New Book Traces Montana History's Paper Trail

Collector and historian Thomas Minckler spent a half-century gathering 19th and early 20th-century letters and documents, vintage photographs, rare books, and paintings. He's sharing those collections in his new book Montana: A Paper Trail.

Veteran Western Americana specialist Nathaniel Des Marais wrote of the 10,000-plus items: "Make no mistake, this is the finest gathering of Montana source material ever brought together."

Minckler's decades of researching and contextualizing items in his collection uncovered innumerable valuable insights on Montana history. Each artifact's unique paper trai...