David Beard Posts

Historical Documents of the Vista Fleet

Old adverts for Vista excursion-boat tours of the harbor tell us something about why people would visit Duluth and take the boat tour — to see the ships from around the world. The lake and the city skyline mattered less than the almost cosmopolitan dimensions of the Vista experience.

Literary History of Duluth: Lost Hills Books

I’m attempting to piece together the literary history of Duluth. I’ve just learned about Lost Hills Books.

If you know an author with Lost Hills, or know someone who worked with/at the press, please let me know. Email: dbeard @ d.umn.edu

Some thoughts about the Globe News transition

Photo from Globe News Facebook page

When I moved to Duluth in 2005, I didn’t visit Superior until I’d lived here for a few weeks. My then-wife lived in Madison and I drove there every other weekend to see her; on the weekends I remained in Duluth, I was a workaholic, trying hard to clear my calendar so I could travel the 5.5 hours each way to visit her.

It was a few weekends in when I finally had “enough time” to cross the bridge. I was so excited to see Globe News.

Call for Poems and Nonfiction Writing (Journals, Essays, etc.) about “What I Learned from a Travel Experience”

University of Minnesota Duluth students in Writing Studies 4200, “Writing and Cultures,” will edit a collection of creative writing (poems and nonfiction) about what can be learned from a travel experience. They are soliciting writings from everyone (students, alumni, and the broader community) on this topic for inclusion in the collection.

Media Excavations: Chun King

I’d never seen the canned and frozen food magnate Jeno Paulucci until I found this ad in the Media History Digital Library.

Local podcast challenging to listen to

… and I don’t mean in terms of the audio quality.

This Duluth-based podcast has international reach. What They Don’t Tell You About Being a Survivor is “a podcast that builds community amongst those affected by trauma, with the purpose to promote healing and social change.” What makes it challenging to listen to is the intensity of the topics, the intensity of the personal experiences shared. According to the website …

Award for global engagement goes to Duluthian

Dan Nolan recently won a statewide award for teaching about internationalization. Below is the news release for the announcement, but I thought it might be more important to remind folks of the cool work Dan has also done for internationalization for the city of Duluth.

Initiatives in telehealth, as reported by CSS students

I have a pet interest in rural health issues. So I was very interested in a presentation recently to Wilderness Health.

What was the WEBC Traffic Tower?

According to the Duluth News Tribune, this WEBC Traffic Tower was located in a glass enclosure on the roof of the building on the northwest corner of Fourth Avenue West and Superior Street.

WDSM: Queen of the Towers

Collected here are 1950s-era advertisements for WDSM-TV, the forerunner to KBJR-TV. The ads appeared in Broadcasting and Sponsor magazines and can be found in the Media History Digital Library.

Comparing Little Italy to Duluth

Oddly, this ad uses Duluth as a benchmark against which a reader might understand how many Italians are in New York. For a while, Duluth was one of the 100 biggest media markets in the United States, and so among media professionals it could serve as a benchmark.

From the Media History Digital Library.

Traditional Christmas folk musical stylings of Goat Hill Quartet

On Saturday, I was at Wussow’s for coffee, and midway through the morning Goat Hill Quartet appeared. The group’s traditional Christmas folk musical stylings raised money for Loaves and Fishes.

Media Excavation: WHYZ in the Age of the Seaway

WHYZ was the ABC affiliate in Duluth — I think it would become WDIO? Or did WDIO begin after WHYZ died?

KDAL sells the Duluth-Superior-Iron Range market

KDAL 610 AM is a commercial talk radio station in Duluth, owned and operated by Midwest Communications. There was also a KDAL-TV, which later became KDLH and then merged with KBJR.

Media Excavations: Ojibway Publications

Well, I’m not sure how to feel about posting this advert pulled from the Media History Digital Library, because the name of the company bears no connection to the people, that I can tell …

… but Ojibway Publications was a nationally significant trade-magazine publisher located in Duluth.