As a Historic Sites Manager for the State Historical Society, it is easy for me to recognize why historic buildings are worth saving. I appreciate all of the historic sites we have in North Dakota, but I have a certain soft spot for the Stutsman County Courthouse State Historic Site in Jamestown. The courthouse, while certainly beautiful and filled with the ornate details that make people fall in love with old buildings, has captured my heart for a completely different reason.

This is the story of a building…

In 1883, the Stutsman County Courthouse was completed in what was set to be the capital of North Dakota. Built atop the tallest hill in Jamestown, she is three stories high with one large courtroom flanked by two circular stained glass windows. It is a building meant to inspire and impress.

When I was hired to manage this site (among others), I dove headlong into its history. The courthouse was operational for almost a century, housing not only the courtroom, but the county auditor, school superintendent, and treasurer’s offices. But no historical building exists without strife. Since the birth of architecture, as long as a building stands, there also stands someone who wants to tear it down. In 1983, a new courthouse was completed for Stutsman County and the 1883 building was abandoned. At this time, Stutsman County commissioners voted to demolish the historic courthouse in favor of a parking lot to accommodate the new building.

In the years that followed, the city of Jamestown was divided, and the battle for the courthouse played out in the media. During this contentious time, a group of local citizens, known as the 1883 Courthouse Committee, vowed to save the historic building. Due to their heroic efforts, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Since the courthouse was state property, the North Dakota Century Code required approval of the State Historical Board prior to destroying historically significant state property. The board did not approve the demolition of the courthouse.

But the wrecking ball still loomed. Shortly afterwards, the county challenged the board’s ruling and the case ultimately reached the State Supreme Court. After a lengthy court battle, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Board and the courthouse was saved. We acquired the building in 1985 and immediately got to work.

What work, you may be asking? Well, imagine what would happen if you left your home standing for a four-year period—the length of time it took the courts to decide the building’s fate. During that time, it stood unheated as pigeons gained access through broken windows, rain gutters remained clogged, and water carried down the walls of the building, causing further degradation of the soft brick and mortar.

The Stutsman County Courthouse was left vacant for several years, while a court battle decided her fate. During this time the building deteriorated greatly.

In the years that followed, we began to implement a rehabilitation plan for the building, and the Courthouse Committee began an ambitious fundraising campaign.

In the 1990s almost one million dollars were raised to repair the exterior of the courthouse. In recent years, we have invested $400,000 into the interior rehabilitation. The project is nearing completion. Still left to complete are plumbing and electrical upgrades—crucial elements to a working, usable building.

The courthouse stands today as it was built in 1883. (Image courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota Archives, 1005-0002)

So why did we save it?

It has value.

The Stutsman County Courthouse has great historical significance. It is not only the oldest courthouse in North Dakota—it is the oldest public building in North and South Dakota. Meetings were held there in preparation for the creation of the state of North Dakota. The courthouse truly is the birthplace of statehood. 

It has purpose.

Once restored, the courthouse will be a beautiful addition to the city of Jamestown and state of North Dakota. It will operate as a historic site, educational facility and community center. As a historic site, it will tell the story of Dakota Territory, local government and how courthouses play an integral role in communities and families. As a community center, it will house weddings, concerts, meetings, and area events.

The courtroom of the Historic Stutsman County Courthouse will be a great location for community events.

It is our heritage.

Walking into this building, it feels like 1883. The walls are tin, the old wood floors are scuffed and the stair treads worn. One can feel the presence of early North Dakotans—and the significant decisions that were made within those walls. More importantly, you can feel a connection to a building that has fought to stay relevant in a world that wants to tear it down.

Left: Much of the hand carved wood remains at the historic courthouse.
Right: The original jury chairs in the courtroom—note the springs on the front two legs.

In September 2014, we held an open house to invite the community of Jamestown back to the courthouse.   The 1883 Courthouse Committee and State Historical Society ambitiously planned for 200 people. At the end of the day, over 1,000 people came through the doors in just four hours. We were completely overwhelmed and surprised by the community’s support for the old building. People told us stories of adopting their children in the courtroom, obtaining their marriage and driver’s licenses there, and shared with us a plethora of other great memories. Most people had never set foot inside the building, while for several others, it had been at least three decades.

There is much work yet to be done. It will take time and many hands. For 30 years, the Stutsman County Courthouse has waited. She will soon have her day.

