Photo
May 05, 2013
28 notes
mn70s: Rock-Throwing Co-op Occupier, Minneapolis, 1975 Tensions between two factions in the rapidly expanding Twin Cities food cooperative movement escalated into open hostilities on May 5, 1975. A group calling itself the Co-op Organization (CO) took over the People’s Warehouse, a cooperative food distribution center located in Minneapolis’s West Bank neighborhood. The CO was a politically motivated group focused on empowering the working class. Their opponents were idealistic “hippies” who just wanted to provide healthful and socially-responsible alternatives to the big grocery stores. The CO’s occupation of the People’s Warehouse, while tactically successful, was a strategic blunder. Its whole-foods opponents responded to the takeover by boycotting the warehouse and establishing an alternative food distribution system. In the months that followed, CO activists occasionally resorted to violence and intimidation in their attempts to take control. They did not succeed. In the end, they just came off as a bunch of Marxist bullies. Photo via Minnesota Historical Society Here is some more on the co-op wars available at the library.

mn70s:

Rock-Throwing Co-op Occupier, Minneapolis, 1975

Tensions between two factions in the rapidly expanding Twin Cities food cooperative movement escalated into open hostilities on May 5, 1975. A group calling itself the Co-op Organization (CO) took over the People’s Warehouse, a cooperative food distribution center located in Minneapolis’s West Bank neighborhood. The CO was a politically motivated group focused on empowering the working class. Their opponents were idealistic “hippies” who just wanted to provide healthful and socially-responsible alternatives to the big grocery stores. The CO’s occupation of the People’s Warehouse, while tactically successful, was a strategic blunder. Its whole-foods opponents responded to the takeover by boycotting the warehouse and establishing an alternative food distribution system. In the months that followed, CO activists occasionally resorted to violence and intimidation in their attempts to take control. They did not succeed. In the end, they just came off as a bunch of Marxist bullies.

Photo via Minnesota Historical Society

Here is some more on the co-op wars available at the library.

Tags: co-op wars

Photoset
May 04, 2013
2 notes

Carpenter Park Dedication, St. Louis Park, May 4, 1940

Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts from Fern Hill School helped dedicate Carpenter Park in St. Louis Park by planting trees in 1940.

Here is what the St. Louis Park Historical Society’s city park history page says about the park:“Carpenter Park:  3001 Raleigh Ave. at Minnetonka Blvd.  This was one of the earliest parks, located on the site of the current City Hall. When the owners of the Park Theater purchased 27 acres from farmer Simon Kruse, 13.53 acres were (99-year) leased for the park. [Another account is that land was donated by the Carpenter family. Bertram W. Carpenter was a fruit farmer who goes back to at least 1910 in St. Louis Park.]  Steps were installed just west of the theater doors and to the south of the east parking lot. The steps led down to the WWI memorial built by the WPA (since moved further into the park). One of the park’s first activities was an outdoor dance, the first in 1949. Where City Hall now stands was a large flower garden, maintained until the mid 1950s. Seven tennis courts were built in August 1964.  Of  Lay-Kold construction, they were built for $31,000 by the Carlson-Levine Construction Co.  Four of them were removed to make room for Police Headquarters.   Current acreage is 12.99.  Skippy Field was created at this site in 1952, named for its sponsor, Skippy Peanut Butter.  Elmer “Shorty” Dale was instrumental in building Skippy Field for Park’s Little League.  Facilities include a concessions/storage building, two ballfields,  soccer field, and batting cages.  The minor league Little League field was named for Shorty and rededicated in 2002.”

