by Zach Miller
Quick Summary
A new addition has been made to the Minnesota Digital Library’s Primary Source Set collection —Natural Disasters in Minnesota. This primary source set includes documentation of devastating tornadoes in Sauk Rapids and Rochester in the late nineteenth century, the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940, the Cloquet and Moose Lake Fires of 1918, and major flooding on the Minnesota River.
Another primary source set has been added to the list of Minnesota Digital Library’s Primary Source Sets—Natural Disasters in Minnesota. This primary source set includes documentation of devastating tornadoes in Sauk Rapids and Rochester in the late nineteenth century, the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940, the Cloquet and Moose Lake Fires of 1918, and major flooding on the Minnesota River. In addition to extensive photograph and stereograph collections of the aftermath of such disasters, Minnesota Reflections has a number of oral histories which include eye witness accounts, affidavits describing the specific losses of individuals, newspaper accounts, and other documentation.
The primary source set includes links to many resources outside of Minnesota Reflections that feature valuable primary and secondary source material for further exploration by our Primary Source Set users. The accompanying teaching guide encourages students to consider not only the effects to people and property, but also the environmental and economic effects of catastrophic natural events.
The Minnesota Reflections Primary Source Sets are designed to highlight primary source materials in the Minnesota Digital Library that relate to a specific topic, while providing context to help students and researchers better understand historic events and the resulting documentation created by the people who experienced these events.
