Working with archives collections, that is, with books, papers, photos, and other two-dimensional records, is a gift unto itself. These are the actual documents interacted with by people of the past and are a part of our history! We learn cool facts as we process and use these collections. We also often see items of interest. Whether that means uncovering a surprising historical event or discovering something unexpected, our memorable finds fuel conversations and entertain us. However, these finds also provide us with a more personal insight into the history we are working with and the people who used these records.

Below you’ll find some unforgettable items our staff has come upon over the years while working in archives and libraries.

Keeping Track(s)

The most memorable thing I have found was in the Great Northern Railway Company, Minot Division, Engineering Department Records (MSS 10104). The collection consists of field notebooks, which I rehoused. During this process, I discovered what looked like a piece of railroad track being used as a spacer to keep notebooks upright in a box. I worked with this collection prior to being hired on full-time, so I also consider this item a neat memory of my days as a volunteer.

—Matt Ely, Photo Archivist

Hidden Behind the Frame

The most memorable finds in collections for me have been risqué photos. I have happened upon these several times, hidden behind framed photos or just loose among papers. I wonder about the circumstances that led to these materials being left in a collection donated to a public institution. Whether to keep these items as part of the collection sparks lively debate among our staff, harking back to our ethics lessons in school; that is a topic for another blog post.

—Emily Kubischta, Manuscript Archivist

A Personalized Stamp

Personal stamp of Joseph E. Kenney. SHSND SA 11371-00018

One find that stands out for me is an example of a personal stamp used by Joseph Edwin Kenney, a soldier in the 4th Minnesota Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. The impression, as shown in this image, is part of the Kenney Family Papers (MSS 11371) at the State Archives. The stamp itself is not part of the collection. I have worked with manuscripts of Civil War soldiers for years as part of my academic research, and I have never encountered something of this nature. Possible uses for the stamp include marking his clothing, equipment, and personal items. Joseph gave his life in defense of the Union during the Vicksburg campaign in May 1863.

—Daniel Sauerwein, Reference Specialist

Empty Drug Sampling Containers in a Case File

We received some urine sample collection holders from a state agency as part of a human resources termination case. The State Archives was not supposed to receive the containers, and they were returned for proper disposal. One wonders why the containers were kept once the proceedings were over. Thankfully, they were empty!

—Larissa Harrison, State Government Archivist

A North Dakota Connection to a Film Set in Africa

This still frame from Arch Oboler's unfinished travel film "Alice in Africa" depicts a Masaai tribesman in British Kenya. Red editing marks are visible throughout the footage.

The most memorable item I have discovered at the State Archives is an unfinished, unreleased film entitled “Alice in Africa” (MSS 10782, Bill Snyder Films Collection) produced and directed by Arch Oboler. North Dakota filmmaker Bill Snyder worked for Oboler in Africa during the late 1940s, which is how the film made its way from the continent to North Dakota. “Alice in Africa” centers on a white American woman (played by Oboler’s wife, Eleanor Oboler) who travels through Kenya, Uganda, and the Congo. While the film, which depicts activities and ceremonies of the Maasai, Kamba, and Tutsi tribes, does portray East Africa and its peoples from a white, colonial perspective, it is nonetheless a visually stunning work and an important piece of motion picture history. It represents an early example of a Kodachrome color reversal film of East Africa shot by Westerners.

—Anne Loos, Audiovisual Archivist

Literal Fingerprints

It’s hard to pin down just one memorable find. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention a recent surprise. While researching a collection, I discovered folders full of copies of fingerprints! Not a lot of paperwork accompanied them, but it was cool to see some old-school sleuthing kept in our Archives.

—Sarah Walker, Head of Reference Services

Funky Bookplates

Some of the most memorable things I have found come from my time processing new book acquisitions at a previous job in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. My favorite part was checking to see if the book had a bookplate. A bookplate is a decorative label inside the front cover of a book showing who owns it. While printing your name would suffice, why wouldn’t you choose to design a bookplate that reflects your unique personal style and interests? Above is one of my favorites. I hope to find more weird and wonderful bookplates here at the State Archives.

