This latest addition of 300+ images to the Collaborative collection of the Northfield News is a great illustration of why the Collaborative exists.

The News has thousands of photographs, in addition to (obviously) news clippings and 100+ years of newspapers, but someone researching Northfield history wouldn’t necessarily think to look there for photographs. A central, online database of local history resources helps researchers to know what they have.

(Side note: One other feature you’ll be seeing more of at the Collaborative is surveys and summaries of the collections of our partners. Here, you can check out a survey of the items held at the Northfield News.)

If you enjoy seeing scenes from old Northfield, it’s well worth the time to browse through this collection. They have so many fascinating images that I really don’t know where to start in highlighting them for you. I managed to narrow it down to my top 15, in no particular order.

1. Greenvale Park Elementary School under construction (aerial view)

2. Northfield High School post-construction (aerial view) – notice that this is before the D and M wings, and before the District Office

3. Northfield Retirement Center under construction (aerial view)

4. United Methodist Church under construction (aerial view) – notice the sparse homes looking to the north

5. South side of Bridge Square before the Post Office – the Scriver Building is just out of view at left

6. Gas station that stood where Post Office is now – notice the Central Block spire in the center back, and the roof of the Scriver Building at back right

7. Old Catholic church – the tiny sign on the post says “Linden St.”

8. Highway 3 meets Water and Third streets (aerial view) – this is after what’s now Highway 3 runs through the area, but before the current parking lot, so Water Street and Highway 3 kind of intersect at Second Street. Looks dangerous.

9. Looking down Third Street toward Basil’s – going even further back than the previous image, we see that Third Street was a busy area before buildings were knocked down for Highway 3 to be routed through

10. Northfield Fire Department with horses in front of what is now Anna’s Closet and The Contented Cow

11. Northfield Public Library, original section

12. Temperance Union parade float: ‘The Saloon Wants Your Boys – Is Your Boy Safe?’ – parade in the 400 block of Division Street, headed for Bridge Square

13. President Taft in Bridge Square – probably about 1908. The building behind him is Northfield National Bank, which stood where Neuger Communications is now.

14. Huge tents in Bridge Square – a carnival or circus. Notice the massive amount of space they cover. Also notice the old mill in the background on the bank of the river.

15. Troops march through Bridge Square in the 1910s, headed for Mexican border – I find this image moving. It makes these local men heading out for military service feel very real.

Talk about timing: This morning this year’s Oscar nominees were announced, and this afternoon the Northfield History Collaborative added an interview with a 1989 Academy Award winner who attended St. Olaf College.

Among the items submitted to the Northfield History Collaborative by our partner, KYMN Radio, is this interview with “Rain Man” co-author Barry Morrow the morning after his win for best original screenplay.

KYMN host Wayne Eddy spoke with Morrow on March 30, 1989. In the audio clip, you’ll hear Eddy and Morrow talk about Morrow’s reaction to winning and experiences at the ceremony.

After you’ve listened to that, browse KYMN’s collection in the Collaborative to check out some more of our latest additions. They include:

• Commercials for the Red Owl grocery store
• Jingles for Dundas State Bank, Enfield Motors, and The Lavender Inn
• Episodes of “The Wayne Eddy Affair” with Al Berkvam (1 & 2), Bob Gill (1 & 2), Fred Dahl (1, second part to come), John Bierman (1, second part to come), Ken Persons, Marv Grundhoefer (1 & 2), Mike Leming (Part 2 only), Norm Butler, and Regina Locus (1 & 2)
• A memorial service for Gov. Karl Rolvaag
• A special episode remembering Northfielder Don McRae; and
• Photographs from the KYMN Radio office when it was located north of town next to its tower.

Watch in the future for us to add more material from KYMN Radio, particularly episodes of “The Wayne Eddy Affair.” Special thanks to the student workers and volunteers who devote time to providing the notes you’ll find under the “page description” about what each broadcast contains.

History Day students: Looking for a local topic, local angle, or local resource?

The Northfield History Collaborative is a digital library full of items related to the history of Northfield and nearby communities. Online at www.northfieldhistorycollaborative.org, this group is a partnership of 11 businesses and organizations. Our online collection contains more than 3,000 photographs, books, manuscripts, scrapbooks, audio clips and more from our partners, as well as summaries of their offline collections:

• Northfield Historical Society
• Rice County Historical Society
• Northfield Public Library
• Carleton College
• St. Olaf College
• First National Bank of Northfield
• Northfield Hospital
• Northfield News
• KYMN Radio
• St. John’s Lutheran Church
• Northfield Arts Guild

Click the link below to see our handout from the Jan. 12 Hullaballoo at the Northfield Public Library.

