Primary Sourcery

The Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota has just released the first 20 interviews from Phase Two of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project (TTOHP). The activists featured in Phase Two of the TTOHP are working to overcome barriers that trans people experience in the areas of housing insecurity, police violence, health care, and other justice issues.

The Immigration History Research Center Archives recently digitized surveys of Mexican and Mexican-culture residents in St. Paul in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The surveys were done by what is now the International Institute of Minnesota. Founded in 1919, “it is a social service agency helping and also honoring new Americans..."

On Sept. 22, Marguerite Ragnow, Curator of the James Ford Bell Library, unwrapped the six panels of the Ricci Map so that conservator Sherelyn Ogden might examine them. The map panels had been in storage at Mia since early December 2017.

Dudley Riggs made a mark on the Twin Cities before passing away on Sept. 22 at the age of 88, particularly with the Brave New Workshop improvisational comedy club that he ran for 39 years. Along with many warm memories, he also leaves behind a treasure trove — his papers are in the Libraries’ Performing Arts Archive.

“Collies and Toucans and Bugs, Oh My!” kicks off the 2020-2021 season of First Fridays on October 2. Kathy Allen, Andersen Horticultural Library Librarian, is the presenter of this virtual event from the Libraries' Archives and Special Collections.

Skeptical that Christopher Columbus had discovered a route to India, Amerigo Vespucci consulted the journals of Marco Polo, says Gregory Hedberg, donor of a portrait of the explorer to the James Ford Bell Library. The costumes described by Polo and Columbus didn’t match up, so Vespucci sailed from Europe to learn more. It was he, Hedberg says, who determined that the land now known as South America was new to Europeans.

Of all of the things that this time is — ”unprecedented,” heartbreaking, revealing, painful — it is also a time of proliferating lists. ... And here, another small list, from the Libraries’ Givens Collection of African American Literature, that means to provide some context for thinking about the consequences of founding a country on principles of white supremacy.

As a Global Studies major with a regional focus in Europe, I gain knowledge and more tangible rewards in my job as Student Assistant for the Immigration History Research Center Archives. In the two years, I’ve gained invaluable exposure to thousands of archival materials documenting the personal experiences of 20th-century European immigrants, refugees, and displaced persons. Since spring break, however, I’ve had to learn how to do my job without this hands-on and face-to-face component.

The HIV/AIDS Caregivers Oral History Project is a new digital resource, part of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, includes 34 recordings and transcripts of interviews with individuals who have worked to provide services to HIV+ people and people with AIDS in Minnesota.

Guest author Teresa Bertilotti shares about her research project, Becoming Italian-American: Entertainment and Historical Culture, 1860-1930, and about her research at the Immigration History...

For Archivist Kate Dietrick, a Zoom webinar on "Saving Your Family History" was a great way to reach a group of people who may not typically think of visiting the archives, while also answering the questions she fields regularly from individuals.

We celebrate the consortium of higher education and public institutions that recently announced "One Book | One Minnesota," a new statewide book club that will feature Kate DiCamillo's book, "Because of Winn-Dixie." In honor of DiCamillo, we offer this 2014 conversation between the author and Lisa Von Drasek.

I Had Ambitious Plans For The Sequester I was going to interview educators to help parents facilitate learning at home. I interviewed one. Mollie Welsh Kruger,...

They stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the curved staircase of the atrium of the Elmer L. Andersen Library — a crowd gathered for the building’s official opening April 8, 2000. One can sense their eagerness in the U of M video that captured that ceremony and related the background of this new home for the U’s Archives and Special Collections.

The online world is hosting a wake — for prolific children’s book creator Tomie dePaola, 85, who died from surgical complications on March 30. Thousands of teachers, librarians, authors, and illustrators whom he mentored in classrooms, conferences, and on-line are posting on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. These messages speak to how Tomie and his work filled the world with his generosity, joy, and kindness.  “To be with Tomie felt like you were his close friend.” says Lisa Von Drasek, Curator of the U’s Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature.

With a recent tweet thread, Tim Johnson illustrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that Sherlock Holmes remains relevant more than 130 years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first conjured up a story about the great detective. The thread featured American illustrator Frederic Dorr Steele.