The State Historical Society accepts about one hundred donations per year into our museum collection. Each donation can consist of one item up to several hundred items. We are stewards of the collection on behalf of the people of North Dakota, so we would like to hear from you. What do you think we should have in our collection? What sorts of objects define North Dakota? Your input matters for our future collecting. Click here to fill out our survey: bit.ly/proactivecollecting.

We will use the public responses to better guide our collecting strategy for the future. We will also use the data to determine how much additional storage space we will need to continue collecting the history of North Dakota.

We collect a myriad of different objects from all time periods. Our museum collections committee always looks for a story behind the objects, for that is what sets one object apart from another. Here are a few collections that recently arrived at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.

The Office of the Secretary of State donated voting machines that were being replaced by newer models. The M100 and AutoMARK were purchased using federal, state, and county funds following the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). HAVA was passed following the hanging chad fiasco in Florida during the 2000 General Election and was meant to modernize our nations voting systems. Ninety-five percent of the purchase was paid for with federal funds, 2.5% with state funds, and 2.5% with county funds.

AutoMARK assistive ballot marking device. Acc #2019.00058

The M-100 was implemented in approximately half of the counties in 2004. M-100 implementation was completed in all 53 counties for the 2006 election. AutoMARK implementation was completed during the 2006 election. The M-100 and AutoMARK were available at every polling place in the state for every statewide election through the 2018 General Election. Counties also used this equipment for local special elections.

Ballot boxes for the M-100 optical scan and Optech III-P Eagle. Acc #2019.00058

The Optech III-P Eagle (the tan machine below) was used in several counties prior to the adoption of the statewide voting system. This particular machine comes from LaMoure County.

The Optech III-P Eagle ballot tabulator. Acc #2019.00058

The soccer uniform was worn by four-year-old Hannah while playing on the pre-K team Orange Pumpkins in the fall of 2018. Although she and her parents live in Bismarck, Hannah had a friend who played soccer in Mandan, so Hannah’s parents signed her up for Mandan’s recreational soccer team.

A: The uniform consists of the orange Mandan soccer team shirt, a pair of athletic shorts, shin guards, pink soccer socks, and soccer cleats. Acc # 2019.00066; B: Hannah playing a game at the Dakota Community Bank and Trust soccer fields in Mandan, ND.; C: Hannah posing for a photo in her uniform.

Harvey Jaeger donated a wool sweater made by his grandmother, Anna Jaeger, for his father, Hugo Jaeger. It was made by Anna in about 1930. Anna raised the sheep, sheered the wool, spun and dyed the yarn, and knit the sweater.

The sweater is a brown wool, button down cardigan, with multiple knit patterns. Acc #2019.00054

Anna (Birkmeier) Jaeger was born in Germany, August 15, 1882, and emigrated to the United States in 1885, settling south of Hebron. She married Fred Jaeger in 1901 and homesteaded south of Zap. Hugo Jaeger was third oldest of 11 siblings, Anna died in 1968.

Hugo Jaeger (1904-1946) married Pauline Jacober (1908-2013) in 1929 and lived in a three- room house on the family farm for nine years. Then they moved to Zap where Hugo worked in the coal mine. They moved to Bismarck in 1942.

***Due to the temporary closing of our sites for COVID-19 precautions, we currently will not be accepting the donation items until further notice. If you have something you would like to donate, please still fill out our potential acquisition questionnaire, which can be found at https://www.history.nd.gov/data/padq_emailform.html. This is the first step to start to make a donation. We will continue to respond to your requests to make donations.

*static* Good morning, everyone. We're reporting from our home office during this time of uncertainty! This is about as behind-the-scenes as we can get right now. Each day while schools are closed, paleontology is putting together a livestream question-and-answer session for kids and families stuck at home.

What does this include? First, we pick a topic that we think is cool, and that we believe will be entertaining for kids at home. Our first three topics were mosasaurs (sea monsters), coprolites (fossil poo), and ammonites (ancient shelled squid relatives). From the responses we've had thus far, it's going over well!

Second, we do a personal refresher course on the topic—any new articles published, myths debunked, unusual facts, modern examples— to bring it together and make sure our information is as up-to-date as possible.

