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Arts and letters Thousands of Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) proceedings, reports, and other historical documents F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota: The Writer and His Friends at providing a detailed record of Minne­ Home by Dave Page with photography by Jeff Krueger (St. Paul: apolis park history are now open to the Fitzgerald in Saint Paul, 2017, 296 p., Cloth, $39.95; distributed public. The collection, housed at the by University of Minnesota Press). The four-​year-​old group James K. Hosmer Special Collections of Fitzgerald in Saint Paul is dedicated to the study of the Minne­ Hennepin County’s Central Library in sota years of St. Paul’s most famous author. The organization downtown Minneapolis, holds archi­ published this homage to Fitzgerald’s early years and the Minne­ val material that shows the growth, sota buildings in which he spent them in conjunction with the improvement, and programming of the return of the international Fitzgerald Society Conference to the writer’s hometown Minneapolis park system from the early in June 2017. Fitzgerald fans will relish the heavily researched insights into his 1880s through the 1960s. It includes pro­ early career by Fitzgerald expert Page, and architecture afficianados will appreciate posals and correspondences tracing the Krueger’s contemporary building portraits, supplemented by historic photos of lost evolution of the Minneapolis park sys­ structures. Page combed letters, scrapbooks, and diaries to discover the sources for tem as it grew to encompass 15 percent the characters and the Minnesota places—​from St. Paul to White Bear Lake to Old of the city’s land; reports and petitions Frontenac—​Fitzgerald wrote about. illuminating significant park issues across different eras; and official park Richard F. Lack: Catalogue Raisonné: 1943–1998 by Gary B. board actions, including agreements, Christensen and Stephen Gjertson (St. Paul: Afton Press, 2017, policies, and contracts. 496 p., Cloth, $85). Atelier Lack was a fixture in the Uptown Min­ neapolis neighborhood for decades. The studio and school was Lens Flare Stillwater is a new web the center of a style of painting dubbed “Classical Realism” by its browser–​based app for mobile devices founder, Minneapolis native Richard Lack (1928–2009). Lack’s that allows you to “time travel through lodestar was the then-​unfashionable, traditional style of paint­ Stillwater’s history.” Use the app while ing inspired by the Old Masters. He coined the term Classical visiting the St. Croix River city to take Realism in 1974 to distinguish his manner of painting from the other “isms” of the two walking tours with active geo-​ time, such as Modernism and Surrealism. Besides training others in this method and locations that convey information inspiring other ateliers in the United States, Lack was a prolific artist. It’s no wonder while standing in front of historic sites. that this richly illustrated catalog of his 1,300 paintings, drawings, sketches, studies, Or experience Stillwater’s rich history etchings, woodcuts, and watercolors was a decade in the making. from afar through the website itself. www.lensflarestillwater.com. Taking Sides with the Sun: Landscape Photographer Herbert W. Gleason: A Biography by Dale Schwie (Minneapolis: Nodin Press, The University of Minnesota Press has 2017, 232 p., Cloth, $29.95). Herbert Gleason (1853–1937) abandoned brought back in print Voices of Rondo: a career as a Congregational minister in midlife and went on to Oral Histories of Saint Paul’s Historic become one of the most distinguished landscape photographers Black Community, as told to Kate Cavett, of his age. Gleason took many photographs of Yosemite, Zion, and with a foreword by David Vassar Taylor. other parks for the National Park Service and experimented with Originally published in 2005, the vol­ the new dry plate technology. At the core of his long-​overlooked ume contains memories and reflections achievements, writes author Schwie, lies a series of photographs Gleason, a native of residents of the Rondo commu­ of Malden, Massachusetts, took over a period of nearly 40 years that document the nity, destroyed in the 1950s when the places Henry David Thoreau visited and referred to in his voluminous writings. interstate freeway was constructed, as Before becoming one of America’s leading landscape photographers and a passionate captured by oral historian Cavett. Rondo advocate for the preservation of natural beauty, Gleason spent 15 years in Minnesota, native and historian Taylor, who directed initially serving Congregational pulpits in Pelican Rapids and Minneapolis, then as the Minnesota Black History Project for managing editor for the Northwestern Congregationalist newspaper. MNHS in 1974–75, provided context.

