Briefly Noted: ‘The Missoula Mercantile’ by Minie Smith

Minie Smith’s The Missoula Mercantile traces the history of an 1866 Missoula, Montana trading post that ultimately became—according to a story about the book in The Missoulian–”the largest department store between Minneapolis and Seattle.” The 192-page book, which includes 82 historic pictures–was released by The History Press in August.

According to The Missoulian, “Allied Stores Corp. bought the Merc in 1960 but retained the name until the Bon Marche bought Allied in 1978. Federated Department Stores took over in 1989, and the name changed over the years from the Bon to Bon-Macy’s and, in 2005, to Macy’s. Macy’s closed the doors in early 2010.” Smith’s history follows the store up until 1960.

Publisher’s Description: From its log cabin beginnings at a dusty crossroads in Montana Territory, the Missoula Mercantile grew to become the largest department store between Minneapolis and Seattle. Under the guidance of A.B. Hammond and C.H. McLeod and their policy of community involvement and customer satisfaction, the Merc became a household word in Montana, synonymous with square dealing. Join historian Minie Smith as she traces the story of a western institution, remembering everything from the Missoula Mercantile’s hardware department, with its creaky wooden floors and drawers of nuts and bolts, to its ladies’ apparel department, which offered a taste of the big city with silks, satins and velveteens. From horseshoes to hosieries, the Merc had what customers needed and knew what they wanted.

Today’s look-alike stores are pretty much the same from town to town, but the old stores were a part of local history, giving one the impression that if the old walls could talk, one would know everything about a place that could ever be known. Fortunately, the store’s old building is being preserved and The Missoula Mercantile is telling its story.

Book Signing: Smith will be signing copies of The Missoula Mercantile this Saturday Morning at 10:30 at Fact and Fiction Downtown  in Missoula and at the University of Montana Bookstore at 2 p.m. on Friday, September 21.

–Malcolm

A Glacier Park fantasy for your Nook.

Briefly Noted: ‘Border to Border: Historic Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana’

The quilts featured in this richly illustrated, carefully researched book chronicle 150 years of Montana history. They tell stories about struggles for women’s suffrage, the Great depression, two world wars and Montana’s statehood. You’ll see detailed information about individual quilts and those who made them.

Published by the Montana Historical Society Press last year, Border to Border is available in both hard cover and paperback.

Excerpt from the Book

This lovely Goose in the Pond quilt was possibly the oldest one found by the Montana Historic Quilt Project, and it offered a bit
of a mystery to the documenters. The owners knew the quilt had traveled to Montana with Maxine Otis’s parents, who came to homestead near Hobson in 1916;  ther details about the quilt were sparse. Initially this quilt was thought to be made between 1830 and 1850, but these dates conflicted with family tradition that the quilt had been made in 1812. Upon closer inspection, the documenters discovered that the fabric was older than they originally thought, some of it dating to the late 1700s. A second look at the quilt also revealed a date and name buried in the quilting: 1811, Robert McInnis. Soon, additional hints about the quilt popped out of the fabric. An ink inscription appeared stamped in a corner block with the name Sarah H. Jones and the town Erie, Pennsylvania. Robert McInnis’s name was also inked into the quilt elsewhere, although by now the “c” and “I” in his name had started to fade. Whatever the bond Robert McInnis and Sarah Jones shared, the quilt was clearly a treasured possession. As reliable permanent ink was not available until the 1830s, the ink inscription was probably added after the quilt was made to leave a lasting record of those connected to it.

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For more information about Montana quilts, see also the Montana Historic Quilt Project index. According to the site, “The Quilt Index” is a growing research and reference tool designed to provide unprecedented access to information and images about quilts held in private and public hands.”

–Malcolm

New fantasy adventure coming soon

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

Historian David McCullough first caught my attention with his excellent and highly readable Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt in 1982. He’s also focused on President Truman, the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge.

In May his publisher Simon and Schuster released The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, a book that Kirkus Reviews calls, “An ambitious, wide-ranging study of how being in Paris helped spark generations of American genius. . . . A gorgeously rich, sparkling patchwork, eliciting stories from diaries and memoirs to create the human drama McCullough depicts so well.”

I am definitely adding this book to my wish list. Meanwhile, you’ll find an interesting article about the book on the NPR web site called The Best Of The Louvre, On A Single Canvas. Among the Americans mentioned in the book is Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. Morse also fancied himself an artist, painting a huge canvas showing the then-famous paintings in the Louvre.

You can see the painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C and online on the NPR web site.

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Upcoming Reviews

When the de la Cruz Family Danced by Donna Miscolta

The Witch of Babylon by D. J. McIntosh

The Butterfly’s Kingdom by Gwendolyn Greer Field

–Malcolm

Western Books, Briefly Noted

“Forced to Abandon Our Fields: The 1914 Clay Southworth Gila River Pima Interviews” by David H. DeJong – 192 pages with eight photographs and three maps, March 31. 2011.

