The Northfield History Collaborative will host a free workshop focused on the care and handling of books, papers, and printed photographs in a business or organizational setting on May 3. The event, for partner organizations and potential partners, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Larson Room 236 (formerly the library) at the Carleton College Weitz Center for Creativity, 320 3^rd St E.

Check-in for the workshop begins at 8:30 a.m., with the program to commence at 9 a.m.  Topics to be covered include preservation basics, how to decide what to keep, options for heavily-used materials, where to get supplies, and the do’s and don’ts of handling and storage. Presenters will include professionals from the Northfield and Rice County historical societies and from St. Olaf and Carleton colleges.

The 30 spaces for the workshop will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact Collaborative Project Coordinator Ariel Butler at butler@northfieldhistory.org or call the Northfield Historical Society at 645-9268 to register.

The free workshop is funded by a Legacy Grant through the Minnesota Historical Society to the Collaborative. The Northfield History Collaborative is a partnership of 12 groups in town who work together to digitize materials that tell Northfield’s diverse history. Check out more than 5,000 objects at www.northfieldhistorycollaborative.org.

The four-part series, Preserving Your Family’s Stories, is a collaborative effort between the Northfield Senior Center and theNorthfield History Collaborative, a program of the Northfield Historical Society to present information and guide participants in the collection and celebration of their family’s life stories.  Staff and volunteers from the Northfield, Rice County, and Minnesota Historical Societies and the Northfield Senior Center will lead the classes and provide individual assistance on each of the topics covered.  Optional additional work sessions with the presenters will be available on the Saturday following each class.  All classes will be held at the Northfield Senior Center.  The cost for all four classes and the follow-up sessions is $50 for members of the Northfield Senior Center or the Northfield Historical Society, $60 for non-members.  Individual sessions are $15/members, $20/ nonmembers.

Scanning and Annotating Photos

Saturday, March 2, 1:00 – 2:30   Computer Lab

Photographs tend to lie crammed in drawers and boxes unlabeled and forgotten until they are passed on to the next generation who receive them not knowing the stories those photos tell.  These photos record our stories: the who, the where, the when – our lives are captured and the moments preserved. Scanning Family Photos will be a hands-on class showing how to scan photos of any size from small snapshots up to 8×10 inch photographs using the software included with Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. Canon scanners will be used controlled by Canon and Microsoft Vista software. Students should bring a USB flash drive to the class. Photo cropping will be demonstrated. Participants can bring a couple of pictures to be scanned and saved to their flash drive. There will be a limited discussion of the strategies available for organizing images stored on computers.  This class will be taught by Jim Finholt, computer skills instructor at the Northfield Senior Center.

Caring for Your Family Treasures

Saturday, April 6, 1:00-2:30   Room 106

Is your grandmother’s wedding dress stored in a bag under the bed?  Have you wondered what to do about the box of photos you inherited from your mother?  Susan Garwood (Rice County Historical Society Executive Director) and Alicia Reuter (RCHS Administrative Assistant and Professional Archivist) will demonstrate techniques and tools for caring for and preserving your family photos, letters, diaries, textiles, and more. They will go from the most basic preservation, to the professional level of care that RCHS takes with their collection.  Participants are encouraged to bring an item about which they would like advice.

Genealogy: Filling in your Family Tree

Saturday, May 4, 1:00-2:30 Computer Lab

Ariel Butler, from the Northfield Historical Society, will guide you through an exploration of the process of discovering your roots using the latest genealogy research software.  Discover what made you who you are today, famous ancestors or maybe a few skeletons as you search out your family tree.
Recording Oral Histories

Saturday, May 18, 1:00-2:30  Room 106

Oral history is one of the most exciting tools available for collecting and preserving family history.  It enables you to record the voices and life experiences of family members while they are still here to share them.   In this workshop Ryan Barland of the Minnesota Historical Society will describe oral history – what it is and how to use it to record personal history. The workshop will feature information on the preparations, legal realities, ethics, and equipment necessary to do the job. The workshop will be highly flexible to cover any and all topics those in attendance have an interest in. Barland conducts oral history workshops throughout the state and has led projects documenting a wide variety of oral history topics.

A doctor (and his cigar) stand outside the old Northfield Hospital on Eighth and Water streets, not pictured, in the 1920s or 30s.

New photographs and documents in the Northfield History Collaborative collection help tell the early story of the Northfield Hospital.

Scans of the first minutes book of the Northfield Hospital Association tell the story from its beginning. The first page describes how, in 1910, the local International Order of Odd Fellows Home had decided to no longer operate the hospital on its grounds. They offered to rent the facility to a hospital board for $60/month.

The private Northfield Hospital Association operated from the Odd Fellows Home for just a few months before they decided to relocate. On Sept. 17, 1910, the board took the following action:

“It was decided after considerable discussion to refuse to accept the lease offered by the board of directors of the I.O.O.F. Hospital. After due consideration the secretary was instructed to buy the [S. D.?] Schilling house Cor. 8th Street and east Water street for the sum of $4500.00 to be used for hospital purposes.”

