The first part of the year is generally a busy time at the North Dakota State Archives because we see an influx in photograph and manuscript donations to the collections. This year was no exception. An especially noteworthy collection of 69 photographs and postcards recently came in which were collected and used by the Turtle Mountain Star newspaper (Rolla, North Dakota).

The Turtle Mountain Star photograph collection (2016-P-007) dates from 1893-1988 and consists of images of businesses, fires, people, and buildings, primarily in Rolla and Rolette, North Dakota. There are several images in Cando, Dunseith, Butte Saint Paul, Bottineau County, the International Peace Garden, and Fish Lake (near St. John, Rolette County).

One of my favorite things about working with historic photographs is the ability to visually compare the past with the present. In this collection in particular, it is fascinating to see how businesses, technology, advertising, people, clothing and transportation have changed.

Photographs of Main Street facilitate comparison between early twentieth century Rolla and the present. This image dates from about 1900-1910 (2016-P-007-00050).

A great photographic example of an early Rolla business. A man with a trumpet stands in the doorway of the J. R. Ashman music store as two girls look on, circa 1900-1910 (2016-P-007-00046).

Students and teachers are gathered outside the Rolla public school during the fire of 1920 (2016-P-007-00026).

An exterior view of the Rolla public school (called the high school in this image) before the fire of 1920 (2016-P-007-00025).

The Turtle Mountain Star began in November 1888, published by Parsons and Fritz. In 1917, the Star merged with the Rolette County Herald to form the Turtle Mountain Star and Rolette County Herald. The collection contains several early photographs of the Star office and another of the office and its workers from about the 1980s.

Back room of the Turtle Mountain Star printing office, between 1900-1910 (2016-P-007-00066).

Staff at work in the Turtle Mountain Star and Rolette County Herald, circa 1980s (2016-P-007-00052).

In addition to historically significant photographs, the collection stands out because of the detailed descriptions of the persons, places, and often dates depicted in the photos. This information helps us as archivists describe the images and make them accessible to researchers and the public.

The collection can be accessed in the State Archives reading room. The finding aid for the collection is available here: http://www.history.nd.gov/archives/manuscripts/inventory/2016-P-007.html. Sixty-two items from the collection have been digitized.

It may seem odd to think about a pending zombie apocalypse from a museum educator’s perspective, but it can be a fun and useful exercise for a variety of purposes. We can use the cheeky pop culture trend to make some otherwise dry topics (such as disaster and emergency management planning) a little more fun and lively. Medical health professionals, like those at the Centers for Disease Control, use a hypothetical zombie apocalypse to model infectious disease outbreaks. The Pentagon has also used a fictional zombie apocalypse scenario as a planning and training tool. This has allowed the U.S. government to use zombies as a theoretical risk to plan defense strategies without offending any actual, real-life friends or foes that might take even a pretend elimination personally.

This poster from the Centers for Disease Control promotes a tongue-in-cheek awareness for zombie apocalypse preparation.
CDC - Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. Preparedness 101 - Zombie Posters. http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm. March 2016.

How do we take these great ideas and turn them into our own living history zombie survival boot camp? One example can be our approach to water. Most survival books and websites recommend stocking up on a minimum of a gallon of drinking water per person per day. Just like the old proverb about teaching a man to fish, teaching people to find, filter, and purify their own water will help them survive longer than storing water alone. The State Historical Society of North Dakota has a SEND trunk available specifically about water resources. I have written about the SEND program before here and here. Another program I'll be teaching this spring will be one of the new Museum Lab classes for school-aged children. One class in March will focus on teaching kids how to make a water filter action system out of various materials. If it goes over well, there may be more sessions offered this fall. We can use programs like SEND and Museum Lab to teach both history and survival skills through museum programs.

Since humans can only survive for three to five days without water, it has always been critical for people to be able to find this resource. Throughout time people have learned how to watch for clues that will lead them to water, such as watching for the direction birds fly or places insects swarm. Humans learned how to follow animal trails to good sources of drinking water. We have learned to find vegetation that is high in water content and have learned how to collect and store water. People have even figured out how to find water underground and how to remove salt from ocean water. We also had to learn how to filter and purify water to remove the sediment and bacteria that can make us sick, or even kill us. Water is a resource that we have learned to manage to keep it clean and make sure there is enough for everybody. As we read about water availability and quality in other parts of the country, the relevance to our daily lives becomes obvious. What a great way to connect kids to both science and history in one fun topic.