Exhibits

Do you have cherished home sewn items crafted by your great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, or relative? Such objects, passed down through generations, connect you to memories of the crafter and to history. They call to mind the fashion and household trends unique to their time period. 

The Northwest Montana History Museum’s new exhibit Home Sewn: Thread, Cloth, Needles, and Yarn showcases a variety of crafts: sewing, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, quilting, and needlepoint. Many of the articles on display were handed down through families and then gifted to the museum. 

Visitors will see an extensive variety of handsewn articles representing the skill of the crafter. Featured pieces include a 1910 wedding gown (exhibited with photo of bride Minnie Larson wearing the gown on her wedding day), 1950s children’s clothing, and practical items such as 1950s embroidered kitchen towels and an 1897 log cabin silk quilt. 

Enhancing the exhibit is an 1895 Montgomery Ward cabinet model treadle sewing machine (below). This machine is unique in that the back of the cabinet bears vent holes in the shape of two hearts to provide ventilation—something a machine with open cast iron supports did not need. 

A display showing a child’s bedroom, replete with a brass headboard and embroidered quilt, features a handmade, braided rug. A doll’s bed with a quilt and a display case filled with handmade children’s clothing and doll clothes completes the room.

As always, the exhibit includes a hands-on corner with activities for children.

Details: Museum hours run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
Northwest Montana History Museum, 124 Second Ave. E., Kalispell; 406-756-8381; nwmthistory.org

In honor of the museum’s newest exhibit, The Silent Service: A WWII Diving Denizen of the Deep, Martin Anderson (second from left) — son of submariner and Kalispell native Harry Anderson — paid a visit last week and met with museum volunteers and staff.

Read the full writeup here, thanks to Taylor Inman of the Daily Inter Lake.

The Daily Inter Lake recently profiled Brec Gibson, the student who created 3-D models for the train layout to be featured in our renovated “timber room.”

Read all about it here — thanks to reporter Hilary Matheson’s thorough story. Above, Matheson interviews (from left) Gibson, Kalispell Public Schools’ Mike Kelly, and museum board member Bill Dakin, who all made the partnership happen.

The Northwest Montana History Museum recently received a donation of military memorabilia that includes a harrowing story from Harry Anderson, a Kalispell native and 1940 graduate of Flathead High School (he is at far right in the front row).

Anderson served in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service during World War II. Assigned to the USS Perch SS-313, Ensign Anderson and crew survived a grueling, two-hour depth charge attack in the Java Sea while on patrol in April 1945. Anderson recorded the 31 depth charges dropped on the submarine in real time with tick marks on a piece of paper (shown).

That faint and fragile paper, along with Ensign Anderson’s personal account of the two-hour attack, went on display May 10 at the museum as part of the exhibit The Silent Service: A WWII Diving Denizen of the Deep.

The exhibit includes Anderson’s gold dolphins pin (awarded to officers) and his combat pin of a successful patrol, along with other medals. Numerous photos enhance the exhibit: the crew of the Perch; Perch officers on deck with one holding Duchess, the submarine’s dog; and Duchess standing on a deck gun.

Were dogs allowed on board during tours of duty? Find out more about the dogs that went on patrol with their crew at the exhibit.

In addition to Ensign Anderson’s memorabilia, other submariner items are on display: a Vietnam era U.S. Navy Submariner Torpedoman’s dress uniform, a child’s sailor uniform from the 1940s, vintage sailor hats and other related submarine items.

Details: Regular museum hours run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays from June through August

Northwest Montana History Museum, 124 Second Ave. E., Kalispell; 406-756-8381; nwmthistory.org

Have you heard this catchy tune written in 1907 by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards?

School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
’Reading and ’riting and ’rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hick’ry stick

Rekindle memories of school days of yore, or explore what it was like for kids years ago, at a new temporary exhibit, Timeless Lessons at Central School 1894-1969, opening at the Northwest Montana History Museum. The exhibit celebrates 75 years of formal instruction at Kalispell’s Central School—now home to the museum—and features an array of classroom items that represent various time periods throughout those years. The exhibit through December 2024.

The classroom exhibit includes a teacher’s desk with a 1925 report card and a confiscated slingshot, a poster that adorned a Central School classroom in the 1930s (above), an 1897 ledger of school attendance and grades written in beautiful penmanship, a chalkboard eraser, 1937 poster artwork to supplement lesson assignments, vintage games played during indoor and outdoor recesses, a 46-star United States flag, and a 1950s microphone used by school choirs. In addition, the exhibit is enhanced by a display of vintage clothing worn by a teacher and students.

A hands-on area for children completes the exhibit. Among the activities are practicing cursive writing, viewing replicas of turn of the century 3D travel cards using a stereoscope and learning about different cultures through paper dolls.

The exhibit opens with free admission and refreshments 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 12.

Details:
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 12, 2024
Northwest Montana History Museum, 124 2nd Ave. E., Kalispell, MT 59901; 406-756-8381; nwmthistory.org

Our oldest exhibit, Sand Monkeys, Tie Hacks, and River Pigs, is closed for renovation. Don’t worry: It will still focus on the timber industry when it reopens this summer, but now will include a model train layout that includes the Somers tie plant and 3D models of Kalispell landmarks!

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

All other exhibits remain open.

Above: Board members (from left) Rod Wallette, Bill Dakin, and Alex Berry as well as Casey Malmquist from SmartLam measure up the museum elevator in advance of the renovation of our “timber room,” now under way.

Raymond (“Ray”) Weaver (1892-1964) returned to Kalispell from World War I in 1919 with permanent lung damage from a mustard gas attack in the trenches of France.

On returning home, Weaver picked up a camera and seemingly never put it down. From the swimmers of Woodland Park to an auto accident downtown, or shoppers bustling along Main Street, Weaver documented with a sharp eye, strong sense of composition, and a feel for everyday life in a midcentury American town.

See a dozen images from a keen observer of the Kalispell scene over decades.