Local History News: April 26, 2023

Field Note

Local History Services was present with representatives from the "We Are Water Minnesota" partnership and received a tour from Maryan Yusuf, Program Director, of exhibits at the Somali Museum of Minnesota on April 17 which will be hosting the We Are Water Minnesota traveling exhibit this summer. 

Local History Workshops

SAVE THE DATE(S)
MNHS Local History Services is working with the MNHS Native American Initiatives to offer the workshop “Native Nations and Local History Organizations.” Focused on building an understanding that Minnesota shares borders with four Dakota and seven Ojibwe nations who are oftentimes overlooked or underrepresented in non-Native spaces, this training is intended to support the work of history organizations across the state. Participants will leave the session with a better understanding of how to talk about Native Nations in Minnesota. Registration opening soon.
Dates and Locations:

• Tuesday, May 30 from 10 am to 1 pm at the Treaty Site History Center in St. Peter
• Wednesday, May 31 from 9 am to 12 pm at the Becker County Museum in Detroit Lakes

Heritage Preservation Grants

MNHS Announces January Round of Legacy Small Grants
Recipients received 28 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grants, ($10,000 and less) totaling $253,192 in 16 counties. Learn more »

May Grants Open House
May 4 - Online: The Grants Office will hold a virtual Grants Office Open House using Google Meet from 2 to 3:30 pm in order to provide additional grants support to our communities. We encourage people to RSVP to Gillian by email with a short summary of what you want to talk about and she will try to ensure that someone helpful will be available. Learn more »

From the Blog

This week's blog post is from Pope County Historical Society. Have a blog? Let us know!

Pope County’s Earliest Photographers
This post is part of a series of articles on Pope County Photography Studios through the years to coincide with our current exhibit on Pope County Portrait Photographers.

Our earliest settlers had their portraits taken outside of Pope County. A. Overland of Sauk Centre and A. J. Hoiland of Benson serviced residents of Glenwood.

Alexandria photographer Newton J. Trenham came to Glenwood in 1876 to photograph the village of Glenwood. 

Earliest noted photographer in Pope County was S. D. Reynolds.

His first ad appears in the Pope County Press December 8, 1877. His ad says that he did Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Gems, Etc. Of all sizes.
Continue Reading »

More MN Blog posts

• A Moorhead Murder Ballad by Markus Krueger - Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County
• New MDL Primary Source Set on Cyanotypes - Minnesota Digital Library News
• Jerry Knapp & Elite Enterprises - Cokato Historical Society
• Coloring our Collection: Iskigamizigan (Sugar Bush Camp) - Beltrami County Historical Society

From the Tube

This week's post is from Hennepin History Museum. Have a video channel or podcast? Let us know!

Human Toll: Unfinished Business
Throughout 2022, visitors to the exhibit "Human Toll: A Public History of 35W" at Hennepin History Museum were asked to provide their perspective on the impact of freeways, how they have experienced or learned from this history, and what reparations might be appropriate to repair damages to individuals and community.

This April 11, 2023 recording of an online conversation with local historians and community advocates reflects on these responses and continues the conversation about how a deeper understanding of this history can guide our future development. Watch Video »

More MN Tube posts

• Digging Down on the Farm: Rural Archaeology (Preview) - Nienow Cultural Consultants
• 50th Anniversary Presentation: The Early Years - Lake Superior Railroad Museum & NS Scenic Railroad
• History Revealed: An Interrupted Childhood, Part 2 - Ramsey County Historical Society
• Cocktail History: Southside - Freeborn County Historical Museum
• Stories from the Woodshop at Sätergläntan Lecture - American Swedish Institute
• Public Archaeology and the Disappearing Ukrainian Farmsteads of ND - Council for Minnesota Archaeology
• Robbinsdale Oil - Robbinsdale Historical Society
• Albert Lea Tommy and A. W. White - Freeborn County Historical Museum
• Book Talk with Dr. Carly Goodman - U of MN Immigration History Research Center

Job Opportunities

Minnesota Historical Society's Job Announcement, Internship,  Fellowship, and Volunteer Opportunity pages.