While writing the new curriculum for 8^th grade North Dakota Studies (ndstudies.gov/gr8), I browsed the archives for “good stuff.” “Browse the archives” should also be in quotation marks because one does NOT browse the archives as one browses the shelves in the public library. Archival materials are carefully stored in locked rooms where the controlled environment prevents the documents from being harmed by mold and other threats. The locked doors also prevent interested bystanders from acquiring important documents for their own libraries.

The “good stuff” I was looking for was, ideally, brief explanatory documents and photographs that could explain how life unfolded for those who lived in North Dakota in the past. The documents had to be interesting enough to hold the attention of eighth-graders. I wanted students to view the past through events that were fun or had a youthful perspective.

To find documents, I searched the online catalog (ODIN). Since I often started my search with only a vague idea of my goal, it actually was a little like browsing. I kept my fingers crossed that my search terms were appropriate to my wish list. When luck was with me, I was rewarded with some lovely gems from the archival collections.

One of my favorites is a collection of papers and photographs documenting the tree claim of Nels Wold of Traill County (A. N. Wold Papers, Mss 20375). Tree claims were made under the Timber Culture Act (1872). Planting several acres of trees and keeping them alive for several years entitled the claimant to 160 acres in addition to other claims such as a Homestead Act (1862) claim.

The collection includes the official forms Wold filled out to establish and prove his claim, a map of Traill County, and a hand-drawn map of the Wold farmstead showing where the trees had been planted. Bringing these documents to life are several photographs showing the trees on the date of his proof in 1891 and in 1898. In the twenty years since they were planted, the trees had grown to shelter the house and barns from the winds.

The Wold farm in 1891. The trees behind the house were planted under the Timber Culture Act in 1878. SHSND 20375-B375-A

Another photograph brings a stronger historical view to the Wold Papers. In this photo, Nels Wold’s son, A. N. Wold, stands with his two children next to a 50-year-old tree. The cottonwood tree appears to hold in a fond embrace the descendants of the man who planted it.

Nels Wold’s son, A. N. Wold and his two sons stand in front of a 50-year-old cottonwood tree on the Wold farm. SHSND-B375-F

These documents and photographs will help students understand how the federal government distributed land in the 19^th century and the challenges the claimants faced in keeping those trees alive. Reading these documents, along with other lessons on rainfall and drought, the students will understand why tree claims were successful only in the eastern part of North Dakota. Perhaps students will also gain an appreciation for North Dakota’s great variety of climates and soils, the hard work of settlement farmers, and the beauty of a tree.

Deep within the bowels of the Heritage Center in Bismarck is a room with great riches. It contains items of staggering age and scientific value. This room contains the North Dakota State Fossil Collection. From giant swimming lizards to “trumpeting” mastodons, from specimens mounted on pins to those needing forklifts to move, the North Dakota State Fossil Collection contains a wealth and variety of specimens (fig. 1). It has been twenty years since the State Fossil Collection was created in 1989 and it has grown in leaps and bounds since then.

This image shows only a small variety of fossils found in the North Dakota State Fossil Collection.

North Dakota Geological Survey (NDGS) geologists had been picking up fossils during the course of their fieldwork since the inception of the Survey in 1895. Those specimens were typically incorporated into the geology department collection. Prior to 1981, the only fossil collections in North Dakota were teaching and research collections at the universities made by faculty, students, and amateur collectors. However, in 1981 Dr. John Hoganson was hired by the NDGS. At that time the NDGS began what is now referred to as the Fossil Resource Management Program, and the recovery of fossils by the NDGS began in earnest. Although not yet officially the “State Fossil Collection,” between 1981 and 1989 North Dakota’s “fossil collection” grew to a small accumulation (a few hundred specimens) of fossil vertebrates and invertebrates. When the main office of the Geological Survey was moved from Grand Forks to Bismarck in 1989, this small collection only required a few cabinets for storage space.

Over the last 20 years, the State Fossil Collection has grown exponentially and now contains approximately 6,100 cataloged specimens (with more being added all the time) and 3,800 fossil localities. It is difficult to give even a rough estimate of how many cataloged and uncataloged specimens are in the State Fossil Collection at this time. The collection now contains plant, invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, and also contains a large rock and mineral collection. After nearly 10 years in the Johnsrud Paleontology Laboratory under the auditorium, it was obvious that we had again outgrown our space. In 2009 the state legislators saw the need to expand the North Dakota Heritage Center and signed a bill allocating money to put a new addition on the current building. Over the years the collection has moved from Grand Forks to Bismarck, and then within Bismarck it has moved twice. With each move the storage space for collections has nearly tripled in size (fig. 2).

