Hot on the heels of spring school tours (over 400 visitors in two weeks!), the museum is now filled with summer visitors and researchers.  Stories of the Silver Beach Resort, a crushing tragedy in 1944, and school reunion planning fill the research library.

Ballroom Dance Club exhibit in progress.

A new exhibit for the 30^th anniversary of the Lakeside Dance Club, and extra board of directors meetings to revise our long range plan occupy the meeting room. Visitors from across the U.S. and a couple of other continents have toured the museum gallery.

The Valdres Stevne is on the tour calendar this week.  Researchers have set appointments for extra help.  A crew of volunteers help to keep the museum running.  Margaret Claeson and Mary Smith keep the family files up to date.  Terry Hanna and Grace Hafstad are scanning and indexing the photograph collection to make it easier to find family and community photos.  We are working closely with Barsness Lutheran Church on a pilot project to preserve their extensive collection of confirmation, cradle roll and church event photographs.

1939 Aerial photo of Glenwood.

We are also assisting the Cyrus Public School preserve its history in photos and documents as they merge with the Morris Area Schools.  And last week a large collection of 1939 aerial photographs arrived!

The museum inventory project is nearing a milestone.  Phyllis Sorensen and Gail Larson are assisting Ann Grandy.  Every object in the museum will soon be part of a searchable database.  Even the storage areas have been completely revamped to make things accessible whether on display or not.  Lars Johnson, Starbuck, has joined museum staff for the summer with the CEP program.  Lars is taking inventory of the framed photo collection.

New coat of pain on the Soo Line caboose.

Dave Cooley, Dave Lent and Howard Opdahl are keeping the museum buildings and grounds in top shape.  Dave Cooley has replaced the roof on the Soo Line caboose and is nearly finished painting it.  The school roof is the next project in line for this summer.  If you have skills or interest in cedar shingle roofing, we would welcome your help with this project.

It is rewarding to have “our little museum” busy with visitors and volunteers making use of the great collection of artifacts and archives collected through the years.  The story of our county is richly illustrated and well documented at the Pope County Museum.

Stop in to see us this summer!

Today’s post features Pope County Violin Maker Tollef Erickson, who lived in Cyrus, Minnesota (and later Glenwood) in the 1890′s.

We have 2 of his hand crafted violins in our collection.

The following article from the Glenwood Herald, January 1, 1897 tells his story very well, so I will reprint it here.

“An interesting industry now being carried on in Pope County is that of violin Making. To be sure, it is on a small scale, and in an obscure kind of way, but the instruments made have an admirable finish and tone.
It is now about twenty years since Tollef Erickson, then a young man of 21 years, commenced to learn violin making in Santa Cruz, California. He remained on the coast ten years until 1887, when he came to Pope County where he had some brothers, and settled down on a farm in New Prairie, where he had lived ever since, devoting himself to the care of his mother for some years and since she went to love with another son, he has lived a hermit life, employing himself exclusively in the manufacture of violins. In fact the only work he has even done since he came to Pope County, outside of violin making was a couple of weeks’ threshing last fall.
To make a good violin is a work of art. The wood must be carefully selected and nothing but skilled workmanship will do. Mr. Erickson gets his material from Lyon and Healy, Chicago, and Howe & Co., Boston, some of it being grown in Switzerland, though he considers the curly maple and fir pine obtained in the southern part of the United States full as good, if not better than imported woods. He makes three violins at a time in order not to loose any time waiting for the clue to dry after putting the parts together.
Since he came to Pope County Mr. Erickson has made fully 215 violins, of which he has about 50 on hand at the present time, so that if you should call on him one of these days you would see violins hanging in all parts of his home. He sells his instruments at from $5 to $35, according to the finish and perfection of tone he has been able to produce in each violin. Until a few weeks ago, Mr. Erickson made little effort to dispose of his intruments except among his neighbors and friends in the country, but he has recently placed some with O.J. Johnson & Co., where those desiring may satisfy their curiosity as to the character of his work.”

We also have a beautiful Hardanger Violin in our collection.

We have MANY uniforms in our collection: military, firefighter, railroad, even pastor’s vestments, but this week I chose a World War I Red Cross Uniform – worn by Agnes Skaare Engebretson Ostrom.

We have over 400 students from Pope, Douglas, Stevens, Todd and Stearns Counties visit us each spring.

Thank you teachers and volunteer tour guides for helping us share our love of history.

Students enjoying a steam engine demonstration.

Students blowing the whistle on the steam engine.

Checking out the trunk.

Today’s item is the wood stove in our kitchen exhibit. It is all white enamel and nickel trimmed. The wood was burned in a small compartment on the left and the heat transferred to the burners and the oven. This model is particularly fancy as it has warming areas above and a water tank on the right. The tank took advantage of the heat of the oven and provided a source of hot water for cooking and cleaning.

The stove was manufactured by the Engman Matthews Range Company. It was called the Range Eternal. This one was manufactured in Goshen, Indiana. Since that factory was built in 1920, so we can assume the stove was manufactured after that date.

The stove was the property of Judith Erdahl of Starbuck, Minnesota. Donated by Judith Erdahl, Ruben and Orlean Eliason.

This hair rope belonged to Anna Wrolson. She married Andrew Torguson 1/6/1872 and died 11/11/1889.
The rope makes sort of a necklace. It is woven in several different patterns and forms a complete loop. The center of the loop has a sliding bead – also made of hair.

According to Joanne Haug, “During the mid-nineteenth century hair work became a popular drawing-room occupation, as fashionable as the much-practiced knitting, netting, and crocheting.  By acquiring knowledge of this art, ladies were able to manufacture the hair of beloved friends and relatives into bracelets, chains, rings, earrings, and thus insure that they could actually wear the treasured memento they prized.  The objects which were made in hair are more numerous than is generally supposed.  An ingenious Victorian hair-worker thought of many little domestic articles which could be either made of hair or ornamented with it. The following were some of the commonest applications: bracelets, brooches, earrings, rings, chains, necklaces, shawl pins, cravat pins, purses, bags, book markers, pencil cases, guards, studs, stud chains, scent bottles, walking sticks and even riding whips.”

We have many quilts in our collection, but this week I am highlighting a large quilt made by the East Zion Ladies Aid Society.

Quilt blocks were sold to individuals as a money maker for the church for 15 – 25 cents. The buyer then wrote his or her name on the block in chalk. The Ladies Aid group then embroidered in the names and stitched the blocks together. “East Zion 1924 L.A.S.” is printed in the center of the quilt.  There are 288 6 x 3.5″ signature blocks.

The quilt was purchased by Gilbert G. Berge in the fall of 1924 at an auction sale and later donated to the museum.

The museum will also be open on Saturday 10-5:00.

The program highlights the history of the building and features a segment about the active Ballroom Dance Club that meets at the Ballroom.

Postcards Episode: Historic Minnesota Ballrooms

“Ballrooms have a fabulous musical history starting with the Big Bands of the 30s and 40s to the famous artists of the 50s through 90s; the ballrooms in western Minnesota had them all. Hear stories of those who attended the Fiesta Ballroom in Montevideo, and those who attend a surviving ballroom, the Lakeside, in Glenwood.”