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March of the Governors: The Farmer-Labor Party

Paul Nelson with Fred Johnson, Tom O'Connell, Tyler Norris Taylor.

March of the Governors The Farmer-Labor Party March of the Governors Podcast #26 Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party was the most successful third party in American history. Between 1930 and 1938, the party far outpaced both traditional parties in vote-getting,…

March of the Governors #24: Elmer Benson

Paul Nelson & Tom O'Connell with Steve Trimble

March of the Governors, Governor #24 Elmer Austin Benson (Series Podcast #25) We are unlikely to see a politician like Elmer Benson ever again. The small-town, left-wing banker served briefly as a US Senator before becoming governor. He was a genuine political…

March of the Governors #23: Hjalmar Petersen

Paul Nelson and Tyler Taylor

March of the Governors, Governor #23 Hjalmar Petersen (Series Podcast #24) Hjalmar Petersen (1890-1968) holds many distinctions as a governor of Minnesota: our only Dane, our only Hjalmar, our last immigrant (so far), our only governor from Askov (so far), and the…

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 – Spring 2022: “The Man and the Can: Patrick J. Towle and the St. Paul Origins of Log Cabin Syrup”

Matthew M. Thomas

The Man and the Can: Patrick J. Towle and the St. Paul Origins of Log Cabin Syrup Author: Mathew M. Thomas In 1888, after a grocery business failed in Chicago, Patrick J. Towle relocated to St. Paul with a new focus on packaging and selling a single product—maple-flavored syrup. Settling on…

History Revealed: Harriet Scott

Jane Henderson

Settler Colonialism Seen Through the Life of Harriet Scott With Jane Henderson History Revealed Series Program Date: Thursday, February 10, 2022 Video on YouTube In partnership with the East Side Freedom Library and the Roseville Library. Scholars of institutionalized racism have used the term…

Mairs & Power at 90: A Rich History, A Bright Future

Dave Beal

Over the last nine decades, nearly all the firms in the tumultuous and unforgiving financial services industry have been rolled up, split up, spun out, or blown up. A shining exception: St. Paul’s Mairs & Power, the oldest continuously independent investment management firm in Minnesota and one of relatively few…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2021: “How It Started; How It’s Going: Land O’Lakes Celebrates Ten Decades of Innovation”

Karen Mellott-Fosier

How It Started; How It’s Going: Land O’Lakes Celebrates Ten Decades of Innovation Author: Karen Mellott-Fosier Arden Hills-based Land O’Lakes, Inc. celebrates a milestone birthday in 2021. A century ago on June 7, 1921, representatives from 320 of the state’s co-op creameries gathered in the old state capitol…

History Revealed: Sinking Middle Class

David Roediger, August Nimtz, Kieran Knutson, Megan Brown

The Sinking Middle Class David Roediger with August Nimtz, Kieran Knutson and Megan Brown History Revealed Series Program Date: 02/11/2021 Video on YouTube In partnership with the East Side Freedom Library. “Middle class” is an ideologically shaped and deployed term in American culture…