Third, we set up a streaming service (we're using Zoom) on a laptop, add in a webcam, and find a cool backdrop. I like to use the shelves in my office, because they're filled with odds and ends skulls, fossils, bones, toys, etc. With each session, I add or remove objects from the shelves. This gives a little something extra for kids to look for, and they spot the differences FAST.

Finally, we do the presentation! We're recording each session so it can be spliced later and added online, thus removing any potential extra voices, long pauses (thankfully few and far between), or when a young viewer decides they're bored and screen-shares Minecraft with us (oops!).

Editing the "ammonite" chat. You can see all the splices at the bottom where we take out long pauses or other undesirable segments to make the final video more streamlined and understandable.

We'll keep coming up with chats and streaming for as long as we can. All the paleo staff have kids at home too, so we understand the need to keep our “littles” educated and entertained. Our hopes are that these brief periods of science will help fill that niche.

This is Becky, signing off. Stay safe, wash your hands, and take care! *static*

To watch the chats live, go to our events page and click on tomorrow's event. There is a link in the description to the live feed. You need to sign up for a free Zoom account if you don't have one.

If you are a fan of Prairie Public Radio here in North Dakota, you may already be familiar with the “Dakota Datebook” program (which you can access online—newer archives are here and older archives are here). It airs five times a day, every day, and features snippets of North Dakota history that relate to that date in time. The posts pop up all over—sometimes reprinted in newspapers—and last year, a selection of dates were published in book form!

The State Historical Society of North Dakota has been a longtime partner in this program. A handful of past Archives interns have written specifically for this program during their time with us (such as Jayme Job, Tessa Sandstrom, Annie Erling, Maria Witham, Carol Wilson, and Alyssa Boge). Some of our staff serve as part of the editorial board. Also, a few of us write for the program—and as a result, we have ended up helping with a few different series that have formed.

Avid listeners to the series will likely remember these series. While there have been a few more, unconnected to the State Historical Society (such as Steve Stark’s series on Theodore Roosevelt from this past summer), a good number have been written by staff here:

• One series, mainly written by Jim Davis, (though I assisted on one or two dates), was written for the 50th National Historic Preservation Act. Staff in our Archaeology and Historic Preservation Division provided some ideas for those datebooks.
• Jim Davis also took the lead on and wrote a MASSIVE number of entries documenting and commemorating the anniversary of World War I, as well as a “Countdown to Statehood” series for the 125th anniversary of North Dakota’s statehood.
• And now, I am writing my first series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment—a series on women’s suffrage! And what better time to discuss this series than now, during National Women’s History month?

Now, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on women’s suffrage, but writing for the series means you do a lot of research that takes you off in many different directions, and you learn a LOT of details—and get very familiar with it. In fact, I think you kind of start to LIVE the history. And the history is fascinating! Suffrage bills were present in many legislative sessions. However, not all men or women supported the idea. Prior to obtaining suffrage fully through the 19th Amendment, women did get some limited voting rights in North Dakota. Gov. Lynn Frazier alone would sign several bills related to women’s right to vote, including the ratification in December 1919. And despite all of this, women also still served in elected public offices, many quite early on. Such as Laura Eisenhuth—she was the first woman elected to state-wide office in North Dakota and the first woman to hold a state superintendent’s position in the United States in the 1890s.

The resources are out there, and it’s been a treat to find them and bring them together. I’ve read through old House and Senate journals when women’s suffrage had been on the agenda. I’ve been following threads concerning suffrage through different newspapers. (Thank you, Chronicling America!) I’ve been looking at posters and illustrations depicting the fight for suffrage—both here, and through the National Archives collections. These have been invaluable resources during my first few entries.

I’m also lucky to have a timeline I can follow, which the North Dakota Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission put together, that gives me some direction if I am failing. Though I always have enjoyed writing about obscure details, the whole history helps to ground these stories and is also necessary for the series.

And then, to add icing to the cake, I am reading these entries for the program. Since these stories are about women, Prairie Public wanted to use a woman’s voice for the entries. I have never recorded something for radio before, so I am honored every time that I am able to bring a voice to these words.

