Elrod, Morton J. (Morton John), 1863-1953

Morton John Elrod was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, in 1863, and first taught at the age of seventeen. He received his BA, MA, and MS from Simpson College and his Ph.D from Illinois Wesleyan College. He taught and directed the museum at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, and launched an expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1894 to collect specimens for that museum. In 1897, he came to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, as head of the science department. Subjects he taught included general biology, the human body, protozoology, entomology, advanced biology, teaching biology, and photography. He later became head of the biology department and founded the university's museum of botany and zoology specimen collections. He was extremely active in both the academic and social sides of university life, helping to found both the Montana Kaimin and the student government association and participating in Missoula's Cosmos Club.

Professor Elrod founded the University of Montana Biological Station on Flathead Lake in 1899. The Station was one of the first freshwater laboratories of its kind in the United States. He later located the site for a bison range in conjunction with the American Bison Society, now the National Bison Range at Moise, Montana. Following the establishment of Glacier National Park, he became the first park naturalist at Glacier. This was a summer position and supplemented his teaching obligations at the University.

He was a noted naturalist and wrote extensively on Montana's natural history. His non-scientific papers and notes are equally prolific and display his interests in Native Americans, philosophy, and poetry. He also operated Missoula's weather station at his home, 205 South Fifth East, from 1897 to 1935, when the National Weather Service established a station in Missoula. He also measured Western Montana stream flows for the federal government. He was a founding member, president, and secretary of the Montana State Horticultural Society, president of the western division of the Montana Education Association, director of the American Bison Society, member of the Missoula Rotary Club, and numerous other organizations.

His publications included The College Past and Present (1899), Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture: the Wealth of Montana as Shown by Statistics (1904), Some of the Last Free Government Homestead Land: the Flathead Reservation (1909), and Elrod's Guide and Book of Information of Glacier National Park (1924). He also published numerous scientific articles.

Elrod was an accomplished and prolific photographer and almost immediately began teaching photography to students after he arrived at the university. Photography was the rage in Missoula at the turn of the century and a number of Missoulians belonged to a camera club that promoted outings so that members could practice their skills. Elrod became the unofficial photographer of the campus and campus activities soon after he arrived in Missoula. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Elrod photographed almost every aspect of University life with his camera, which recorded the images on large glass plates. By the 1920s he was using flexible film, but photographing fewer campus scenes and almost no campus events.

Elrod also took many scenic photos of western Montana including the Mission Mountains, Glacier Park, Flathead Lake and the Bitterroot Mountains and Valley. For a short time in the early years of the twentieth century he operated a postcard business out of his Missoula home to provide postcard view for tourists and additional income for his family. He was also a member of the Missoula Chamber of Commerce and served on its board of directors.

Elrod was married to Emma Hartshorn in 1888. They had two children; one died at birth in 1898. The other, Mary Elrod Ferguson, attended the University of Montana and became the assistant director of the university museum and Dean of Women. Emma Elrod died in 1938. Elrod suffered a stroke in 1934. This ended his teaching and photography career, but he lived until 1953 under the care of his daughter.

From the guide to the Morton J. Elrod Papers, 1885-1959, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)