A photograph of the rear of that house is among the 20 added this winter. The house still stands today.

Among the other new photographs is one of three young women who were injured during the Defeat of Jesse James Days in the 1960s. Writing on the back of the photograph indicates they were from a drum and bugle corps in St. Paul and were riding on the side of a fire truck when it tipped over while taking a sharp curve.

On the lighter side, there are a few images of the Northfield Hospital nursery in the 1950s-1970s, including their isolette equipment and a baby being weighed inside an isolette. (If the nurse has fully let go of the infant — which it’s not clear she has — it appears the infant weighed either one or 11 pounds!)

The Arts Guild has a dream of making all of its programs available online and searchable in an Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com)-type format. This addition of 97 programs brings them a significant part of the way toward that goal.

Through the ContentDM interface that the Collaborative uses (through a generous partnership with Carleton College), these programs are full-text searchable already (or will be very soon — transcriptions for the handwritten programs will be available in the coming weeks). Want to know how many of these productions the legendary Myrna Johnson was involved with? A search shows that it’s at least 70 of the 97.

Maybe you’re going to put on a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” and you want to look into how the Arts Guild did it previously. You’ll find programs from four past performances.

Take a look around. You’ll find that friends, neighbors, or family members have been involved with the Arts Guild in ways you never suspected, or maybe you’ll look back on some fond memories.

Wedding at St. John’s Lutheran Church, about 1955

I’m particularly excited about these latest additions to the Collaborative from St. John’s Lutheran Church of Northfield. Church records give us clues to our ancestors’ everyday lives that sometimes other documents can’t. We get an idea what was important to them and who some of the people they really knew were. Just now, St. John’s is the Collaborative’s only church partner, but as we grow, we hope to change that and make accessible many more of these types of things.

New to this collection are 74 photographs and scans of the church’s earliest record book.

The photographs are a selection from hundreds in the church archives. These include mainly images of their first and second buildings, along with some photographs of pastors, staff, and congregants.

One that makes my jaw drop: The only known image of the interior of St. Johannes Lutheran Church, their first building at the corner of Washington and Fourth streets.

Other photographs include one of four early pastors, a portrait of the 1945 children’s choir, a portrait of European refugees (or “displaced persons”) brought to Northfield by the church in the 1950s, and an image of the congregation and the St. Olaf College Band outside the St. Johannes building. Of personal interest to me is a pink house that stood near the church; it was moved in the late 1980s to make way for a building expansion, and I remember watching the house go down the street!

Perhaps the more significant addition for researchers are the scans of the church’s earliest record book, covering the years 1867 to 1880. This book was microfilmed in the past, but the original is delicate and has been locked away. Scans available online keep the original safe but also make it available around the world 24/7 — and even better, it’s searchable.

Don’t be intimidated that the book is in Norwegian. The vast majority of it is names, and the formatting of the pages makes the meaning of the Norwegian words pretty obvious.

Sections of the book include a membership list, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, funerals, and communions. Of particular local interest is the list of funerals, including an entry for one “Nicolaus Gustavson,” a bystander killed in the raid on the First National Bank.

Tell us what interests you! What types of materials from St. John’s Lutheran Church would you like to see in the Collaborative? What other local churches would you like to see materials from? Leave comments here or contact me at butler (at) northfieldhistory.org.

Troops march through Bridge Square in the 1910s, headed for service along the Mexican border.

This latest addition of 300+ images to the Collaborative collection of the Northfield News is a great illustration of why the Collaborative exists.

The News has thousands of photographs, in addition to (obviously) news clippings and 100+ years of newspapers, but someone researching Northfield history wouldn’t necessarily think to look there for photographs. A central, online database of local history resources helps researchers to know what they have.

(Side note: One other feature you’ll be seeing more of at the Collaborative is surveys and summaries of the collections of our partners. Here, you can check out a survey of the items held at the Northfield News.)

If you enjoy seeing scenes from old Northfield, it’s well worth the time to browse through this collection. They have so many fascinating images that I really don’t know where to start in highlighting them for you. I managed to narrow it down to my top 15, in no particular order.

1. Greenvale Park Elementary School under construction (aerial view)

2. Northfield High School post-construction (aerial view) – notice that this is before the D and M wings, and before the District Office

3. Northfield Retirement Center under construction (aerial view)

4. United Methodist Church under construction (aerial view) – notice the sparse homes looking to the north

5. South side of Bridge Square before the Post Office - the Scriver Building is just out of view at left

6. Gas station that stood where Post Office is now - notice the Central Block spire in the center back, and the roof of the Scriver Building at back right

7. Old Catholic church - the tiny sign on the post says “Linden St.”

8. Highway 3 meets Water and Third streets (aerial view) – this is after what’s now Highway 3 runs through the area, but before the current parking lot, so Water Street and Highway 3 kind of intersect at Second Street. Looks dangerous.

