Our Favorite Things

The Minnesota Twins 2009 season is winding down as I write. It’s been a noteworthy year, as it’s the team’s last in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Come next April, the Twins will play at Target Field, in the open under blue skies for the first time in over 25 years.

The Twins’ move reminds me of one of my favorite pieces in the collection. It’s a base used at their pre-Metrodome home, Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. In fact, it’s a base used at their final game played at the Met. That match, against the Kansas City Royals on September 30, 1981, resulted in a 2-5 loss. According to our records, the base had been used for up to three years prior to the last game, and repainted after every game. Unfortunately, we don’t know whether it served as first, second, or third base during the finale.

Metropolitan Stadium, which had been built in 1955 specifically to attract a major league baseball team to Minnesota, was razed in 1985. (The Mall of Amercia was built in its place a few years later.) Today, the Metrodome’s fate is an open question, as the Twins and the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers are out, and the Vikings are hoping for a new stadium. We can be sure, though, that whatever happens to the Dome, the fans who grew up with it will remember it fondly, just as their parents remember the Met.

Matt Anderson, Objects Curator

Learn More:

• See photos of Metropolitan Stadium in the Photo & Art Database.
• See photos of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in the Photo & Art Database.
• Purchase Baseball in Minnesota: The Definitive History from the online store.

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Like the First Minnesota’s charge at Gettysburg, or the Dillinger gang’s escapades in St. Paul, every good Minnesotan knows the story of the Northfield Raid. On September 7, 1876, Frank and Jesse James, along with Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger, attempted to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. When clerk Joseph Lee Haywood refused to open the vault, the James-Younger gang shot him dead. Northfield citizens heard the shot, grabbed their own guns, and ambushed the gang in the street. Gang members Clell Miller and William Stiles were killed, as was Northfield resident Nicholas Gustavson. The James brothers got away, but the Youngers were captured near Madelia, Minnesota, after several days of pursuit. Sentenced to life in the Stillwater State Prison, Cole and Jim were paroled in 1901 (Bob died in prison in 1889).

Among the most revered objects in the Minnesota Historical Society’s collection is this linen duster. It was recovered outside of the Northfield bank just after the raid, and is known to have been worn by one of the James-Younger gang members (purportedly, Cole Younger himself). Dusters were common in the horse-and-buggy era (and even in the days of open automobiles). Just as its name implies, a lightweight duster keeps dust and dirt off of one’s clothes while traveling. For the robbers, though, their dusters served a darker purpose. The long, loose garments concealed their guns. As soon as the gang members walked into the bank, they shed their outerwear and revealed their weapons. This duster was left behind as the gang fled from the ambush.

The duster came to the Society in 1890 as a donation from George N. Baxter, the prosecuting attorney for Rice County in 1876. Baxter apparently held onto this piece of evidence after the Youngers’ trial, and saw to it that it was preserved for future generations. While the Youngers’ prison sentences may have been cut short, the duster’s survival seems far more permanent.

Matt Anderson, Objects Curator

Learn More:

• Discover more resources on the Northfield Raid at the Library’s “History Topics” page.
• View a podcast on the Youngers’ lives after the raid and their time at Stillwater State Prison.
• Purchase the Minnesota Historical Society Press autobiography, The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself.

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As the curator of the currently showing “Minnesota on the Map” exhibit an elderly gentleman asked me if I could do the entire exhibit again with completely different maps. My immediate response was “I wish,” and then I told him that with another 23,000 maps in our collection to choose from it would be easy to do a sequel. In fact now that the map exhibit has been up for a few months I have been second guessing some of my decisions anyway.

One of the maps I had originally planned to put in the exhibit was a product of the revival of the “Ban the Bomb” movement which flourished briefly during the Reagan administration. It was known as the “Nuclear Freeze Movement.” The Friends for a Non-Violent World collaborated with Northern Sun Alliance [known for their creatively graphic anti-war merchandise] to produce a horrifying map titled “Effects of a 20-Megaton Bomb On the Twin Cities Ground Zero – State Fair Grounds, Detonated at Ground Level.”

Using data from the United States Office of Technological Assessment the maps shows a series of concentric circles overlain on a simple map of the state’s urban core. In few words and plain language they describe what would happen to people, plants and buildings in each zone. Some examples: in the six to eight mile radius “Total causalities;” ten miles, “People in basements survive 15 – 30 minutes;” fifteen to sixteen miles, “Ignition of buildings, grass, leaves, car upholstery.”

I wish I picked this map to be in the exhibit – which is coming down on Labor Day – as it is a perfect example of a strikingly successful use of a map for a political purpose.

Patrick Coleman, Acquisitions Librarian

Learn More:

• Minnesota on the Map exhibit

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With all of the excitement over the new John Dillinger movie, Public Enemies, we remember that the notorious gangster spent time in St. Paul. In those days of crime and depression, St. Paul had something of a truce with criminals: so long as the gangsters didn’t tear up the city, local authorities would not bother them. The city became a popular place to hide between sprees.

