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March of the Governors #22: Floyd B. Olson

Paul Nelson, Fred Johnson, and Tom Beer

March of the Governors #22 Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson (Series Podcast #23) By age thirty, Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson (1891-1936) had been a shabbos goy, a college dropout, a stevedore, and a Wobbly. By age forty, he had served ten years as Hennepin County…

Ramsey County History – Fall 2022: William Mahoney

Jim McCartney

Volume 57, Number 3: Fall 2022 Farmer-Labor Founder William Mahoney and his Battle with Communists Author: Jim McCartney Writer Jim McCartney and William Mahoney, St. Paul mayor (1932-1934), have something in common—a house on Dayton Avenue. The McCartneys have lived there for thirty years. Mahoney owned the home from…

March of the Governors, Governor #19 Joseph AA Burnquist

Paul Nelson and Fred Johnson

March of the Governors, Governor #19 Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist (Series Podcast #20) Joseph Alfred Arner Burnquist (1879-1961), born in Dayton, Iowa, was destined for leadership from an early age. A star student and orator at Carleton, he was in the…

March of the Governors, Governor #18 Winfield Scott Hammond

Paul Nelson and Ken Peterson

March of the Governors, Governor #18 Winfield Scott Hammond (Series Podcast #19) Winfield Scott Hammond (1863-1915) was Minnesota’s eighteenth governor and the last of only four from the Democratic Party (decades before, by merger, it became the DFL.) He was the…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2022: “Traveling Without Aggravation: How Victor H. Green Changed Travel for Black Americans: Green Book Locations in the Historic Rondo Community (1940-1956)” – Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums 2024 History Award Winner and 2024 Virginia B. Kunz Honorable Mention

Nieeta L. Presley

Traveling Without Aggravation: How Victor H. Green Changed Travel for Black Americans: Green Book Locations in the Historic Rondo Community (1940-1956) Author: Nieeta L. Presley Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums 2024 History Award Winner 2024 Virginia B. Kunz Honorable Mention Traveling, especially with young…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2022: “Bob Brown: ‘Paint What You See'”

Paul Nelson

Bob Brown: “Paint What You See” Author: Paul Nelson This is the story of a solitary St. Paul resident named Bob Brown. Attempting to make a living in the midst of the Great Depression was difficult, to say the least, but Brown took long walks around the…

History Revealed: Grasshoppers In My Bed

Terry Swanson & Peggy Stern

Grasshoppers in My Bed: Lillie Belle Gibbs, Minnesota Farm Girl, 1877 Terry Swanson and Peggy Stern History Revealed Series Program Date: Thursday, August 4, 2022 Video on YouTube In partnership with the East Side Freedom Library & Roseville Library Author Terry Swanson…

History Revealed: Daybreak Woman

Jane Lamm Carroll

Daybreak Woman with Jane Lamm Carroll History Revealed Series Program Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 Video on YouTube In partnership with the East Side Freedom Library & Roseville Library A remarkable woman’s life spans nearly a century of peace, invasion, war, exile, return, and…

Grasshoppers in My Bed: Lillie Belle Gibbs, Minnesota Farm Girl 1877

Terry Swanson, Author and Peggy Stern, Illustrator

It is 1876—Christmas day—which just happens to be the eleventh birthday of Lillie Belle Gibbs. Her mother and father present her with a new journal. Now she must decide how to fill the pages. Grasshoppers in her bed, a smudge pot to keep the mosquitos at bay, the one-room schoolhouse…