minnesotahistoricalsociety-blog

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Join us for Museum Day Live!

Looking to learn some history tomorrow, Saturday Sept. 26? Many museums around the country (including may of us sites around MN) are participating in Museum Day Live from smithsonian! 

You can receive a free admission pass for two people here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/

Here’s a look at a few of our participating historic sites. To see all of our sites involved in Museum Day Live, visit our calendar. 

You can head to James J. Hill House on historic Summit Avenue in St. Paul to learn about the Great Northern Railway baron and the Gilded Age in his historic 1891 mansion.

Or make your way to southwestern Minnesota back in time thousands of years to Jeffers Petroglyphs in Comfrey. You can explore thousands of carvings made by American Indian ancestors and learn about the history and ecology of the Minnesota prairie. 

If you’re looking to head north for the weekend, why not make a stop at Forest History Center in Grand Rapids? You can discover the world of a 1900s logging camp and learn about the environment of the northwoods. 

Wherever you go, happy museum travels!

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A cool look at the women who worked at the Washburn-Crosby Company, where Mill City Museum is now located in the Washburn A Mill. 

First Girls’ Packing Crew

Around 1902, the Washburn-Crosby Company began to hire girl flour packers in the B Mill Shed, otherwise known as “No Man’s Land.” These ladies packed all of the smaller sized sacks of Gold Medal Flour and spent the majority of their workday packing flour into 12 lb flour sacks. 

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50th Anniversary of the Beatles in MN!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ one and only concert in Minnesota on Aug. 21, 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

When John, Paul, George and Ringo arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, they were greeted by 3,000 excited fans.

They even had a fire hose ready in case fans got out of hand. 

The boys were quickly whisked to a press conference at Met Stadium, where they were asked whether it was hard to sleep with all that hair? 

John: “Well, when you’re asleep you don’t notice.” 

George: “How do you sleep with your arms and your legs still attached? It’s the same.” 

The sound system at the then-Twins’ stadium was poor, and the Beatles only performed for about 30 minutes, but the over 25,000 fans who bought tickets didn’t seem to care. They were just excited to see the group. 

Here’s the Beatles 11 song setlist from the show:

• "She's A Woman"

• "I Feel Fine"

• "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"

• "Ticket to Ride"

• "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby"

• "Can't Buy Me Love"

• "Baby's In Black"

• "I Wanna Be Your Man"

• "A Hard Day's Night"

• "Help!"

• "I'm Down”

After the concert, the Beatles ended up escaping the stadium in a dry-cleaning truck after a crowd surrounded the limo waiting for them. And with that, the next morning, the band was off to a concert in Portland, Oregon!

(All photos are from the Minnesota Historical Society collections from the records of the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press.) 

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Do you have a museum you’d like featured on #MuseumMonday? Drop a note in the Suggestion Box.

Name Mill City Museum

Location Minneapolis, Minnesota

History The Museum opened to the public on September 13, 2003. It is located inside the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill. The museum traces the founding and growth of the city of Minneapolis, focusing on flour milling and the other industries that used water power from nearby Saint Anthony Falls. The ruins the Museum is located in were once the Washburn A Mill, built in 1874. In 1878 the mill was leveled by a flour dust explosion that killed 18 workers. The explosion became known as the Great Mill Disaster and led to reforms in the milling industry. The A Mill was rebuilt by 1880. The mill was owned by General Mills until 1965, when it became obsolete and was shut down. After the building was almost destroyed by a fire in 1991, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency restored the ruins and the Minnesota Historical Society announced its plan to turn the site into a museum. Construction began in 2001.

Director Laura Salveson

Mission Statement “Mill City Museum creates opportunities to discover the people and industries that built Minneapolis, transformed a region and influenced our world.” http://www.millcitymuseum.org/mission-statement

Website http://www.millcitymuseum.org/

Collection Information Along with the history of the city and the mill, the Museum also features the work of local artists throughout the building. Pieces by Joann Verburg, Tom Maakestad, Kim Lawler, Kathleen Richert, Paul Wrench and Becky Schurmann include murals, an art glass collage, a 15-foot (4.6 m) Bisquick box, and sculptures.