Size comparison between North Dakota Heritage Center lab and collection spaces. A) Lab and collection space used between 1991 and 2000. B) Lab and collection space used between 2000 and 2014. C) Lab and collection space currently in use since May 2014.

Although the state collection is very young (some of the older collections in the United States have been around for more than 100 years), we have a very important representation of Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Oligocene fossils not found in very many other museums across the country. This is something we are trying to expand on during every field season. Although many don’t know it, as you walk through the new Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, there are great riches just below your feet.

Do you remember the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials? A couple of people bump into each other, mingling their chocolate and peanut butter snacks? Initially they are irritated with each other, but then they discovered the tasty goodness of combining the two treats. I think of those old ads every time I hear people asking why history museums need to add science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to their regular programming. STEM is more than a trend or a buzzword. What seems to really be new about the STEM concept is the realization that we need to do more to engage students. This includes developing new ways of getting excited about subjects that are vital for a well-rounded education, and meet the needs of our modern workforce. This seemingly new push to include STEM curriculum into museum programming can initially cause some frustration. However, I like to think of it as my job to help people see the delightful new things we can now enjoy together.

Hesperornis and Xiphactinus are part of a nice science buffet in the new galleries.

So what does all of this have to do with history, and why does the State Historical Society of North Dakota care about STEM? Well, I’d like to challenge you to take history out of the science classroom or try to take science out of the history museum. I don’t think it can really be done without sacrificing something special and leaving us with substandard subject matter. Using science as an example, most textbooks have sidebars to explain why people such as Marie Curie and Albert Einstein are important to the field. Science classes also usually dig into how the field has changed and developed over time and how new research has added to or challenged previous understandings. That all speaks to the importance of using historical thought to help develop a well-rounded science class. In turn, we can take our students into the new Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples at the North Dakota Heritage Center and look at all the ways to think about STEM in a museum context.

Left: A stone tool demonstrates the technological skill of early peoples.
Right: Tipis and earthlodges are perfectly engineered for living on the prairie landscape.

There is the technology involved in flintknapping to make stone tools. There is science involved in brain-tanning animal hides. There is math involved in figuring out how much food needs to be stored to get your community through a hard winter. We even have the engineering involved in building a home on the prairie.

This exhibit in a grain bin is a great showcase for featuring the rich agricultural history of our state.

Music, literature, and art are also all represented in the new galleries. Need writing prompts for students? Our galleries are full of them. Interested in getting kids to think about nutrition for a health class? Spend some time in our galleries learning about traditional foodways of the Native Americans and immigrants who have lived here. Need an opportunity to connect urban students to where their food comes from? We’ve got you covered.

No matter what you are learning about, we have objects and artifacts that can help make a topic relevant for students. Even if you don’t think your topic is history-related, the history is probably all over it, making for a great intellectual treat.

This is the space where I digitize audio cassettes, reel-to-reels, records, and even CDs into mp3 and wav files. I know, it looks messy, but I have a system! I am currently the only staff member working with audio formats.

I recently attended an amazing summit on archiving audio and video history collections. The speaker, Doug Boyd (you can follow him on Twitter, if you’d like), runs the Louie B. Nunn Center at the University of Kentucky.ⁱ

I, along with the rest of the attendees, listened with rapt attention as Boyd discussed the widespread implications of keeping and using these collections. Some of it was very technical, and some of it very poetic, in a way. As the time went on, his talk and discussion afterward helped me realize the depth of something I already believed: audio and video collections are a different breed of history.

Of course, objects and documents can be studied for information. (Danielle Stuckle, Outreach Coordinator, discussed how these historical items can be disseminated into information in her first blog post here). However, audio and video collections are best consumed in the form they are given to grant us the full impact of their importance and meaning.

Lindsay Schott, Archives Specialist, does the majority of work with film footage.  This is the space Lindsay uses to digitize video.

For example—if you see an old cassette tape, you can examine it as an object…but it won’t tell you what is on it. *If* there is an accompanying transcript—and let’s just say that it is actually typed without error or sounds cut out, which is not always the case—you can glean different information from that. But if you listen to that old cassette, you will learn so much more. You can hear the accents of the people talking; you can consider the way questions are asked; if you hear noise in the background, you can think about what is going on if the interviewer is distracted; and you can intuit more meaning, even in where the speaker is hesitant, and where he or she is fast to answer.

Here is another example. This screenshot shows a partial transcript of an interview that I conducted with ND Vietnam veteran Paul Good Iron.ⁱⁱ

Now, here is the audio.

