About Us

“Building Freedom in the Territorial West” is truly a cooperative endeavor in the best sense of the word. There are three key organizations currently involved:

The Montana Heritage Commission owns and manages the Virginia City site and collections.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation generously awarded a Partnership in Scholarship Grant to fund this project, and continues to provide important forums for discussion.

The Department of History at Washington State University provides support as an academic partner.

Washington State University and the Montana Heritage Commission first partnered in 2007 to offer a Public History Field School for graduate students in Virginia City. The field school provided hands-on experience in the fields of historic preservation, archaeology, collections management, and site interpretation for ten WSU graduate students, and was followed  by two additional field schools in 2008 and 2010. The National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized this commitment to partnership as an important avenue for furthering the historic preservation of Virginia City through education.

Laura attended the first WSU Virginia City field school in 2007 as a master’s student. Several days spent removing newspapers from the floor of a nineteenth century building sparked her interest in the site and its history. Her master’s thesis, “Embers of the Social City: Business, Consumption and Material Culture in Virginia City, Montana, 1863 – 1945,” was completed in 2009. She is currently working on a doctorate in history at WSU.

Bill is the Curator of Interpretation at Virginia City. He has been interested in Sarah Bickford’s story since first coming to Montana.