Current Exhibits The museum features exhibits about the history of Minneapolis, flour milling machinery, a water lab and a baking lab. The centerpiece of the exhibit is the Flour Tower, which features a working freight elevator. Each floor of the Flour Tower is designed to look like a floor in a working flour mill.

The current special exhibit it entitled “Remembering the Bohemian Flats: One Place, Many Voices”. It runs from April 30 to November 1, 2015, and explores the social history of the Bohemian Flats, an early immigrant neighborhood adjacent to the Museum.

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A really cool online exhibit from hclib!

Eloise Butler and Women in Botany

“The study of botany is rapidly increasing in favor with women. The opportunities for making practical use of this knowledge also are increasing. Teachers of botany are in great demand; women are employed in all the botanical gardens and women botanists with literary or artistic ability find a wide field in the form of stories and text books for children, with illustrations, also in contributions and illustrations to the various magazines and garden journals.” - The Courier, Lincoln, Nebraska June 29, 1901

Eloise Butler was one of the many women who favored botany. She was a prime force in creating the first public wildflower garden in the United States, authorized by the Minneapolis Park Board on April 15, 1907. She remained curator of the garden until her death on April 10, 1933. Along with her botanical colleagues in the city and around the country, she contributed to the knowledge, documentation, and appreciation of our native plant species. Some of the botanists and botanical artists profiled in this exhibit were people Eloise Butler knew personally; others represent the popular and scientific interest in botany during her lifetime. Much of the source material for this photo-stream comes from the Minneapolis Central Library’s Special Collections Division or the Minneapolis Athenaeum’s Spencer Natural History Collection.

This online exhibit was formed from a display outside the Doty Board Room at the Minneapolis Central Library that was featured last fall in conjunction with the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden Florilegium exhibit by the Minnesota School of Botanical Art.

______________________

This display and online exhibit was curated by Minneapolis Central Librarian Mary Linden.

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Love this cool reflection shot of the lighthouse! 

#splitrocklighthouse reflected in the windows of the visitor center. #splitrock #lighthouse #northshore #minnesota #minnesotalife #exploremn #exploreminnesota #bw #bandw #blackandwhite

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Loving these shots of Split Rock Lighthouse. 

Just a preview of what you can expect over the next few days. Pictures from my trip to Split Rock National Park! #splitrock #lighthouse #rocktower #lakesuperior #splitrocklighthouse #campingtrip #roadtrip #vw #vanagon

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Happy birthday, Split Rock!

Today on July 31, 1910, our beautiful historic site Split Rock Lighthouse in Two Harbors opened for the first time. 

After 29 ships were damaged in a storm on Nov. 28, 1905 (a third of which were the uninsured property of a steel company fleet), a decision was made to construct a lighthouse to help guide ships carrying iron ore shipments along Lake Superior’s rocky coast. 

(Lighthouse construction ca. 1909-1910.)

Because of its remote location, workers and supplies to build the lighthouse had to arrive by boat. The construction crew also had to figure out how to erect a steam-powered hoist and derrick to lift supplies off the boats 110 feet below the lighthouse cliff. 

It took 13 months to construct the lighthouse, and its beacon was first lit on July 31, 1910, and it was commissioned into operation.

(The lighthouse and three lighthouse keeper dwellings ca. 1911 in its early operations.) 

When the lighthouse opened in 1910, it also gained its first lighthouse keeper, Orren P. Young. He was a former sailor and had previously worked at lighthouses along the Michigan coast of Lake Superior. In 1910, he moved to Split Rock and would operate it from April to December, when the lighthouse would shutdown for the winter. He worked as the keeper until 1928 when he retired at age 70. 

(Orren P. Young in 1926.) 

Until 1924, Split Rock was incredibly remote and isolated with no land access. Any supplies or visitors had to arrive by boat until Lake Superior International Highway was constructed. Over the years, lighthouse keepers also experienced the change from using kerosene lamps and gasoline-powered fog horns to electric lights and compressors. 

(A postcard ca. 1945.) 

The lighthouse officially closed in 1969 because modern navigational equipment had made it obsolete. But the the state of Minnesota quickly obtained it in 1971, and today it’s a National Historic Landmark and one of the Minnesota Historical Society’s most popular sites to visit!  

For more on Split Rock Lighthouse’s history and how to visit, go to: sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/split-rock-lighthouse