A new series of historic documents from the Calhoun Yacht Club were added to Minnesota Reflections. These booklets, yearbooks, and correspondence capture both the history of the club and sailing activity on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Minnesota Digital Library News
The Minnesota Digital Library is excited to announce the addition of a series of photographs into the Lake Superior Railroad Museum's collection in Minnesota Reflections. These images capture an important aspect of iron mining in northeastern Minnesota: the use of railroads to haul raw ore across rural Minnesota to the ore docks in Duluth.
New 2018 calendars are now available, featuring images shared with Minnesota Reflections by our generous contributors! As in past years, they can be ordered from the Minitex website and delivered to you for distribution or your own enjoyment.
We are now accepting applications for inclusion in Phase 14 of the Minnesota Reflections project! As in past phases, we are looking for materials in, of, or about Minnesota and Minnesotans and we accept many types of formats, such as images, text, audio, and video. To learn more about how you can participate, please visit the Call for Projects page on our website, or contact MDL Outreach Coordinator Molly Huber at mollyh@umn.edu or 612-301-1329/800-462-5348 with your questions or to discuss a potential project that you have in mind.
The newest Primary Source Set documents the history of Whaleback Boats on the Great Lakes. It recounts the history of the whaleback boat including information on the designer and builder, as well as information on the uses of whaleback boats, its design flaws, and the whaleback's appearance at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.
The Minnesota Digital Library is excited to announce the addition of a series of 14 panoramic photographs into the Minnesota State University, Mankato collection in Minnesota Reflections. These images capture class portraits during the years when the school was known as the Mankato State Teachers College. The rise of panoramic photographs during the late 19th and early 20th centuries is due to the advent and widespread availability of several different panoramic cameras including the Wonder Panoramic Camera (1889), Stereo Cyclographe (1894), the Al-Vista (1898), the Kodak Panoram (1899), the Periphote (1900), and the Cirkut Camera (1904).
Two new items from the Hennepin History Museum help to document and tell the story of the African American experience in Minnesota. The first item is a letter written to the Reverend Marion D. Shutter, the minister at the Universalist Church of the Redeemer in Minneapolis from Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). The second document is a bill of sale for a slave named London. These items were digitized with the intention that they would be discoverable through the Umbra Search African American History resource. Umbra Search makes African American history more broadly accessible through a freely available widget and search tool. Umbra Search brings together more than 500,000 digitized materials from over 1,000 different libraries and archives across the country.
On Wednesday, May 31st, the 15th MDL Annual Meeting was held at the Continuing Education and Conference Center on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. Over 100 people came together to hear a keynote presentation on Umbra Search African American History, a project to facilitate access to African American history through a website and search widget; digitization of over 500,000 items; and creation of workshops and public forums to promote access to culturally diverse collections.
The Minnesota Digital Library is excited to announce a new addition to the collection of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. In addition to a series of photographs on weaving show and exhibitions, the contribution also includes Weaving Guild minutes, notes, and correspondence. These materials document the activities of the Guild during World War II as well as the 1950s and 1960s.
The Minnesota State Law Library has added a new book to their collection in Minnesota Reflections. The 1876 edition of "A History of the City of Saint Paul, and of the county of Ramsey, Minnesota" helps to tell the story of the early years in our state's capital. The book includes numerous illustrations of early settlers to the area as well as accounts of their lives and activities. One of the most interesting chapters is Chapter 32 which provides an account of the state's activities during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the Dakota War of 1862. This volume provides a record of how these events were interpreted and explained during the 1870s and will serve as a a valuable resource for students, teachers, researchers.
Historical content from Minnesota's cultural heritage organizations, all in one place