National History Day 2019 Theme: Triumph and Tragedy in History

Below are some ideas for Montana history topic themes related to the theme "Triumph and Tragedy in History." Unlike in years past, we are not providing preliminary bibliographies, but we do have a few suggestions of where to look for resources:

 Chronicling America Project and/or the Montana Historical Society website MontanaNewspapers.org.  Newspapers are a great primary source. For best results use the advance search function to limit your date range and search terms (we recommend "within 5 words" for names or other multiple word search terms.) You'll also need to think about your terms. If you search "World War I" during the 1914-1918 period, nothing will come up--because it wasn't called World War I at the time. Searching takes some skill and persistence, but there's gold in the historic newspapers. Bonus: We are offering a $500 prize for the project that makes best use of our digitized newspaper collections. Can't find the dates or places you need? The Montana Historical Society also interlibrary loans microfilm reels of its extensive newspaper collection. Find out more about the Montana Historical Society's collection of newspapers and its interlibrary loan policy here. 

Women's History Matters.  In 2014, on the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in Montana, the Montana Historical Society created the Women's History Matters website.  We recommend that you browse through the more than 100 essays on that page and the bibliographies that accompany them.  You will find plenty of stories of triumph and tragedy, including the stories of Elouise Cobell: The Blackfeet Banker Who Took on the Federal Government, Hazel Hunkins: The Billings Suffragist Who Picketed the White House, Jeannette Rankin: American's First Congresswoman, Montana Women's Suffrage Movement, and Ella Knowles: Montana's First Female Lawyer.

Montana and the Great War. For the centennial of World War I, the Montana Historical Society created the website Montana and the Great War to investigate the war’s transformative and complicated legacy in our home state. The period is full of stories of triumph and tragedy, from the arrest and conviction of 76 Montanans for sedition amd the banning of German in schools and churches to the deaths of 1,000 Montana servicemen. The site includes links to both secondary and primary sources as well as Story Maps that provide a taste of the many Montana stories worth investigating.  

African Americans in Montana. Although African Americans never totaled more than one percent of the state’s population, they have been in the place that would become Montana since the earliest days of non-Indian presence and contributed greatly to Montana’s culture, economy, and religious life. Each corner of the state has significant stories to tell about the African American experience in the West. You can learn more about the ways Montana African Americans triumphed--and some of the tragedies they had to overcome at Montana's African American Heritage Resources. 

There are many other exciting topics potential topics for National History Day projects based on Montana's state or local history. Here are a few that come to mind: the American Indian Movement, the Disability Rights movement, Title IX and the rise of women athletes, the Indian Wars, the Marias (or Baker) Massacre, lynching of Frank Little, the 1896 anti-Chinese boycott in Butte, Treaties: Made and Broken, the Creation of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, 1924 mining tax (much more interesting than it sounds), Not In Our Town: Billings stands up to hate, Fort Peck Dam, labor strife (in Butte and in the logging camps, Louis Riel, Metis Revolutionary, Salish removal from the Bitterroot, the 1909 Missoula Free Speech Fight, Indian boarding schools, the 1972 Montana State Constitution: A Triumph for Democracy, Homesteading Boom and Bust, the Hard Winter of 1886-87.

Some of these suggestions are specific enough to make good topics as they are. Others--like homesteading boom and bust or Indian wars are MUCH too broad for an NHD project, so you'll need to narrow your topic to make a good project. 

Good luck! And remember, we are here to help!