Stephen Ambrose Memorial Lecture
2026 Ambrose Memorial Lecture presents
NATE
SCHWEBER
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Tuesday, September 29
6:30 pm
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Big Sky Hall
Montana Heritage Center
225 N. Roberts
Helena, MT
Making a great library even better!
2026 Ambrose Lecture
NATE SCHWEBER
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Joseph Kinsey Howard: Montana’s
Greatest Crusader Journalist
Join the Lewis & Clark Library Foundation and the Montana Historical Society on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 6:30 pm at the Montana Heritage Center to welcome Nate Schweber as the 2026 distinguished speaker for the 15th Annual Stephen E. Ambrose Memorial Lecture. The lecture will be followed by a brief reception.
When the book Montana: High, Wide and Handsome was published in 1943 it shocked the nation with its explanation of what was happening in this beautiful and sparsely-populated part of the West. Montana, wrote author Joseph Kinsey Howard, had been “piteously exploited,” more than any other state. For the 2026 Stephen Ambrose Memorial Lecture, author and journalist Nate Schweber will give a presentation about the life of Joseph Kinsey Howard.
Hounded by the Anaconda Copper Company until his early death, Howard fought to curb corporate corruption, to bind Montanans together through education, and to bring recognition to the Métis people. Posthumously, Howard would influence the crafting of Montana’s constitution. Schweber’s presentation is adapted from his essay about Howard that will appear in a new Montana anthology scheduled for publication in fall 2027.
Nate Schweber is a freelance journalist who was born and raised in Missoula, attended the University of Montana, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. His work has appeared in The New York Times, ProPublica and Montana Quarterly. His 2022 book This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild won the High Plains Book Award for nonfiction.
Visit nateschweber.com.
About the Ambrose Memorial Lecture and the Lewis & Clark Library Foundation:
The Lewis & Clark Library Foundation honors the legacy of the late historian and author Stephen E. Ambrose by hosting this annual lecture each fall. This year, the Montana Historical Society is co-sponsoring the lecture with the Lewis & Clark Library Foundation.
Visit lclibfoundation.org. Visit mths.mt.gov.
About Stephen E. Ambrose
The Lewis & Clark Library Foundation honors the memory of the late historian, Stephen E. Ambrose, by hosting this annual lecture each fall.
Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many bestselling volumes of American popular history, including Undaunted Courage (1997) about the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Ambrose and his family eventually settled in Helena, MT, where his family became devoted patrons of the public library. His family graciously lent their late father's name to the Foundation's annual lecture.
A HISTORY OF THE AMBROSE MEMORIAL LECTURES
2025 - December 3 - CORRIE WILLIAMSON - Revery Will Do: Imagination and Conservation on Montana's Great Plains. Watch the HCTV Recording.
2024 - October 15 - PETER STARK - When Ohio was "the West" -- Washington, Jefferson, Harrison and How They Launched the Western Movement. Watch the HCTV recording.
2023 - November 3 - MARGA LINCOLN - Montana Grit: Ten Unsung Heroes Who Dared to Make a Difference.
2022 - November 3 - GERRY ROBINSON - The People and Places of The Cheyenne Story: An Interpretation of Courage. More info: http://cheyennestory.com.
2021 - December 16 - SCOTT G. HIBBARD - Bringing History Alive: Why I Write Historical Fiction. More info: https://www.scottghibbard.com. Watch on YouTube.
2019 - October 10 - LORNA MILNE - A Frontier Photographer and a Naturalist: Evelyn and Ewen Cameron. More info: http://lornamilne.com. Watch on YouTube.
2018 - October 23 - JAMIE FORD - Racebending: Adventures in a Bi-cultural World. More info: http://www.jamieford.com/. Watch on YouTube
2017 - November 1 - STU WILSON - Fitzgerald in Montana.
2016 - September 26 - PAUL R. WYLIE - The Baker Massacre: A Major Tragedy Nearly Lost in History. More info: https://paulrwylie.com.
2015 - August 31 - O. ALAN WELTZIEN - Thomas Savage: A First-rate, if Neglected, Montana Novelist and Dillon’s Best Historian. More info: https://www.umwestern.edu/directory/alan-weltzien/
2014 - September 23 - RUSSELL ROWLAND - Revising the Western Narrative. More info: http://russellrowland.com.
2013 - August 15 - CHARLOTTE CALDWELL - Visions and Voices: Montana's One-Room Schoolhouses.
2012 - October 16 - RUTH McLAUGHLIN - Bound Like Grass.
2011 - October 27 - DOROTHEA SUSAG - Native American Literatures (Welch and Alexie).
2010 - October 5 - HUGH AMBROSE - Behind the World's Most Expensive Mini-series: HBO's The Pacific. More info: https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-hugh-ambrose-20150529-story.html.
Helena Civic Television has recorded some of these lectures, which can be viewed on the Foundation's YouTube channel or on the Helena Civic TV website.
Visit the Foundation News page to read about past Ambrose Lectures and other events and activities.