Catalog
March of the Governors, Governor #2, Alexander Ramsey
Paul Nelson and David BlyAlexander Ramsey did not have it easy. He was orphaned at age ten and worked as a store clerk and a carpenter before finding his vocation in politics. He served two terms in Congress from Pennsylvania and for his service to the Whig Party was rewarded, if…
March of the Governors, Governor #1, Henry Hastings Sibley
Paul Nelson and Ken PetersonHenry Hastings Sibley Podcast Link This is the first in a new series of podcasts. We call it March of the Governors because we will examine the lives and careers of governors of the State of Minnesota, one by one. We start with our first governor, Henry…
Ramsey County History – Winter 2021: “Take a Hike: A Century of Walks with the St. Paul Hiking Club”
Bob Tholkes, with Meredith CummingsTake 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 YousoWe 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, AuthorTwin 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 NelsonA 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. GoldsteinThe 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 NelsonMinnesota’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 WingerdMassacre 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…