We are calling all LEGO builders ages 5 and up to use the Montana History Portal Images as your inspiration for a cool LEGO build.
You have the option to enter the build-at-home contest or the on-site contest.
Contest Process and Rules:
1. All participants, home-built and on-site, need to register by Thursday, November 14th at 5:00 p.m. No late registrations accepted.
2. Contest participants must use a scene from the Montana History Portal to inform their LEGO build. Look for an image that strikes your fancy and then build the scene. (Links to images below.)
3. Contest participants should print the inspiration photo (at home or at the library before the event) and bring it with submissions.
4. Packaged LEGO kit submissions will not be judged. Please create your own design.
5. Participants may not register for both contests. Please select either the build-at-home or build-on-site contest.
6. Bring home-built submissions (one per contestant) to Stillwater County Library between 10:15 am and 2:40 pm the day of the event.
7. Contest participants will fill out an entry form when they arrive to display with their LEGO build.
8. All submissions must be in place before 2:40 pm for judging. Late submissions will not be judged.
Built-at-home: Use your own LEGOS and take your time to build a Montana history scene.
Built-on-site: LEGOS will be provided by Stillwater County Library. Creations must be built at the library in 45-minute time slots. Builders must be done promptly at the end of their 45 minutes to make room for the next set of builders. You can only sign up for one slot. Space is limited to ten builders per session. The schedule will be as follows: 10:15 am, 11:05 am, 11:55 am, 12:45 pm, 1:35 pm. Select your inspiration photo before the event. You can print your photo at home or at the library before the event day. Builds will be displayed in the library for a week, then will be disassembled.
For all builds: Create your Montana history scene in one of two ways:
1. Use an image from the Montana History Portal as inspiration for your build. Design something similar. Add working parts and details that may not be visible in the image.
2. Use an image from the Montana History Portal and build the exact scene. Include as many details from the image as possible in your replica.
3. Please keep your build under 3 feet square so there is enough space for all participants. While building you will want to think about the size and scale of the items in the scene. Try different approaches to find the one that looks the best and works well for your project. Most of the images on the History Portal are in black and white, so use color to bring life to the image you choose.
Judging and Prizes
Judging will be categorized in the following age groups: 5-8, 9-13, 14-17 and 18+. Home-built creations will be judged separately from on-site creations due to the likelihood of more than one person working on the build.
The Friends of Stillwater County Library will be providing Lego-related prizes.
Ideas for Builds
The following categories are meant to inspire. The links in each category will show you more images related to the topic. We have over 42,000 images on the Montana History Portal, so if you do not see a category or image you want, please search our site for more images. Here is how to search for images:
1. Start on the Montana History Portal home page, https://www.mtmemory.org/
2. Enter your search terms in the search box.
3. From the Item Type dropdown menu, select “Image” – this tells our system you only want to get images in your results list.
4. If you are using a phrase, select “Exact Phrase Match” from the Search For dropdown menu. This tells our system to look for the phrase, not each word in the phrase.
Or you can follow these links for ideas:
Tractors and other heavy machines.
