Research

Our research center and archives features work stations with free computer and printer use and complete internet access for researchers. You can digitally access the historic newspapers that served the communities in Lewis & Clark County during the past 150 years.

Our archives include selected historic Polk City directories for Helena. Issued every other year, the Polk Directories provide a complete canvas of who lived where in Helena for over 125 years.

Our archives contain maps of Lewis and Clark County dating back 150 years, Maps of particular interest include a map of every filed mining claim in the Helena Area dating back to 1864.

By special appointment and in cooperation with the Western Montana Railroad Historical Association, you can view a set of original 1854 maps created by the U. S. Army Stephens Survey of the Northwestern United States and issued by the United Sates Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. This set of five maps pre-dates the establishment of the communities that today make up Lewis & Clark County.

Our archives hold one of only two sets of Edward Curtis’s The North American in Montana that is available the public. A reproduction, this is a 20 volume set. The other copy (also a reproduction) resides in the Archives and Special Collections at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library on the campus of the University of Montana in Missoula.

Our archives also contain the second largest national collection of books and materials about trolley systems and interurban railroads across North America. This collection includes the history of the extensive trolley system that served Helena and other Montana cities for many decades. This collection contains over 400 books and some 2,000 other items including hundreds of photographs.

Our library holds dozens of books about the communities in today’s Lewis & Clark County. Our papers and image collection contains over 1,000 items germane to the people and places in Lewis & Clark County from the discovery of gold to urban renewal in Helena to the Uni-Bomber story. One of our treasures is The Montana Staats Zeitung, German language newspaper that was published in Helena for nearly 40 years. We have copies of this newspaper from both 1910 and 1911.

Our library features a complete collection of the journals from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This collection of journals include those kept by Meriweather Lewis, William Clark, John Ordway, Charles Floyd, Joseph Whitehouse and Patrick Gass.

We are always seeking selected books, papers and images of the people of Lewis & Clark County for our archives and library.