What's New

The Minnesota History Center's exhibit Green Card Voices: Immigrants Telling Their Life Stories closes at the end of the month on May 27. This exhibit presents a diverse set of stories about coming to Minnesota from a variety of places and circumstances. Similarly, this month's highlighted collection explores the life story of refugees from Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland following World War II. Covering a span of more than 70 years, the Jaroslav and Edeltraud Vnoucek and family papers tell the story of a refugee couple from their early lives in Czechoslovakia, through their early relationship and marriage as displaced persons living in West Germany, to their life in the United States where Jaroslav (Jerry) and Edeltraud (Trudy) settled in Crystal, Minnesota.

Digital copies of the majority of the collection were donated with the papers making quick and remote public access possible. Of particular note are the documents that chronicle their time with the International Refugee Organization and their U.S. naturalization process, photograph albums that illustrate the family's life as refugees and their first years in Minnesota, and correspondence written in Czech to and from family that remained in Czechoslovakia.

New and Updated Finding Aids - April 2019

Name/Abstract	File No.
ARC Minnesota: An Inventory of Its Records	00598
Annual reports, annual meeting materials, subject files, and audio-visual materials documenting the history of a statewide organization devoted to improving the lives of people with developmental disabilities. Includes digital content.
Daniel and Rhoda Belcher Family Film Collection: An Inventory of Their Films	sv000170
This collection contains the home movies of Daniel and Rhoda Belcher. Daniel Belcher was vice-president of the Bemis Brothers Bag Company (Bemis Bros. Bag Co.), Minneapolis. The family lived at 5115 Dupont Avenue South and 1912 Irving Avenue South, Minneapolis and had a summer home in Minnetonka Beach on Lake Minnetonka (present address is 2321 Huntington Point Road East). Footage focuses on the Belcher's three daughters: Carolyn, Rhoda and Lois, and in the later years their grandchildren. Includes digital content.
Beltrami County: Bemidji: Municipal Court: An Inventory of Its Records	gr01560
Minutes (1912-1951), judgment records (1908-1973), civil and criminal registers (1908-1973), default judgment records (1908-1941), and criminal docket cards (1960-1971).
George D. Dayton: An Inventory of His Papers	00743
Correspondence (1873, 1901-1977); photographs (ca. 1950s); Dayton, Winchell, and McDonald genealogical material; newspaper clippings; and an unpublished religious manuscript related to Minneapolis, Minnesota, businessman George Draper Dayton II and family. Includes digital content.
Fergus Falls State Hospital: An Inventory of Its Patient Records	gr00750
Records containing information on patients, many with data on individual patients. Includes digital content.
Film In The Cities: An Inventory of Its Records	00195
Administrative and programmatic records, and photographs and films of a gallery and resource center formed in 1970 to sponsor exhibitions and provide education in the media arts.
First Avenue & 7Th Street Entry: An Inventory of Its Band Files	00233
Band files for First Avenue, a rock and alternative rock music venue in downtown Minneapolis. The files contain some correspondence with bands and/or agents, contracts, attendance and "take" or "numbers" sheets (financial breakdowns), photographs of performers and other promotional materials, tickets, post-performance reviews, and other miscellany. Includes digital content.
Alfred P. Gale and Leona R. Gale: An Inventory of Their Oral History Interview	oh116
The Gales discuss his young life, his travels for odd jobs, his involvement with the Merchant Marine, their farming operation in North Dakota, building a home, their family, selling the farm, and returning to Minnesota. Includes digital content.
Governor's Task Force on Utility Shut-Offs: An Inventory of Its Records	gr01566
Reports, meeting minutes, and subject files of the Governor's Task Force on Utility Shut-Offs.
Grain Belt Breweries: An Inventory of Its Records	00660
Correspondence, minutes, financial records, trademark information, annual reports, scrapbooks, in-house publications, and miscellaneous papers relating to a Minneapolis brewery. Includes digital content.
Jews In Minnesota: An Inventory of Its Oral Histories	oh131
Many of the people interviewed belonged to the second wave of Jewish immigrants who arrived after 1880 from Eastern Europe and settled on the North Side of Minneapolis, creating a distinctive Jewish community of eight thousand people by 1900. Others are first-generation Americans who vividly contrast their parents' lives with their own. This collection of memories reveals the growth, change, and diversity of the community. Includes digital content.
Kittson County: District Court: An Inventory of Its Judgment Records	gr01559
Judgment records of the District Court of Kittson County.
Frederick P. Leavenworth: An Inventory of His Papers	01205
Correspondence (1856-1862), financial papers, two diaries (1855-1860), survey notes (1858-1860), account books (1856-1858, 1867-1870), maps, a brief Dakota-English vocabulary book, and other miscellany of Leavenworth, a surveyor and civil engineer. They pertain largely to his years in Minnesota (1856-1860) surveying and mapping areas in Le Sueur County and in the upper Minnesota River Valley. Includes digital content.
Legislature: Senate: An Inventory of Its Senate Bills	gr00707
Senate bills and resolutions, including engrossments. The 1987-1988 bills are missing.
Links, Inc. Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter: An Inventory of Its Records	01225
Administrative files, event files, debutante cotillion files, and president's files, sound recordings of letters to former president Pamela Alexander, program reports, treasurer's files, and certificates and awards of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, an international, nonprofit volunteer service organization made up of professional women of color. Includes digital content.
Mahnomen County: Extension Office: An Inventory of Its Records	gr01565
Minutes of the Mahnomen County Extension Committee and other groups; and subject files including 4-H articles and handbooks, drill team photographs, extension information, group photo, homemakers achievement night programs and annual booklets, program offerings, and shooting sports activities.