MNHS

• Program Supervisor - Oliver Kelley Farm
• Administrative Secretary, Community Engagement - MN History Center
• Human Resources Coordinator - MN History Center

LOCAL

• Conservationist - Paisley Park, Chanhassen, MN
• Museum Collections Lead - Paisley Park, Chanhassen, MN
• Digital Records Archivist - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
• Communications Specialist (Marketing & Fundraising) - Great River Children's Museum, St. Cloud, MN
• Services Coordinator - 106 Group, St. Paul, MN

REGIONAL

• Marketing & Communications Manager - Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI 
• Collections Manager and Registrar - Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
• Program and Guest Experience Coordinator - Madeline Island Museum, Wisconsin Historical Society, La Pointe, WI
• Park Guide - Wind Cave National Park, National Park Service  Hot Springs, SD
• Museum Technician (History) - D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, U.S. Department of the Interior, Spearfish, SD
• Historic Site Interpreter - Stutsman County Courthouse, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Jamestown, ND
• Education Lead (MakerSpace) - National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, Dubuque, IA

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

• Communications Manager - Indiana Humanities, Indianapolis, IN
• Archival Assistant - Israelite House of David, Benton Harbor, MI
• Cincinnati Type & Print Museum - Assistant Director & Curator, Cincinnati, OH
• Director/Executive Secretary - Allen County Museum and Historical Society, Lima, OH
• Director of Archives - St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, St Louis, MO
• Exhibition Designer - Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO
• Exhibition Specialist - Missouri Historical Society, St.Louis, MO
• Curator of Political and Civic Engagement - The Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI
• Manager of Development & Partnerships - Canadian Museum for Human Rights,
  Winnipeg, MB
• Development Coordinator - Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg, MB
• Assistant Curator - Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum, Ingersoll, ON
• Head, Scenography - Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa, ON
• Project Coordinator - Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, AB
• Learning Activator - Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, AB
• Interpretive Planner - Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, AB
• Exhibition Development - Aga Khan Foundation Canada requires the services of an experienced exhibit firm to develop, design, build, market, tour, and evaluate a fully bilingual mobile exhibition to Ottawa and remote.

INTERNSHIPS/VOLUNTEERS/FELLOWSHIPS

• Volunteer Treasurer - Duluth Preservation Alliance, Duluth, MN
• Summer Internship - American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, MN
• Membership & Events Intern - Minnesota Children's Museum, St. Paul, MN
• Hall of Fame and Stadium Tours Intern - Green Bay Packers, Green Bay, WI

Additional Job Postings in the Field »

Do History Here

Image used with permission. From the collections of the Ely-Winton Historical Society.

Be sure to check with each organization for COVID-19 updates and safety measures for in-person events.

Open House: Warden’s House Museum - Celebrating 170 Years
April 30 - Stillwater: 1 pm. Warden’s House Museum - There will be live music from singer Hilary Thavis and Musician Doug Otto. The Warden’s House opened as a part of the new Minnesota Territorial Prison in 1853. In 1941 it was opened by the Washington County Historical Society as the second house museum in Minnesota. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Presentation: Minnesota’s Golden Age of Wrestling
May 2 - Stillwater: 7 pm. Washington County Heritage Center - George Schire returns more discussion on Minnesota professional wrestling history. Schire will be discussing wrestling's singles feuds and tag team wars. In the wacky and unpredictable world of professional wrestling, good guys and bad guys fought for supremacy and formed interesting tag team combinations that added to the soap opera drama that drew fans in week after week. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Presentation: Donald Walker - Law and Racial Justice: Allies and Antagonists
May 2 - Online: 12:30 to 2 pm (CT).  Roseville Library - Through images, the essential nature of our nation’s tragic and enduring contradiction between the goal of equality before the law and the reality of subjugation and marginalization are explored. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Author talk: Wild Things
May 4 - Duluth: 7 to 8:30 pm. Zenith Bookstore - Lynette Reini-Grandell will read from and discuss her new memoir "Wild Things: A Trans-Glam-Punk-Rock Love Story", which tells the story of her relationship with Venus de Mars of All the Pretty Horses and the many challenges they faced together. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Urban Black Rural White
May 4 - Albert Lea: 7 pm. The Freeborn County Historical Museum will be hosting Adair
Mosley, the CEO of the African American Leadership Forum, and his presentation Urban Black, Rural White. The political divide between rural and urban America has become more obvious, but people living in cities and those in rural towns have more in common than they realize. Urban and rural communities both have high rates of poverty and addiction and lack of access to affordable healthcare; healthy, affordable food; affordable housing. For more information call them at 507-373-8003.

