Dave Lull, Author at Perfect Duluth Day

Retired Duluth librarian writes second book

Aug 18, 2023 2 Comments

Duluth Stories: People and Events from the Zenith City’s Past was published by the author with the help of X-Presso Books in January.

Did you know that German prisoners of war worked in local lumber camps during World War Two? That the Zenith City produced four opera divas and eight classical-music composers? That no fewer than six Duluthians worked on the Manhattan Project, developing the world’s first atomic bombs? Inside these pages, retired Duluth Public Library reference librarian David Ouse tells the tales of not only accomplished Duluthians — including local women who broke down barriers by becoming the first female practitioners of traditionally male professions — but also of visits from the famous, the exploits of a couple of “human flies,” two early (and lost) motion pictures set in the Zenith City, and much more.

History Books

Duluth’s Madam Butterfly

Aug 23, 2018 No Comments

Rena Vivian Smith as Madam Butterfly, Cosmopolitan Magazine, February 1907

The latest “Forgotten Duluthian” posting by David Ouse at the Duluth Public Library’s Vintage Duluth blog is about Duluth’s Madame Butterfly, Rena Vivian Smith.

History, Music

Duluth’s Only Female Military Casualty of World War I

Jun 25, 2018 No Comments

The latest posting at the Duluth Public Library’s blog Vintage Duluth is “Duluth’s Only Female Military Casualty of World War I” by David Ouse:

Over 115,000 Americans died in World War I. Slightly more than half of those were deaths from disease. Hundreds of Duluth men were casualties of the war, but only one Duluth military woman gave her life — U.S. Army nurse Lydia Whiteside.

History World War I

Description of a Ride on Duluth’s Incline Railway in 1926

Apr 19, 2018 No Comments

“A 1926 Description of a Ride on Duluth’s Seventh Avenue West Incline Railway” has just been posted at the Duluth Public Library’s Vintage Duluth blog.

In Volume I of his two-volume 1926 novel The Duke of Duluth, author Thomas Shastid, a Duluth physician, depicts a scene in which the main character, John Gridley Smith, who is visiting Duluth, is walking on West Superior Street and comes upon the entrance to the Incline Railway on Seventh Avenue West. On pages 74 to 80, Shastid describes the Incline and John’s ride up to the top …

History Incline Railway

Superior native reviews “Girl From the North Country”

Mar 16, 2018 No Comments

“Girl From the North Country,” the musical play that features the song catalog of Duluth/Hibbing native Bob Dylan, will close its second run at the Old Vic Theatre in London’s West End on March 24. Superior native Cassandra Csencsitz has published a review in the latest “Critic’s Notebook” on the American Theatre website: ‘Girl From the North Country’: How Does It Feel?

Art, Music Bob Dylan, Theater

Duluthian Sadik Hakim featured on Jazz Profiles blog

Aug 21, 2017 1 Comment

“In 1982, the music world lost a legend with the death of Thelonious Monk. At Monk’s funeral, thousands gathered to pay their respects. One of Monk’s former colleagues sat at the piano and played, according to legendary jazz writer Ted Joans, “a sad but soulful” version of Monk’s own “’Round Midnight.” That pianist was Duluth-native Sadik Hakim, who played and recorded with jazz icons from the 1940s to the 1980s. Down Beat magazine described him as “one of the unsung veterans who helped forge the bebop revolution.”

Sadik Hakim: A Remembrance by David Ouse

History, Music

Duluthian Phillip Merritt and the Manhattan Project

Jun 02, 2017 No Comments

A new posting at the Vintage Duluth / Duluth Public Library blog (formerly Reference @ Duluth) is about “Duluthian Phillip Merritt and the Manhattan Project.”

History

Duluth and the United Nations

Mar 22, 2017 No Comments

A new posting at Vintage Duluth / Duluth Public Library (formerly Reference @ Duluth) is about “Duluth’s bid to become headquarters of the U.N.” in 1945.

History

The Rumpus Interview with Connie Wanek

Sep 09, 2016 1 Comment

In an interview for The Rumpus, an online magazine focused on culture, Duluth poet Connie Wanek discusses her latest book, the challenge of looking back at older poems, and what prioritizing writing looks like.

Link: The Rumpus Interview with Connie Wanek

Connie Wanek said that she only started writing poetry seriously in her late thirties, but since then, she’s been published in Poetry and the Atlantic Monthly, has received a Witter Bynner Fellowship at the Library of Congress, and been named a George Morrison Artist of the Year, among her many other honors. Her fourth book, Rival Gardens: New and Selected Poems, was released by the University of Nebraska Press this year, and makes the argument that she is one of contemporary America’s great poets.

Art Connie Wanek, Poetry

Moving sidewalk proposed in Duluth in 1908

Jul 26, 2016 No Comments

John Edward Roemer wanted to build a system of moving sidewalks up Duluth’s steepest hills. The power to run the system would come from storage batteries buried in chambers beneath Superior Street. Tunnels would be dug beneath cross streets so the sidewalks could pass under the streets. At the top of the hill where the moving sidewalk system terminated, Roemer proposed building a pavilion and an aerial rail line extending to Fond du Lac, with stops in the West End, West Duluth, New Duluth and Ironton.

Read more at the public library’s Reference@Duluth blog.

History Transportation

Walt Whitman’s Poem About Duluth?

Jun 10, 2016 No Comments

There’s a new posting at the Reference@Duluth blog that involves a little literary detective work:

The Duluth Daily News of March 30, 1892, printed a letter offering an unpublished poem by Walt Whitman. The letter writer claims that Whitman had visited Duluth for his health the previous summer and had been so impressed with the Zenith City that he wrote a poem in praise of Duluth and had sent it to a friend in town.

Art Poetry

German Prisoners of War in Northeastern Minnesota

May 07, 2016 No Comments

From the Duluth Public Library Reference News and Resources blog, Reference@Duluth:

As World War II continued into 1943, some U.S. industries were experiencing shortages of workers. In Minnesota, the pinch was felt especially acutely in agriculture, food processing, and logging. Women and even children often stepped up to help with the labor shortage in agriculture and food processing. One notable local example was 17-year-old Duluthian Shirley Armstrong, who appeared on the cover of the September 27, 1943, issue of Life magazine because she was working in corn fields near Fairmont, Minnesota. She and several other young women from Duluth were featured in an article about the Women’s Land Army.

In spite of the help, the labor shortage grew worse. Early in 1943, the state of Minnesota had begun working on a plan for using prisoners of war to fill some vacant jobs and help keep the industries operating smoothly and able to provide the country with needed food and lumber. A small number of prisoners were used in Minnesota agriculture in 1943, but usage increased greatly in 1944.

Superior Public Library 125th Anniversary Video Contest

Jun 03, 2014 No Comments

Help the Superior Public Library celebrate its quasiquicentennial! Produce a 30-second to 10-minute video that highlights the Superior Public Library. Prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place, as well as staff favorite. Submissions will be accepted Sept. 3 through Aug. 31.

Videos Library

Babe Ruth visited Duluth

Dec 07, 2013 1 Comment

. . . in 1926. For the story of that visit see the latest posting at the Reference@Duluth blog.

History, Sports

Ye Olde Corner Grocery

Jun 26, 2013 6 Comments

The latest posting at the Duluth Public Library’s Reference@Duluth blog is a look at a few of the lost corner grocery stores of Duluth.

History Grocery Stores

Dave Lull Posts