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The Goodhue County Historical Soci­ devoted solely to the Minnesota GAR years before the first Carnegie library ety offers two new contributions to the since Frank H. Heck’s The Veterans of the in Minnesota, Winona lumberman Wil­ centennial of America’s participation Civil War, published in 1941. Punchard’s liam Harris Laird donated the public in World War I. Frederick L. Johnson tale begins in 1866, when the GAR was library building to Winona with the documents how ethnic, political, and founded, and concludes in 1956, the stipulation that the city maintain it as nationalist tensions played out in Patriot year 102-​year-​old Albert Woolson, the a public institution. The impressive Hearts: World War I Passion and Prejudice last surviving soldier of the Union army, neoclassical building sheathed in white in a Minnesota County (192 p., $21.95). An died in Duluth. limestone and capped by a central dome unsettling image of Nonpartisan League is the oldest library building still in use gubernatorial candidate Charles Lind­ Dana Yost, long​time editor at the in Minnesota. bergh Sr. hung in effigy from a lamppost Marshall Independent, uses a single in the western Goodhue County town of year in one small town in southwestern Fans of the streetcar boats of Lake Stanton leads off the book (and can be Minnesota—Minneota—as a microcosm Minnetonka will be intrigued to read seen on the back cover). Johnson “docu­ for national and world events. 1940: Royal C. Moore: The Man Who Built the ment[s] a disturbingly large number of Journal of a Midwestern Town, Story of Streetcar Boats by Lori Cherland-​McCune individuals who, in apparent reaction an Era (Ellis Press, 668 p., $21) focuses (Beaver’s Pond Press, 182 p., $22). Like to persistent and alarming home front on a pivotal year in the town’s history, the 1906 streetcar boat Minnehaha, pressures of the Great War years, pushed while it looks forward and backward one of hundreds of wooden boats he toward and eventually over the line of in time. Yost argues that not only was designed and manufactured, the story of lawful behavior.” Minneota in 1940 in many respects a Moore and his Wayzata boat works has Johnson is also historiographer of mirror of America of the time, but it was been buried until recently. (The Minne- With Love to All: The World War I Letters also a significant participant in national haha was raised from the bottom of the and Photographs of Minnesota Brothers debates of the era, some that still reso­ lake in 1980 and restored to service in Marland and Stanley Williams (154 p., nate 75 years later. “Just how did people 1996.) Includes many never-​seen photos $21.95), edited by Elizabeth Williams of different values, different religions, and narratives from the era Moore and Gomell. Marland Williams was Gomell’s different cultural backgrounds, different his boats made their mark, 1879 to 1930. paternal grandfather and Stanley her occupations find shared experience and great uncle. The 89 letters the brothers common cause” in this tiny town on William Ewald has mined the fam­ wrote home are newsy and reassur­ the edge of the prairie, Yost asks of his ily archives to create Ewald Bros. Dairy ing, a comfort to the family members hometown. The answers, he proposes, (Arcadia Publishing & The History Press, who received and lovingly saved them. might offer a blueprint, or at least some 128 p., $21.99). Ewald’s great-grandfather, Today’s reader will also appreciate the suggestions, for America 2017. Danish immigrant Chris Ewald, founded Williamses’ insights and observations the home-​delivery dairy operation that, about military training and combat. The The Friends of the Winona Public with nearly 300 employees, was once book’s title comes from the signoff of Library group has released Laird’s one of the largest employers in Min­ both brothers’ letters: “With love to all.” Legacy: A History of the Winona Public neapolis. The 3-​D Ewald Gurnsey cows Library (161 p., $23), by historic preser­ billboard can still be seen on the grounds Life​long Civil War enthusiast vation writer Greg Gaut. In 1897, two of the Minnesota State Fair. Richard V. Punchard has self-​published G.A.R. Grand Army of the Republic Min- nesota Department: An Illustrated History (170 p., $35). Over a 40-​year period, Correction The generous donors who made possible the reproduction textiles in Punchard collected photos and memo­ the James J. Hill House described on page 221 of the Summer 2017 rabilia related to the Minnesota chapter issue were incorrectly identified as George and Joan Nelson. The cor- of the GAR, the fraternal organization rect names are George and Joan Fischer. Dr. Fischer has had a lifelong​ for honorably discharged veterans of interest in James J. Hill; he and Mrs. Fischer collect memorabilia associ- the Union army, which he shares in the ated with Hill and his Great Northern Railway. We regret the error. publication, the first reference book

