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Ramsey County History – Winter 2021: “Take a Hike: A Century of Walks with the St. Paul Hiking Club”

Bob Tholkes, with Meredith Cummings

Take a Hike: A Century of Walks with the St. Paul Hiking Club Author: Bob Tholkes, with Meredith Cummings On January 15, 1921, twenty-five hardy young people bundled up in their warmest boots, knickers, hiking skirts, and woolen mittens and socks for a six-mile round-trip jaunt on the…

Ramsey County History – Winter 2021: “We Represent:  Evolving Public Art at the Saint Paul City Hall – Ramsey County Courthouse”

Kristina Youso

We Represent:  Evolving Public Art at the Saint Paul City Hall – Ramsey County Courthouse Author: Kristina Youso On August 19, 2020, the public got its first look at four new 16’ x 5’ murals now on display in the council chambers of the Saint Paul City…

Neighborhood Architecture–Irvine Park, Saint Paul: a coloring book.

Jeanne Kosfeld, Illustrator and Richard Kronick, Author

Twin Cities-based illustrator Jeanne Kosfeld and author Richard Kronick have together transformed a simple sketchbook featuring pen and ink drawings into a brief storytelling of the Irvine Park neighborhood’s unique 173-year history. Artists of all ages and abilities may colorize their own imagined versions of these historic edifices, including fanciful…

Ramsey County History – Fall 2020: “A Doctor Ahead of His Time and the Trouble that Followed: The Sexual Life by Charles W. Malchow”

Ryan T. Hurt and Paul Nelson

A Doctor Ahead of His Time and the Trouble that Followed: The Sexual Life by Charles W. Malchow Authors: Ryan T. Hurt and Paul Nelson At the turn of the twentieth century, a progressive doctor named Charles W. Malchow, who worked at Hamline University’s short-lived Department of Medicine, wrote…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2020: “The View from Summit Avenue: Inspiration Point for Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street”

Ralph L. Goldstein

The View from Summit Avenue: Inspiration Point for Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street Author: Ralph L. Goldstein When a young Sinclair Lewis traveled to Saint Paul at the turn of the twentieth century to take his Yale University entrance exams, he found time to explore the city, marveling at…

Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell

Reviewer: Paul Nelson

Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell Sue Leaf Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2020 280 pages; hardcover, 30 b&w plates, $29.95 Newton Horace Winchell deserves to be remembered. He was probably Minnesota’s greatest nineteenth-century scientist, a giant in not only geology but paleontology and…

Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History

Reviewer: Mary Lethert Wingerd

Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History Gary Clayton Anderson Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019 384 pages; hardcover, 42 b&w illustrations, 2 maps, $32.95 Did we really need another book about the Dakota War? My response…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2019: “William DeWitt Mitchell: The Other William Mitchell”

Thomas H. Boyd and Douglas R. Heidenreich

William DeWitt Mitchell: The Other William Mitchell Authors: Thomas H. Boyd and Douglas R. Heidenreich “Like Father, Like Son” is a common saying that most certainly applies to this article. Thomas H. Boyd, a St. Paul attorney, and Douglas R. Heidenreich, former dean of the William Mitchell College of…

Ramsey County History – Summer 2019: “One Hundred Years Serving New Americans: The Centennial of the International Institute of Minnesota”

Krista Finstad Hanson

One Hundred Years Serving New Americans: The Centennial of the International Institute of Minnesota Author: Krista Finstad Hanson 2020 Co-Winner of the Ramsey County Historical Society Virginia B. Kunz Award As visitors and clients open the doors to the International Institute of Minnesota in St. Paul, they…