In the Montana Historical Society Reference room are several publications containing biographical histories of Montana's leading citizens. Mostly published before 1930, these publications were subscription histories, meaning that individuals paid to have their biography included, thus the people represented in these publications are overwhelmingly white men (though not always) and are often socially, politically or financially influential. Below is the list of publications included in the index.
KEY: BT Burlingame and Toole, History of Montana
EN Encyclopedia of Northwest Biography
IL Illustrated History of the Yellowstone Valley
LE Leeson, History of Montana (1885)
MI Miller, History of Montana (1894)
MA Men of Affairs (A newspaper reference work)
PM Progressive Men of Montana
RA Raymer, History of Montana (1930)
SA Sanders, History of Montana (1913)
ST Stout, Montana, Its Story and Biography
Click here for the Index to Biographies in Montana Subscription Histories - Then above the page name in orange, you will see a tab that says Download. Click that and the index will download as a searchable PDF file. If you find the person you're looking for, take note of the publication and page number. For example, if you were looking for Clara E. Adams, she will be found in RA (Raymer, History of Montana 1930) Vol 2, p349.
Once you have that information, you can come to the reference room or contact us at mhslibrary@mt.gov.