Mille Lacs County: District Court: An Inventory of Its Minutes	gr01561
Minutes of the Mille Lacs County District Court.
Minneapolis Riverfront Redevelopment Oral History Project: An Inventory of Its Oral History Interviews	oh117
A series of interviews conducted by journalist Linda Mack with individuals who were influential in the redevelopment of the Mississippi River riverfront in central Minneapolis. The narrators discuss the social, industrial, architectural and political history of the Minneapolis riverfront, the many and often conflicting plans for its redevelopment, and the actions taken to create the successful urban district that exists in 2008-2009. The project includes 26 interviews with 29 people. An executive summary of the project by interviewer Linda Mack is also included. Includes digital content.
Murray County: Welfare Board: An Inventory of Its Minutes	gr01564
Minutes of the Murray County Welfare Board.
Ernest C. Oberholtzer: An Inventory of His Sound and Visual Collection	sv000035
Films, audiorecordings, and photographs taken by explorer, conservation, and writer, Ernest C. Oberholtzer. The collection documents Oberholtzer's canoe travels, the natural environment, and Ojibwe life in the Minnesota-Ontario border lakes region. Included in this collection are lantern slides documenting Oberholtzer's 1912 canoe trip to Hudson Bay, Canada with Billy Magee. Includes digital content.
Public Art Saint Paul (Organization : Saint Paul, Minn.): An Inventory of Its Save Outdoor Sculpture! Project Files	01300
Administrative and survey files of an outdoor sculpture inventory project in Minnesota conducted by Public Art Saint Paul, a private, non-profit organization that in the 1990s contracted with the Smithsonian Institution and Heritage Preservation, Inc. to conduct an inventory of outdoor sculpture in public places. Files include survey forms, photographs, and background data on individual sculptures and artists.
Ramsey County: St. Paul: Police Department: An Inventory of Its Identification Photograph Cards	gr01563
Mug shots and Bertillon cards kept by the St. Paul Police Department documenting the identification and incarceration of criminals thought to be in the City of St. Paul and surrounding areas from 1891-1913. Each card is identified by a file number.
Ramsey County: St. Paul: School Records: Independent School District No. 625: An Inventory of Its Miscellanous School Materials	gr00531
Photographs, histories, dedication programs, design development proposals, correspondence, reports, newsletters, handbooks, scrapbooks, and other assorted materials documenting over 100 St. Paul elementary, junior high, high, and special schools.
Reed and Hyde Families: An Inventory of Their Papers	00726
Diaries, letters, photographs, and other materials of Louis H. Hyde, his wife Mary B. Reed Hyde, their son Arthur D. Hyde, Mary's father Samuel B. Reed, and other family members focusing on both family and business life, and genealogical material collected on the Hyde and related families. Includes digital content.
Jo Lutz Rollins: An Inventory of Her Artwork Slide Collection	sv000290
Photographs of watercolors painted by Jo Lutz Rollins. All are Minnesota scenes, mainly houses, but also street scenes and miscellaneous buildings.
Saint Louis County: Public Health and Human Services Department: An Inventory of Its Adoption Records	gr01562
St. James Orphan Home admission registers (1900-1920), child history record books (1919-1965), and adoption register (1966-1969), and maternity hospital registers (1922-1953).
St. Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee (Saint Paul, Minn.): An Inventory of Its Records	00160
Articles of incorporation and bylaws (1965-1998), correspondence (1952-2004), minutes (1965-2005), membership lists, newspaper clippings, annual reports, financial information, a scrapbook (1960-1976), photographs (1976?-1995), and related material of a volunteer organization formed in 1955 to promote understanding and fellowship between the two cities. The sister city concept originated from President Dwight Eisenhower's People-to-People Program in 1956. Nagasaki was chosen by the U.N. Secretariat and was the first Asian city to become a U.S. sister city.
Silent Witness National Initiative An Inventory of Its Records	00722
Inspired by Arts Action Against Domestic Violence's Silent Witness Exhibit in Minnesota (1990-1991), Janet Hagberg and other supporters launched a national initiative to reduce incidences of domestic violence in all fifty states. Records include a scrapbook (1993), newletters (1996-1999), press coverage and articles, and documentation of state-level efforts and of the national march and conference held in Washington, D.C. (1997). Includes digital content.
Jannette DeCamp Sweet: An Inventory of Her Family Papers	01301
Papers and a scrapbook of a woman living with her husband and children near Minnesota's Lower Sioux Agency in the 1860s, who was captured and held captive during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Includes correspondence, genealogical materials, photographs, travel diaries, and baby books of several of her descendants, most of whom lived in California.
Twin City Rapid Transit Company: An Inventory of Its Photograph Collection	sv000291
Views of streetcars and work equipment operated by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company and its subsidiaries. Includes exterior and interior views of cars, company shops and yards, Lake Minnetonka express boats, and Wildwood Park.
Jaroslav Vnoucek: An Inventory of His Family Papers	01295
Government documents, appointment books, photographs, correspondence, and family papers documenting the lives of Jaroslav Vnoucek and his wife, Edeltraud Riedl. Majority of materials focus on their emigration following World War II from Czechoslovakia and East Germany to West Germany and finally to Minnesota. English translations of select material written in Czech were provided by Vera Vrtilkova Antosova, Jaroslav's grandniece. Includes digital content.
Watonwan County: Saint James Township: An Inventory of Its Birth and Death Records	gr01567
Birth and death registers (1871-1907), and birth (1907, 1914-1951) and death (1915-1953) certificate records.
Watonwan County: South Branch Township: An Inventory of Its Birth and Death Records	gr01568
Birth and death registers (1872-1907), birth (1908-1946) and death (1908-1953), and burial/removal permits (1908-1921).

New and Updated Catalog Records