• Hullaballoo student handout

Click on this link to learn about some of the subjects and topics covered in the Collaborative.

• Collaborative subject and topic lists

Learn more about the Collaborative here, read about how to use our site here, and find links to other local history resources here.

Looking for something in particular? Have questions? We want to help! Contact the project coordinator at butler@northfieldhistory.org.

Does your project have a Northfield connection? Consider submitting it to the Northfield Student Research Collection to help other local researchers looking at your topic. Contact the project coordinator at butler@northfieldhistory.org for more information.

Today Minnesotans and Americans remember Dec. 26, 1862, when the largest mass hanging in our nation’s history took place at Mankato. On that day, 38 Dakota men were executed during the U.S.-Dakota War. You can read more about the war and the executions here.

Mankato’s not far away, but items in the Northfield History Collaborative’s online collection can help us get an even more local look at the events — or at least what viewpoints people here were exposed to.

Included in Emily Bierman’s Minnesota History Scrapbook, compiled in the 1930s and in the care of the Northfield Public Library, is an article about the executions from the Minneapolis Sunday Journal of Feb. 11, 1900. (It continues on the two pages following.) As you read the article, you’ll notice that it does not necessarily tell the story as we hear it today. But it is still of historical value to read the materials that our ancestors did about the situation. It helps us to better understand why they held the viewpoints they did, even if we may disagree with them today.

One other item in the scrapbook is an account of the life of Northfielder Charles H. Watson. He was a member of a military company that fought in the U.S.-Dakota War, and he was present at the hangings in 1862. This Northfield Independent article notes that Watson was loathe to talk about his experiences, and here pieces them together through a conversation between Watson and fellow Northfielder G. M. Phillips.

Watson was the father of notable locals Earl, Clara and Helen Watson. He died in 1914 and is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery.

Read another account of Watson’s experiences in Old Rail Fence Corners — search here for “Mr. C. H. Watson—1855.” (The book contains accounts of Minnesota pioneers that were compiled by the Daughters of the American Revolution.)

Another venue for learning more about U.S.-Dakota relations: Watch the 2005 documentary “Dakota 38” tonight on TPT’s Minnesota Channel at 7:30.

Hello! Please be aware that ContentDM will be down for parts of Thursday, Nov. 29 while Carleton College works on the server. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Battlefield at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. Library of Congress photograph by Alexander Gardner.

Today marks 150 years since the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War: The Battle of Antietam.

Just Google “Antietam” today and you’ll find no end of articles about the battle and about a re-enactment of the battle that took place this weekend. Time magazine in particular highlights photographs of the battle held by the Library of Congress.

Head on over to the Northfield History Collaborative today to find our own local ties to Antietam in an 1861 enlistment roll. Among the several dozen signatures are those of at least three Northfield area men who were injured at Antietam.

This document, pasted into Emily Bierman’s Notable Events scrapbook, was signed by some of the first local men to volunteer their service for the Civil War. Among them are George Kenney, John Gatzke, and William G. Coen. All three were injured 150 years ago today, but all lived to tell the story. Gatzke and Coen went on to serve another two years. All three men joined up while in their early 20s — or at least they claimed.

One other Rice County man, Wilson Cagger, may have been killed at the Battle of Antietam. However, another record says he deserted his company that day, then re-enlisted the following August.

Honor these men and the deaths of 23,000 by taking a minute today to learn a little more about their service.

Just in time for the Defeat of Jesse James Days, the Northfield History Collaborative invites you to learn more about the 1876 raid on the First National Bank through the words of eyewitnesses.

The July 10, 1897 edition of the Northfield News, published around the time the Younger brothers were first seeking pardon,  included 16 eyewitness accounts of the bank raid.

