Montana Historical Archives On the Web

Searching for information on Montana at the Montana Historical Society and other major institutions in the Pacific Northwest will get easier on the Internet under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

"We are excited about this project because it will make it easier for us to help Montanans and others interested in Montana to find the sources they need to help them do research," Montana State Historical Society Archivist Ellen Arguimbau said.

The Society has been awarded $16,000 as part of a $350,000 grant to 13 archival information institutions in the Northwest. The grant will allow the Society to hire a data input technician to enter its typed and word processed inventories into a format that can be searched on the Internet.

"This is important for scholars, students, policymakers, journalists and anyone in the general public interested in research," Arguimbau said. "All the information will be linked on the Web page of the Northwest Digital Archives."

It will take about two years to complete the project, she said. "The Society has one of the best archival collections in the West, but we would not have had the money to put information about our collections on the Web without this grant," she said.

Other history institutions participating in the program are the Oregon Historical Society, Washington State Archives, and the Seattle Municipal Archives. Universities participating are the University of Montana, University of Oregon and Oregon State University, Pacific Lutheran, University of Washington and Washington State, Whitworth College, Western Washington and the University of Idaho.