The Elers Koch Lecture honors the legacy of Elers Koch as a forester and conservationist, and his contributions to the arts through his writing, as well as the contributions of the Koch family to Montana culture. The intent of the Elers Koch Lecture is to foster the intersection of the arts, writing, conservation science and the wild by bringing speakers to campus to present to and interact with the university community and the public.
2026 - BOOKMEN ON THE MONTANA FRONTIER WITH PETER KOCH
Tuesday, October 13 from 6:00-7:00 PM in the University Center Theater
Free and open to the public
This fall, the Elers Koch Lecture series welcomes Peter Rutledge Koch for an illustrated talk, Bookmen on the Montana Frontier, celebrating the release of The Koch Collection of Western Exploration and Natural History: An Annotated Bibliography (Stanford University Libraries, 2026).
The lecture traces three generations of the Koch family's engagement with Montana's frontier and intellectual life — from Hans Peter Gyllembourg Koch, a Danish immigrant who arrived in Montana in 1869 and went on to co-found Bozeman's first public library and the college that became Montana State University, to his son Elers Koch, who established the Forest Service's Region One in Missoula and became a noted historian of the Lewis and Clark expedition, to grandson Peter Rutledge Koch, who spent over 25 years studying and expanding the family's book collection.
The Koch Collection — now housed at Stanford University Libraries' Special Collections — documents the exploration, natural history, and settling of the American West, and reflects Peter Koch's personal friendships with early Yellowstone explorers including Nathaniel Langford, Ferdinand V. Hayden, and Gustavus C. Doane.
The Elers Koch Lecture honors the Koch family's lasting contributions to Montana's cultural heritage by bringing distinguished speakers to campus to explore the intersection of arts, writing, conservation science, and wild places.
2024 - COMBINING ART & SCIENCE FOR IMPROVED STORYTELLING WITH DR. ROBERT VAN PELT
Thursday, October 24 at 7:00 PM in the University Center Theater
Free and open to the public
The recording is available here.
Description: From the beginning of his career, Dr. Van Pelt has been deeply concerned about the disconnect between the scientific community and the general public. Too often, amazing research goes unnoticed due to the complex language, tables, and graphs that fail to simply capture findings. In this lecture, Dr. Van Pelt will showcase a variety of examples demonstrating how art can be used to communicate complex science through accessible and engaging visuals. Drawing from his own books and publications, as well as works that have inspired him, he will illustrate how this approach can bridge the gap between science and society.
2023 - SECOND NATURE: AN ART-SCIENCE EXPLORATION OF OUR POSTHUMAN LANDSCAPES WITH ANNE YONCHA
Visiting artist Anne Yoncha discussed her work doing “data materialization” of places we’ve forever altered through extraction and other human activity. The recording is available here.
2022 - DISSENTING CONSERVATIONIST: ELERS KOCH AND HIS LEGACY WITH MARK FIEGE
The Inaugural Elers Koch lecture.