Boathouse Treats and Treasures has Duane Benoit’s model train set up for viewing during the holidays. Benoit will be in the store running the train and answering questions on Dec. 11 and 12 from 12:30 to 4 p.m.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
The undated postcards here show the USS Gopher at Duluth. The vessel had a 34-year history on the East Coast as the USS Fern before being renamed Gopher on Dec. 27, 1905, when it began duty with the Minnesota Naval Militia in Duluth.
Virtual holiday hugs from all of us to all of you.
To visit the ghosts of Christmases past, check out A Perfect Duluth Christmas: PDD’s Holiday Video Showcase.
From the Iron Range city of Palo, Steve Solkela sings about … you know … what it’s all about.
On a bridge in 1965 (photo by Henry Sojourner) | Holmes County Community Center, February 1965 (photo by Elaine Howmiller, Nashville Tennessean) | Portrait, 2012 (photo by Sam Alvar) | Right to Vote March in Jackson, June 15, 1965 (photo by an unknown civil rights worker)
Author and activist Susan Hasalo Sojourner died in Minneapolis on Dec. 4 at the age of 79. She lived in Duluth for more than two decades, beginning in the mid 1990s.
Sojourner fought tirelessly for justice throughout her life — for civil rights in Holmes County, Miss. and also for women’s liberation and LGBTQ+ rights during her years in Washington D.C. and Duluth. A complete obituary can be found on the Hodroff-Epstein Memorial Chapels website.
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your coloring and drawing pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Hockey
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Duluthians who have clothesline poles like the one in this advertisement are displaying the work of a gig-economy pioneer. There’s probably not a lot of this type of century-old ornamental concrete lawn stuff still hanging around, but it was certainly made to last and would be likely to survive just about anything except falling out of fashion.
The advertising flier dates to the mid 1920s and comes to Perfect Duluth Day via Jolee Edmondson of Savannah, Ga. She’s a granddaughter of Herman Enoch Magnusson, Duluth maker of “concrete bird baths, seats, benches and clothes line poles.”
In the video above, photographer Kip Praslowicz reviews eight large-format images from his 2017 exhibition Broken Duluth. Prints of the photos are for sale at kpraslowicz.com.
This week we hear from a behind-the-scenes artist, literally setting the stage for others, creating environments and moods where actors can practice their craft. Jeff Brown is a scenic designer, lighting director and technical director who has worked with the Duluth Playhouse and other theater groups, and expanded his work into designing for museums and other public spaces. Oh, and he loves grilling.
JB: As happens with so many big things in life, I was introduced to the world of theater almost by accident. After some years as an Army paratrooper, I had enrolled at a community college and had one big choice left in order to finish my associate’s degree… A Public Speaking course, or a Stagecraft course? I was not at all interested in Public Speaking, so Stagecraft won by default. I couldn’t have guessed that the course would feel so natural to me and that it would introduce me to people and a field that I had never even considered before.
After being involved backstage in a couple of productions there, I decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in technical theater, and I transferred to Minnesota State University Moorhead. MSUM had a very active theater department with a strong technical standard, and I benefited greatly from learning scenic design and lighting design along with construction and production techniques.
The harbor looks busy in this vintage photo for sale at the Superior Salvation Army
I found this framed photo with an unusual view of the Duluth Harbor and Aerial Lift Bridge at the Superior Salvation Army last weekend. It’s signed by Tim Slattery.
Lots of questions about this picture: Was the photo taken from a structure or from an airplane? Can anyone identify the three (!) ships in the port? What jumped out to me were the twin “tin man” water towers on the hill above the bridge. Where were they located and when were they taken down?
Just wondering if anyone knows if Abrahamson’s Tree Farm is still selling cut-your-own trees? Also what they charge?
The date of the written message on this relic appears to be either Dec. 2 or 3, 1905. It is postmarked from Duluth on Dec. 5 and arrived in St. Paul the next day.
Minnesota is under another COVID-19 Emergency Executive Order from Governor Tim Walz until Dec. 19. But the “dial back on certain activities” doesn’t mean the PDD Calendar is barren. There are online events galore, activities outside the parameters of the order such as Bentleyville, and numerous virus-defying events in lawless Wisconsin. So the merry elves at Perfect Duluth Day remain hard at work.
Each month we reach out with one beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account.
Streetcar Barn (1882)
Superior Street and 11th Avenue West
All of the photos here come from the University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library through the Minnesota Reflections website. While most of the pictures on the site have been well preserved, some have been damaged over the years. For six of these photographs, I digitally repaired any damage and then added color.
