In early 2025, the State Archives staff had an idea to create a kids kiosk for the upcoming ND250 Road Trip: Our American Story exhibit. A collaborative meeting was held with the State Archives and Audience Engagement & Museum teams to hash out the details for the project. Archives had a lot of fun ideas, and as I love fun, I was very excited to get involved.

Sarah Walker and Lindsay Meidinger from the Archives team arrived very prepared. Their main idea was to create three characters to help introduce children to the topic of preserving family history, using animation and simple games. They came up with names and occupations for the characters. This is when I first met Opal the Oral Historian, Archie the Archivist, and Jennie the Genealogist.

Let the fun begin! (For me anyways.)

After this meeting I began developing the characters. Who are these characters? What do they look like? What do they sound like? Are they kids? Robots? Animals? Emojis? While I worked on the visuals, Lindsay began writing scripts for me. In the meetings that followed, we decided the characters would be talking animals native to North Dakota. And of course, we would have them use North Dakota expressions like “you betcha!” and “ope!”

This 360 character turnaround sheet shows all sides of Opal the Oral Historian.

Once all three characters were developed and worked up on character sheets, I moved on to storyboarding, a kind of visual road map for animation and gameplay. After the storyboards were approved, I started creating all the necessary design graphics. This took some time as all three animated characters have their own unique environments. An animatic or moving storyboard was created to help me with pacing and timing the script with the different scenes in the animation.

At top, a page from the storyboard. At bottom, the animatic or moving storyboard.

I began animating Opal first, since she was the character we had most fleshed out. The toughest part for me was the lip syncing of Opal. I needed to brush up on some software changes to make this happen. And, yes, Opal does talk.

About Opal

Opal the Oral Historian is a white-tailed deer who is enthusiastic about oral history. Opal will help teach young people how to preserve family stories. She is voiced by Education Outreach Supervisor Madison Milbrath. Madison researched voice acting and came in to record with such confidence. She did an amazing job giving Opal her voice.

At left, the opening scene of the Opal animation. At right, Education Outreach Supervisor Madison Milbrath records the voice-over for Opal.

I can’t wait for you to meet the rest of the characters. Archie the Archivist is a bison who loves organizing. He is voiced by Adam Pfeifer, a fellow new media specialist. Jennie the Genealogist is a prairie dog who loves her large family, past and present! She is voiced by Sarah, head of reference services. Sarah gave Jennie the cutest, most ecstatic voice!

New Media Specialist Adam Pfeifer and Head of Reference Services Sarah Walker record voice-overs for Archie and Jennie in the studio.

We look forward to introducing you to our 2D archives staff at the kids kiosk in the ND250 exhibit opening at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in late June. See you there! 

In February 2024, my colleague Lori Nohner, research historian, wrote "A Dog Blog: 5 Things Shaped Like Dogs in the State Museum Collections." I thought it was time to give the cats their due. Here are five feline-related items from the State Museum collections:

1. Cream pitcher with handle shaped like a cat
Part of a collection of pitchers donated by North Dakota’s first licensed female physician Dr. Fannie Dunn Quain, this pitcher was made in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. It looks like the spotted cat might want a sip of the pitcher’s contents. But first they want to make sure you are not looking.

1920s cat-handled cream pitcher. SHSND 1986.147.57

2. Cat stuffed animal
It is obvious that Marie Korth Wiik loved her kitty. The homemade, white flannel stuffed animal with shoe button eyes was gifted to her in 1912 around the time she was born. It was loved so much the cat is now bald. Its tail has been reattached, seams have been resewn, and stains reflect many years of being Marie’s best friend. Considering how dirty and worn the tail is, I wouldn’t be surprised if she carried the toy by the tail most of the time.

Well-loved stuffed toy cat, 1912. SHSND 1990.201.2

3. Kitten mittens
No kitten would lose their mittens if they were wearing this fuzzy pair of kitten mittens. Juanita Weinrebe (and likely her little sister, Donna) kept warm with these cute kitten mittens while growing up in Minot. Each tail holds a safety pin, so the mitten could be attached to the child’s coat and not lost.

Cozy kitten mittens, circa 1915. SHSND 1993.33.196

4. Cat-shaped hot water bottle
Cuddling up with a cat is a great way to keep warm. If you don’t have a real cat to cuddle, this cat-shaped Kuddle-Kitty hot water bottle made by Rexall Drug Company in the 1940s would be a distant second. Unfortunately, the rubber used for the hot water bottle is now hard and brittle making it less cuddly.

Kuddle-Kitty hot water bottle, 1940s. SHSND 1990.277.15

5. Black cat Halloween costume
For centuries, people have thought that black cats were the source of bad luck, making them a great Halloween symbol. This Halloween costume was purchased in the 1960s from the Johnson Variety Store in McVille by the Odegaard family. I hope it was lucky for the child as they trick-or-treated—at least it would have been a fun scare!

Black cat Halloween costume, 1960s. SHSND 2018.49.6