—Ashley Thronson, Reference Specialist

Clippings and Trim

This is the reason why archivists need up-to-date tetanus shots! I keep this box of paperclips (usually of the sharp or questionable variety) beside my desk and, as you can see, use it regularly to collect the many varied things used as fasteners I find while going through collections.

—Megan Steele, Local Government Records Archivist

Admittedly, the best part of my job is the opportunity to organize and create exhibitions. I love the creative forces involved in producing an exhibition—discovering new stories, collaborating on storylines, and working with our team to devise original ways to interpret exhibition themes. Then there is the “stuff” of exhibits, the wonderful objects from which the stories spring. I have long enjoyed working with objects and exploring the “chatter” and relationships that exist between them. It is also deeply gratifying to see how gallery visitors respond to and move through an exhibition. Once you open the gallery doors, exhibitions take on a life of their own.

The care and maintenance of an exhibition’s life cycle is also an important component of my job. We often revisit an installation, adjusting elements that need additional attention. This may include switching out an interpretive panel that is problematic or simply correcting a typo. It can mean adjusting an audiovisual component, refocusing a light, replacing a video monitor that is acting up, or even something as simple as lubricating a squeaky hinge.

The exhibition’s life can also entail adding new components. At the State Museum in Bismarck, just one of about a dozen of our exhibition areas across the state, we are currently working on an upgrade to the Industry & Energy section of the North Dakota story in the Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today.

Two display fixtures donated by Continental Resources will be used to expand the narrative about the role of core samples within the petroleum industry. This involves reconceptualizing the exhibition space as well as developing new interpretive text and selecting accompanying photographs. Fortunately, we were able to draw from a series of photographs of the Williston Basin produced by Susan Tadewald for the State Historical Society of North Dakota Foundation.

Concept drawing for the core sample display at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.

Pump operation near Williston, 2012. Photo by Susan Tadewald

The addition to the energy display also allows us to repurpose an existing interactive station and expand the current footprint of the display.

This project piqued my interest as it ties into my background. My late father was a geophysicist who worked in the petroleum industry and part of his job entailed interpreting seismic records and core samples. Indeed, core samples even served as decorative objects around my childhood homes. Later in my professional life, I encountered a custom-made dining table with a topographic map etched into its glass surface, supported on an undulating pedestal base made of core samples.

Maintenance issues relating to the physical structure of the ND Heritage Center have also triggered several recent exhibition projects. We are currently undergoing an extensive upgrade to the security system that monitors both the exhibition galleries and the public spaces. The upgrade involves removing the cables and cameras for the current system and installing the new system’s components. Contractors are running cables throughout the building, which necessitated the temporary removal of exhibition elements in a couple of galleries to ensure the safety of the museum objects.

Work in the James E. Sperry Gallery required completely deinstalling the exhibition The Prairie Post Office. Accessing the existing security cables meant opening several walls and a portion of the ceiling. Once the work was finished, crews installed and painted new walls and the existing carpet was replaced. When the new carpet, paint, and adhesives cure and off-gas, we will reinstall the exhibition.

The refreshed Sperry Gallery awaits the return of The Prairie Post Office.

A similar situation occurred in the Governors Gallery. A portion of Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style was deinstalled to allow contractors to pull cables in that space. The Wedding March section was temporarily removed to protect the objects and allow contractors to move a power lift into the space to access the ceiling. As soon as we get the “all-clear” from the contractors, we will reinstall the platforms and wedding gowns.

Eventually these gallery disruptions will result in an improved exhibition environment. A feature of the new security system is that it generates a heat record for each gallery based on the amount of time gallery visitors linger at any feature, allowing us to see how gallery visitors interact with a space. Hot spots will identify popular areas, and cooler zones may indicate the need to rework a component or reconsider the objects or storyline being interpreted.

Sometimes nature impacts the exhibition’s life. Some of you may recall the flooding that occurred last fall in the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, resulting in part of the gallery’s temporary closure. The flooding was due to the combination of a flat roof, heavy rain, and a failed drain. As part of an effort to mitigate future flooding, the tail section of the Triceratops was recently deinstalled to allow access to the drainage pipes above that portion of the gallery. Connections were tightened and the drain and pipes tested to ensure there won’t be any additional leakage in the future, and the Triceratops got its tail back. So all is good!