This is a really fun, very different, and interesting part of my job, and I look forward to continue working on this project through this partnership.

These items, from our ephemera collection, show items for and against suffrage. Note that the North Dakota Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage consists of all women officers. SHSND SA 11354-Womens_Suffrage

Sarah Walker at Prairie Public Station in Bismarck, ready to record. The audio is actually recorded long-distance in Fargo, where it is edited and made ready to air.

When I started as the assistant curator of Collections last August, I knew there would be a learning curve, and I am excited to share some of my memorable experiences.

1. Preventative Conservation (aka dusting): Ever walk into the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum galleries and think, “Gee, I wonder who cleans this stuff?” Turns out, it’s me! Let’s be clear, the custodial staff work hard daily to keep the whole building clean. But it’s my job to clean the artifacts on exhibit. All galleries are ideally cleaned every three months. Any artifacts not enclosed in casework are dusted with cotton cloths, soft brushes, or a low-suction vacuum. Preventative maintenance like this discourages pest activity from bugs and rodents, and ensures the long-term stability of the artifacts. And ultimately, I get to dust a mastodon.

A view from the top. Dusting the mastodon.

Verdict: Cool, definitely cool

2. Moving Large Artifacts: SHSND has off-site storage buildings to house large items like cars, farm equipment, and buggies. This means when large items are going on display, staff need to move them from one side of town to the other. I experienced this when we moved a rural mail cart for The Prairie Post Office exhibit (on display now in the James E. Sperry Gallery!). This required a forklift, an experienced forklift driver (THANKS Bryan Turnbow, chief preparator), and many spotters.

Out for delivery. Staff moving a rural mail cart.

Verdict: Weird but cool

3. Teeth in A Grenade Launcher Box: Sometime in the past, someone decided to store old dental equipment–including FAKE TEETH–in an empty WWI German grenade launcher box. When we discovered this, it was a shock to say the least. Staff–mostly Elise Dukart, assistant registrar - took time sorting grenade launcher tools from dental tools. She wants you to know it was harder than you think. Mixed-up items like this are found every now and then. Sorting them out allows for better documentation of the State’s collection. Not to mention better storage for fake teeth.

The teeth’s old home.

The teeth’s new home. Don’t worry, they’re fake.

Verdict: Definitely weird

I have always been a storyteller. My notebooks from school contained bits of stories or skits, things I found amusing, or ideas that would not leave my head until I had them down on paper. I still carry a notebook for that reason. My love of storytelling was a part of what made me an engaging teacher. Like a good story, I had to hook my audience. Right now, my focus is on field trips and how we can create a memorable experience. Students are not going to remember all of the facts that you try to cram into a visit, but they will remember an activity or experience they can’t do anywhere else. Some sites come with a built-in hook. The Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site is a great example. Where else can you go 50 feet underground and see the keys that could start a nuclear apocalypse? That is my hook. Once hooked, we can dive deeper into the history, stories, and people. But just like fishing, you often need more than one lure, and that is what our sites are currently developing.

Several of our sites are currently working on revamping what happens on a field trip. We want to move past the formula of watch this video, follow these rules, and complete this worksheet disguised as a scavenger hunt. These sites are developing hands-on activities and programs to engage students. Up at Pembina, they are working on creating a game that simulates the fur trade. It is still in development, but once completed, it should make for a great learning experience. The Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site is developing new educational days where students can learn about rockets and UAVs (drones).

Site Supervisor Jeff Blanchard shows off some of the props collected for Pembina State Museum's fur trading activity to Sites Manager Rob Hanna.

Programs are not the only solution. Take all of the new changes coming to the Stutsman County Courthouse. A hands-on exhibit that teaches about civics and the role of elected government officials people tend to vote for while not know what the position even does is a fantastic learning tool I wished existed when I was teaching government. This highly original new exhibit has the potential to reach kids outside of a historical context. We added LED lighting to show off the marvelous mechanisms of these magnificent machines and inspire the mechanically minded student. The history may not hook them, but the engineering might. I have the pleasure of touching up the paint on the courthouse's new 1908 Burrows Adding machine. I am not going to lie. I could have finished it in a day, but I am taking my time so that it can spend more time on my desk. It is that cool.