John Dillinger came to the Twin Cities in March 1934 after robbing a bank in Mason City, Iowa. He and his girlfriend, Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, rented a room at the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul. The apartment manager grew suspicious of the couple, and reported them to the FBI. On March 31 two FBI agents, joined by Detective Henry Cummings of the St. Paul Police Department, knocked on the apartment door. Frechette stalled, an accomplice stumbled onto the scene, and a gunfight erupted. Dillinger burst into the hallway with a blazing machine gun and fled down a back stairway, but not before being hit in the leg by Detective Cummings.

Dillinger escaped, but his time was short. The FBI caught up with him in Chicago and killed their most-wanted man in an ambush on July 22. Detective Cummings, a 26-year veteran of the St. Paul force, retired shortly after the Lincoln Court duel. After he died, Cummings’s heirs donated his Model 1905 Smith & Wesson Hand-Ejector revolver to the Minnesota Historical Society. This .38 gun is the very weapon Cummings fired at Dillinger on that fateful day. Today it is a vivid link to an exciting - if not terribly proud - chapter of Minnesota history.

Matt Anderson, Objects Curator

Learn More:

• Discover more resources on gangsters in St. Paul at the Library’s “History Topics” page.
• Purchase the Minnesota Historical Society Press book, John Dillinger Slept Here, by Paul Maccabee.
• Study Paul Maccabee’s St. Paul Gangster History Research Collection, in the Society’s library.

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Munsingwear, Minnesota’s giant in underwear production, created knit underwear suitable for the entire family.  Marketing this underwear engaged even the family’s youngest.  Parents were encouraged to dress their children in “perfect fitting, long wearing, non-irritating” union suits.  Children were encouraged to bring their doll to be included in the Munsingwear family; or, in the 1930s, 10 cents would get you two doll undershirts by mail.

Incorporated in 1887 as Northwestern Knitting Company, with a later change in name to Munsingwear, the company produced knit goods in Minneapolis for over 100 years.   This undershirt from the Munsingwear archives looks like an advertising sample but is more likely an example of proper knitwear for dressing a favorite doll and encouraging repeat customers.

Linda McShannock, Objects Curator

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Three-dimensional objects in the Society’s collection come in all shapes and sizes. While most are small enough to display in a glass case, others take up more room. Such is the case with one of my favorites, a 1955 Ford Customline Sedan. The car is one of our most recent acquisitions, and currently is on display in the Minnesota’s Greatest Generation exhibit. The Ford has a special use history, having belonged to three generations of a single family. While that story is told in one of our podcasts, in this space I’d like to focus on the car itself.

The Customline series was Ford’s mid-line entry. It was fancier than the spartan Mainline, but not as well-equipped as the Fairlane model. Ford built more than 235,000 four door (or “Fordor,” to use the company’s clever spelling) Customlines in 1955, making it one of the most popular models. The 1955 cars are distinguished by their wrap-around windshields and “egg crate” grilles, as well as their optional seat belts and air conditioners - both Ford firsts that year.

This car is somewhat unique among our objects in being so well-documented, beyond the family’s own recollections. The car’s serial number, A5PG167947, yields all sorts of information once it is decoded. The “A” identifies the engine as a six-cylinder overhead cam with 101 horsepower. The “5″ denotes the model year of 1955. The “P” designates the place of production as the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul. The “G” identifies the body style, while the numerals indicate the car’s consecutive unit number. Other codes reveal the car’s body type, trim work, and color - “Mountain Green” in this case.

The sedan is equipped with a three-speed “Fordomatic” automatic transmission, an AM radio (added in the early 1970s but of the appropriate vintage), and Ford’s “Magic Air” system, which allowed the cabin to heat up and the windows to defrost much faster - certainly handy in Minnesota. While the car does have seat belts, they are after-market add-ons, and not original Ford components. Other custom features installed by the owners include plastic seat covers, a Goldy Gopher window decal, and a loud klaxon affectionately described as an “oogah” horn.

All in all, it’s a pretty special piece. The car was built in Minnesota and driven in Minnesota by the same family for three generations. It relates to transportation, manufacturing, and - in the context in which it is displayed now - post-war consumer culture. And did I mention that it has just 42,300 original miles?

Matt Anderson, Objects Curator

Learn More:

• View the podcast on the car’s family history
• Explore the Minnesota’s Greatest Generation project
• Share your own story of Minnesota’s Greatest Generation

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This past winter I organized the exhibition Minnesota Prints and Printmakers, 1900-1945 which is on view at the James J. Hill House through the spring and summer of 2009. The exhibition of over 50 prints by 42 artists explores an exciting chapter in the history of art making in Minnesota. This period witnessed a revival of the centuries old etching process followed by the introduction of New Deal era innovations in color lithography and serigraphy. Minnesota Prints and Printmakers celebrates the genius of the artists working between 1900 and 1945.