Flooding in the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, October 2021.

Exhibition maintenance is a constant and occupies a remarkable amount of time and resources. The Treehouse interactive and learning space on the upper level above the Missouri River Event Center requires almost daily maintenance. We often marvel at how the “unbreakable” gets broken and how even steel bolts are sheared in half. But then we remember the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic and remind ourselves we must always temper our expectations against reality.

In addition to ongoing maintenance projects, we are also working on upcoming exhibitions. On the Edge of the Wind: Native Storytellers and the Land premiers in late April 2023 in the Governors Gallery. The planning and preparation for the new exhibition is well underway. To date, it has already been a two-year production partnership between the State Historical Society and the North Dakota Council on the Arts, with State Folklorist Troyd Geist conducting fieldwork for the project for more than eight years. On the Edge of the Wind will see a complete reinstallation of the Governors Gallery.

Governors Gallery layout for On the Edge of the Wind, which will open in spring 2023.

We are also developing an art exhibition that will occupy the Sperry Gallery beginning next summer, a complete reinterpretation of the Pembina State Museum for installation in 2024, and the America 250 semiquincentennial exhibition that will open in the Governors Gallery in 2025.

With all this planning and maintenance, life is never dull. It may be a bit frantic at times, but it is never dull!

Elizabeth Acheson, Library Processing Intern

Hi! I’m Elizabeth, and I interned in library processing this past summer at the State Archives. The State Archives contains all sorts of resources related to North Dakota, including materials such as manuscripts, photos, books and print publications, oral history records, and digital media records. As a library processing intern, I assisted with various projects involving published materials.

One of my favorite projects from this summer included processing some materials that were being transferred from a different section of the Archives (e.g., manuscripts or photos) to the publications section. One of these collections included the papers of Harry E. Polk (1887-1971). Polk was an editor and owner of the Williston Daily Herald and served as the state director and president of the National Reclamation Association for North Dakota. (You can learn more about him and his materials in the Archives here.) Many of the materials within Polk’s collection concern water management and the Garrison Dam project, a system that was proposed and built in the mid-20th century. The Garrison Dam project was and remains a major factor in North Dakota water management and daily life, and the pros and cons of its building continue to be the subject of debate.

Learning about this event in my college course on North Dakota history gave me a basic understanding of the topic and sparked my interest in discovering more about it. But looking through the various papers, essays, and publications related to water management and the Garrison Dam project gave me a deeper understanding of its full implications.

This is just one brief example of the way the materials within the State Archives can be of use to historians who wish to delve into the history of a subject beyond what a school textbook offers. By preserving and categorizing these materials, the Archives makes historical documents of the past available for use in the present and future.

Kristi Carpenter, National History Day Intern

This summer, I was the National History Day intern at the State Archives. National History Day allows middle school and high school students to create a project on a history topic they find interesting for local and nationwide competitions. It was my job to find those unique areas of documented history and condense them into a guide for these students, and potentially other researchers, to use.

As a University of Jamestown student studying political science with plans to attend law school, I applied for this internship because I like to write and do research. Though I had taken North Dakota history in high school, I had never participated in National History Day and at first had only a very basic understanding of how my research would be used. Our state’s history is known because people took the time to document it. Some of those documents ended up in the collections of the State Archives. I compiled lists of these resources on historical topics into an easy-to-use PDF file. Middle and high school students will eventually be able to access these files for their National History Day projects.

As I gathered this initial research, I learned so much. Every day at my internship, I discovered something I hadn’t known about North Dakota. Some of my favorite finds introduced me to areas of North Dakota’s history that were new to me. One collection contained newspaper clippings about North Dakotan David Henderson Houston. He invented a new type of camera film and sold it to the owner of Kodak. Another collection contained photographs taken by Nancy Hendrickson. As an adult, Nancy used her family homestead as a photographic studio, and her photos were published across the country. Many of her subjects are animals dressed as people. Another interesting collection contained transcripts of letters Theodore Roosevelt sent during his time in North Dakota. I also took an interest in the North Dakota Constitution. A major highlight of my internship was seeing the document in person. The State Archives holds the original, handwritten state constitution, which was created and signed in 1889. This same constitution is still in use despite a failed attempt to rewrite it in the 1970s.