• Frank Wilcox (inside the bank)
• Francis Howard (followed the gang over the bridge into the square)
• James Law (followed the gang over the bridge into the square)
• Norman Van Buskirk (saw the gang members on the west side of the river)
• Anselm Manning (owned the hardware store next to the bank)
• Mrs. E. P. Kingman (on Division Street, near the current Rocky Top store)
• Gilbert Onstad (lived in the block south of the bank, and his little boy was in the street)
• Ross C. Phillips (working in Manning’s shop)
• Steven Budd (across the street from the bank)
• W. H. Riddell (in a hardware store across the street from the bank)
• J. A. Hunt (at the jewelry store five doors south of the bank)
• John Olson (worked in the cellar of the building on the northwest corner of Fifth and Division)
• H. B. Gress  (had a store across the street from the bank)
• Dr. D. J. Whiting (had a dentist’s office on the top floor of the Scriver Building)
• A. H. Bjoraker (had a store on Fifth Street)
• Miron W. Skinner (had a store opposite the bank)

The accounts begin on the first page of the edition, at the top of the fifth column; continue to the top of the second page; and jump to the fifth column on the fourth page.

You have to take into account that the newspaper editor does not note where the accounts came from: whether he sat down with the witnesses, or whether he transcribed accounts previously written. But aside from that, these are the stories the average Northfielder doesn’t hear a lot about the raid. This Defeat of Jesse James Days, honor the Northfielders of 1876 by expanding your knowledge of the event beyond the eight or nine gang members, bank employees, and best-known heroes of the day.

(Learn more about the Emily Bierman scrapbooks here.)

Mrs. Bierman’s “Northfield Organizations” scrapbook is her second-longest, and it covers a lot of territory.

If you are interested in the history of Northfield churches, this is your book. In addition to various articles about congregational histories, you’ll find:

• The 75th anniversary booklet for the Congregational and Baptist church
• An 1884 sermon preached in the Baptist church on prohibition
• The 75th anniversary booklet of the Methodist church

If you’re interested in the Masons, you’ll find a 50th anniversary program for Social Lodge No. 48, which claims to be the oldest chartered organization in the city.

Also find articles about the organizations that were thriving at that time: The Order of the Eastern Star, the Northfield Improvement Association, Women’s Clubs, the parks board, the fire department, Boy Scouts, and more.

There are also several items related to Northfield’s public schools. Among them are four issues of the Northfield High School Periscope, its newspaper. (Eleven more issues are also in the Collaborative.)

The final highlight I leave you with is an article about Northfielder Rolf Lium. As a student at Carleton College, he decided to spend a summer as pastor at a church in the Black Hills. The morning he was to preach his very first sermon, who should make a surprise visit to church that morning but President Calvin Coolidge and his wife.

(Learn more about the Emily Bierman scrapbooks here.)

You can probably guess the subject of Emily Bierman’s St. Olaf College scrapbook.

Included inside it are the following:

• Newspaper articles about the school’s history and its faculty
• A 25th anniversary booklet
• Text and photographs about the band’s 1906 tour of Norway
• Poems by George Weida Spohn
• And an original photograph of Harald (or Harold) Thorson.

Mrs. Bierman’s St. Olaf scrapbook is among her shortest — about 80 pages.

(Learn more about the Emily Bierman scrapbooks here.)

Mrs. Bierman had connections to Carleton College. I’m not sure what they were, but she had them.

Her Carleton College scrapbook is her largest, topping out just shy of 500 pages. Granted, that includes 18 booklets, but the fact that she had 18 booklets about the school, when her St. Olaf College scrapbook just barely makes it to 80 pages, is significant.

Either she or an acquaintance held on to Glee Club programs from 1888, 1909, 1911 and 1916.

If you’re interested in Donald Cowling, you’ll find an inauguration program, a small book about his inauguration, the text of a 1909 address, and several newspaper articles.

One of the booklets included is the 15th annual report of the Huntington Sunday School Class, a missionary society. I don’t know much about this organization, but it is certainly unlike any other Sunday School class I’ve ever heard about! This particular issue, from 1912, is also a memorial to patroness Caroline Huntington. An 11-page member directory at the end includes people living in China.

Two other Huntingtons make an appearance in the scrapbook, and they’re probably the two best-known in Northfield. This 1916 booklet is a memorial to professor George Huntington; an obituary or two also appear for his second wife, born Margaret Evans. Also find the text of an address she gave in Boston in 1899.

I’ll let you browse through the rest, but leave you with a question. Do you have information about a publication called “The Leaven?” The scrapbook contains part of an edition, but I would like to know more about it. It seems similar to a devotional.