Art fabricator Jonah Eslinger designed and installed LEDs into a typewriter for the new civics exhibit at Stutsman County Courthouse.

But not every school is going to be able to travel to all of our sites. The Chateau de Mores is most likely never going to give a field trip to students in Fargo. We need to address that. For the past few months, we have been working on developing a new program we are calling Ask-an-Expert. Using Skype, our fantastic content experts at the sites will be able to engage with classes across the state. The idea is simple. Our sites have created a list of topics that connect their site themes with the content covered in North Dakota Studies. Teachers can introduce the content to their students, have them think up questions, and then as a class call-in and have students ask their questions to experts. It is still in development, but we have run a few tests, and we were excited to see students engaging in historical thinking. In the next month or so, we hope to have some more information for teachers on how they can take part in testing this program out with us. We are excited by the potential and the possibility of expanding our offering and working towards adding full-fledged virtual field trips of sites.

Field trips allow students to see the concepts that they are learning in school in action. For some students, it may be the first time that they experience a museum, historic site, science center, or wiring closet. (Yes, I took several field trips to check out wiring closets.) We have an excellent opportunity to create lifelong museum-goers. All we need to dangle the hook and see what bites.

As a recent transfer to the beautiful state of North Dakota by way of Texas, I am learning all the ins and outs of North Dakota information law and how it applies to my work in the State Archives. Being an archivist means providing access to the public; however, due to the sensitive nature of information, state and federal legal statues limit some types of documents that we are able to provide. Although we are limited in releasing some information, there are many more records that you can access that will give you the information you need.

For instance, are you trying to find birth records before the turn of the 19th century? This may prove difficult as North Dakota did not mandate the recording of births and deaths until the beginning of the 20th century, and even after this mandate, compliance was spotty until the 1920s.¹ But there are other options to find this information — it may just take a bit more searching.

Babies from the Margaret Wilder Welch Naylor Photograph Collection, 1890–1920. SHSND SA 2011-P-002-1588 and 1573

If you are looking for any vital record less than 125 years old, you will have to check with the Division of Vital Records. If you are specifically looking for a birth record that is less than 125 years old, then you must produce documentation to prove you are a lineal descendant.² A lineal descendant is “a person who is in direct line to an ancestor, such as child, grandchild, great-grandchild and on forever. A lineal descendant is distinguished from a ‘collateral’ descendant, which would be from the line of a brother, sister, aunt or uncle.”³

So what does this mean if you are looking for birth records of your great-great-aunt who was born in 1900? That we at the State Archives cannot release this information. According to the Century Code, you can only obtain your own birth record if you are age 16 or older. Parents can get their children’s record if the parent is named on it. If the parent is deceased, a relative of the parent can obtain a copy. For relatives several times removed, providing this information to the Division of Vital Records is particularly challenging. To compound matters, the Century Code does not elaborate on what documentation is necessary to prove direct descendance.

Three women with babies on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, 1930s. SHSND SA 00041-1013

How do you find birth information without providing familial records?

• Newspapers
• Church records
• Biographies
• Naturalization records
• Census records

Above are just a few resources that may provide you with information. Although sometimes these records might prove fruitless, it is always good to check. For instance, you could start by looking through the local paper of the township where your relative lived to see if there are birth announcements in the social pages. You could also try searching for baptismal records at the specific church your relative attended or the administrative body of the religion they practiced. Some of these records are available at the State Archives and other repositories in North Dakota. For instance, if you are looking for birth information about your Jewish ancestors, you may want to contact the synagogue in closest geographical range to where they lived or the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest. If your ancestors were Catholic, you may want to check with the parish or regional diocese, and if your relatives were Presbyterian you will probably want to call the church they belonged to or the Presbyterian Synod.

These are just a few ways to find birth information without going through the Division of Vital Records for a certified birth record. Again, searching for information may take a little more time and effort on your part, but you might find additional relevant information that you can’t find on a birth record.