New on the Northfield History Collaborative this week is one of the largest groups of loose documents we’ve ever taken on.

Available for your viewing and research pleasure are 17 new collections from the Northfield Arts Guild, totaling almost 400 pages. Included are minutes, agendas, and other regular reports from 1960 to 1969; and an assortment of other documents from the early years of the organization.

These items were scanned by the Minnesota Digital Library for their digital platform, Minnesota Reflections, and can also be found here. Special thanks also goes to Hsianghui Liu-Spencer of the Carleton College library for her cataloging work on these documents.

Here are some of my favorite items from these collections. Check them out and tell us about yours!

• Some of the NAG board’s first minutes are here. Here’s how it begins: “Eleven interested representatives of the community and the Northfield Arts Guild met at the home of Mrs. Stuart Hunter on March 7, 1960 to discuss future plans of the Northfield Arts Guild.”
• What kinds of classes were offered back in 1968? That summer, junior high students could make Punch and Judy puppets for a public show.
• In 1993, founders Betty and Stuart Hunter recorded their recollections of the beginning of the Northfield Arts Guild here.
• In 1978, Carleton College historian Kirk Jeffrey compiled this history of the building at 304 S. Division St., now the Northfield Arts Guild’s headquarters. It began life as the YMCA building and also served as a community center and City Hall.