Notable acquisitions

Minnesotans United for All Families Materials

Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

Founded to coordinate efforts to defeat a 2012 Minnesota Constitutional Amendment vote, the Minnesotans United for All Families coalition has donated its materials to the Tretter Collection.

The proposed amendment, which was defeated 43 to 53 percent, would have restricted marriage in Minnesota to one man and one woman. The highlight of this donation is a collection of more than 3,000 paper hearts, each with a message about what motivated a volunteer to get involved in the campaign.

Digital records will be added that provide insight into the work of Minnesotans United for All Families to defeat the amendment and its role in the successful legislative effort to legalize same sex marriage in 2013.

Frank Ricchiazzi papers

Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

Frank Ricchiazzi helped found the Log Cabin Republican Club of Los Angeles in 1977 and the Log Cabin Club of Orange County in 1983 and has a long history of political activism in California and the nation.

The Ricchiazzi papers document the founding of the Log Cabin Clubs in response to the Briggs Initiative in 1976, their growth into the Log Cabin Republicans, and eventual role as a force in both Republican and GLBT politics.

Donated by Ricchiazzi, these papers related to the Log Cabin Republicans are an important addition to the existing holdings and are drawing national and international researchers to the University.

Scandinavian Book Collection

Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

A close connection has existed between Minnesota and the Scandinavian countries, reflected by the University of Minnesota’s history as a center of Scandinavian studies. The Tretter Collection has recently embarked on a project to build its collection of materials related to GLBT communities in Scandinavia.

More than 70 books in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (both Bokmål and Nynorsk), and Finnish have been purchased, strengthening the international scope of the Tretter Collection.

James Wright & Sonjia Urseth Letters

Upper Midwest Literary Archives

This important collection contains letters between James Wright and his student Sonjia Urseth, written between July 1957 and December 1961.

The collection of over 400 pages includes 166 of Wright’s letters and 154 letters and postcards to Sonjia Urseth. Included in the letters are 17 uncollected, early draft versions of Wright’s translations of Vallejo, Jiménez, Guillén, Lorca, Storm, and Möerike; 16 pages of uncollected or early draft versions of Wright poems; and 16 pages of Wright’s private journals.

Typescript copies of poems by Donne, Sydney, Po Chu-i, Whitman, Lorca, Jiménez, John Clare, Edward Thomas, Sir Walter Raleigh, Vassar Miller, and George Wither; and prose passages and exhortations to read Nietzsche, Willa Cather, Tolstoy, Kierkegaard, Steinbeck, Thoreau, F. S. Fitzgerald, Turgenev, Fred Manfred, and D. H. Lawrence are also included in the letters.

Vikentii Shandor Papers

Immigration History Research Center Archives

This valuable addition to the IHRCA’s holdings documents Carpatho-Rusyn immigration, an area often underrepresented in archives.

The collection contains manuscripts and typescripts of works by Vikentii Shandor, a Ukrainian American scholar, on the history of the Carpatho-Rusyn region in Ukraine and emigration from Ukraine between World War I and II and on Ukrainian exiles in Canada and the United States following World War II.

Shandor’s diaries and personal correspondence are also included in this collection. As Minneapolis has a sizable Carpatho-Rusyn presence, the acquisition of this collection is particularly welcome.

Union and League of Romanian Societies of America, Inc. Records

Immigration History Research Center Archives

This collection consists of the organizational records of the Union and League of Romanian Societies of America, a major Romanian American fraternal organization and the oldest Romanian organization in the United States and Canada.

Meeting minutes, agendas, ledgers, membership records and correspondence are also included in the collection. This accession substantially increases the IHRCA’s holdings of Romanian American materials and is the result of a collaborative effort between the Union and League of Romanian Societies of America, the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, and the local Romanian American community in the Twin Cities.

Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest Collection

Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives

Since 2002 a portion of the collection of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest resided with the Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives in Andersen Library, but the recent acquisition of the remaining materials brings back together this major research collection related to Jewish history, communities, religion, and culture in the upper Midwest.

These reunited collections now comprise more than 1,000 cubic feet of material and includes family papers; club and association materials and ephemera; personal narratives of Jewish life in the upper Midwest; materials documenting family-owned businesses in the Jewish community; and related books and publications. The collection is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in understanding the American Jewish experience from a Midwestern perspective.

Black Underground Newspapers

Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature

The Givens Collection has acquired a stunning group of Black underground newspapers gathered around a near-complete collection of the 1967-1973 issues of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, an independent weekly news periodical distributed internationally as the foremost authority on party ideology, history, and development. Most libraries that collect this publication do so in only the microfilm format, making the Givens’ collection one of the largest paper collections of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service available outside of California, where it was published. Additional newspapers in this collection include short-run community papers such as The Black Liberator, Right On!, and The Plain Truth.

Hauser Dance Studio Records

Performing Arts Archives

Donated by Heidi Hauser Jasmin, the Hauser Dance studio collections spans the life of the Hauser Dance Studio, founded in Minneapolis in 1961 and focused on the teaching of modern dance. The collection includes administrative records, correspondence, and video recordings, among other materials.

Nancy Mason Hauser Videos & Performance Lab Records

Performing Arts Archives

Esteemed dance videographer Nancy Mason Hauser donated this collection of performance videos produced by Twin Cities dance companies. Hauser directs the Twin Cities Dance Pioneer Oral History Project, whose archives also reside in the Performing Arts Archives. Founded by Rick Hauser and Marcia Chapman, the Performance Lab works to build a communityof artists and arts professionals to collaboratively create a network of interactive studios across America for the exchange of innovative arts experiences. Donated by Rick Hauser, the Performance Lab collection documents interactive dance experiments that seek to bring dance excellence to diverse communities through the use of technology and innovation.