Contact us Letters, comments, questions about Minnesota History ? Send them to 345 Kellogg Boulevard West, St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 or [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you! FALL 2017 283 Backspace

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Sub­scrip­tions to Minnesota History are $20 per year. Back issues are $5 each plus Minnesota tax and 1917 ▪ 100 Years Ago handling; go to mnhs.org/mnhistory. The death of General [William G.] Le Duc removes one of the last two survivors of the 123 original members of the society. For years he was a most faithful mem­ Magazine text is available in alternative format: contact [email protected]. ber of the council, making the trip from Hastings to St. Paul in order to attend its meetings. The society was represented at the funeral by the president, the first vice-​ Minnesota History welcomes the submission of arti- president, and the secretary, who acted as honorary pall bearers. It is expected that cles and edited documents dealing with the social, economic, political, intellectual, and cultural history a biographical sketch of General Le Duc will be published in a later issue of the of the state and the surrounding region. Author bulletin [Minnesota History’s original name]. —​“Minnesota Historical Society Notes,” guidelines are at mnhs.org/mnhistory.

Vol. 2, No. 4, November 1917, p. 277 MNHS assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors.

1942 ▪ 75 Years Ago The Code below indicates that copying beyond that Attendance figures for the society itself reveal a growing appreciation of its permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright resources, for their use by the public during 1941 reached proportions never before Laws requires the copier to pay the stated per copy fee through the Copyright Clear­ance Center, Danvers, equaled. More than 40,000 visitors to the museum were recorded. In recent years, MA, 978-750-8400 or www.copyright.com. This con- the figures of museum attendance have been characterized by steadily increasing sent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such numbers of school classes and groups. In 1941 a total of 508 such school groups as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective with a membership of 15,034 teachers and children visited the museum—almost​ works, or for resale. 3,000 more than any previous year. —​“The Minnesota Historical Society,” by Arthur J. Larsen, Vol. 23, No. 1, March 1942, p. 39 Printed on recycled paper with soy ink.

1967 ▪ 50 Years Ago The fall meeting of the Upper Midwest History Conference will be held on October 27 at the Campus Club of the University of Minnesota. The speaker for the occasion is Rex A. Wade of the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, who will discuss some

aspects of Soviet relations and the Russian Revolution of 1917. . . . A national meet­ Officers Phyllis Rawls Goff, President ; William D. ing of the American Studies Association to be held in Kansas City, Missouri, on Green, Vice President ; D. Stephen Elliott, Secretary ; October 26–28 . . . will be opened with an address by Oscar Handlin of Harvard Uni­ Daniel Schmechel, Treasurer ; William R. Stoeri, Immediate Past President versity, and among discussion leaders at the various sessions will be Erling Larsen of Carleton College and John B. Foster of Mankato State College. —Vol. 40, No. 7, Fall Executive Council Cawo Abdi, Eric Ahlness, 1967, p. 364 Suzanne Blue, Kurt BlueDog, Barbara Burwell, Brenda J. Child, Grant W. Davis, D. Stephen Elliott, Michael Farnell, Thomas M. Forsythe, Phyllis Rawls 1992 ▪ 25 Years Ago Goff, William D. Green, David R. Hakensen, Dennis L. Lamkin, Jean M. Larson, Monica Little, Charles In October 1992, the Minnesota Historical Society celebrates the opening of its Mahar, Dean M. Nelson, Dean Phillips, Peter Reis, spacious new History Center. For the first time, Minnesotans will have museum, Peter Reyes Jr., Daniel Schmechel, William R. Stoeri, research, and programming facilities worthy of the state’s heritage. A new era of Bo Thao-​Urabe, Ben Vander Kooi, Eleanor Winston, service to the people of Minnesota and visitors from across the nation begins. Warren J. Zaccaro —​“The New Minnesota History Center: Looking Back at the Journey,” by Nina M. Ex-Officio Members Mark Dayton, Governor; Archabal, Vol. 53, No. 3, Fall 1992, p. 117 Tina Smith, Lieutenant Governor; Steve Simon, Secretary of State; Lori Swanson, Attorney General; Rebecca Otto, State Auditor 284 MINNESOTA HISTORY

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