History Revealed: Slavery's Reach
2019-12-10 19:00 (America/Chicago) | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Christopher Lehman, Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State

History Revealed Series
December 10, 2019
Tuesday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
When American slavery was legal, Minnesota’s residents sold real estate to investors who enslaved African Americans in the South. This presentation looks at Minnesota’s communities and institutions that benefited from plantation money, the enslavers who bought the land, and the slaves whose labor made the money for investment possible.
Dr. Christopher P. Lehman is a professor of ethnic studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. He has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Center for African and African American Research. His articles have appeared in Minnesota History magazine, and he is the author of the book Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State.
2019 History Revealed Programs
For 2019 History Revealed programs, see https://www.rchs.com/news/history-revealed-2019/
New programs are being added.

History Revealed: Relentless Business of Treaties
2019-11-07 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Martin Case, The Relentless Business of Treaties
Thursday, November 7, 2019
7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No registration needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
The story of “western expansion” is a familiar one: US government agents, through duplicity and force, persuaded Native Americans to sign treaties that gave away their rights to the land. But this framing, argues Martin Case, hides a deeper story. Land cession treaties were essentially the act of supplanting indigenous kinship relationships to the land with a property relationship. And property is the organizing principle upon which US society is based.
US signers represented the relentless interests that drove treaty making: corporate and individual profit, political ambition, and assimilationist assumptions of cultural superiority. The lives of these men illustrate the assumptions inherent in the property system—and the dynamics by which it spread across the continent. In this book, for the first time, Case provides a comprehensive study of the treaty signers, exposing their business ties and multigenerational interrelationships through birth and marriage. Taking Minnesota as a case study, he describes the groups that shaped US treaty making to further their own interests: interpreters, traders, land speculators, bureaucrats, officeholders, missionaries, and mining, timber, and transportation companies.

Martin Case, freelance researcher and writer, was a key participant in the development of Why Treaties Matter, a collaboration of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, the Minnesota Humanities Center, and the Smithsonian Institute, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
2019 History Revealed Programs
For 2019 History Revealed programs, see https://www.rchs.com/news/history-revealed-2019/
New programs are being added.

History Revealed: Under Ground
2019-10-03 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Megan Marsnik: Under Ground

History Revealed Series
October 3, 2019
Thursday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
Like many stories of revolution and uprising, Under Ground has passionately-spirited, colorful protagonists and deeply-hated antagonists. It chronicles shootouts at labor rallies, guns transported to and from secret bunkers, fights in brothels, police corruption, xenophobia, and false imprisonment. It features a cast of historical figures including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, and socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs. It is about courage and consequences. But unlike most novels written about the labor movement in the U.S., this novel is told from the perspective of a strong, immigrant woman, who reminds us that there are things worth dying for, but more importantly, there are things to live for.
Centering on a young woman named Katka, a Slovenian immigrant who gets involved in the Iron Range miners’ strike of 1916, Under Ground is the first novel that we are highlighting as part of our History Revealed series. Inspired by real people and historical events, expertly researched, with a strong sense of place and character, the novel not only covers the strike of 1916, but also labor history, women on the Iron Range and immigration in the early 1900s.
Megan Marsnik is the granddaughter of Slovenian immigrants, the daughter of union activists, and a union member herself. She was born and raised in Biwabik, a small town on Minnesota’s Iron Range settled primarily by Eastern European and Scandinavian immigrants. Marsnik earned her MFA in writing and poetics from Naropa University in Boulder, CO, where she won the Jack Kerouac Award for outstanding prose. She teaches creative writing and philosophy to high school students in Minneapolis. “Under Ground,” her debut novel, is steeped in Minnesota history and is this year’s Star Tribune summer serial.
2019 History Revealed Programs

See the History Revealed 2019 information page for updates and a list of programs.
Or check our Calendar for these and other programs at the Gibbs Farm, and more!

