If you’re me, sometimes you see an artifact and exclaim, “Look at this little guy!” I do not have a true definition for a little guy, but I do get a feeling—a charm, a delight, a sense of whimsy—whenever I come across one. Smallness is often a factor but not required. And in line with the Midwestern use of “guy,” being a little guy knows no gender. It’s just a little guy. You know them when you see them.

For your viewing pleasure, I have selected some of my favorite little guys preserved in the state’s museum collections and photographed them alongside a dime for scale.

1. Little but loud!

Male hippo. SHSND 1989.74.231 G

He’s just yelling. All he does is yell, and I love him. This hippo is one of a pair that belongs to a Noah’s Ark toy set. The set was made for and played with by children at the North Dakota School for the Deaf in Devils Lake sometime prior to 1969. Older students at the school crafted the set in their woodworking class. I like to imagine a student painting the eyes on this hippo to convey as much maniacal fervor as possible.

Our hippo with his more composed female partner. SHSND 1989.74.231 G

2. Get a load of these little guys!

Old lady on a donkey. SHSND 1990.25.101

The littlest guy on this list is in fact two little guys. Among a collection of very small santon terra-cotta figurines is an elderly lady riding a donkey. These santons, or “little saints,” were gifted to North Dakota as part of the French Gratitude Train. In 1948, French citizens filled train cars with a variety of items as an expression of gratitude for the food and clothing Americans sent them after World War II.

3. Whose little guy is this?

Purple guy. SHSND 2021.34.9

This little guy was made by donor Lauren Ritterbush of Bismarck when she was a teenager in the late 1970s. She made many similar stuffed creatures for her friends at this time.

What even is it? I do not know. But what I do know is that this guy is friend-shaped and brings me so much joy whenever I look at it. The blissful face, the little round ears—this guy is just here to hang out and have a nice time.

4. The best little guy in the West!

Slouching man block print. SHSND 2013.111.159

North Dakota artist Clell Gannon created this block print of a slouching man with a relatable “what am I even doing” energy sometime between 1920 and 1940. The sketches behind the print make it appear as if he’s walking through a cloud of spectral cats. According to a note on the backside, this fellow is named Holling A. Planey, possibly a character in one of Gannon’s comics.

5. The Little Guy

Former North Dakota Gov. Bill Guy. SHSND 2010.80.1

May I present a promotional button with a little depiction of North Dakota Gov. William Guy. Guy was born in Devils Lake and served as governor from 1961 to 1973. These buttons were given out as promotional items during the 2010 premiere of the documentary “The Charisma of Competence: The Achievement of William L. Guy.” Among the many, many buttons in our collections, this one is the only one I would call … a little Guy.

Want to see more little guys? Check out my colleague Lori Nohner’s post about things in the collection shaped like dogs! After all, what are dogs, really, but little guys.

The 1990s are back in this edition of recent acquisitions. Settle in on your faux-leather beanbag chair, put your hair up in a scrunchie, and get ready to learn about some fly ’90s objects recently donated to the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s museum collection. Cue the Pearl Jam!

1. Virgil Hill Fan Club buttons, 1985-1995

SHSND 2024.00022.00001-.00002

Virgil Hill, famous boxing champion, was recently named the 48th recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award. During his career, thousands of North Dakotans attended his home state fights in Bismarck, Minot, Grand Forks, and Fargo. Hill’s recent accolade inspired donor Rita Nodland to reach out to us with her memories of watching Hill in the ring.

Recalling the Virgil Hill Fan Club buttons she acquired between 1985 and 1995, Nodland notes, “We were avid fans of Virgil Hill during his boxing career. We were also members of the VH Fan Club. We started following Virgil with a fight in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. It was an outdoor ring along the beach. After that, we went to every fight we could, mostly in Bismarck, and sometimes with adult family members and friends. … I never had an interest in boxing prior to [Hill’s] fights, but there was a rush every time we went. His promoters did a very good job exciting the crowd.”

2. Lisa Frank unicorn pencil box, 1992-1993

SHSND 2024.00012.00003

If you want a visual representation of elementary school in the 1990s, look no further than the colorful fantasy stylings of Lisa Frank. During the decade of grunge, her distinctive animals with big, wet eyes rendered in highly saturated colors seemed to be slapped on every available school supply surface and were beloved by middle school girls.

