History
Mystery Photos: Howorth Photography
These two cabinet cards presumably feature two different women, although they look a touch similar. The mystery isn’t just who they are, but also what the deal was with Howorth. (more…)
Selective Focus: Duluth Then & Now
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Cw8uAnENv/
Even if you’re not a history nerd, you’ve got to admire the effort put into finding and recreating these photos and the point of view. The images are from John McLoughlin’s @duluth_then_and_now account on Instagram. (more…)
Seven historic Duluth photos, digitally restored
View of Duluth on the Shore of Lake Superior (1870)
The Minnesota Reflections database contains a large number of high-quality historic photographs of Duluth. Most of these are scans of old prints in excellent condition. Some of the photos in the collection, however, come from torn, faded, scratched, taped or otherwise damaged prints. Many of these damaged prints belong to the collection of photographs taken by Paul B. Gaylord, a photographer from Ohio who moved to Duluth in 1869 and published some of the earliest images of the area. (more…)
Postcards from Duluth’s West End … not West Duluth
A recent post on Perfect Duluth Day featured a “Postcard from the West End of Duluth” that was properly captioned by the postcard company. The postcard shown above, however, shows a similar scene and is captioned as “West Duluth, Minn.” (more…)
Duluth Seaway Portorama
The Duluth Public Library’s Vintage Duluth blog recently published a retrospective on the Duluth Seaway Portarama, an annual summer festival sponsored by the Duluth Jaycees from 1959 to 1969. The modern day relevancy, as the post notes, is that in February the Minnesota House of Representatives repealed sections 333.50, 333.51 and 333.52 of Statute 19-1642, “eliminating crime of unauthorized use of the name and mark “portorama.” (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #18
Here’s another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Postcard from the West End of Duluth
This postcard was mailed Sept. 2, 1939, to Donna Buhler of Toledo, Ohio. Her parents had just arrived in Duluth. (more…)
Denfeld High School Football Team of 1944
Here’s a peek at what the Denfeld Hunters gridiron crew looked like 75 years ago, in the fall of 1944. That’s legendary coach Walt Hunting up top and center. (more…)
Lake Superior Aquaman’s Duluth
I first launched this sort-of virtual tour of the area in January 2018. I just updated it with more than 30 new features, including more than 130 new photos, several video links, links to news articles, the paths of my various “skate patrols” and “flamingo patrols,” The People’s Free Skate, a greater spread through the region, and all my latest activities. Enjoy.
Then and Now: Blue Crab Bar / OMC Smokehouse
The above photo was shot on Aug. 29, 2009 at the Blue Crab Bar, 1909 W. Superior St. Today it is the location of OMC Smokehouse. The photo below, shot Aug. 29, 2019, attempts to replicate the scene. (more…)
Postcards from the Clarkson Coal & Dock Co.
This undated postcard, published by the Duluth Photo and Engraving Company, shows the Clarkson Coal & Dock Company on Duluth’s waterfront. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #17
Another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Book Cover: Entrance to East High School, Spring 1963
The setting for this fictional book is Duluth. The main characters attended East High School. The author grew up on Arrowhead Road.
A thoroughly Duluth-centric book. Read a sample at Amazon. The download version is 99 cents.
Be forewarned; this isn’t another high school reunion puff-piece.
Duluth Shipping Canal in 1899
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company shows the view looking west from the end of the south pier of Duluth’s shipping canal before there was an Aerial Bridge. William Henry Jackson is credited as the photographer.
The Library of Congress dates the image as “between 1890 and 1910,” but research by Mark Ryan for the story “W. H. Jackson’s Photographs of Duluth” for Zenith City Press puts the time of Jackson’s visit to Duluth as the summer of 1899.
Postcard from Two Harbors, where the trout bite
Sure, it’s a cute little piece of art, but the verse on the backside of this undated postcard puts it over the top. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #16
So here is another of the cards from the Duluth Trivia game. I’m hoping that Tony Dierckins might correct any egregious errors. Anyone interested in Duluth history needs to visit his site at Zenith City Press. (more…)
WDIO-TV Personalities Circa Early 1970s
Dennis Anderson, anchor
Bill Stefl, sports
Jack McKenna, weather
Jim Schwinn
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #15
Ah hah! Here is maybe a better way to share the cards from the Duluth Trivia game I bought at Savers. I destroyed all the bits that were not Duluth-centric, and I am destroying the cards as I use them here. I own waaaay too much stuff. (more…)
Postcard from West Superior Street
This undated postcard from Zenith Interstate News Company has a very 1960s look to it. The image shows businesses and traffic on the 400 block of West Superior Street in Downtown Duluth, looking northeast. (more…)
Northern Cold Storage & Warehouse Company
Northern Cold Storage & Warehouse Company was located in Duluth’s waterfront warehouse district from about 1907 to 1968. The photo above is credited to Hugh McKenzie circa 1935. (more…)
Mystery Photo #96: Unknown Building
This image landed in Perfect Duluth Day’s files under “unknown building.” Anyone recognize it?
Postcard from Paul Bunyan Bar & Grill
This undated postcard, published by Kaeser & Blair of Cincinnati, Ohio, depicts interior and exterior scenes at the Paul Bunyan Bar & Grill in Downtown Duluth. (more…)
Sinclair Lewis / John G. Williams House
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Cade Imaging of Maplewood provides this short, sweeping aerial video of the Duluth mansion best known as the home of Nobel-prize winning writer Sinclair Lewis during the 1940s. (more…)
Mystery Photo #95: Mr. Earl Askew
A recurring source of confusion in the Mystery Photo series is whether particular images that share the stamp of the Post Card Shop in Minneapolis and the Penny Arcade in Duluth were shot in Minneapolis or Duluth. Here is another such image. (more…)
The Slice: Davidson Windmill
The Davidson Windmill is in Lakeside, Wis., about 20 miles southeast of Duluth and six miles east of Superior on Wisconsin Highway 13. It was built between 1900 and 1904 by Jacob Davidson on his 80-acre homestead. The mill operated until 1926. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and donated to the Old-Brule Heritage Society in 2001. (more…)