History Revealed: Children of Lincoln 1860-1876
2019-09-05 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
William D. Green: The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits of Black Opportunity in Minnesota, 1860-1876
History Revealed Series
September 5, 2019
Thursday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
Framed around four white champions of African Americans in Minnesota, The Children of Lincoln reveals a little known but critical chapter in the state’s history as it intersects with the broader account of race in America. It reveals a pattern of racial paternalism, describing how even “enlightened” white Northerners would come to embrace policies that reinforced a notion of black inferiority.

William D. Green is professor of history at Augsburg University and author of The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits of Black Opportunity in Minnesota, 1860-1876, which is a finalist for the Minnesota Non-Fiction category of the 2019 Minnesota Book Awards, to be awarded in April. He is also the author of Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865–1912 (winner of the Hognander Minnesota History Award) and A Peculiar Imbalance: The Rise and Fall of Racial Equality in Minnesota, 1837–1869, both published by University of Minnesota press. He is vice president of the Minnesota Historical Society.
2019 History Revealed Programs

See the History Revealed 2019 information page for updates and a list of programs.
Or check our Calendar for these and other programs at the Gibbs Farm, and more!

History Revealed: Queer Voices
2019-08-01 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Queer Voices Panel Discussion

History Revealed Series
August 1, 2019
Thursday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
Join us at the East Side Freedom Library for a panel discussion and readings from the new publication, Queer Voices.
Since its beginnings in 1993, the Queer Voices reading series has featured both emerging and established Minnesota-based writers of the LGBTQIA+ community. With a track record of more than twenty years, the series has become a national model and one of Minnesota’s most important literary institutions. It is reputed to be the longest-running curated queer reading series in the country.
In this volume, series curators John Medeiros and Andrea Jenkins and facilitator Lisa Marie Brimmer present the finest poetry, fiction, and nonfiction pieces by the presenters. Their work, generated and performed in a powerful space of understanding, explores the material of life without internal or external censorship. Living, loving, working, learning, playing, reflecting, knowing, inventing, and being—these magnificent queer voices affirm the importance of civil literacy and the power of vulnerability.
The following contributors will be part of the panel, other editors and contributors will be joining us:
Stephanie Chrismon
Christina Glendenning
Bronson Lemer
Nasreen Mohamed
Michael Kiesow Moore
William Reichard
Morgan Grayce Willow
Books will be available for purchase.
2019 History Revealed Programs

See the History Revealed 2019 information page for updates and a list of programs.
Or check our Calendar for these and other programs at the Gibbs Farm, and more!

History Revealed: Peoples Library
2019-07-18 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Greg Gaut, Reinventing the Peoples Library

History Revealed Series
July 18, 2019
Thursday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
Author Greg Gaut will present his new book, Reinventing the People’s Library, which traces the history of the Arlington Hills Library, one of three Carnegie Libraries in Saint Paul, and its reinvention as the East Side Freedom Library. More than the history of a building, the book is the story of the East Side community, the history of immigration in Saint Paul, and the role that libraries have played in the development of Minnesota.
Greg Gaut earned his doctorate from the University of Minnesota and taught history at St. Mary’s University in Winona until his retirement in 2011. Since then he has focused on historic preservation, preparing nominations for the National Register of Historic Places and for landmark status under local preservation ordinances. He has written articles for Minnesota History magazine and has twice won the David Gebhard Award for best article on Minnesota’s built environment. He has also written Laird’s Legacy: A History of the Winona Public Library.
2019 History Revealed Programs

See the History Revealed 2019 information page for updates and a list of programs.
Or check our Calendar for these and other programs at the Gibbs Farm, and more!

History Revealed: Cultures Coming Together
2019-06-06 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Krista Finstad Hanson: Cultures Coming Together in St. Paul: 100 Years of Immigration and Resettlement
History Revealed Series
June 6, 2019
Thursday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
Learn about 100 years of immigration history to St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2019, the International Institute of Minnesota is celebrating 100 years of service to the existing ethnic groups and new groups of refugees, immigrants, and asylees in our community. By uncovering the history of this non-profit agency, historian Krista Finstad Hanson will shine a light on the history of immigration to St. Paul, the worldwide crises and US government policy behind the waves of new immigrants or refugees, and the impact immigration has had on our community.

