March 6, 2017 In the late 1800s, Hennepin County was home to a population of African Americans who had moved north to find opportunity after the Civil War, along with those who had escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad. While many [...]
February 16, 2017 On Valentine’s Day, secret admirers and sweethearts give one another heart-shaped boxes and lockets, red roses and bouquets, and candies with little love notes like “BE MINE.” Stores sell clothes and even lingerie with red hearts emblazoned across [...]
January 18, 2017 On a cold day in January 1876, Mahala Fisk Pillsbury of Minneapolis, a prominent community member and philanthropist, took on a new title: Minnesota’s First Lady. Her husband of twenty years, businessman John Sargent Pillsbury, had just been [...]
January 12, 2017 This Soap Box Derby car is called “Tinker Toy,” and was the winning Soap Box Derby car in 1959. It went on to compete in the All American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. The car was built [...]
January 3, 2017 Written by former HHM volunteer Mara Taft. Original research and article by Bruce N. Wright, and published in Hennepin History, Fall 2000. Helen A. Zesbaugh, an artist and author associated with an art gallery in Minneapolis, created this [...]
December 13, 2016 By Mara Taft, collections volunteer This chair was used by Franklin Steele (1813-1880), a founder of Minneapolis and prominent in the lumber industry. Stylistically, this a bentwood chair with a cane bottom. Manufactured by the Thonet company in [...]
December 6, 2016 By Heather Hoagland, HHM Collections Manager Bob Dylan's Chair In 1959, a 19-year-old University of Minnesota student finally got his first gigs playing his guitar and singing the tunes he wrote himself—and for which he would later win [...]
November 13, 2016 By Heather Hoagland, HHM Collections Manager This chair was made to suit the special needs of a disabled child who attended the Dowling School in Minneapolis. While we don't know what those needs were, the desk lifts on [...]
November 8, 2016 This fez belonged to Henry Sparby, who was a member of the Zuhrah Temple and the Minnesota Consistory No. 2 as early as 1920. The model for Mr. Sparby’s fez is our own George H. Christian—first owner and [...]
October 31, 2016 Permanent Wave Machine By HHM collections manager Heather Hoagland Despite appearances, this is not some kind of torture device—although may have caused women to suffer for fashion. This is a permanent wave machine. With the combination of a [...]
