a Report to
the Montana Study"
1945
7 / 4
Paul Meadows, "Regional Characteristics of Montana:
a Report to the Montana Study"
undated
7 / 5
H.G. Merriam, "Preliminary Report to President J.A.
McCain on Establishing Work Leading to the PhD in the Humanities"
1948
7 / 6
Walter H. Meyer, "Comments on 'Toward the
Stabilization and Enrichment of a Forest Community' by Harold and Lois Kaufman" (re
Troy and Libby)
circa 1946
7 / 7
Ruth W. Robinson, "Community-Centered Education for
Montana Adults"
1947
7 / 8
Ruth W. Robinson, "Community Study, Community
Planning: the Story of the Conrad Montana Study Group"
undated
7 / 9
Ruth W. Robinson, "How We Live in Montana" (school
study guide)
1945
7 / 10
Ruth W. Robinson, "Montana Handicrafts: a 1947
Directory of Montana Craftsmen"
1947
7 / 11
George A. Selke, "Organization and Procedures of
Montana Study"
1948
7 / 12
"Comments on The Montana Study" (by wide variety of
people)
1944-1946
Subject Files
7 / 13
Great Plains Studies (proposed Rockefeller
Foundation grant by George Smith)
1942
7 / 14
Handweaving in Guatamala (Rockefeller Foundation
Grant for Harriet Douglas and Mary Atwater of Montana State University)
1946-1950
7 / 15
Montana Project: Fairway Farms Company (Rockefeller
Foundation grant for study of scientific farming)
1923-1924
7 / 16-20
Northern Plains Studies (Rockefeller Foundation
grant to joint United States and Canada project)
1942-1950
7 / 21-22
Northwestern University regional studies program
(Rockefeller Foundation grant to Baker Brownell)
1946-1952
7 / 23
Regional Studies (Rockefeller Foundation grant to
Montana State University)
1943
Miscellany
7 / 24
Bibliography from Small Town Renaissance
undated
7 / 25
Book announcements for Montana Margins: a State
Anthology; and Small Town Renaissance
undated
7 / 26
"Joseph Kinsey Howard, 1906-1951 In Memoriam"
1951
7 / 27
Montana Institute of the Arts constitution and
quarterly bulletin
1948
7 / 28
Montana Study Groups Association bulletin
1946
7 / 29
Proposed short courses for community leaders
undated
7 / 30
University Executive Council minutes excerpts
1945-1946
Clippings
7 / 31-32
The Montana Study and related topics
1944-1950
Secondary Works
Writings
8 / 1
John L. Schwechton and Ray Gold, Life in Montana, as seen in Wibaux, a Small Community, 4th
revision
1976
8 / 2
Carla Homstad, Small Town
Eden: the Montana Study (University of Montana M.A. Thesis)
1987