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.

Visual cues really help the creative process. They kickstart the imagination and the free association of ideas. This is especially true in the exhibition development process. Something — be it an artifact, an image, or a concept — will spark an idea, and you find yourself off and running in a world of exploration and discovery.

We are currently developing a new exhibit for the Governors Gallery at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum, opening early 2021. Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style is a thematic exploration of the role clothing has played — and still plays — in the history of the region. The exhibition moves broadly across time while featuring specific aspects, trends, solutions, and adaptations expressed through clothing. It isn’t an exhibition about Parisian designers and haute couture, but rather focuses on practicality, functionality, and style expressed through everyday wardrobe elements.

“Cowgirls at the Medora Roundup” by Leo LaLonde, c. 1955. SHSND SA 00276-14365

Key to developing the exhibition is creating a visual look — or branding — that aids in telling the story and repeats throughout the gallery as a unifying component.  We are talking about design, after all. During the exhibit process I like to select a signature element or image to represent the scope of the project, and that holds true for Fashion & Function. I’ve spent a great deal of time reviewing photographs from the collections of the State Archives, looking not only at the historic moments, but at what the people in the photographs are wearing. I admit I started with a preconceived image in my head capturing my vision for the exhibition, but that fantasy photograph never appeared.

State Archives Division Director Ann Jenks pointed me toward several images she thought might be of interest. Included was a series of photographs created in the late 1950s by Bismarck photographer Leo LaLonde of the annual fall roundup in Medora. They included several great images of both authentic and urbanized western wear, and one shot that pushed all the right buttons as a signature image — and it had nothing to do with my preconceived idea. It was just right!

The photograph is of a well-worn cowboy boot and denim-clad leg resting on the rear bumper of a late 1940s Pontiac Chieftain — the worn character of the boot contrasting with the modernist style of the tail fin and gumdrop-shaped taillights. It just says “fashion” and “function.” The photograph also captures a distorted, reflected world in the chrome of the bumper, including the silhouette of the photographer, a second car, several skeletal trees, and the hilly horizon beyond.

“Boot and Spur, Medora Roundup” by Leo LaLonde, c. 1955. SHSND SA 00276-14370

Although limited documentation accompanies the photograph, my sense is that LaLonde created it with the intent of entering a photography competition. Several the photographs in the LaLonde Collection were made as contest entries, and it differs from the black and white photographs he normally created for the Bismarck Tribune. The composition is “artistic” rather than “documentary” and it lacks the extensive notations of his newspaper photographs listing the subjects, date, and location of the photograph.

The photographs in the Medora Roundup series have rich gray tones, strong diagonal components, and asymmetrical compositions. In the boot image, LaLonde chose to crop the spur attached to the heel of the boot. The incompleteness of the image forces the viewer to ponder the missing rowel, and why it isn’t there. I really like the energy of the image. It captures the essence of Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style.

Our new media specialist Andrew Kerr has been working with the photograph, folding its elements into a signature logo for the installation. Our plan is to combine the logo with neon and cut steel letters in a vignette at the entrance of the Governors Gallery including sequenced chaser lights and a Miss North Dakota pageant evening gown from 1960. Please plan to visit the exhibition this coming fall. It should prove a memorable experience.

In general, ephemera collections are not fancy collections. Instead they are composed of “stuff” that was originally produced for immediate consumption, some practical purpose, and/or with no thought to it being saved for any real length of time (much less perpetuity than, say, a book or photograph album). These can include, but are not limited to, greeting cards, business promotional items, flyers and bulletins for groups and organizations, and any 2-D visual materials that might be interesting in an exhibit.

The State Archives’ Ephemera Collection grew mainly out of the processing of a single collection — the Liessman Collection, from a family that kept almost every single piece of paper they encountered. Archivists determined a set of goals to streamline the collection and remove all the extraneous “stuff.” Some of that “stuff” did not fit the goals for the collection but still had value and was interesting, hence the incentive to officially create the Ephemera Collection (No. 11354).

These ephemeral items serve an interesting function for researchers with their vast and fascinating diversity. The documentation they provide about everyday life, particularly that of average men and women from all backgrounds, is extremely valuable for providing context of the societal mores. Sometimes that context it not flattering and espouses an idea that is abhorrent, such as the presumed inferiority of Indigenous people, but it is always important to look at history as it was with warts and all.

In addition, ephemera pieces can have genuine artistic merit and be generally pleasing to the eye, or just be cute and humorous.

An example of humorous Valentine. SHSND SA 11354.0003.003-4

This is especially relevant in the case of the Valentine’s Day cards within the Ephemera Collection. Most of the cards are not dated formally, but assumptions can be made using other factors and context clues to date them; we have determined a general date range of our card to be circa 1910s thru 1940s. These cards are a wonderful window into the past and great for looking at what was popular romancing behavior, or lines, at the time.

Valentine with a Marine theme. Who doesn’t love a guy in uniform with a puppy!?

Alice in Wonderland–themed Valentine, alluding to “The Walrus and the Carpenter” poem in Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, 1871.

There are also a few Disney-inspired cards in the collection. It is interesting to see what was popular at the time, and get a taste of the emergence of mass-produced pop culture. Some of them are just darn cute, too!