Krista Finstad Hanson is the author of two travel guides to museums in historic houses: Minnesota Open House and Wisconsin’s Historic Houses and Living History Museums. She has also written a children’s science textbook, The Great Barrier Reef: A Natural Wonder. Her writings focus on architectural history, travel, and homes, and since 1992 she has written for such a number of local and national publications.
Featured image courtesy of International Institute of Minnesota, 1920 Christmas party at the International Institute.

History Revealed: Diesel Heart
2019-05-07 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Melvin Carter Jr.: Diesel Heart
with Marvin R. Anderson

History Revealed Series
May 7, 2019
Tuesday, 7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
Full of humor, toughness, hard work, and surprising vulnerability, this book shows the bitter weight of racism and the power of principled resistance.

The doctors gathered around, passing the stethoscope from hand to hand, taking turns listening to my chest. Finally, the lead doctor said, “Now, that’s what I call a heartbeat!”
I snapped, “Whaddaya mean?”
“It’s like hearing a diesel engine inside a Mustang body,” he said.
Melvin Whitfield Carter Jr., the father of St. Paul’s current mayor, is a true son of Rondo, the city’s storied African American neighborhood. He was born in a city divided along racial lines and rich in cultural misunderstanding. Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, he witnessed the destruction of his neighborhood by the I-94 freeway—and he found his way to fighting and trouble.
But Carter turned his life around. As a young man, he enlisted in the US Navy. He used his fighting ability to survive racist treatment, winning boxing matches and respect. And as an affirmative action hire in the St. Paul Police Department, facing prejudice at every turn, this hardworking, talented, and highly principled officer fought to protect the people of the city he calls home.
Diesel Heart is the story of a leader who created a powerful family legacy by standing up for what is right, even in the face of adversity. Marvin R. Anderson will be joining Melvin Carter in an informal, engaging and enlightening conversation, sharing Mr. Carter’s story and the history of a neighborhood and a city during a turbulent time.
Copies of Diesel Heart will be available for purchase and signing.
Melvin Whitfield Carter Jr. served as an officer in the St. Paul Police Department for twenty-eight years. He is the founder and executive director of Save Our Sons.
Marvin Roger Anderson was raised in Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood before leaving to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and then received his J.D. from Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. After serving int he Peace Corp, he was an ordinance drafter for the city of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights before earning his Master of Arts from the University of Minnesota’s School of Library Science. He was appointed State Law Librarian in 1980. Anderson’s tenure as State Law Librarian spanned 22 years and included many accomplishments including the “Everybody Wins” reading program, which paired volunteer legal practitioners with elementary school students to encourage a life-long love of reading.

History Revealed: Modern Bonds
2019-03-12 19:00 - 20:30
Ramsey County Historical Society Presents
Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Modern Bonds: Redefining Community in Early 20th C Saint Paul
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
7:00 pm
East Side Freedom Library
If you missed the presentation, you can watch it at the following links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EastSideFreedomLibrary/videos/601328617047594/
YouTube (somewhat better quality): https://youtu.be/MSZaVKkHuEw
Free and open to all. No reservations needed.
Join RCHS for History Revealed, our program series featuring presentations and tours from the best of local historians, authors and archaeologists, with a wide range of topics drawn from the heritage and traditions of Ramsey County.
What does “community” mean and how did it come to signify everything from close friends to the entire world? Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello returns to St. Paul to talk about her new book, Modern Bonds: Redefining Community in Early Twentieth Century St. Paul, which considers how community was reconceptualized in the first decades of the twentieth century. Using St. Paul as an example, she mines a wide range of materials to show how everyday practices and materials — fiction, photography, architecture, public parks, the winter carnivals — unite and divide citizens across lines of gender, class, and race, while remaking the definition of “community.” Duclos-Orsello makes sense of the complex set of activities, policies and practices that not only gave birth to modern America but continue to shape life today. In this interactive lecture/discussion she will share key ideas and examples from the book with the goal of opening up conversations and motivating action in the here and now as much as offering a new synthesis of cultural, social and intellectual history of the early 20th century.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
Elizabeth Ann Duclos-Orsello is professor and chair of interdisciplinary studies and coordinator of American studies at Salem State University.
