Photo book traces Glacier's early years

Hundreds of black-and-white photos of Glacier National Park’s earliest years have been collected by college librarian Michael Ober in a new book.

Ober gathered photos from the archives at Glacier Park, the Minnesota Historical Society, The University of Montana Mansfield Library and the Montana Historical Society, according to a news release from the college.

He combined them with captions and narrative to produce the photo-documentary, “Glacier Album:  Historic Photographs of Glacier National Park.”

Ober is director of the Flathead Valley Community College Library, a Montana historian and longtime seasonal ranger at Glacier National Park.

The images, largely taken by ordinary park visitors, capture roughly the first 40 years of the park.  Most of the images have never been seen or published before.

As Glacier National Park celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, Ober compiled the photos to provide an intimate look at the most significant years of the park.

“The first 40 years of Glacier Park were the park’s biggest years,” Ober said.  “They laid down the foundation of what the park is today.”

“Part of the pleasure in producing such a title comes in the tangential discovery of hundreds of photographs taken by ordinary park visitors,” Ober said. “I cling to the belief that humans still like to look at pictures of other humans doing human things.”

The images and stories found in the book follow the park from its establishment on May 11, 1910, to the postwar boom in automobile travel.

According to Ober, they highlight the history of Glacier’s earliest years until just after the close of the second World War when a robust American traveling public was beginning to embrace color film to record their journeys.

“The end of the war meant the end of black and white,” he said.

Ober notes the photographs have immediate interpretive value and yield endless opportunities for the imagination.

“A historic photo halts everything: the clothing, equipment, time of day, the season, weather and the lingering faces of people who age no more.”

Perhaps it couldn’t be better said than by summer tourist Igna Westfall, who inscribed the following on the back of her 1921 snapshot:

“I packed my brave little camera and ample films as I was determined to record the smiles of our children amid the high peaks.”

Copies of the book are available for purchase online at amazon.com. For more information, contact Ober at 756-3853 or at mober@fvcc.edu.