Tags: Carpenter Park St. Louis Park

Photo
May 03, 2013
 “Revisiting Twain’s Mississippi.” See the river’s immense grandeur in prints of Henry Bosse’s spectacular 19th century blue cyanotype photos of Mississippi River sites associated with Mark Twain. The prints are matted alongside prints of modern-day photos of the same sites by St. Paul photographer Chris Faust. Exhibit opens May 4, runs through June 22. Hours are the same as the library: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.   Cargill Hall Gallery, 2nd floor, Hennepin County Library – Minneapolis Central, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.        On May 7, 7-8 p.m., local author John Anfinson (“The River We Have Wrought” and “River of History”), a historian/cultural resources specialist with the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, will speak on the history of the Upper Mississippi River. Photographer Chris Faust also will talk about Henry Bosse, and how he (Faust) used his training as a biologist when re-photographing the river from the same vantage points as Bosse more than 100 years later.  ADMISSION:         Exhibit and event are free.  FUNDING:             Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, sponsored by the Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators and presented in collaboration with the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography.     MORE DETAILS Henry Bosse took hundreds of photos of the Mississippi River while working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is considered the leading 19th century photographer of the river. Cyanotype is an inexpensive photographic process that prints in blue and was used by engineers.   Bosse’s cyanotypes were published in large-format albums titled “Views on the Mississippi River Between Minneapolis, Minn., and St. Louis, Mo., 1883-1891” and are now in the permanent collections of some of the most prestigious museums and art centers in the U.S., including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.   Chris Faust, whose modern-day photos are also featured in the exhibit, said Bosse’s technique for creating his oval cyanotypes was unique and inventive for the time.    “Bosse made an 11” X 14” glass plate negative of the image, made a paper oval and put it on top of the negative, then sandwiched it with blueprint paper and put it in the sun to produce the print,” Faust said. He thinks Bosse made his own blueprint paper with chemicals that were inexpensive and available to him as a draftsperson.   “It was a very convenient and cheap way to make prints right away, essentially using blueprint paper and archival map drawing paper,” Faust said.   Faust is a landscape photographer best known for his panoramic landscape photos. His photos have been exhibited at museums and art centers and in private collections around the country, and illustrate several books, including “Nocturnes: Night Photographs.” He teaches courses on photography and media at Brown College in Mendota Heights.      Faust said his modern-day images in the “Revisiting Twain’s Mississippi” exhibit “are more of a conversation on present day landscapes. The diptychs are made from relatively the same location as the original cyanotypes. I say relatively because for most of the locations, the physical place has either eroded or is under water.”   Faust said he has had a long fascination with the Mississippi. “I’ve always lived close to the river. It’s a dynamic landscape and fertile for image making. I’ve always photographed the clumsy marriage between natural forces and human intervention.”   For the exhibit, images by Bosse and Faust were scanned, printed side-by-side on one piece of paper and matted together.

 “Revisiting Twain’s Mississippi.” See the river’s immense grandeur in prints of Henry Bosse’s spectacular 19th century blue cyanotype photos of Mississippi River sites associated with Mark Twain. The prints are matted alongside prints of modern-day photos of the same sites by St. Paul photographer Chris Faust.

Exhibit opens May 4, runs through June 22. Hours are the same as the library: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
 
Cargill Hall Gallery, 2nd floor, Hennepin County Library – Minneapolis Central, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.
      
On May 7, 7-8 p.m., local author John Anfinson (“The River We Have Wrought” and “River of History”), a historian/cultural resources specialist with the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, will speak on the history of the Upper Mississippi River. Photographer Chris Faust also will talk about Henry Bosse, and how he (Faust) used his training as a biologist when re-photographing the river from the same vantage points as Bosse more than 100 years later.
 
ADMISSION:        
Exhibit and event are free.
 
FUNDING:            
Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, sponsored by the Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators and presented in collaboration with the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography.
   
MORE DETAILS
Henry Bosse took hundreds of photos of the Mississippi River while working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is considered the leading 19th century photographer of the river. Cyanotype is an inexpensive photographic process that prints in blue and was used by engineers.
 
Bosse’s cyanotypes were published in large-format albums titled “Views on the Mississippi River Between Minneapolis, Minn., and St. Louis, Mo., 1883-1891” and are now in the permanent collections of some of the most prestigious museums and art centers in the U.S., including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
 
Chris Faust, whose modern-day photos are also featured in the exhibit, said Bosse’s technique for creating his oval cyanotypes was unique and inventive for the time. 
 