This unicorn-bedazzled Lisa Frank pencil supply box was used by donor Erica Houn, who also happens to be the agency’s business manager, when she was in first grade at Pioneer Elementary School in Bismarck. She pointed out to us that her name is written on it in two spots—once by her and once by her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Schubert. It’s well-loved, judging by the crayon marks and daubs of dried glue inside.

The delightfully crayon-scribbled inside of the pencil box.

3. Trolls pencil box, 1992-1993

SHSND 2024.00012.00004

Erica Houn also donated another pencil box, which highlights beloved franchise Trolls. This one she used at home rather than school.

Troll dolls and all of their associated merchandise were first popular in the 1960s and have made several resurgences in the following decades, including the 1990s. Houn personalized this pencil box by assigning the name “JTT” (moniker of ’90s tween dreamboat Johnathan Taylor Thomas of “Home Improvement” and “The Lion King” fame) to the troll on the far left. This note is faintly visible near the bottom of the label.

4. Walkman and headphones, 1988

SHSND 2023.00082.00001-.00002

The Sony Walkman is synonymous with the 1990s. We recently received this cool kid device from Susan Nissen, who bought hers in summer 1988 either at Best Buy in Moorhead, Minnesota, or Radio Shack in Fargo when she was a second-year medical student at the University of North Dakota. She used it through the bulk of the ’90s.

According to the donor, “I felt very ‘swank’ to have such a ‘vogue’ device. It would easily all fit into my backpack once I arrived to class. I mean, this was the first I could walk around outside and listen to music from cassette tapes! This was so beyond an old transistor radio or large boombox.”

Have something rad, excellent, bodacious, etc., (yes, I know, my knowledge of ’90s slang is really getting stretched thin here) that you’d like to donate to the State Historical Society museum collection? Give us a shout via our online donation questionnaire!

The State Historical Society of North Dakota’s Audience Engagement & Museum Department has accepted several interesting donations to its collections over the past few months. Let me take you on an unintentionally all-dance and music tour of these.

For starters, we had a sudden run of offers, which included square dancing items. By “sudden run,” I mean two donations. Which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

The first donation was a collection of items from the Belles ‘N Beaux square dance club.

Belles ‘N Beaux square dance club of Burleigh-Morton counties was formed in 1959 and is still in operation. Several hand-painted items were accepted. These include a wooden wall hanging by E. Roswick, a banner of the Belles ‘N Beaux square dance club and a felt hanging waste bin from 1978.

Delightful artifacts related to the square dancing tradition of Belles ‘N Beaux. I personally aspire to the energy of the dancers in the image above. SHSND 2022.00035.00001-.00003

The second donation from the wonderful world of North Dakota square dancing was a Squarenaders tapestry from the community of Shields. The donor’s mother, Alice Ternes, was one of the original Squarenaders when the club started in the 1960s. She recalls that the Catholic priest from St. Gabriel’s parish started a square dance club with and for the people of Shields, as there wasn't any type of entertainment in town at the time.

Alice and her husband, Aloys, scheduled their farm work to allow them to square dance as often as possible. She remembers how some club members went to friends’ houses (usually neighboring farmers), strongly encouraging them to join and learn the dance. Initially hesitant, many neighbors were surprised when they were able to learn the steps and really enjoyed the activity.

Unfortunately, the Shields dance hall where the Squarenaders hosted their events burned down in 2002. But Alice still recollects that the smooth wood floors in the hall, where this banner below also likely hung, were perfect for dancing.

This large banner likely hung in the Shields dance hall, overlooking the whirling Squarenaders. Note the neat 3D elements, like the raised lace. SHSND PA-2022.094

To help fill out our collection, the State Museum is now looking for donations of square dance dresses, skirts, and suits worn by people who kicked it up over the years with any of North Dakota’s square dance clubs.

Speaking of musically related items, the final recent acquisitions I’ll tell you about are a Mandan High School Band cape and a Mandan Elks Band jacket. The cape and jacket belonged to the donor’s aunt Evelyn Stastny, who graduated from Mandan High School in 1949. In addition to playing clarinet in the Mandan High School Band, she was also in the Mandan Elks Band. She joined because it was a bit of a family affair—her father, Edward Stastny, was also a member of the Elks band.

