Three-ounce bag of Arbuckle’s Ariosa coffee beans. Manufactured by Arbuckle Brothers in New York, New York between 1891 and 1900.

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

Chromolithographed paper valentine created between 1890 and 1900.

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

Learn more:

• Believe Me True: Victorian Valentines, 1840–1900.
• Valentine’s Day collections

Horse-drawn delivery wagon adapted for use by Dr. Peter Mark, a manufacturer and purveyor of patent medicines active during the 1890s. All four sides of the wagon are decorated with faded stenciled or painted designs advertising Dr. Mark’s patent medicines, including “Sarsaparilla for the Blood” and “Mark’s Lung Balsam.”

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

Bobbin lace-making pillow and wooden stand.  Used during the 1890s by an Austrian immigrant to the United States.

Coat owned and worn during the 1890s 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 silk winter coat is lined with angora wool and features a paisley-like motif popular during the Aesthetic Movement.

To celebrate this year’s Minnesota State Fair, the Item of the Day blog is offering  a series of posts featuring artifacts, art and photographs from fairs past. Look for a new post every weekday beginning today and ending on August 31. The 2012 fair opens today (August 23) in Falcon Heights.

Otto Norquist, Minnesota State Fair (1890).  Oil on canvas.  Collection Minnesota Historical Society. Gift of Mabel Norquist, Mrs. Frances Ogren and Elbert Norquist.

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

Shoes worn by aviator and stunt pilot Charles “Speed” Holman of Minneapolis during his babyhood and early childhood, 1898-1903.  The shoes have leather uppers and soles and close with metal buttons.   Holman died in an air show accident in Omaha, Nebraska in 1931.

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

Pocket watch taken from the hand of a victim of the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894 in Hinckley, Minnesota.  The watch has a silver alloy case and a white porcelain face and was manufactured in 1884 by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Illinois.

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

Fold-out souvenir photo album purchased in Japan by John W. Schmidt of the United States Army 21st Infantry Band during the Spanish-American War (1898-99). The covers are of lacquered wood and are painted with an image of a boating party in a mountain landscape. Opened from one side, the images are colorized scenes of Nagasaki, Japan. Opened from the other, the photos show geishas in various domestic scenes.

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

Hammond brand Multiplex typewriter with a removable metal cover japanned in a glossy black finish.   The typewriter is made of an unidentified white metal (perhaps nickel or tin-plated brass) and other metal parts that are japanned with a matte black finish.  A stamped serial number (234081G2) is visible on the left rear corner of the typewriter. Purportedly used by William Watts Folwell to write his book Minnesota History.  Made in the 1890s.