“Bosse made an 11” X 14” glass plate negative of the image, made a paper oval and put it on top of the negative, then sandwiched it with blueprint paper and put it in the sun to produce the print,” Faust said. He thinks Bosse made his own blueprint paper with chemicals that were inexpensive and available to him as a draftsperson.
 
“It was a very convenient and cheap way to make prints right away, essentially using blueprint paper and archival map drawing paper,” Faust said.
 
Faust is a landscape photographer best known for his panoramic landscape photos. His photos have been exhibited at museums and art centers and in private collections around the country, and illustrate several books, including “Nocturnes: Night Photographs.” He teaches courses on photography and media at Brown College in Mendota Heights.   
 
Faust said his modern-day images in the “Revisiting Twain’s Mississippi” exhibit “are more of a conversation on present day landscapes. The diptychs are made from relatively the same location as the original cyanotypes. I say relatively because for most of the locations, the physical place has either eroded or is under water.”
 
Faust said he has had a long fascination with the Mississippi. “I’ve always lived close to the river. It’s a dynamic landscape and fertile for image making. I’ve always photographed the clumsy marriage between natural forces and human intervention.”
 
For the exhibit, images by Bosse and Faust were scanned, printed side-by-side on one piece of paper and matted together.

Tags: Cyanotype Henry Bosse Chris Faust John Anfinson mississippi river

Photo
May 02, 2013
9 notes
Dependable Tire Co., 2604 Lyndale Avenue S., 1961 (courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society) Now home of the French Meadow Bakery and Cafe, the new owner of the CC Club.  City Pages this week features a great oral history of the CC Club (previously the CC Tap).

Dependable Tire Co., 2604 Lyndale Avenue S., 1961 (courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society)

Now home of the French Meadow Bakery and Cafe, the new owner of the CC Club.  City Pages this week features a great oral history of the CC Club (previously the CC Tap).

Tags: CC Club City Pages CC Tap French Meadow Bakery

Photo
May 01, 2013
Henry Mack, Minnesota African-American Civil War Veteran Henry Mack (1836-1945), a longtime resident of the North side community in Minneapolis, was born into slavery, later escaped his master and eventually served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  After moving to Minneapolis, he was a familiar figure on the North side and became one of the longest lived Civil War veterans, living to the astounding age of 108.  Author and military historian Stephen Chicoine will be giving a talk on Mack’s life at the Minneapolis Central Library (Doty Board Rm, 2nd floor) on Saturday, May 4th at 1pm.  The event is free and there is no need to register.

Henry Mack, Minnesota African-American Civil War Veteran

Henry Mack (1836-1945), a longtime resident of the North side community in Minneapolis, was born into slavery, later escaped his master and eventually served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  After moving to Minneapolis, he was a familiar figure on the North side and became one of the longest lived Civil War veterans, living to the astounding age of 108.  Author and military historian Stephen Chicoine will be giving a talk on Mack’s life at the Minneapolis Central Library (Doty Board Rm, 2nd floor) on Saturday, May 4th at 1pm.  The event is free and there is no need to register.

Photoset
April 29, 2013
2 notes

Persian Palms Tavern, 109-111 Washington Ave. S. (photos via Minnesota Historical Society)

This Gateway bar was recently noted by author Neal Karlen as hangout for local Minneapolis mobsters such as Kidd Cann.

In Lost Twin Cities, Larry Millet wrote, “Not all of its drinking establishments were rotgut dives, and some—such as the Persian Palms nightclub—attracted a middle-class clientele searching, often with considerable success, for a taste of sin.”

Tags: Persian Palms Neal Karlen Larry Millett

Photoset
April 27, 2013
19 notes

How to see Minneapolis and St. Paul, Summer 1901

This brochure was distributed by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad.  Included were maps of the cycling routes in the Twin Cities.

“In Minneapolis most popular trips include Kenwood Parkway, the boulevards around Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun and Harriet and across to Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling, Minnehaha Park, Portland and Hennepin Avenues, and the east river bank from Washington to Marshall Avenue. The trip to Lake Minnetonka over a fine pathway is very popular and easy.”

