Henry Whipple St. Clair poses for a studio portrait circa 1885, when he was a 15 year-old student attending Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota. St. Clair, an Episcopal deacon of Dakota Indian heritage ordained by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple in 1899, served communities throughout Minnesota and South Dakota and was an army chaplain during World War II.

For more information about the St. Clair family, visit their biographical page at In Honor of the People: Exploring American Indian culture in the Bishop Whipple collections.

For details about the photograph of St. Clair, visit our online collections database.

Oil on canvas painting made by Pinky Marcius-Simons between 1880 and 1889.

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

Wood and brass viewfinder, or stereoscope, patented in 1866 and manufactured during the 1880s. Stereoscopes combine the twin images of stereoptical slides within one plane of vision, producing a three-dimensional effect. The viewfinder was grasped at the bottom and a slide inserted into the slot at one end, as shown in the picture below.

Example of a stereoscopic slide:

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

Martha E. Clark Hall, who worked as the nurse of Laura Furness, poses with her charge for a photograph taken in 1882 or 1883. Laura Furness was the daughter of Marion Ramsey Furness and Charles Eliot Furness, and the granddaughter of Minnesota governor Alexander Ramsey.

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

Three-dimensional Christmas card depicting a rigged sailing ship (the name on its hull reads, “FORTUNA”).  Two flaps (one resembling a dock) fold outward to form a base for the fully-extended ship and its three-dimensional deck and hull.  The words, “A Merry Christmas!” are printed on the dock flap.   Printed circa 1880.

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

Learn more:

• Season’s Greetings: Highlights from the Minnesota Historical Society’s holiday card collection

Steel blade ice skates with wood soles, brass upper support plates, and leather strap uppers with black-painted steel buckles.  The buckles rely on tension to secure them rather than on a tongue or prong, so there are no holes in the leather straps.  These skates were for use with a separate pair of shoes or boots.  A steel spike inside each heel supports and stabilizes the heel in the skate.  Patented by Douglas Rogers & Company of Northwich, Connecticut on March 17, 1882.

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

Learn more:

• History on Ice!: a podcast about the history of ice skating in Minnesota
• Ice skating collections

Silk, velvet, taffeta and satin crazy quilt attributed to Anna and Orena Teachout, dressmakers from Farmington, Minnesota who worked in Owatonna and St. Paul.  Cordelia Teachout may have also contributed to the quilt’s construction.  The quilt is accompanied by an 1885 State Fair ribbon which reads, “27th Annual State Fair/ J.H. Mahler Co./ Carriages, Sleighs, Harness etc./ St. Paul/ 1885.”

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

Mantle owned and used during the 1880s by Martha Aurelia Langdon Truesdale, daughter of Minnesota engineer Robert Bruce Langdon (1826-1895) and wife of Arizona Territory Supreme Court Justice Hiram C. Truesdale (1860-1897).   The mantle is of brown silk with tan and taupe palm leaf designs on velvet.  It is lined in blue silk and features bobbled epaulettes on each shoulder as well as embroidered, winged sleeves.  Bobbles attach to the bottoms of the sleeve wings.

Doll with accompanying cradleboard and infant made by Dakota Indians circa 1880. The adult doll has a sawdust-stuffed cotton body and painted facial features.  She wears a fringed buckskin dress with a beaded bodice and hem. Hair is attached to the head; beaded hide moccasins are sewn to the feet. The cradleboard and the infant doll it holds are both trimmed with beadwork and red stroud cloth.

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

To view more examples of Dakota material culture, visit Ochethi Šakowiŋ – The Seven Council Fires.

Leather garter or knee band made by Dakota Indians in Mandan, North Dakota in 1888.  The garter has hide thong ties and dyed quillwork decorations.  Its lower edge has rawhide thong fringe wrapped with dyed quillwork; the end of each strand terminates in a metal cone with dyed eagle feathers projecting from the larger end.

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

To view more examples of Dakota material culture, visit Ochethi Šakowiŋ – The Seven Council Fires.