Evelyn Stastny’s uniforms from her days playing clarinet with both the Mandan Elks Band, left, and the Mandan High School Band. SHSND PA-2022.080

If you are interested in donating objects to the agency’s museum collection, please get in touch. You can fill out a donation questionnaire at this link: Potential Acquisition Donor Questionnaire - State Historical Society of North Dakota. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Welcome to 2022! It’s a time for new beginnings, new resolutions, and … new exhibits! That’s right, the collections and exhibit crew at the State Historical Society of North Dakota recently installed a new exhibit at the ND Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck.

The exhibit title is Recent Donations. Five curators chose a selection of items that were donated to the museum collections within the last two years, and they are now on exhibit through November 2022. In this spirit, I’d like to share with you a few more items that we acquired at the tail end of 2021.

One of the last donations received by the museum collection in 2021 was an assortment of Tupperware. Tupperware is a great example of a modern item that is a huge part of North Dakota culture but doesn’t always make it into museums. The donor sold Tupperware starting in the early 1990s, but her collection dates back even earlier. (I don’t know about you, but I can all but see the potluck noodle salad in the green bowls in the image below.)

Nothing says North Dakota potluck like a fetching assortment of Tupperware. SHSND PAR-2021124

Meanwhile, this Melissa & Doug brand toy hammer has served a dual historical purpose that prompted its acceptance into the collection. It’s one of the most contemporary toys that we have acquired. But in an ironic twist, it also served as a gavel during parliamentary proceedings by state Rep. Corey Mock at an online legislative meeting in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mock used this hammer to open a Legislative Information Technology Committee meeting, held remotely on June 4, 2020.

This children’s toy pulled double duty at North Dakota Legislative Assembly committee meetings in 2020 and 2021. SHSND 2021.65

Committee chairmen or chairwomen are usually provided a gavel when using the committee meeting rooms at the state Capitol in Bismarck, but since Mock was attending this particular hybrid meeting from home, he drafted this toy hammer belonging to his then-3-year-old son into service. When he offered this item to the museum collection, Mock reflected, “With a few raps on my standing desk, this Melissa & Doug play hammer was transformed into a parliamentary magic wand.” The hammer was subsequently used as a meeting gavel for several legislative meetings over the course of 2020 and 2021 before being donated to the State Historical Society.

Another contemporary artifact donated in late 2021 was this dress. The donor made it for her 8-year-old daughter in 2016-2017. Blue fabric was added to the skirt as the girl grew taller, allowing it to remain a favorite dress for a few years. This frock is a great example of a recent item whose story can be told not only by the person donating it but also by the physical changes made to the object itself.

The skirt of this handmade dress was lengthened with blue fabric to accommodate a growing girl. SHSND 2021.60

We appreciate our North Dakota citizens who offer us interesting family or personal items to add to the state’s museum collection. Items that are accepted by our staff into the collection help tell the state’s ongoing story for future generations.

Currently the State Museum is looking for additional contemporary items to add to the museum collection. Check out our list of desired items and fill out a questionnaire to have your donation considered by the Museum Collections Committee.

We are so excited to see what is in store for the collection in 2022!

Back in May 2019, I blogged about my cataloging and organization project at the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s off-site storage facility, Storage East. Much has happened since then, so I want to take you on a tour of what the collections crew has been up to!

In early 2020, we purchased new shelving for the rooms to maximize storage space. Some already had shelves installed, but these were warped and did not meet our needs as far as adaptability. Those shelves were taken down to be replaced with pallet shelving. We also made use of existing plywood, which we cut to the size of the units to create shelves.

The collections team, with the help of muscles from our other State Historical Society coworkers, has been going through Storage East room by room to update the shelving. The process goes a bit like this handy-dandy numbered list:

1. Clear out individual rooms to install shelving. This involves tracking where the artifacts are moved, so we can still find them in their temporary locations.

2. Install shelving. Sometimes our initial plans get changed during the implementation process. Occasionally, whole shelves are eliminated to allow for the retrieval of objects, with enough space between the aisles for people and objects to move safely.