“In St. Paul the most popular trips include boulevard[s] around Lake Como and trip to White Bear and Bald Eagle lakes; Summit Avenue to Minneapolis and Cleveland Avenue to Fort Snelling, reached also by West Seventh, and South Robert Street to South St. Paul. University Avenue path also connects the cities.”

Tags: bicycling

Photo
April 26, 2013
135 notes
theparisreview: “She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns there and of going out to a restaurant, alone, to eat.” —Happy Birthday, Maud Hart Lovelace Quote from Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. Image Credit Old Mankato, MN Public Library, aka “Deep Valley Library” This Carnegie library is still in use, housing the Carnegie Art Center. The Maud Hart Lovelace Award Winners were announced this week. Here is more on the library in the Deep Valley books and our holdings of Maud Hart Lovelace’s works.

theparisreview:

“She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns there and of going out to a restaurant, alone, to eat.” —Happy Birthday, Maud Hart Lovelace

Quote from Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. Image Credit Old Mankato, MN Public Library, aka “Deep Valley Library”

This Carnegie library is still in use, housing the Carnegie Art Center. The Maud Hart Lovelace Award Winners were announced this week. Here is more on the library in the Deep Valley books and our holdings of Maud Hart Lovelace’s works.

Tags: Maud Hart Lovelace Carnegie Libraries Mankato Book Awards

Photo
April 25, 2013
12 notes
Minneapolis Institute of Arts Library A “Special Collections” library in Minneapolis that you may not know about is the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Art Research and Reference Library.  Housed in the Institute’s beautiful new Target Wing, the Library boasts a collection of nearly 60,000 volumes, 120 art periodical subscriptions and 200 object files.  Best of all, it is open to the public!  Collections are available for use in the Library’s reading room.  Reference service is available either in-person or by phone.  The Library is open Tuesday through Friday, 11:30-4:30.  Call (612) 870-3200 for more information, or visit http://library.artsmia.org.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts Library

A “Special Collections” library in Minneapolis that you may not know about is the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Art Research and Reference Library.  Housed in the Institute’s beautiful new Target Wing, the Library boasts a collection of nearly 60,000 volumes, 120 art periodical subscriptions and 200 object files.  Best of all, it is open to the public!  Collections are available for use in the Library’s reading room.  Reference service is available either in-person or by phone.  The Library is open Tuesday through Friday, 11:30-4:30.  Call (612) 870-3200 for more information, or visit http://library.artsmia.org.

Tags: art Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Photoset
April 23, 2013
7 notes

Glamdoll Donuts, 2605 Nicollet Avenue S.

This trendy new late-night bakery is pretty pink and pretty delicious, but Glam Doll Donuts wasn’t always so glam. The retro-styled bakery, which recently opened in the Whittier Neighborhood, was previously home to Strudel & Nudel, a German deli owned by Erich and Joanne Christ, longtime owners of The Black Forest Inn. The Black Forest Restaurant began in May 1965 as a small tavern that used a portable grill to cook bratwurst. After being featured in Will Jones’ Minneapolis Tribune column in 1969, business boomed, allowing Christ to purchase the building and adjacent properties. In 1985 Strudel & Nudel opened at 2605 Nicollet Ave, serving wursts, cold cut meats, cheeses, sandwiches, salads, hard rolls, and of course, strudel. Glam Doll Donuts shares part of its kitchen with The Black Forest Inn.

Prior to the deli, the building housed a long history of auto dealers and repair garages. The brick building was built in 1912 as a garage, changing hands over nine times, but remaining an auto garage until 1985. The longest running garage was Certified Auto Body Repairs, Inc., which occupied the property from 1958-1985. Before that, it was home to R.D. Douglas Garage (1916), J.T. Smith Used Cars (1921), Nicollet Service Garage (early 1940s), and the Lake Street Nash Body Shop (late 1950s), among others.

Glam Doll Donuts has already gotten mentions from City Pages and the Star Tribune and has received rave reviews from the community. There are donuts for the adventurous:  the Chart Topper with peanut butter and Siracha, or  those seeking the savory: Girl Next Door filled with muenster and provolone. You’ll find your standard vanilla or chocolate icing with sprinkles too. The Misfit and Dark Angel donuts did not disappoint.