It was a joy to review many of the society’s collection of more than 800 prints from this time period. One subject that emerged as a favorite were etchings and engravings of Duluth and the North Shore. Just as it does today, the shores of Lake Superior attracted artists in the first half of the 20th century. Included are five of my favorite images that are in the exhibition.

Learn More:

• Exhibit at the James J. Hill House Gallery, Minnesota Prints and Printmakers, 1900 - 1945
• Book by MHS Press, Minnesota Prints and Printmakers, 1900 - 1945

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If this blog were called “favorite people” mine would hands down be Ignatius Donnelly. Since it is not I’ll  work him in in another way. How ‘bout a map of the town Donnelly planned as the Chicago of the north?

George P. Hopkins

Plan of the city of Nininger, Dakotah County, Minnesota.

Philadelphia: T. Sinclair’s Lith.

The economy was booming in this area before the Panic of 1857 and Minnesota was platted, or laid out, for enough towns to accommodate a population fifteen times the state’s actual numbers! One territorial legislator with a sense of humor, noting the alarming number of proposed towns, offered legislation setting aside 1/3 of Minnesota for agriculture.

Nininger City, near present day Hastings, was typical of the real-estate speculator’s dreams to capitalize on the territorial boom, except that it was Ignatius Donnelly who promoted this particular town as the “Chicago of the North.” Donnelly partnered in this venture with John Nininger, brother-in-law of Alexander Ramsey. Nininger’s wife noted that “two heads were better than one even if one - even if one should be a ‘Sour Kraut’ and the other a ‘Paddy.’” Donnelly promoted the town as far away as Scotland through speeches, a newspaper, and an Emigrant Aid Association. By the summer of 1857 the “city” reached the point of having nearly one hundred houses, a school, an Atheneum, and a modest cultural life, but water was still being brought up from the river by oxen. The fate of Nininger City was hurt when Hastings won the designation of county seat, but its fate was sealed in August of ‘57 when credit tightened [is this starting to sound familiar?] and banks called in their western paper. Speculative ventures like these “paper towns” were hardest hit. The depression also dried up the land grant program for railroads and the proposed Nininger, St. Peter, and Western Railroad, a necessary component to the town’s success, was a casualty.  Donnelly’s nearly realized dream of becoming a millionaire vanished.

My favorite part of this favorite things story occurs early on. The ne’er-do-well John Donnelly almost sabotaged the project, and the economic well being of his little brother Ignatius, by “misbehaving” in while in Nininger. When John returned to Philadelphia he proclaimed to the very people Ignatius was trying to interest in investing in his project that “Hell is a better place than Nininger City.”

For a further list of these pre-panic ghost towns see Brad Oftelie’s carto-bibliography Territorial Plat Maps of Minnesota.

Note: One of the two copies of this map in the MHS collection has a familiar ownership signature written in red on the face of the map. It reads, with a flourish, “A. J. Hill.” Alfred J. Hill was born in London in 1823 and migrated to the U. S. as a 33 year old. Soon after settling in St. Paul Hill served in the Civil War in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. It is his collection that forms the core of our library of over 22,000 Minnesota maps.

Patrick Coleman, Acquisitions Librarian and Map Curator

Learn More:

• Map Collections at the Minnesota Historical Society
• Minnesota Place Names

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One of my favorite things in the Collection is this simple electoral ballot for Abraham Lincoln, from the 1860 election. It is the first presidential election Minnesota as a state was able to participate in, and one that turned out to be tremendously important for both our state and the country. From the Civil War to the Homestead Act to building railroads, Lincoln was important to the future of Minnesota although he never set foot here.

Learn More:

• Lincoln Bicentennial Homepage

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Myers-Rich, Paulette. Ghost poems for the living: 13 sonnets by Shakespeare with distillations and images. Saint Paul: Traffic Street Press, 2005.

One of my favorite things in the MHS Library Collection is a fine press book by Paulette Myers-Rich, Ghost poems for the living: 13 sonnets by Shakespeare with distillations and images.

The beauty of this work is really beyond description; to hold it in one’s hands is a joy. It is perfectly constructed, bound using linen cloth and flax papers created by the artist and letterpress printed on photo rag paper in an edition of 26.

What I love best about it is its simplicity and honesty; the whole design lends credence to its story. The story is the oldest there is, of love and loss and memory. In the book, Paulette presents a Shakespearian sonnet (which is about as good as it can possibly get in my estimation) with a subtle image of a recently dead flower above. On the following page is her “distillation,” which consists of a negative image of the flower, and a new poem, which is created by removing carefully chosen words from the Shakespeare sonnet. Paulette’s poetic skills shine through her careful choices for removal. The new poems are not Shakespeare, but they are not trying to be; they are something new, and still deeply beautiful. I believe this act gets to the point of dealing with loss; something is removed, yet something new can be created.

Come see it! It is available in our Library for viewing upon request. Not surprisingly, it won the award for the best fine press book at the 2006 Minnesota Book Awards.

Lori Williamson, Acquisitions Coordinator

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