Item of the Day

Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey throws out the first pitch for the Minneapolis Millers at Nicollet Park. Captured by a Minneapolis newspaper photographer on April 27, 1948.

For details, view the photograph in our online collections database.

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Table used between 1945 and 1960 at John’s Place (Yuen Faung Low), a Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Opened in 1883 as the Canton Cafe, it was the first Chinese restaurant in the state. The table features floral and bird mother-of-pearl marquetry on its legs, apron and the frame around the off-white marble slab top. The square columnar legs terminate in block feet; the apron incorporates Chinese ideograms into its inlay.

For details, view the table in our online collections database.

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Tintype photograph of Lillian Victoria Thayer taken circa 1870.

For details, view the tintype in our online collections database.

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Plastic pull toy manufactured by Cragstan Vanda in Hong Kong circa 1970.  The toy (labeled Wacky Melon on each of its four wheels) combines the shape of a watermelon with human and insect features, including a melon stem nose, eyes, mouth, and antennae.  When the string attached to its stem-nose is pulled, wing-like slices of watermelon swing in and out of cavities inside its body.

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Flyer or Saxony type spinning wheel made of oak with three turned legs supporting the stock. The wooden treadle shaft connects to twelve-spoke wheel. The flyer assembly is intact with spindle, bobbin, and flyer. The wheel was made in 1845 in Norway and brought to the United States in 1870 and then to Dakota Territory.

The spinning wheel is featured in the Collections Up Close podcast “They Chose Minnesota: Immigration to the North Star State.”

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A mother poses with her eight daughters in this photograph taken by John Runk circa 1911.

For details, view the photograph in our online collections database.

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 12, 2013.

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Calvert Fredric Spensley and an unidentified companion pose with their catch of fish circa 1900. For details, view the photograph in our online collections database.

The 2013 Minnesota fishing season begins May 11.

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1934 Modern Library edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Director Baz  Luhrmann’s film adaptation of The Great Gatsby opens in theaters on May 10.

Please note the “Discontinued Title” stamped on the front. This edition is the first and only time The Great Gatsby has been out of print since it was originally published in 1925. It is also interesting for Fitzgerald’s own preface, in which he defends his book and dismisses its critics.

For details, view the book in our online collections database.

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United States Army soldier’s homemade sewing kit or “housewife” carried during World War I by James Martineau of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. The corduroy kit is lined in a polished cloth and fastens closed with a dark brown ribbon with a snap sewn to each end. It is folded three times and opens to reveal three inside pockets and a handmade image of the Sacred Heart. Some of the contents may have been added after the kit’s original period of use.

For details, view the housewife in our online collections database.

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This pair of Darby-style iron handcuffs was found in a slave pen in Williamsburg, Virginia during the Civil War. The handcuffs are a fixed size and were probably made in the United States by the Providence Tool Company. The Darby handcuff became obsolete after adjustable handcuffs were invented in 1862.

For details, view the handcuffs in our online collections database.

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