Presentation: George Bonga of 1837
May 6 - Little Falls: 11 am. Morrison County Historical Society - Joel Brown is back to tell the updated story of the Bonga lineage. From Pierre Bonga in the 1790s as the earliest person of African descent in Minnesota on record to his son George who was born in 1802 at present-day Duluth, and his granddaughter Marguerete Bonga who in 1823 married one of Minnesota’s first Swedish residents. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Rehab Lab: Intro to Masonry
May 6 - St. Paul: 9 to 1 pm. Rethos - This hands-on masonry workshop will be hosted at a St. Paul home and taught by masonry expert John Beaty. Participants will be learning about historic masonry materials and techniques while restoring a local home to further the preservation and increase the sustainability of the home. Cost: $15 to $45, sliding scale.  Learn more »

Presentation: A Brief History of the Undergarment
May 11 - Cold Spring: 5:30 to 7 pm. Stearns History Museum - Join the museum’s own Amy Degerstrom and Caitlin Carlson as they use the collection of the Stearns History Museum to tell the “brief” story of how what we wear underneath our clothes has evolved in the last few centuries. Location: Third Street Brewhouse, Cold Spring, MN. Cost: Free members/$10 nonmembers. Learn more »

Exhibit: Inspired by Spring
Through June 30 - Mankato: Blue Earth County Historical Society - Home to more than 300 pieces spanning from the late 19th century to the present these art pieces from the Blue Earth County Historical Society's Art Collection highlight the people, places, and events which have shaped Blue Earth County. For more information call 507-345-5566.

Continuing Education

Highlighted Museum: Minnesota Discovery Center, Chisholm MN.

Where to Find Aid and How to Get Training for Disasters
May 2 - Online: 1 to 2 pm (CT). Connecting to Collections Care - As part of the annual #MayDayPrep program sponsored by FAIC, this C2C Care Webinar spotlights where small and mid-sized organizations can access resources immediately after they experience a disaster, what entities with trained volunteers can offer assistance to these organizations, and finally, training that collections professionals can attend to prepare their institutions and communities for disasters in the future. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Hierarchies All Around: Addressing Class, Socioeconomic Status, and Rank
May 3 - Online: 1 to 3 pm (CT). Minnesota Council of Nonprofits - This workshop helps organizations and institutions understand how social class and socioeconomic status can affect their clients, members, patients, students, and employees – and how they can work against unnecessary hierarchies, allowing them to function both more equitably and more effectively. Cost: $45 members/$65 nonmembers. Learn more »

Behind the Letters: Understanding LGBTQIA Identities
May 9 - Online: 1 to 3 pm (CT). Minnesota Council of Nonprofits - In this workshop, we create opportunities to learn about the similarities and differences between these identities, how LGBTQIA individuals and communities are affected by stereotypes and bias, and what it means to be an ally around gender identity and sexual orientation. Cost: $45 members/$65 nonmembers. Learn more »

How to Keep All Those Donors Your Museum Worked So Hard to Get
May 18  - Online: 10 to 11 am (CT). Texas Historical Commission - Learn about simple, actionable steps that you can take to boost donor retention at your museum. Cost: Free. Learn more »

TIPS & TOOLS

• History Organizations and Friends Groups: A Practical Guide for Success - American Association for State and Local History's Standards and Ethics Committee
• Build a Culture with Transparency - Medium

Additional Educational Opportunities »

Funding & Awards

Episcopal Historical Society Grants
May 1 - (Deadline): Historical Society of the Episcopal Church - Grants are awarded for pursuing the Historical Society’s objectives, especially the promotion of the preservation of the particular heritage of the Episcopal Church and its antecedents. This includes any part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Learn more »

Awards for Publications (Books, Articles, Film, and Digital Formats)
May 15 - (Deadline): American Historical Association - These 43 different awards recognize a wide variety of distinguished historical work, which can take the form of an exceptional book in the field, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, film, or digital projects and resources. Learn more »

International Research and Studies (IRS) Grant Competition
May 12 - (Deadline): U.S. Department of Education - This program supports research, surveys, studies, and the development of instructional materials to improve and strengthen instruction in modern foreign languages, area studies, and other international fields. Public and private agencies, organizations and institutions, and individuals may apply.  Learn more »

