Special MNCDHH News - View the Community's Online Historical Photos & Documents in the Minnesota Digital Library!
Published 10-05-2012
In this Issue:
The photo below is of deaf students fingerspelling “I love Miss Buxton” with teacher Ruth Buxton, Minnesota Institute for Defectives (Deaf, Blind and Feeble-Minded), Faribault, 1892-1893. This is one example of the many photos that are found online in the community collection in the Minnesota Digital Library.
Read on for more information!
Historical Photos & Documents Online in the “Minnesota Reflections” Collection of the Minnesota Digital Library
MNCDHH is proud to present an important archive of historical photos and documents that are available online in the “Minnesota Reflections” collection of the Minnesota Digital Library.
The items in our online collection were donated by the deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing community. On behalf of the community, MNCDHH submitted 173 items to the Minnesota Digital Library, including:
- 30 from the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall (a deaf clubhouse in St. Paul that is also on the National Register of Historic Places)
- 24 from the Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens
- 119 from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf Alumni Association Museum
It was a lot of work to put this collection together, but we enjoyed traveling through history and learning about the vibrant lives and celebrated accomplishments of this strong community.
We invite you to take your own journey online through this amazing collection, which is free and available to everybody interested in learning about the history of deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing people in Minnesota.
Visit our Heritage web page to learn more about this important collection at http://www.mncdhh.org/heritage/#MinnesotaDigitalLibrary.
To learn how to view the collection online, go to http://www.mncdhh.org/heritage/#MDLInstructions.
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What’s in the Community Collection? Read the “Digital Delights” Article
We found many fascinating stories as we journeyed through the collection, and now we are sharing them with you! Read our article and then click on the links to see the photos and documents which are part of those historical stories. Don’t stop there – explore the collection on your own, too!
The PDF version of the ‘Digital Delights’ article is available on the Minnesota Digital Library website, and the text version is available on our webpage.
Here is a sneak peek at the article (click on the links to see the photos):
“Not to be missed are the fascinating stories of Petra Fandrem Howard, Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn, and Charles and Margaret Thompson.
Petra Fandrem Howard attended the first oral education class at the present-day Minnesota Academy for the Deaf. She enjoyed traveling, but was also a busy activist. She was a suffragette who worked for women’s right to vote. She attended many Minnesota Association of the Deaf conventions with her husband Jay Cooke Howard, including the 12th Biannual Convention in Duluth. They later divorced, and she went on to become the first female president of the Minnesota Association of the Deaf and the first deaf vocational rehabilitation counselor in Minnesota.”
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Background, Acknowledgements and Credits
The “Minnesota Reflections” collection, which is now almost 8 years old (as of 2012), is a project of the Minnesota Digital Library. The collection currently has over 116,000 images, maps and documents from more than 133 of the state’s cultural heritage organizations. This site offers resources on Minnesota’s history and geography for researchers, educators, students, and the public.
Our collection was supported by a grant from the Minnesota Digital Library. Current funding for “Minnesota Reflections” comes from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the state’s constitution.
Special thanks go to:
- Marian Rengel, Minnesota Digital Library Outreach Coordinator, for her steadfast support of this very special project. We couldn’t have completed it without her expert assistance!
- The trustees of the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall, the board members of the Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens, and the keepers of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf Alumni Association Museum for their generous donations of these valuable historical items.
- Doug Bahl and Cynthia Weitzel for selecting the items to be included in our collection and bringing them to be scanned at the University of Minnesota.
- Doug Bahl for providing the historical details for the item descriptions, and Teika Pakalns for writing and compiling the metadata that was submitted to the Minnesota Digital Library.
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