“Um” can take on more meaning when you hear it than when you read it. Even knowing that a speaker said it at all can change the impact of the story. The spoken word doesn’t really make for clean reading after all.

The challenge with these collections is that it is often easier and faster for researchers to read through a transcript than it is to listen to the audio. Once we have a transcript, it is easily digitized, and can be sent around the world—and researchers using it can search the text by word or read through it at their leisure. That is one of our goals, after all, as you avid readers may recall from my first blog post.

However, I invite you to consider these facts:

• Transcripts can be expensive. It takes a bit of money and a lot of time to get interviews transcribed, and that is not always possible—especially as collections grow.
• Transcripts are not always completely accurate. Have you ever read a transcript and noticed a name misspelled, a word changed, or some other error? Heck, have you ever tried to transcribe something spoken in a thick accent? Possibly where the interviewee lapses into a language that is familiar to them, but foreign to you? Yeah.
• Transcripts are often “cleaned up.” People don’t like to publish all of those uhs and ums and random swearing that may occur. Like it or not, there can be a loss of some authenticity.
• 

  SHSND 0003-184: Mrs. Ted (Ellen Roberts) Pope, pumping water in Slope County.

  Audio and video collections are often a primary source, and transcripts are a secondary source. Let me describe this picture for you. There is a woman with her back turned to the camera, pumping water from a well. She is looking over her shoulder. She is wearing a long dress. The vast prairie stretches out in front of her. It’s very windy. Do you want to take my words as a primary source? What did I miss? Granted, having some information on the photo helps, but what feelings can I invoke with words that can’t be seen through the image? That concept holds true with audio and video.
• There is no easy way to get a good transcript. There is no easy software you can download, no quick way to drop a file somewhere and pull the audio from it.

Oh, the ubiquitous cassette. This is what makes up the majority of our oral history collection.

Yes, it is nice to have those transcripts. They are very useful. But in the end, would you rather read a biography about your great-grandfather (written by him or not), or would you rather hear his voice, speaking about the hardships he went through in settling the land he later would own?

It’s definitely a point for discussion, and each repository must make its own choices. But hopefully, that primary source of raw video and raw audio will find a prime spot on your shelf.

ⁱ The Louie B. Nunn Center has a phenomenal setup, with multiple ongoing projects, and a small team taking in and processing more audio and video collections in a year than some repositories currently have in their collection. As a point of comparison, we do have several expansive audio and video projects and multiple smaller collections in our Archives.

ⁱⁱ As a side note, transcribing this section (two minutes) took me half an hour. Or maybe it just felt that way.

Not that long ago my younger brother was asked, “What’s your sister doing these days?” He replied, “She’s a museum curator.” The follow-up question was, “So, what does she do?” After a pause in which he choked on a fly that had flown into his mouth, he said, as if stating the obvious, “She . . . curates.” He relayed this conversation to me during a phone call and then had to ask, in all seriousness, “So what do you actually do as a curator?” My reply - “Herd cats,” (because this is my little brother, and little brothers don’t usually deserve serious answers).

Curator is a nifty umbrella term that comes from the Latin cura which means “to care.” This is why we have curators scattered all over museums, zoos, and art galleries. Wherever there is a large collection of items, there needs to be someone to take care of those things. This is a massive simplification of hundreds of jobs that require years of education and experience, but when you burrow down through the ponderous verbiage of bureaucratic job descriptions what you end up with is a lot of people who passionately care about obscure things and, for the most part, can’t wait to tell you about them.

Which is how we come to my job – Curator of Exhibits – because one of the more specific definitions of a curator is “one who selects and presents.” I am blessed, challenged, and frequently humbled by the task of selecting from tens of thousands of items from the collections of the State Historical Society and presenting them to the public through exhibits.

The first part of the selection process is to determine what type of story we want to tell. Is it specific, such as Guns of North Dakota?

Or is it broad and sweeping, like North Dakota: Yesterday and Today?

The latter is the title of newest permanent exhibit that will open at the Heritage Center on November 2, 2014.

For the last two and a half years I’ve been part of a team that has worked to distill the story of North Dakota, and then tell that story through words, photos, and objects. This is the next step – what pieces do we put on exhibit? There is only so much room in exhibit galleries, and culling the list of possible objects is a long process of compromise. A colleague described it as “trying to decide which of your kids you love most.” And we want to show our “children” in their best light, so we also work to make sure the objects are safely displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner that complements the larger story – that’s the “present” part.

We hope you’ll come join us November 2^nd to see our newest exhibits, and we hope that you care about them as much as we do!