HELENA — The Montana Historical Society Library and Archives is one of the greatest collections of documents, written works, images, and film about the Treasure State’s past. It had been closed during the renovation and construction of the Montana Heritage Center. On Tuesday, it opened again for anyone to use, whether you're a student doing a school report or a documentarian making your next film.
Kim Hogberg is a filmmaker in Helena and has been using the library and archives for the past ten years, doing research for historical documentaries.
“I was one of the first in line to get scheduled for when it opened,” Hogberg exclaimed.
She’s working on a series about historic women in Montana and is excited to be back and hitting the books.
“It was a little tough knowing that they were gonna be closing and closing for so long,” Hogberg continued, “but it’s exciting to know that they're gonna be open, and I can't wait to access them and just see the whole new facility.”
The Montana Historical Society has been preserving Montana’s history since its founding in 1865. Previously housed on the second floor, the archives have a new, larger home on the first floor.
There are more than a million items in the library and archives, like past maps of national forests, original images from the 1800s, and even the physical constitution for the state.
To protect them during the construction, all the items were packed up and wrapped in plastic, and there was a significant undertaking to get them unpacked following the Heritage Center’s reopening in December of 2025.
The new research center is much larger and includes new microfilm readers and overhead book scanners. The space and resources are available for everyone; you just have to book a reservation.
“A fourth grader coming in to work on their fourth-grade Montana history project, or we can have film producers here working on projects,” said library and archives program manager Roberta Gebhardt.
The library and archives see about a couple of thousand visitors a year, and staff hope to see more come through the door with their upgrades.
The updated space and services at the library and archives also serve as an investment for generations to come.
“We need to know our history, and we need to know where we came from to understand how we got where we are today,” Gebhardt stated.
More information about how to get access to the archives or book an appointment can be found here.