North Dakota history topics are extremely fascinating. I hope that students and all researchers will find these National History Day guides useful!

In a quiet corner of Walhalla, tucked among some trees on the south end of town just beyond the local Lutheran church, sits an old log cabin. This structure, known as the Kittson cabin, is about 170 years old, and it looks like it. The walls are slouching outwards, the roof is sagging, and the front door is so bowed it appears it may be the only thing still holding the cabin up. Thankfully, the site will soon become louder as workers begin the process of dismantling the cabin to examine the logs and reclaim what they can in preparation for its reconstruction next year.

The Kittson cabin will soon be restored to a like-new state while preserving as much of the original material as possible.

A lot has been happening at the state’s historic sites in Walhalla the past few years, though it may not seem like it at first glance. At the Gingras Trading Post State Historic Site and now at the Walhalla State Historic Site, where the aforementioned Kittson cabin stands, restoration work has been progressing steadily. Several rotten logs and the roof shakes at the Gingras Trading Post were replaced in 2020. The following year the Gingras house had its roof replaced with fresh cedar shingles. In early September work began to replace the timber siding and windowsills of the house. The next step in the long process of restoring these sites is the dismantling, examination, and reconstruction of the Kittson cabin, which is set to begin in the coming weeks.

In 2020, the Gingras Trading Post underwent restoration work. Courtesy Steve Martens

The Gingras house with a new set of cedar shingles after their installation in late 2021. A year later, the shingles have weathered to a light gray color and look as if they have always been there.

Kobiela Brothers Construction is at work restoring rotten and weather-damaged wooden siding on the Gingras house. With the siding removed, the tenon-and-groove log construction elements are visible. Observe the newer looking logs from the 1974 reconstruction. The siding has done its job in preserving the covered material.

But what makes these cabins so important compared to others in the area? These cabins are among the last remaining buildings from the fur trade era in northeastern North Dakota representative of Red River Frame, a construction style unique to this region. Only four of these buildings still exist. They are the Kittson cabin, soon to be rebuilt, the Gingras Trading Post and house, and the Dease-Martineau House. All of these buildings can be found in Pembina County, located just a few miles from each other.

Red River Frame style is a synthesis of different architectural elements developed by the Métis, a culture born from the descendants of fur traders and their Native wives. Author and archaeologist David Burley, who has studied the origins and expressions of Métis culture in depth, noted in a 2000 Historical Archaeology article that “the ethnogenesis of Métis peoples ... involved a creolizing process in which cultural traits from many different groups were adopted. An analysis of Métis vernacular log architecture ... illustrates this clearly with individual building components derived from a number of different sources.”

Immediately noticeable about this style is that the exterior is built to maintain a level of symmetry. This element is taken from Georgian architecture, which was popular from 1714 to 1830, during the reigns of the British Kings George I, George II, George III, and George IV.

The side of the Gingras Trading Post that leads into the storage area displays characteristic Georgian symmetry.

Underneath the Georgian facade, Red River Frame combines elements of different log cabin construction, including both dovetailed corners and tenon-and-groove assembly around windows and doors. The French called these styles pièce-sur-pièce and pièce-sur-sole, respectively. French influences are strong in Métis culture, and their architecture is no exception.

At the corners of the Dease-Martineau House, you can see how the dovetailed notches of the pièce-sur-pièce style are slanted in two directions, which prevents the logs from slipping in any direction but toward each other, effectively locking the structure together and ensuring its stability. The dollar is included for scale purposes. Courtesy Steve Martens

Another unique characteristic of this style is found in the way windows, doors, and additions are made to fit Red River Frame buildings. Upright beams are attached to horizontal logs with the use of wooden pegs or are set directly into the earth. Slots are cut along the length of the upright beams. Tenons are cut into the ends of the horizontal logs, which are fitted into these slots. This feature is adapted from the pièce-sure-sole style, which had the benefit of allowing buildings to be constructed with few, if any, iron nails. Such buildings could also be disassembled and reassembled with relative ease, much like the Métis’ other famous wooden construction: the Red River ox cart.

