The ol’ steam locomotive from the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad that sits in downtown Proctor has been there a long time. This photo is from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection, dated 1963. Below is a 2009 photo from the Minnesota Railroading Photos on minnesotajones.com.
The location of the city at the head of navigation, in the center of a continent, 1,400 miles from the sea, gives it unequaled facilities (through 8,000 miles of railways centering here) as a natural distributing point for a great and prosperous section.
We have cheap power, cheap coal, cheap gas, cheap iron, cheap raw material of woods, in vast quantities with unequaled transportation facilities in every direction.
—Duluth News Tribune, Sept. 30, 1914
This link — Poster Show — is to the article running this week in the Reader (the website article has many more pictures) that contains information about nearly every poster in the show and interviews with almost every artist. In the article on my site you can read about each poster from the artists’ perspective and how they viewed the art and the era. Print it out and walk through the show!
Wool: 1911 > Debt ceiling: 2011
In the search for info on the song “Welcome to Our City,” for the list of “Songs with ‘Duluth’ in the lyrics or title,” PDD’s Fairy Research Spy found this 1910 Duluth News Tribune illustration (which has the same title as the song, but predates it by six years). Note that the Aerial Lift Bridge is not a lift bridge … it was the Aerial Ferry Bridge back then, with a gondola car carrying cars/wagons across.
After 32 years, the founders of Global Village (from Minneapolis) have passed the torch to a long time employee and hometown girl. Friday, we celebrate this new chapter for the old downtown icon and present the Lotus Center, our new community yoga and dance (and more!) studio on the second floor.
[This post originally contained an embedded video that no longer exists at its source.]
That was the headline above this photo collage from the Sept. 30, 1914 edition of the Duluth News Tribune. Of course, the Lyceum, Rex, Grand, Zelda and Empress are all gone now. Only the Orpheum remains — remodeled and renamed the NorShor Theatre in 1941.
The Duluth Economic Development Authority is working with Westlake Reed Leskosky and SJA Architects on restoration plans for the NorShor. Have patience; it’ll take some time.
UMD Library’s Northeast Minnesota Historical Center recently contributed 493 images of Duluth businesses to the Minnesota Digital Library. This is a great collection of images, selected by NEMHC curator Pat Maus. These images add to the over 2000 photographs, documents, and maps from the Center already in the Digital Library.
At least one news organization reported yesterday that Mayor Don Ness is the first Duluth mayor to be unopposed in an election. Well, it’s not true.
Mayor Ness is indeed the only mayor in the past 126 years to go unopposed, but Maryanne Norton at the Duluth Public Library has found three Duluth mayors in the 1800s who were unopposed.
Sidney Luce was elected unopposed in 1872 and served one term.
Dr. Vespasian Smith was elected twice with no opposition — in 1873 and 1874. (Mayors served one-year terms until 1913, when the current four-year system began.)
Horace B. Moore was elected unopposed in 1885 and served one term.
You may have noticed that Cliff’s Barber Shop in West Duluth is for sale. The proprietor, Clifford E. Johnson, died two years ago. I took the photo above in April, when Cliff’s shop was being cleared out after an estate sale.
At the estate sale were boxes upon boxes of old slides. Most of them were of vacations to Hawaii and so on, but I found two boxes that had some local images, so I plopped down $10 and brought them home for a slide show. The fine folks at Swim Creative have scanned a few of them for me to share on PDD.
Thursday, July 7, noon
Duluth Art Institute, Depot Building
The Duluth Art Institute welcomes Dr Robert Goldish as he explores some highlights from Jewish immigration history in the twin ports. Learn about some of our community’s founders and leaders and their personal stories and lives. The event and accompanying air conditioning are free; guests are welcome to bring their own lunch.
Duluth’s “Minnehaha” Tiffany window (sometimes referred to as the “Hiawatha” window) designed by Duluth’s Ann Weston-and a watercolor associated with it-will be featured on next week’s “History Detectives” on PBS North. Look for Wade Lawrence, former director of Glensheen, for his expert analysis of the window.
Here are the air times/dates/PBS description:
Tuesday, June 28 – 7pm on PBS North
Tuesday, June 28 – midnight on PBS North
Saturday, July 2 – 6pm on PBS 2ndChance
Sunday, July 3 – 5pm on PBS North
I was trying to find an old photograph last week and I did not find what I was looking for but I did find something that only a history nerd, Duluth loving, public space adoring, Lake Superior worshiping kid like me would appreciate. So naturally I am posting images here as best I can.
Several images after the jump, so you might not want to try this over dial up or on your smartphone, and if anyone knows how to ge the full image in a downloadable PDF or another handier document type, knock yourself out. I’d love that.
