Audio tape cartridge of Bing Crosby’s music album “I Wish You a Merry Christmas,” manufactured by 3M Company, Revere-Wollensak Division, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1962.

For details, view this tape in our collections database.

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In case you missed it last Friday, our very own Adam Scher was on Almanac talking about Minnesota Inventions. Watch it here:

http://www.mnvideovault.org/index.php?id=24231&select_index=6&popup=yes#6

For more on Minnesota’s food innovations, see our Inventions of Champions: How Minnesotans Changed Breakfast podcast.

Baseball board game manufactured by the 3M Company in 1966.  The game’s box contains a board and play chart, along with the following pieces:  spinner card; balls/strikes/outs card; red plastic dice; pencil; black plastic game pieces; red plastic game pieces; blue and white cards; red and white cards; and a game brochure.

For more details, view the game in our collections catalog.

Metal identification badge used by Lawrence B. Paist while working as a lighting engineer consultant for 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, between 1945 and 1950.

Thermo-Fax brand duplicating machine (model #12, Serial #103) used at the University of Minnesota from 1951-64.  It was the first single-step dry process copying machine used in the state of Minnesota.  Dr. Carl S. Miller invented the original dry copying process while working at the 3M Company in the late 1940s.  The duplicator has a hinged lid with a handle, under which the documents to be copied were placed; four document trays; a panel with on-off switch, button, and dark-light dial; and storage space underneath.

Portable Revere T-2000 reel-to-reel tape recorder housed in an integral metal carrying case with a detachable lid.  Manufactured by 3M Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, circa 1960.

3M created this unique license plate to commemorate the visit of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to the Twin Cities on June 3, 1990.

3M employee Dr. Carl S. Miller invented the original dry copy process, based on infrared absorption, in the late 1940s. By 1951, Minnesota’s first single step dry process machine, the Thermo-Fax Duplication (pictured here), had been installed at the University of Minnesota where it remained in use until 1964. It is now part of the Minnesota Historical Society’s 3D objects collection.