A Sculptor's First Montana Show Opens on Kagy. Her Brother's Bozeman Is Still Standing South of Main.

The Queen Anne house at 308 South Bozeman Avenue has brick veneer, stained glass, heavy carved brackets, spindlework and a sunburst appliqué. It started in 1881 as a simple frame house with a front gable and wings, and its owner rebuilt it into a showplace that was finished in 1890. The owner was Samuel W. Lewis, a barber, sleight-of-hand performer and musician who ran a tonsorial parlor and bath house on Main Street. He put the profits into rental property, and he paid for his younger sister Edmonia's art training in the East and abroad.

On October 17, the Museum of the Rockies opens Chisel & Razor: Art, Entrepreneurship, and the Lewis Family. The museum says it will be the first time Edmonia Lewis's sculptures have ever been shown in Montana. It runs through September 12, 2027. For people who live south of Main, the gallery is only half of it. Samuel's house is here, two of his rental cottages are here, his grave is here, and so is the spot where his shop stood. Few exhibits anywhere come with that much of their subject still standing a few blocks away.

What Is Inside the Museum

The exhibition puts two stories together for the first time. One belongs to Mary Edmonia Lewis, whom the museum calls the first internationally acclaimed Black and Anishinaabe sculptor. The other belongs to Samuel, described as "a Bozeman-based performer, entrepreneur, and community leader who was central to Edmonia's success." On view are original works by Edmonia and historical artifacts tied to both siblings. The show follows Black migration to the American West and abroad in the 1860s and pays close attention to entrepreneurship and creativity.

One piece has a Montana backstory of its own. It's an exhibition copy of Edmonia's centennial sculpture The Death of Cleopatra, made with faculty and students at Montana Technological University. MSU's Dr. Melissa Ragain and Dr. Regina Gee curated the show with students and advisors. Among the advisors is Dr. Tiya Miles, a Harvard history professor and 2011 MacArthur Fellow who also sits on the Tinworks Art board.

You pay nothing extra. The exhibit is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is included with MOR membership or admission. MSU News first linked the sculptor to Bozeman in a February 2026 story. Early announcements gave an October 12 opening. The museum's own exhibition page now lists October 17.

The Man Behind "Razor"

The National Register nomination says Samuel arrived in Bozeman in the autumn of 1868 and died in late March 1896. Sources don't agree on his birth year, but all of them put it in the early 1830s. A 2024 Bozeman Magazine profile says he came to Bozeman from Helena and allows for an 1869 arrival.

The house was the payoff of a business he built over decades. Historic Montana's entry quotes the period description of his shop:

He established a thriving tonsorial parlor and bath house on Main Street that he kept in "apple pie order."

The same entry says that when he died, his estate was valued at $25,000, a fortune it calls "likely unparalleled by other contemporary African American Montanans." That money is why the exhibition is titled Chisel & Razor. The barber's razor paid for the sculptor's chisel.

A Self-Guided Route Through Samuel Lewis's Bozeman

You can see everything here on foot or from the sidewalk. Start at the museum so you know the story before you look at the buildings.

1. Museum of the Rockies, 600 W. Kagy Blvd. See the exhibit first. The museum is on the south side of Kagy, just west of Willson and South 3rd.
2. The Gallagator Trail heading north. The Gallagator Land Trust describes 1.5 miles of trail between the Bozeman Public Library and Kagy. It is mostly gravel, with a paved section between Burke and Lindley parks. In fall and spring the trail can be muddy, and in winter it can be icy.
3. The Samuel Lewis House, 308 South Bozeman Avenue. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. According to Bozeman Magazine, a National Register sign stands in the front yard. The house is a private residence, so please look from the sidewalk.
4. The rental cottages at 209 and 211 South Tracy Avenue. Samuel built several rental properties with his shop's profits, and these two still stand. They show the side of his business that the museum's subtitle, "Entrepreneurship," points to.
5. The Main Street site, 128–130 E. Main. A local history account puts his barbershop where the Fechter building stands today. The Gallatin History Museum gives 128–130 E. Main as the address of the Fechter Hotel and Annex. The building on the site today is not his original shop.
6. Sunset Hills Cemetery. Samuel's grave is stop No. 18 on the cemetery's historic walking-tour brochure. The brochure's panel prints his death year as 1886. The National Register nomination gives late March 1896. Bozeman Magazine's profile names the day as March 28, 1896.

Local groups have been laying this groundwork all year. In August, Tinworks and the Extreme History Project led a walk called "Walking Through Samuel Lewis's Bozeman" from 234 E. Mendenhall St. It stopped at the barbershop site and at places tied to his home and his property development. In September, the Gallatin History Museum and the Tenney family held an afternoon open house at 308 South Bozeman. The same day, a Tinworks cemetery walk covered Bozeman's historic Black community at Sunset Hills. All of those dates have passed. The route above follows the same ground for anyone who missed them.

Two Free Days on Kagy This Month

The exhibit's academic side comes to the museum on October 23–24 with a symposium called "On the Edge of American: Art, Exodusters, and Expatriates, 1850–1900." It is in Hager Auditorium, it's free, and seats go first come, first served. Cultural historian Dr. Jennifer DeVere Brody gives the keynote and Dr. Tiya Miles moderates. The sessions compare Black settlers who migrated west, the "Exodusters," with expatriate artists who built careers abroad. The Terra Foundation for American Art funds the symposium through a convening grant.

The project also has a companion exhibition at Tinworks Art in northeast Bozeman. Its Act II and the Mill Building opening celebration are tomorrow, Sunday, October 11, from 3 to 6 p.m. It's free, and the Mill Building opens to the public at 4 p.m.

The Rest of MOR's Calendar Through January

Chisel & Razor stays up for about eleven months. The museum's other seasonal shows rotate out sooner, so plan your visits around them.

The overlap with Popnology ends January 11. Until then, one admission covers a 19th-century sculptor and a movie lightsaber.

Getting to Kagy This Month

Road work is changing the drive to the museum right now. The City's street report for the week of October 11 says temporary sewer bypass pipes block left turns into businesses on W. Kagy between South Willson and South Tracy. For businesses at the corner of Kagy and South 3rd, use the South 3rd driveway. South Tracy is closed from Kagy to Spring Creek Drive and is expected to reopen by October 20, weather permitting.

This phase of the West Kagy to Babcock sewer work is set to wrap up in late October. A phase near Cooper Park could start as early as this fall. Crews are also striping Kagy and putting temporary delineators where the raised medians used to be. Those medians come back with the Montana Department of Transportation's reconstruction of about 1.1 miles of Kagy between South 19th and Willson/South 3rd. The plan includes roundabouts, pedestrian tunnels and shared-use paths. The City says the project is tentatively planned to start in 2027. Chisel & Razor runs until September 2027, so it may still be up when that construction begins. The City's weekly street report has the latest closures.

If you live in or near one of South Bozeman's older homes and wonder what records say about your own block, or what a historic property in this part of town is worth today, Mikey Duquette and Bert Brandon are happy to talk it through. Contact us to start your home search or request a free home valuation.