I’m currently preparing the next exhibit for the James E. Sperry Gallery, which is situated right outside the archives reading room. We decided to do an anniversary type of thing, looking back 100 years at the Nonpartisan League (NPL). What is the Nonpartisan League, and what was their mission? The NPL was created by the joining of two organizations with a common cause – helping the farmer. The organizations were the American Society of Equity (ASE) and the North Dakota Socialist party. The new party believed farmers could rid themselves of the control and power of the Minneapolis grain companies by creating state owned industries, specifically a bank where farmers could borrow money and mills and elevators where farmers could sell their grain.

A lasting legacy of the NPL, the State Flour Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks. SHSND – C0455(1939)

With farmers making up 70 percent of the state’s population, NPL organizer and president, A.C. Townley, certainly had an audience to pitch the NPL platform and convince them to join the League for $6 per year. Using Model T cars, Townley and his organizers worked tirelessly, motoring from farm to farm all over the state to get people to join. They were successful. As word of the NPL spread, membership grew immensely. NPL leadership found candidates to run on their ticket. Cleverly, the NPL ran their candidates in the Republican Party primary elections. The winner of the Republican primary usually won the November election because most North Dakotans were Republican. It’s difficult to understand in today’s political world how an organization with a socialist slant became a faction of the Republican Party. Wow! That is wild colorful stuff!

A.C. Townley speaking at a NPL rally in 1917. SHSND - B0921

Creating an exhibit can be fun and stressful at the same time. I want to make things interesting for patrons, but I know it is impossible to please everybody, as we all have different interests. For me, I look at the NPL’s creation in 1915 and subsequent election victories in 1916 and 1918 as somewhat of a phenomenon. In the 1919 legislative session NPL members controlled the state house, senate, supreme court, and had an NPL governor in Lynn Frazier. By 1921 the NPL-led state government experienced serious setbacks that resulted in a recall election which ousted the governor, attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture and labor. These three positions make up the Industrial Commission, which was created through NPL-sponsored legislation. Ironic..

The cover of the league’s newspaper following the 1916 election. The NPL won every race they were in, but 24 senate seats were not up for election. They would capture the senate following the 1918 election.

Before the NPL popularity declined, the party created the Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator. These are probably two of the biggest legacies of the heyday of the NPL. Check out these links and the upcoming exhibit to learn more.
http://www.ndstudies.org/articles/the_nonpartisan_leagues_rise_to_power_overview
http://history.nd.gov/ndhistory/npl.html

The exhibit, “The Peak of Power: The Nonpartisan League 100 Years Ago,” will open in August 2016 through July 2017. Stop by and check it out!

I was looking to see if my great-grandfather was an NPL member. This just says “Republican” like every other card I thumbed through. The search will continue. SHSND 41301 Divide County

Last year I blogged about home movies that people have donated to the State Archives (http://blog.statemuseum.nd.gov/blog/archiving-home-movies). Not everyone feels comfortable about donating their home movies, nor do the Archives necessarily want them, as they may not fit our collection policy. Nonetheless, this footage should be preserved for future generations of family members to enjoy.

We collect, digitize and preserve home movies if we feel they have historic value. Outreach is also a part of our mission. When possible, we try to help people and other organizations that are working to preserve history. When Kirsten Larvick called last year and told me about her idea of starting a fund to help people preserve their home movies, it certainly captured my attention. Kirsten is a documentary storyteller and film preservation advocate. She operates a studio in New York and has worked for a number of award-winning production companies and filmmakers, including InCite Pictures and the Academy Award^® winning producer, David Goodman. So why, I wonder, does she want to help North Dakotans preserve their home movies? Fortunately there is a connection, as her grandfather grew up and lived a good part of his life in the Valley City area An avid film enthusiast, Kirsten’s grandfather did a great deal of filming family and community scenes while in North Dakota. In his honor, Kirsten decided to start a fund to help people preserve their home movies. I think it is a great cause, and that’s why we are helping to promote this opportunity to the public.

Founded in 2015 after Al Larvick, a man devoted to documenting everyday life activities, the Al Larvick Conservation Fund (ALCF) has begun to offer grants to those who wish to have home movies properly preserved and digitized. The ALCF mission is to preserve historical and cultural heritage through conversation, education, and public accessibility of home and amateur audiovisual materials created prior to 1990. The State Historical Society is happy to partner with the Larvick fund to help promote preservation and to get the word out about the grant opportunities. I am a board member of the non-profit fund and will be part of a program in September to help promote home movies and their preservation.

