The Greater Montana Foundation is a non-for-profit group dedicated to funding projects that promote excellence in broadcasting in the state of Montana. Records include correspondence, financial records, meeting minutes, and annual award booklets. There are several series in this collection. A significant portion features the financial records of the Greater Montana Foundation. These contain bank statements, financial statements, and expenses concerning the 3 major funds the Foundation operated; the Hugh Galusha and Connie Craney memorial funds, which were used to fund scholarships in the area of broadcasting, and the General Fund, which was used primarily to fund the annual awards ceremonies as well providing grants for original programming in Montana. The trust series contains both legal and financial documents pertaining to the 22 funds that E.B. Craney established and the GMF managed. These funds were set to pay family members and friends until their deaths, whereupon the funds would be transferred back into the General Fund. The meeting minutes series contains the agenda and minutes from the annual board meetings of the Greater Montana Foundation. These meetings discussed legal and financial issues that needed to be addressed. Later on, a significant function of these meetings were to discuss various grant projects that were proposed for funding. These grant proposals are contained within this series as well, and highlight each projects goals and expected costs. The clippings series contains one folder with clipping regarding Jean Sullivan, who was a friend of Senator Burton K. Wheeler and featured on an early radio program Interesting People in Montana, He survived an avalanche. Correspondence: Interoffice Correspondence: 1972-2005. Outgoing Correspondence: 1947-2006; Incoming Correspondence: 1963-2006; Grant Files: The grant files consist of records regarding potential grant proposals and funding for various projects. 1985-2009; Legal: The records in this series consist of various legal documents such as deeds, trust papers, and wills; Miscellany: The records in this series consist of materials that pertain to the collection, such as articles, blank forms and blank Greater Montana Foundation Radio Award sheets; Organizational Records: The records in this series consist of the various versions of the Articles of Incorporation, By-laws and The Greater Montana Foundation scope and purpose. The subject files: The records of this series consist of five subjects. Subject file: E.B. Craney Art Collection 1967-2006. This file contains many records that document to pieces of art that E.B. Craney and his wife collected, also correspondence and other records that pertain to the value of the art and loan agreements. Subject file: Olaf C. Seltzer 1947-1977. This file contains records regarding the art work of Olaf C. Seltzer. The Craneys collected a lot of his work and much of their art collection consisted of works by Seltzer. This file consists of letters, pamphlets and museum published magazines that highlighted Seltzers work and also includes postcards and other visual examples of the Olaf C. Seltzer. Subject file: The Greater Montana Foundation Radio and Television Awards / The Greater Montana-Montana Broadcasting Association E.B. Craney Montana Broadcasting Awards 1961-2003. This series is the biggest of the subject files, as it contains records from both the Greater Montana Foundation Radio and Television Awards, which ran from 1961 to 1977, and the Greater Montana Foundatiton- Montana Broadcasting Association E.B. Craney Awards. The records in this file contain booklets, posters, bound books and audio tapes. Subject file: The Wheeler Lecture Series 1975-1987. The Wheeler Lecture Series was started in 1976 by way of honoring former Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler. The records in the Wheeler Lecture Series consist of pamphlets, biographies of speakers and speeches. Subject files: The Grand Hotel / Ring Hotel 1980-1992. The Grand Hotel, a property in Butte, was donated by the Wheeler family to the Greater Montana Foundation. The Greater Montana Foundation sold the Grand hotel in 1981 to a mother and son team, who in turn sold it to a third party who neglected to insure the building. The fifth floor of the hotel is destroyed in a fire. The records consist of receipts, escrow agreements, correspondence and official notices from Butte-Silver Bow. Writings: This series contains a typed up manuscript written by Bill Knowles entitled "I Was Just Talkin: Adventures in Montana Broadcasting". This manuscript was written around 1998.