This circa 1890 image of the Kittson Trading Post, then located in central Walhalla, shows the upright beams with horizontal logs stacked in between. Each of these horizontal logs has a narrow tenon that is fitted into the uprights. The Kittson cabin stands behind and to the right of the fallen structure in the foreground. SHSND SA C1602-00001

This amalgam of different construction methods developed in the 19th century along the Red River of the North is found nowhere else in the United States, which makes the preservation of these cabins important to local, regional, and state heritage. As such, the restoration process will be meticulous. Every piece of wood and every detail of the design will be recorded as the work progresses. When the Gingras site was restored in 1974, the buildings were first disassembled, and each design aspect as well as the state of the existing material was recorded. Then, new material was acquired, and the building was reassembled on the original location.

In this interior view of the Gingras house, the walls display the same tenon-and-groove construction as the Kittson Trading Post. Notice the original logs on display from the 1974 restoration of the house.

The Gingras house in 1960. It had been abandoned and left to deteriorate. The house was restored after it became a state historic site in 1974. SHSND SA 00101-00062

The same careful process will begin this month at Walhalla State Historic Site, where the Kittson cabin will soon be disassembled and its parts put into storage. The site will stand empty for the winter as the old material is assessed and salvaged and new materials are acquired. In spring 2023, the cabin will be reassembled at the same location with new materials to replace whatever cannot be recovered. Kobiela Brothers, the contractors responsible for the restoration, expect the project to be completed by the end of June 2023. When the dust of construction settles, a cabin that is 170 years old will have been preserved for another century so that people can study and enjoy this unique piece of history.

I often get asked what I do for work. If I say new media specialist supervisor people tend to look at me with a blank stare. I then briefly explain what my team and I do to help them get an idea of the scope of our work. I’ll break down the main areas below.

Websites
We are responsible for keeping the agency’s websites updated. This includes not only content but also Drupal updates. What is Drupal you ask? Drupal is the content management system (CMS) most of our websites use. I recently spent many of my days and nights Drupaling. This was due to a major Drupal upgrade that required recoding our websites. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I now know what a Twig file is, and it has nothing to do with a tree.

This code snippet is what makes the menu work on the State Museum website.

Graphics
We design many, many graphics in all different forms, from ads to brochures and flyers to billboards to PowerPoint presentations to exhibits to store merchandise to publications to digital signage and everything in between. Have you seen the Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style exhibit at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum? The logo, all the fabric walls and information panels for each section, exhibit card, ads, and video wall graphics were designed by our team of new media specialists.

This photo of Fashion & Function showcases some of the graphic elements we designed for the exhibit, including fabric walls, rail panel, and logo. On the far right side you can also see part of an upright panel.

Social Media
Some people think social media is just about creating posts, but there’s a lot more to managing these accounts. It also means adding events, responding to messages, monitoring comments, and reviewing insights and stats for posts to see how well they did so we know what content interests our followers. It requires striking a careful balance of posting enough but not too much.

Photography
Photography is a big part of our job here. It seems like there’s always something that needs to be photographed, both for marketing and archival purposes. If a new exhibit goes up, we take pictures. If an object needs to be photographed, we take pictures. If we have an event, we take pictures. You get the point.

This is one of my favorite photos and not just because it’s of my niece. We’ve used it in ads with the headline “Anything is fossil-ble.”

Video Production
It seems we are doing more video production every day. We take care of everything involved in video production from start to finish. This includes helping write scripts when needed, hauling equipment, lighting, filming, scanning or photographing items to include, editing the video and audio, captioning, and exporting the final video to the necessary format. Our YouTube channel includes many of the videos we’ve produced.

