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After a brief newsletter hiatus, we’re back! Check out what’s happening in Special Collections.

New Additions to the Digital Collections

More local publications have been added to the Minneapolis Community Newspaper and Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Collections, with still more to come this summer.

• Downtown Journal (2005-2010) – Covers the downtown area. Successor publication to Skyway News.
• Greater Minneapolis (1950-1979) – Covers the business community of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities metro.
• The Journal (2005-2018) – Covers the downtown area and Northeast Minneapolis. Successor publication to Downtown Journal.
• Minneapolis (1933-1945) – Covers the activities of the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Association (the predecessor of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce) and the downtown business community.
• The Paper for the Model Neighborhood (1971-1974) – Publication of the Model City Project, covering development and activities in the Minneapolis Model City communities. The library also has an archival collection on the Model City Program and the Model City Communications Center. The Model City Program was one of the so-called Great Society programs developed in the 1960s to combat poverty and develop alternative forms of city government. The program ended in 1974.
• Snoose News (1975-1981; 1987-1988) – Covers the Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood.
• Southwest Journal (2006-2020) – Covers the Southwest Minneapolis neighborhoods. Earlier issues will be added later.
• The Surveyor (1977-1995) – Covers the Elliot Park Neighborhood. Early issues were called the Elliot Park Surveyor.
• Whittier Globe (1976-1999) – Covers the Whittier Neighborhood in South Minneapolis.

More and More Yearbooks

We continue to acquire and digitize yearbooks from Hennepin County Schools. While the physical collection includes yearbooks all the way up to this year, the digitized yearbooks cover only through 1988, due to copyright restrictions on anything created later. Dozens of yearbooks have been added to the Digital Collections this year thanks to donations and eBay purchases. Find additions from Lyndale Elementary, Bloomington Jr. High, Oak Grove Jr. High, Sandburg Jr. High, Minneapolis North High, Bloomington John F. Kennedy High, Wayzata High, Osseo Senior High, North Central Bible Institute and College, and more.

If you have Hennepin County yearbooks you’d like to donate to Special Collections, we’d like to hear from you! Email specialcoll@hclib.org.

Meet Special Collections Volunteer Kallie Quist

This summer we welcomed Kallie as a new archival processing volunteer. Kallie is dipping into our unprocessed archives—organizing, rehousing, and describing the Groveland Gallery Records that were donated in 2022 and 2024. Kallie grew up in Stillwater, MN and has a BA in English from The New School in New York City. She recently returned to Minnesota after a 3-year stint teaching kindergarten English in Seoul, South Korea, followed by a 3-month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. In her free time, Kallie likes to hike, ski, paint, travel, and take photos (with film!). She also likes to hang with her orange cat named Amazing. Here’s more from Kallie: Q: Why did you decide to start volunteering with Hennepin County Library and why Special Collections? A: I am considering getting an MLIS with a concentration in Archives, but I figured I should test out the waters before having to sell my left kidney to pay for graduate school. The librarians in Stillwater kindly directed me to Special Collections, and I'm glad they did! Q: Have you found anything weird, unusual, or especially interesting in the Groveland Gallery collection? A: Looking through all the artists' work has been fun, and while it's mostly regional, landscape oil paintings, there was one sculptor, Sarah Blegen, who made a bunch of skeevy, Muppet-like people in the 70s. She called them the "Stuffy People." Imagine cabbage patch kids but grown up into pin-up girls, angry stockbrokers, beat-up cowboys, and fortune tellers. She did a bunch of photoshoots with them interacting that gave me a good giggle. Q: If you could transport yourself to another time in history, when would you choose and why? A: I've always loved all things about Ancient Greece, but when I visited about 5 years ago, I became particularly obsessed with the Minoan civilization of Crete. If I had a time machine, I would travel to ~1600 BC to learn Linear A and then travel back to the present and be the genius who cracked the Linear A code. Q: What book are you currently reading or what’s your favorite book of all time? A: Last year, I read The Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante, and it immediately became an all-time favorite. One of those stories that teaches so much about a specific place and time in history (Naples in post-war Italy) and yet somehow leads you to see your own life more clearly by the end of it. Ferrante is unmatched in lucidity. In terms of other authors I love, William Faulkner, Anne Carson, and George Saunders are top dogs. Thanks, Kallie, we’re glad to have you in Special Collections!

From the Archives: New Acquisitions and Finding Aids

The following new donations were recently received in Special Collections. These collections are unprocessed, but available for research:

• Linden Hills Dancing Club Scrapbook – Compiled in 1979, the scrapbook includes programs, flyers, membership directories, and other club mementos from the 1950s and 1960s.
• Peace House Community Records – Founded by Sr. Rose Tillemans in 1985, Peace House Community serves as a "living room on Franklin" for low-income and homeless community members. Originally located at 510 E. Franklin Ave., Peace House moved to 1816 Portland Ave. S in 2013. The archives include administrative records, building records, subject files, photographs, video recordings, biographical information about Sr. Rose, and more.

This collection was recently organized and rehoused. The finding aid is now available online:

• Minnesota Department of Transportation Right of Way Division Highway Records – Long in our Digital Collections thanks to our collaboration with Hennepin History Museum, these photos and building descriptions from MNDOT highway projects are now physically in Special Collections, too. Many of the buildings were moved or demolished for highway construction, including along Hiawatha Ave., I-94 (north of downtown), Olson Memorial Highway, and highways 12, 36, 100, and 169.

The 1976 Bicentennial

This year marks the 250^th year since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Semiquincentennial, or America’s 250^th birthday, will be celebrated nationwide this summer with exhibits, programs, events, and more. Hennepin County Library is marking the occasion with booklists and online resources.

Contact Us James K. Hosmer Special Collections Hennepin County Library Minneapolis Central Library 300 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN 55401 Hours: Monday - Thursday 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Appointments are not necessary, but you do need to call Special Collections or check-in at the 4th floor reference desk upon arrival for department access, if the doors are locked. You can speed up your visit by requesting materials be pulled in advance. Photocopying and scanning are free. Please bring a flash drive to store your scanned images. Photo: Inside the climate-controlled Special Collections vault, where rare books, negatives, and AV material are stored.