Accessible Arts
June 30 - (Deadline): Minnesota State Arts Board - This pilot program will offer project grants to increase the capacity of the arts sector to make arts experiences more accessible. Funds will be used for investments that will have a longer-term impact on the applicant, such as professional development related to accessibility (i.e., staff or volunteer training, etc.), hiring accessibility consultants to conduct accessibility audits and/or develop accessibility plans, etc. Funds may also be used for small physical or equipment investments (costing less than $5,000) that will make programming more accessible (i.e. assisted listening, captioning equipment, grab bars, etc.). Applicants may request between $10,000 - $20,000. Learn more »

History of Equal Rights
July 11 - (Deadline): National Park Service - This grant program preserves sites related to the struggle for any or all people to achieve equal rights in America. The History of Equal Rights grants are not limited to any specific group and are intended to include the broadest possible interpretation of sites associated with efforts to achieve equal rights. This program funds physical preservation work and pre-preservation planning activities for sites that are listed in or determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or as a National Historic Landmark. Learn more »

News

MN Digital Newspaper Hub - April content update
A content update to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub this week added 5,634 new issues and 51,676 new newspaper pages.

• Todd County Argus (Long Prairie, Minn.) 1914-1917 added
• Long Prairie leader (Long Prairie, Minn.) 1891-1908
• Pelican Rapids press (Pelican Rapids, Minn.) 1966-1977 added
• Thirteen towns (Fosston, Minn.) 1891-1900
• Rushford star-republican (Rushford, Minn.) 1902-1923

• Arrow (Stillwater, Minn.) 1906-1911
• Broadcasting station SHS (Stillwater, Minn.) 1923-1924
• Hi skule daze (Stillwater, Minn.) 1924-1925
• Stillwater arrow (Stillwater, Minn.) 1925-1954
• Pony express (Stillwater, Minn.) 1954-1957 added

Midwest Bibliography
The Middle West Review is creating a bibliography of all books published about the Midwest from 1980 to the present as background for an upcoming special issue. See the working list on their website. What do you think is missing? Email MWR staff Zachary Wattier with all additions or ideas. 

Plans advance for $40M MN military museum
Finance & Commerce - For more than four decades, the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum has quietly operated within the walls of an 8,000-square-foot building and other cramped spaces at Camp Ripley, north of Little Falls.

The limited and scattered spaces make it challenging to tell the stories of the 300,000-plus current Minnesota veterans and others who have served, but museum officials hope to change that with help from a proposed $40 million, 40,000-square-foot museum near the existing site. Continue Reading »

Art students offer fresh eye to county history museumMankato Free Press - The people who show up — volunteering to help — at county historical society museums tend to sport a bit of gray hair, six or more decades of life experience and a deep interest in the past.

The 13 people who arrived at the Blue Earth County’s History Center Museum earlier this year were different. Continue Reading »

New Director for Steele County Historical Society
Jennifer Thiele has been named the Steele County Historical Society’s executive director. She replaces Kellen Hinrichsen, who resigned to join the United Way of Steele County last fall. Thiele currently serves as director of development at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Prior to that, she was director of the Floyd County Historical Society and Museum in Charles City.

She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon where she majored in history and minored in women’s studies. Thiele has a master’s degree in American history from Southern New Hampshire University. Thiele will begin as director on May 1. Welcome!

Featured Book Interpreting Energy and Museums and Historic Sites by Leah S. Glaser You can get a copy of the book for 30% off when you use promo code 4S23AASLH at rowman.com. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / American Association for State and Local History.	Featured Article Minnesota History Historians and the Conflict Theory Volume 46, Issue 3, 1978	Featured Article MNopedia Highway 61 in Minnesota Featured MNopedia Article
Minnesota History Organizations Directory  • County, Chapters, and Local • Statewide/Topical Historical • Regional History Coalitions • Professional Organizations	Minnesota Main Streets Reinvigorate your community's commercial district.	Preservation Specialists Directory Look up products or services.

From the Heritage Preservation Department
Reminder: Due to COVID-19 all Heritage Preservation Department staff (Grants Office and Local History Services) are working remotely until further notice. If you need to connect with a specific staff member, please email them directly.

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