The first part of the 90-minute program will showcase some of the home movies from our collections as well as those from the Al Larvick collection. We will show different types of home movies ranging from family celebrations to parades and athletic events. Being able to see glimpses of how and what previous generations did is interesting to say the least. From what they wore, to their home décor, to seeing their activities and how they may or may not be similar to the things we do today is entertaining and informative. The movie screenings, discussion, and preservation workshops will be held September 2, 3, and 4 in Bismarck, Valley City, and West Fargo. For more information about Al Larvick, the events, and the grant, please visit the website at http://www.alavcf.org/. To register for one of the free events, go to - http://www.eventbrite.com/o/al-larvick-conservation-fund-8338128169.

This is a wonderful thing the Larvick family is doing, and I hope to see you all at one of the events!

I remember not long ago someone asking, “What is the Historical Society doing about the Bakken oil boom that is going on? Are you documenting it? This is history in the making, you know.”  I don’t recall my response at the time, but I’m sure I said something about how it would be great if we could send people out to the oil patch and everywhere else in the state and take pictures, video, and interview everyone in sight. But that is simply not possible. 

Our role as an archive is a little different. We collect and preserve materials that document the history of our state. So what does that mean? What documents the state’s history? My short and simple response to this question is anything that may help us understand how people lived - what they did for work, for play, their food, shelter, and clothing. Another important aspect of history is how we govern ourselves. Learning how and why our laws are made and changed throughout history can help us understand society in the past, which will hopefully help us make good decisions as we go forward.  Okay…that’s enough…I could go on and on. Now, back to the Bakken!

In 2014 I was contacted by the Dr. Bruce Braun, a professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota. He and his team of researchers were planning to go to the Williston area to interview people about their lives and what impact the oil boom has had on them. The State Historical Society agreed to partner with the University of Minnesota in this endeavor by providing promotion and archiving the interviews once they were completed. The project, titled “Life and Labor in the Bakken Oilfields,” resulted in interviews with 27 people. The people interviewed vary in background. There are life-long residents, people born in the area, people who moved away and recently returned, and others from all over the country who moved there for work.

This collection provides a good snapshot of people living in the heart of an oil boom. The diverse backgrounds of the interviewees can help the listener understand the effects of the boom from different perspectives. I have listened to portions of the interviews, and there are some fantastic firsthand accounts of real life. Here is a link to the description/finding aid - http://history.nd.gov/archives/manuscripts/inventory/11249.html

The link below is a sound bite of Johnny Gonzales discussing the boom when he arrived in Williston. To listen to any of the interviews on the inventory, please visit or contact the State Archives at 701.328.2091 or at archives@nd.gov. The interviews have not been transcribed.

Johnny Gonzales audio clip

The State Archives has a large collection of film and video. The largest collections come from television stations, professional filmmakers, and state agencies. One other genre of moving images we collect is family home movies. Why would the archives be interested in an individual’s home movies? The answer is simple - because home movies often show us what life was like in the past in North Dakota. Events like birthday parties, weddings, and Christmas parties are part of our culture, and seeing these events on film can give us a perspective about how life in the past compares to life in the present. We are particularly interested in preserving North Dakota scenes such as farming, ranching, parades, athletic events, and natural disasters. Many of the scenes that will be featured in the new Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today came from home movies donated to the State Archives. This gallery opens on November 2, 2014.

One film collection was recently donated to the archives by Eileen Mork, niece of Hatton native and famous pioneer aviator Carl Ben Eielson. The collection of 8mm film was shot by her father, Elmer Osking, between 1938 and 1955. Shooting film was a hobby of his, and there are some really nice scenes in the collection from the Hatton area. There is some aerial footage of the countryside prior to rural electrification. Wow! We are so used to seeing miles and miles of power lines and poles, it was really neat to see what it looked like before. This collection does have a lot of out-of-state family vacations, which we don’t necessarily want to collect, but having the North Dakota scenes is well worth taking the collection in and keeping it together.

Kodak film box with the description “Eastern Star Style Show 1950” from The Osking film collection

Formats of home movies have changed throughout the years and will continue to evolve. Home movie collections in the archives include 16mm, 8mm, VHS, 8mm tape, and DV CAM. We are able to convert all these to a digital format for preservation, copying, and easy editing.

Used in digitizing regular 8mm and super 8mm film

If you have home movies, please do not throw them away. If you have film shot in North Dakota that you are willing to donate, check with us at the State Archives to see whether it fits our needs. We can digitize the film and provide donors with a free copy. Most importantly, we will preserve the film so future generations can see the past.

Here are some of the other film and video collections at the state archives:
http://history.nd.gov/archives/tvnewsfilm.html
http://history.nd.gov/archives/othervideo.html