Archives West Finding Aid

Merrill G. Burlingame (1901-1994) was a professor of history at Montana State University and an avid collector of historical documents for his own research. Many times during his career he donated some of the material he had collected to various institutions such as the Museum of the Rockies, the Montana Historical Society, and Montana State University. With these donations, Burlingame would sometimes provide provenance information, but just as often not, as is the case with "The History of a Bridle: A True Story and Confession of Road Agents and Horse Thieves in Montana." A 45 page handwritten manuscript done in pencil on highly acidic paper, "The History of a Bridle," came into Burlingame's possession sometime around 1955. He considered the essay important enough to engage Mrs. Rosemary S. Barnett to transcribe the document that year, but by the time he donated the piece to MSU Burlingame provided no more information other than the identity of the typist. As a result the MSU library staff erroneously listed Mrs. Barnett as the author when the essay was described in the public access catalog. The original manuscript itself could possibly be a transcription from another source, but the handwriting does not appear to be Burlingame's and there are no clues as to where such a source might have been consulted.