Published November 17, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard A vigil has been kept for the last three days at the Fourth Precinct headquarters of the Minneapolis police on Plymouth Avenue North. Members of Black Lives Matter are demanding justice in the case of Jamar Clark, who died today after being shot in the head by police […]
Published November 17, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard The nation was grappling with twin threats in June 1973, when a photographer named Donald Emmerich visited Minneapolis. The “urban crisis” had dovetailed with anxieties about the environment to make many Americans question the viability of city living. The newly created Environmental Protection Agency had hired a team […]
Published November 4, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Yesterday was election day. The polls were pretty quiet in Minneapolis. But this civic occasion gives us an opportunity to revisit a long-forgotten political campaign. This broadside was created by Jack Baker, a candidate for Second Ward Alderman in 1973. This leaflet casts Baker as a fairly conventional […]
Published October 13, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard This week Minneapolis marked “indigenous people’s day,” a holiday conceived as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day. This commemoration serves as a reminder that we live in the land of the Dakota, who were pushed out of the area in the formative years of the metropolis. When Permelia Atwater […]
Published October 8, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Sumner Library is celebrating its centennial this Saturday. You may shrug. But this really is a cause for jubilation. And a moment to contemplate the diverse history of one of Minnesota’s most interesting neighborhoods. This lovely little library on the city’s north side–built with funds provided by Andrew […]
Published September 22, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard In Minneapolis in 1946, it was virtually impossible to find a place to live. Years of economic depression and war had stalled home construction even as the city’s population continued to swell. And demobilization had escalated the wartime housing shortage into a crisis. The “train stations filled and […]
Published September 8, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Labor Day means that summer is over. Sad as I am to say goodbye to warm weather and a relaxed schedule, I count myself lucky that I enjoyed lots of vacation time during this lovely time of year. Which makes me very different from working women in Minneapolis […]
Published September 1, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard In August, 1936, Minneapolis lost a native son. “One arid afternoon, the people buried Floyd Olson under the trees by a lake,” journalist Eric Sevareid remembered. “When the news hawkers shouted the announcement from their corners, the noises of the street died down and their voices with the […]
Published August 24, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard Students return to school in the Minneapolis Public Schools today. These two photos celebrate the start of a new academic year. At the top we have a 1925 scene from a “hobby fair” at Burroughs Elementary School, which was an opportunity for the children to share their hobbies […]
Published December 9, 2015 by Kirsten Delegard The shores of the lake we now know as Calhoun have always been the site of play. In August, 1834, a missionary named Samuel Pond wrote his first letter to his mother from his new home on the banks of this lake in the northern interior. He […]