October 2024 Posts

Postcard from Lake View Tea and Dining Room

This undated postcard shows the Lake View Tea and Dining Room at 730 E. Superior St., “on the shore of Lake Superior where you can view the large steamers coming and going.”

New book looks at America on the eve of war

In the late 1930s, the world was on the brink of war. In 2024, Alexis Pogorelskin is well aware that the threat has returned.

Her book Hollywood and the Nazis on the Eve of War: The Case of The Mortal Storm details the events preceding World War II. It was released in August by Bloomsbury Press.

Duluth Traverse Bike Ride Time Lapse

Lane Ellis presents this GoPro 10 time-lapse video showing most of his recent 43-mile west-to-east mountain bike ride on the Duluth Traverse, ending at Lester Park during the Lester River Rendezvous.

Selective Focus: Fall Colors 2024

For a few weeks starting mid September, the fall leaves in Duluth are at their most vibrant. Maples turn around Labor Day and birch and poplar closer to Lake Superior begin to turn in early October. Hike the North Shore or head to the top of the hill for a marvelous show of red, burgundy, orange, yellow and gold.

Featured here is Perfect Duluth Day’s annual collection of select images from Instagram showcasing nature’s palette.

Making Chili with Lane

How to make Lane Ellis’ time-tested vegan chili.

PDD Geoguessr #27: Duluth’s Former Telephone Exchanges

Photo of the Hemlock Exchange in 1920 by Hugh McKenzie. (Photo from the Northeast Minnesota Collections of the Kathryn A. Martin Library)

A year after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, George W. Coy set up the first telephone exchange. Making a call to a specific phone required plugging the right cord into the right socket, and that required a person working out of an exchange building. Photos from the Minnesota Digital Library show the Duluth neighborhood exchanges that were operated by the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920. This post discusses the role of telephone exchanges as a source of employment for women in Duluth with a Geoguessr challenge that reveals what those telephone exchanges look like now.

Thoughts on Caesarean Section

Until recently, my vision of childbirth was driven by television. Situation comedies taught me to imagine a woman reclined in a bed. The husband stands slightly behind her and to the left, holding her hand, which is squeezed every time the birthing mom hears “push!” from the doctor.

Nearly every part of that picture was fabricated for television.

I have only recently come to understand that, while we imagine the mother or birthing person to be the center of the picture of birth in the United States, in fact, she is sometimes pushed to the side while the doctor takes over.

Mary Bue – “Right Now”

Mary Bue frolics her way across Minnesota in her new music video “Right Now.” The track is from her ninth album, The Wildness of Living and Dying, due out in early 2025. The video was directed by Jon Herchert of Deck Night Productions.

Envisioning Threats to Great Lakes Shorelines

Duluth features prominently in this segment from the latest episode of Great Lakes Now, a monthly program focused on developments affecting the lakes. The show is produced by Detroit PBS in partnership with a network of PBS affiliates around the region.

Inside the Leif Erikson Park Amphitheater

The latest video from Duluth Urbex explores the space under the stage at Leif Erikson Park‘s outdoor amphitheater. The structure, completed in 1928, was designed by Abraham Holstead and William Sullivan.

Illustrating Hunger and Homelessness: Chelsea Froemke

Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.

Food insecurity, housing insecurity, poverty and social justice are intertwined, a knot of problems facing our community. Thirteen percent of Duluthians face food insecurity, and more than 54% of renter-households are rent burdened. Often these difficult social problems are addressed by nonprofit organizations that run food pantries or housing shelters. They build affordable housing and support people living on the street. While these workers are heroes, they are also human, and their stories are also intertwined with larger issues like poverty and social justice. These frontline workers are also often former college students who enter the job market with the consequential task of supporting those who others have left behind.