People and saddled horses stand in front of a large hotel complex (the Many Glacier Hotel). Behind the hotel is a lake and mountains.

If you enjoy our regular #ThrowbackThursday history posts, you’ll be pleased to hear that nearly 100 new photos have been digitized and uploaded to our historical photographs collection on the Montana Memory Project. These color photos, taken around the 1940s-1960s, were commissioned by the Great Northern Railway’s publicity department to promote tourism to the park and use of its concessioner services.

These photos provide a fascinating look at how the midcentury tourist would have experienced Glacier National Park. Photos feature the Many Glacier Hotel, Glacier Park Lodge, red buses, tour boats, park rangers, horseback trips, and more.

You can see all of the new photos here.

A group of people stand on a dock beside a tour boat with a lake mountains behind them.



You may notice that some photos have a reddish tint to them. This is due to color pigments fading over time. Now that these images have been digitized, the original color transparencies have been carefully packaged and placed in cold storage to prevent further deterioration.

People in swimsuits sit around a pool. A hotel (the Glacier Park Lodge) is behind them.

Funds from the federal Library Services and Technology Act, provided through the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Montana State Library Commission, were used to digitize the original transparencies. The Glacier National Park Conservancy also supported this project through their ongoing funding of the Glacier National Park archives and library staff.

Check out the digitized photos photos here.