9. Looking down Third Street toward Basil’s - going even further back than the previous image, we see that Third Street was a busy area before buildings were knocked down for Highway 3 to be routed through

10. Northfield Fire Department with horses in front of what is now Anna’s Closet and The Contented Cow

11. Northfield Public Library, original section

12. Temperance Union parade float: ‘The Saloon Wants Your Boys – Is Your Boy Safe?’ - parade in the 400 block of Division Street, headed for Bridge Square

13. President Taft in Bridge Square - probably about 1908. The building behind him is Northfield National Bank, which stood where Neuger Communications is now.

14. Huge tents in Bridge Square - a carnival or circus. Notice the massive amount of space they cover. Also notice the old mill in the background on the bank of the river.

15. Troops march through Bridge Square in the 1910s, headed for Mexican border - I find this image moving. It makes these local men heading out for military service feel very real.

Among the items submitted to the Northfield History Collaborative by our partner, KYMN Radio, is this interview with “Rain Man” co-author Barry Morrow the morning after his win for best original screenplay.

KYMN host Wayne Eddy spoke with Morrow on March 30, 1989. In the audio clip, you’ll hear Eddy and Morrow talk about Morrow’s reaction to winning and experiences at the ceremony.

After you’ve listened to that, browse KYMN’s collection in the Collaborative to check out some more of our latest additions. They include:

• Commercials for the Red Owl grocery store
• Jingles for Dundas State Bank, Enfield Motors, and The Lavender Inn
• Episodes of “The Wayne Eddy Affair” with Al Berkvam (1 & 2), Bob Gill (1 & 2), Fred Dahl (1, second part to come), John Bierman (1, second part to come), Ken Persons, Marv Grundhoefer (1 & 2), Mike Leming (Part 2 only), Norm Butler, and Regina Locus (1 & 2)
• A memorial service for Gov. Karl Rolvaag
• A special episode remembering Northfielder Don McRae; and
• Photographs from the KYMN Radio office when it was located north of town next to its tower.

Watch in the future for us to add more material from KYMN Radio, particularly episodes of “The Wayne Eddy Affair.” Special thanks to the student workers and volunteers who devote time to providing the notes you’ll find under the “page description” about what each broadcast contains.

The Northfield History Collaborative is a digital library full of items related to the history of Northfield and nearby communities. Online at www.northfieldhistorycollaborative.org, this group is a partnership of 11 businesses and organizations. Our online collection contains more than 3,000 photographs, books, manuscripts, scrapbooks, audio clips and more from our partners, as well as summaries of their offline collections:

• Northfield Historical Society
• Rice County Historical Society
• Northfield Public Library
• Carleton College
• St. Olaf College
• First National Bank of Northfield
• Northfield Hospital
• Northfield News
• KYMN Radio
• St. John’s Lutheran Church
• Northfield Arts Guild

Click the link below to see our handout from the Jan. 12 Hullaballoo at the Northfield Public Library.

• Hullaballoo student handout

Click on this link to learn about some of the subjects and topics covered in the Collaborative.

• Collaborative subject and topic lists

Learn more about the Collaborative here, read about how to use our site here, and find links to other local history resources here.

Looking for something in particular? Have questions? We want to help! Contact the project coordinator at butler@northfieldhistory.org.

Does your project have a Northfield connection? Consider submitting it to the Northfield Student Research Collection to help other local researchers looking at your topic. Contact the project coordinator at butler@northfieldhistory.org for more information.

Mankato’s not far away, but items in the Northfield History Collaborative’s online collection can help us get an even more local look at the events — or at least what viewpoints people here were exposed to.

Included in Emily Bierman’s Minnesota History Scrapbook, compiled in the 1930s and in the care of the Northfield Public Library, is an article about the executions from the Minneapolis Sunday Journal of Feb. 11, 1900. (It continues on the two pages following.) As you read the article, you’ll notice that it does not necessarily tell the story as we hear it today. But it is still of historical value to read the materials that our ancestors did about the situation. It helps us to better understand why they held the viewpoints they did, even if we may disagree with them today.

One other item in the scrapbook is an account of the life of Northfielder Charles H. Watson. He was a member of a military company that fought in the U.S.-Dakota War, and he was present at the hangings in 1862. This Northfield Independent article notes that Watson was loathe to talk about his experiences, and here pieces them together through a conversation between Watson and fellow Northfielder G. M. Phillips.

Watson was the father of notable locals Earl, Clara and Helen Watson. He died in 1914 and is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery.

Read another account of Watson’s experiences in Old Rail Fence Corners – search here for “Mr. C. H. Watson—1855.” (The book contains accounts of Minnesota pioneers that were compiled by the Daughters of the American Revolution.)

Another venue for learning more about U.S.-Dakota relations: Watch the 2005 documentary “Dakota 38″ tonight on TPT’s Minnesota Channel at 7:30.