3. Planning the spaces. This is the stage where we get an idea of what types of objects will go into the newly cleared space. For example, because the collection has many trunks, we decided to consolidate them into one room. Then we adjusted the shelving to make sure it would fit all the trunks and other intended objects, and that the space was used as efficiently as possible.

4. Place Ethafoam. Once the shelves are in position, we place a sheet of Ethafoam where the objects will be stored; this ensures there is an acid-free barrier between the objects and the shelf’s wood.

A (mostly) empty room in Storage East, with shelves under construction.

5. Moving in. Now it’s time to move objects onto their new shelving. Paying attention to any condition issues, we inventory each object’s new room and shelf number, so we know exactly where to find it when needed for an exhibition or to show a visitor or researcher. No lost things allowed!

Getting trunks into position with a little overhead help.

6. Celebrate the improved storage organization. The rooms we reorganized have huge improvements in storage capacity. For example, one room went from housing 62 objects to 148. That’s a 138% increase in objects housed for just one room!

Left: Before reorganization.
Right: After we worked our magic.

Not only are we storing more objects in these rooms, but the space is now better organized and the objects are more accessible, making their retrieval both safer and easier (for the objects and collections staff). Wins all around!

Last year, the museum collections committee analyzed the current representation within the state collection and noticed there were particular gaps of objects from childhood and teenage years, most significantly those items from the 1960s to the present. The State Historical Society of North Dakota is also looking ahead and considering how much collections storage space we will need as we continue to collect objects into the future.

To help us get an idea of what the people of North Dakota would most like to be collected and preserved from their childhood and beyond, the staff began conducting an online survey in February to gather input from lifetime, current, and past North Dakotans, as well as visitors to the state, about what the State Museum should collect.

We have received many great responses since the survey launched, and here is a little about what we have learned so far. I hope you like stats and nostalgia as much as I do, because here we go!

Here are the results as of Aug. 10:

• 134 unique responses.
• Representation from 37 North Dakota counties, with the most responses from Burleigh (34) followed by Morton (8).
• The highest number of responses from participants born in the decades 1950-1959 (37) and 1960-1969 (32).
• 230 suggestions for toys.
• 239 suggestions for clothing.
• 234 suggestions for activities.
• 105 suggestions for “other,” i.e., stuff that didn’t quite fit anywhere else.

By object category, here are the top responses, as well as an assortment of other interesting answers.

Toys

Top responses: Barbie, GI Joe, Cabbage Patch dolls, Hot Wheels, LEGO toys, Lincoln Logs, toy vehicles

Random responses: Chatty Cathy dolls, color-changing toys, homemade toys, lawn darts, water baby dolls, Yu-Gi-Oh cards

Clothing

Top responses: Bell-bottoms, bib overalls, Hash jeans, jeans, jelly shoes, Air Jordans, scrunchies

Random responses: Toe socks, stirrup leggings, skinny jeans, paisley, hand-me-downs, Uggs

Activities

Top responses: Bikes, roller skating, baseball, books, board games, video games/game consoles (Super Mario Bros., Space Invaders), phonographs

Random responses: Cartoons on Saturday mornings, 8-tracks, chalk drawing, drive-in movies, local music bands

Other

Top responses: CD & cassette Walkman, inflatable furniture, boombox, clamshell VHS tapes, ordering Scholastic books from a catalog, teen magazines (Tiger Beat, J-14, Bop)

Random responses: The ”Macarena,” TV dinners, duck-and-cover training pamphlets, food and drink packaging, hairstyles (the Rachel, mullet, bouffant, etc.)

As someone who falls into the 1990-1999 age range, it has been wonderful seeing the creative, thoughtful suggestions both from my peers and people born in the decades before and after me. Not only are the responses helpful for us at the museum as we look to the future of the collection, they are also a great way to learn about what objects, activities, styles, and clothing have been important to children in North Dakota throughout the decades.

Is there something from your childhood that you think we should collect? Does it look like your county or age group needs more representation? Head to the collections survey here and make your voice heard!

If you would like to donate to the State Historical Society museum collection, be it a My Little Pony, bellbottoms, a boombox or anything in between, you can complete our Potential Donation Questionnaire here.