Oral Presentations and Performances: Session III
Project Type
Presentation
Project Funding and Affiliations
Wilderness Institute
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Heidi Blair
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Wilderness Institute
Abstract / Artist's Statement
This project analyzes and interprets 40 years of projects supported by the Matthew Hansen Endowment (MHE), an endowment within the Wilderness Institute at the University of Montana that provides funding for artistic, scholarly, and community-based work with connection to wilderness. To carry out this project, we examined hundreds of physical and digital documents, including proposals, reports, correspondence, and creative works, to reconstruct the history and evolving impact of the MHE. We also contacted hundreds of past recipients, collaborators, and affiliated organizations to recover missing materials and contextualize existing records.
The culmination of the research is a publicly accessible online exhibit that preserves, organizes, and highlights the MHE legacy. The exhibit highlights the wide-ranging collection of topics and themes of projects funded, as well as the long-term outcomes of funded projects. We also included a complete list of every project funded by the MHE, including the name of the recipients, the title of the project, and the year of the award. Taken together, these components turned a fragmented collection into a cohesive and complete archive for the general public.
This project’s scholarly contribution lies in exploring a previously unresearched topic and using archival methods, digital humanities tools, and community engagement to preserve institutional memory and expand public access to knowledge. By making four decades of work visible and accessible, the project not only honors the Matthew Hansen Endowment’s history but also provides a foundation for future additions to the archive as the work of the MHE continues.
Four Decades of Wilderness Work: The Legacy of the Matthew Hansen Endowment
UC 329
This project analyzes and interprets 40 years of projects supported by the Matthew Hansen Endowment (MHE), an endowment within the Wilderness Institute at the University of Montana that provides funding for artistic, scholarly, and community-based work with connection to wilderness. To carry out this project, we examined hundreds of physical and digital documents, including proposals, reports, correspondence, and creative works, to reconstruct the history and evolving impact of the MHE. We also contacted hundreds of past recipients, collaborators, and affiliated organizations to recover missing materials and contextualize existing records.
The culmination of the research is a publicly accessible online exhibit that preserves, organizes, and highlights the MHE legacy. The exhibit highlights the wide-ranging collection of topics and themes of projects funded, as well as the long-term outcomes of funded projects. We also included a complete list of every project funded by the MHE, including the name of the recipients, the title of the project, and the year of the award. Taken together, these components turned a fragmented collection into a cohesive and complete archive for the general public.
This project’s scholarly contribution lies in exploring a previously unresearched topic and using archival methods, digital humanities tools, and community engagement to preserve institutional memory and expand public access to knowledge. By making four decades of work visible and accessible, the project not only honors the Matthew Hansen Endowment’s history but also provides a foundation for future additions to the archive as the work of the MHE continues.