Animation
At the moment, we are working on a fun animation project and plan to do more in the future. One of our animations shows the ground sloth Megalonyx transforming from its skeleton to how it likely appeared with an overlay of fur. This helps people visualize the animal beyond the fossil. We also animated the logo for Fashion & Function to look like a neon light turning on since the sign in the exhibit is neon.

There are other odds and ends that we do as well, but these are the main duties we take care of while also staying on top of design trends and incorporating them into our work. I love the variety my job offers each day and never have to worry about being bored!

Here at the North Dakota State Archives we are thrilled to announce that a lifetime of research and writing by tribal historian Marilyn Old Dog Cross Hudson has been processed and is now open to the public. The collection includes research, manuscripts, articles, working and subject files, historical records, photographs, and other materials created or collected by Hudson. Major subjects include tribal and oral histories of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, as well as stories of Native American veterans, rodeos, and ranching, and of the Cross family. The collection also features records, histories, and photos of Elbowoods High School and the city of Parshall, North Dakota, Hudson’s home from 1953 until her death in 2020.

In this May 25, 2015, article from the Six Star Observer, Marilyn Hudson wrote about the names of World War II servicemen recorded in the Elbowoods Community Hall. Hudson, a prolific author, conducted extensive research for her published work. Both her sources and final articles are included in the collection.

Central to the collection are records of tribal, state, and federal government proceedings related to the construction of the Garrison Dam and its impact on the MHA Nation. The collection chronicles all stages of the project, from initial planning to completion of the dam. Significantly, it documents a wide range of efforts to stop the project, which necessitated the flooding of homes and farms and the relocation of hundreds of families. After the dam’s completion, Hudson carefully recorded its long-term effects on the people of the Fort Berthold Reservation.

One of many documents in the Marilyn Cross Hudson Collection that preserves the record of Garrison Dam opposition, this booklet was produced by the Fort Berthold Indian Defense Association in 1946 to galvanize resistance and encourage further study. SHSND SA 11517-0001-040-00001

Hudson’s collection represents the most comprehensive series of tribal records at the State Archives and includes the correspondence and writings of Martin Cross, Marilyn’s father and long-time tribal chairman and council member. Bringing the historical documents to life are photographs, oral histories, and published articles by Hudson about life in the Missouri River bottomlands before the construction of the dam and after the flooding of the area.

Among numerous topics, Hudson’s collection documents Elbowoods High School activities and student life, including the 1951 Elbowoods Warriors High School basketball team. Back row (left to right): Eldon Jones, Leander Smith, Larry Rush, Norman Baker, Arnold Charging, Tony Mandan, and Coach Richard Washington. Front row (left to right): Leroy Yellowbird, Leonard Eagle, Russell Gillette, and Evan Burr Jr. SHSND SA 11517-00009

Born in 1936 in Elbowoods, Hudson graduated from high school there in 1953. Her college education and professional career took her across the country until she accepted a position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs working at the Fort Berthold Agency and returned to North Dakota. Hudson retired from federal service in 1992 but stayed active in cultural and historic preservation as well as in the promotion of the state. She served as administrator for the Three Affiliated Tribes Museum in New Town and received the North Dakota State Historical Society’s Heritage Profile Honor Award in 2009. Hudson’s legacy in the state endures through her writings, organizational work, and the memories of those who had the privilege to know and work with her.

Hudson collected historical photographs as well as more modern images in her quest to document events for posterity. Pictured here on All-American Indian Day in New Town, North Dakota, are Martin Cross, Sam Meyers, and Mary Louise Defender. The two men on the far right are unidentified. SHSND SA 11517-00045

Hudson’s passion and love for the history of her people and state is reflected in the breadth of topics she researched and wrote about and in her meticulous gathering of primary and secondary sources. Her collection provides insight into the experiences and lives of members of the Three Affiliated Tribes and is an invaluable resource for current and future generations.

Members of Elbowoods High School’s Class of 1947 at their graduation (above) and at their 50-year reunion (below). Hudson thoroughly documented the people, places, and events in her collection to preserve history. SHSND SA 11517-01043-01044

The public can view the collection at the State Archives in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck. For more information, contact us at archives@nd.gov.