Publisher’s Description: During the nineteenth century, upstream diversions from the Gila River decreased the arable land on the Gila River Indian Reservation to only a few thousand acres. As a result the Pima Indians, primarily an agricultural people, fell into poverty. Many Pima farmers and leaders lamented this suffering and in 1914 the United States Indian Irrigation Service assigned a 33-year-old engineer named Clay “Charles” Southworth to oversee the Gila River adjudication. As part of that process, Southworth interviewed 34 Pima elders, thus putting a face on the depth of hardships facing many Indians in the late nineteenth century.

Reviewer’s Comment: “DeJong’s presentation of the oral interview transcripts is excellent. These interviews are a rich source of cultural and historical information about the Pimas.”—David Rich Lewis, Utah State University

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“Montana Moments: History on the Go” by Ellen Baumlier – 200 pages, September 14, 2010, by the Montana Historical Society’s interpretative historian.

Publisher’s Description: Forget dreary dates and boring facts. Montana Moments distills the most funny, bizarre, and interesting stories from Montana’s history into pure entertainment. Meet the colorful cast of the famous and not-so-famous desperadoes, vigilantes, madams, and darned good men and women (and a few critters) who made the state’s history. You’ll get a laugh from the story of the transient vaudevillian who wrote Montana’s state song. Captain James C. Kerr’s tale of the Flathead Lake monster might make you shiver. No matter your reaction, the episodes recounted here always entertain. Best of all, each vignette takes about ninety seconds to read. So have fun exploring Montana – and enjoy a little history as you go.

Reviewer’s Comment: “The pages of Montana Moments overflow with enjoyable historical vignettes that cover nearly everything important that has happened in Montana’s history. Newcomers will find an excellent introduction to what makes Montana tick, while Baumler’s careful research and entertaining writing style will delight old timers.” – Harry Fritz, University of Montana

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You may also like:

Montana’s Historical Highway Markers by Jon Axline and Glenda Clay Bradshaw

Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman by MHS Research Staff

Montana Native Plants and Early Peoples by Jeff Hart

–Malcolm

 

set in Glacier National Park

Montana: Glacier Park Issue

Readers, tourists, hikers, and climbers who are fans of Glacier National Park will enjoy the Summer 2010 centennial issue of Montana: The Magazine of Western History beginning with the John Fery painting on the cover.

The issue not only contains a great overview of the park, but includes dozens of photographs and paintings in support of the text. Read it for the information, then keep it as a collector’s item.

Here’s what you’ll find inside:

“Conceiving Nature: THE CREATION OF MONTANA’S GLACIER NATIONAL PARK” by Andrew C. Harper

“Where the Prairie Ends and the Sky Begins: MAYNARD DIXON IN MONTANA” by Donald J. Hagerty

“Glacier National Park: PEOPLE, A PLAYGROUND, AND A PARK” by
Jennifer Bottomly-O’ looney and Deirdre Shaw

“The Miraculous Survival of the Art of Glacier National Park” by Hipólito Rafael Chacón

Cover Art: “The iconic mountain goat on the front cover is a detail from a painting by John Fery, one of the park’s foremost painters. Fery made it the centerpiece of his untitled collage of Glacier views (n.d., oil on canvas, 65″ x 115″) commissioned by the Great Northern Railway.”

Congratulations to the editors, writers and photographers on a wonderful commemorative issue.

Malcolm

Available in multiple e-book formats for only $5.99

Glacier Centennial: Several Favorite Books

With the 2010 Glacier National Park Centennial, some great new books have appeared, including “100 Years – 100 Stories” from the National Park Service and Carol Guthrie’s beautiful large-format book “Glacier National Park: The First Hundred Years” from Farcountry Press.

If you’ve been lucky, you’ve been able to catch one of Guthrie’s book signings in Montana during the past six months.

I have two old favorites by the late Warren L. Hanna I would like to mention for your consideration for your reference shelf. The first is is “Montana’s Many Splendored Glacier Land” that provides an overview of the park from the early explorers up into modern times.


The other, which for reasons I don’t understand, is no longer sold by the Glacier Association. It’s “Stars Over Montana: A Centennial Celebration of the Men Who Shaped the Park.” Originally published in 1988, the book provides mini-biographies of the major players during the days when the shining mountains were discovered, including Hugh Monroe, Father DeSmet, William Jackson, James Willard Schultz, and Walter McClintock.

It’s still available here and there on the Internet in a reprint by TWODOT.

This book has served as an excellent reference for some of my earlier posts about the park and its early advocates. Hanna also wrote “The Grizzlies of Glacier.”

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An adventure set in Glacier National Park