Meet the Blog Authors

Ellen Arguimbau retired in 2012 from the Montana Historical Society after thirty-five years as an archivist. She received her bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and master’s degrees in history and library science from the University of Colorado and the University of Washington.

Ellen Baumler is the Interpretive Historian at Montana Historical Society. She received her PhD from the University of Kansas and has worked at the Montana Historical Society since 1992. She has authored dozens of articles and several books, among them Beyond Spirit Tailings, honored with an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. She is also the editor of Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan, a 2004 Finalist Award winner of the Willa Literary Awards. You can find more of her work online on her blog, Montana Moments.

Kayla Blackman received a Master’s Degree in History and a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Montana, Missoula. She began working with the Montana Historical Society on the Women’s History Matters project in the summer of 2013.

Laura Ferguson is a freelance writer from Helena, Montana, and works as an independent Indian Education consultant and curriculum developer.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Native American Studies from Montana State University.

Jodie Foley is the State Archivist/Manager of the Archives Program at the Montana Historical Society.  Born and raised in Missoula, she did her graduate and undergraduate work at the University of Montana in the History Program.  She has written several From the Society articles for the Montana The Magazine of Western History and is a contributing author to the first volume of Speaking Ill of the Dead:  Jerks in Montana History and a co-editor of the sequel.

Kate Hampton is the Community Preservation Coordinator at the Montana Historical Society’s State Historic Preservation Office, where she works  with local communities to document and preserve their cultural resources.  Among many other projects, she directed “Identifying African-American Heritage Resources in Montana,” which identified, researched and documented Montana Historical Society collections associated with African-Americans in Montana.

Annie Hanshew is a native of Helena, Montana, and has degrees from Carroll College and the University of Utah. Her book, Border to Border: Historic Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana, was published by the Montana Historical Society Press in 2009.

Jennifer J. Hill has a PhD in American Studies from Montana State University, and focuses her research on reproductive history, women in the American west, and
museology.

Anya Jabour is a professor in the History Department and a past co-director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Montana.  She has authored three books, Marriage in the Early Republic, Scarlett’s Sisters, and Topsy-Turvy. In 2013, Profesor Jabour was named the University of Montana’s Distinguished Scholar.

Martha Kohl is a Historical Specialist at the Montana Historical Society. She received both her BA and MA in History from Washington University in St. Louis. She served as project manager and lead historian for Montana: Stories of the Land, the Society’s award-winning middle-school Montana history textbook. Her book, I Do: A Cultural History of Montana Weddings, was published in 2011.

Kirby Lambert manages the Outreach and Interpretation Program for the Montana Historical Society. He has served as Museum Registrar, Curator of Collections, and Curator of Art before assuming his current position as Program Manager in October 2007. He is coauthor of Montana’s Charlie Russell, published by the Montana Historical Society Press.

Mary Murphy is the Letters and Science Distinguished Professor at Montana State University. She has published 10 books and book chapters, including Hope in Hard Times: New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936-1942, which won the Montana Book Award in 2003. Her Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41, received the 1998 Barbara Sudler Award from the Colorado Historical Society and was a Choice Outstanding Academic Book in 1997. Murphy received the Governor’s Humanities Award in 2013.

Ken Robison, a native Montanan, is historian at the Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton and author of five books including Confederates in Montana Territory and Montana Territory and the Civil War. The Montana Historical Society named him “Montana Heritage Keeper” in 2010. He retired as a Navy Captain after a career in Naval Intelligence. You can find more of his work online on his blogs, fortbenton.blogspot.com and blackamericansmt.blogspot.com.

Natalie F. Scheidler is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History at Montana State University.  Her research interests include race, gender, and sexuality in American history. Her dissertation, “And They All Fell Silent: Violence against Women in Butte, Montana, 1910-1950,” provides a legal, cultural, and statistical analysis of rape and wife assault.

Marcella Sherfy Walter began her career in public history at Gettysburg National Military Park. Before moving to Montana, she worked in National Park Service preservation programs in Washington, DC. Between 1980 and 2006, she served as Montana’s State Historic Preservation Officer, Education Officer and Chief of Heritage Operations for the Montana Historical Society.

 

 

17 thoughts on “Meet the Blog Authors

  1. This website for Montana Women’s History and the blog is such a great, timely and important concept! Thank you all so much for bringing it on. This year 2014 is very significant. The amazing history of Montana women must be made main-stream knowledge. Thank you all very much.
    ——–Jan. 1, 2014 from Hamilton MT

  2. I am so glad I stumbled upon this website after attending an Extreme History Project lecture at the Museum of the Rockies last week. Thank you for putting so much information in one place. I am interested in volunteering time to scan images for you, and possibly putting together a short documentary on Montana Women’s History.

  3. I am interested in talking to Marcella Sherfy Walter. I worked on the Montana Heritage Project with Marcella and am now working with the Ivan Doig archives at MSU. If you have an address for Marcella or you would be willing to have her contact me, I would appreciate it.

  4. I am looking for images of Doctor Maria Dean from Helena history for one of my students to use in a presentation. Would you know of any online resources where we might find images of her or related to her that we could use?

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