History Posts

Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #24

Oct 15, 2019 No Comments

Another card from the Duluth Trivia game.

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History

PDD Quiz: History of Hunters Park

Oct 13, 2019 1 Comment

Test your knowledge of local history with this week’s quiz on Hunters Park, the second installment in a series of quizzes focusing on Twin Ports neighborhoods. The first was on the history of Morgan Park. Sound off in the comments on which neighborhoods you’d like to see featured in a future quiz.

Zenith City Press and the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections of UMD’s Kathryn A. Martin Library were invaluable sources of content for this quiz. Many of the maps and images from the quiz were accessed through Minnesota Reflections; check it out for even more historical content.

The next PDD quiz, reviewing headlines and happenings from this month, will be published on Oct. 27. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Oct. 24.

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History

R.I.P. Amendola Building

Oct 12, 2019 6 Comments

Demolition work on the Amendola Building in Downtown Duluth. (Photo by Mike Creger)

The Amendola Building at 405 E. Superior St. was demolished today to make way for Essentia Health’s Vision Northland project.

Amendola Building, Google Maps, 2018

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History, News and Current Affairs, R.I.P.

Dan and Joanne Devine, Fall 1947

Oct 11, 2019 No Comments

It’s Homecoming Weekend at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and in the spirit of that we roll out this relic from 1947, supplied by Kristy Roschke, managing director of the News Co/Lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The photo is of her grandparents, Dan and Joanne Devine, partaking in homecoming festivities at UMD. Joanne was homecoming queen; Dan was captain of the football and basketball teams.

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History, Sports ,

“Iron Will” movie video with Duluth annotations

Oct 10, 2019 3 Comments

The adventure drama Iron Will premiered on Jan. 14, 1994. Much of the film was shot in Duluth and areas near Duluth from Jan. 11 to April 1, 1993. The annotations below are a guide to spotting familiar people and locations.

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History, Videos

Postcard from the SS America “Booth Line”

Oct 09, 2019 1 Comment

This postcard of the passenger and delivery ship America is from some point between 1902, when the Booth Steamship Line acquired the vessel, and 1928, when it sunk near Isle Royale.

More info about the vessel can be found in two other Perfect Duluth Day posts — “SS America, 1925” and “Remembering America and her life on the water.”


History , ,

Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #23

Oct 08, 2019 No Comments

Here’s another in the series of Duluth Trivia cards, from a board game found at Savers.

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History

Mystery Photo #100: Early Settler

Oct 06, 2019 6 Comments

This photo is labeled “Early Settler Duluth MN.” And that’s all we know. Who is this dude?

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History, Photos

Postcard from Lyceum Theatre and Spalding Hotel

Oct 05, 2019 No Comments

It’s not known who scrawled a date on this postcard, when it was scrawled, or what the date is supposed to represent. But the date is one century ago today — Oct. 5, 1919.

It could represent the date the photo was shot, but that seems unlikely. The date was probably written by someone who bought the postcard and wanted to remember the date of a visit to that spot.


History , ,

Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #22: Bernick’s Edition

Oct 01, 2019 1 Comment



The trivia cards featured in this series were purchased at a local thrift store. Accuracy might be off. Note, for example, the spelling of Bernick’s on the header on the card below. Bernick’s, of course, has been the Duluth-area distributor of Pepsi and other beverage products since the 1970s.

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History

The Day the Brother of John Wilkes Booth Came to the Grand Opera House of Duluth

Sep 26, 2019 4 Comments

While John Wilkes Booth remains infamous as the actor who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, his older brother Edwin was actually the better known of the two prior to Lincoln’s assassination as he was considered one of the greatest Shakespearean performers of the 19th century. Edwin Booth feared that his brother’s crime would destroy his own reputation and career even though he was not only a supporter of Lincoln, but also once saved the life of Lincoln’s son by grabbing him as he fell from a train. Edwin Booth’s open expression of horror at what his brother had done led to continued public support after Lincoln’s assassination and he remained a successful actor until his death. To this day, no actor has performed the role of Hamlet more times than him.

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History ,

Duluth Library Wildcats Women’s Hockey Team of 1929

Sep 24, 2019 3 Comments

Not much is known about the Duluth Library Wildcats. The photo above is from the Duluth Public Library’s Facebook page, and is from a slide titled “Library Wildcats,” found in the staff section of the library’s slides.

“There isn’t a lot more information than that, but a librarian is on the case and she’ll be looking for more on this story,” the library’s Facebook post noted.


History, Photos, Sports

Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #21

Sep 24, 2019 4 Comments

Another Duluth Trivia card, from a board game found at Savers, below.

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History, Random

National Geographic’s Duluth of 1949

Sep 23, 2019 1 Comment

Roy and Edythe Halvorson of Duluth sit in their living room and look out at skiers. Kodachrome photo from National Geographic, September 1949.

National Geographic magazine published a feature story on Minnesota in its September 1949 issue. The article marked Minnesota’s 100th year in legal existence as a territory of the United States.

Duluth, the Iron Range and Superior National Forest were part of the story, titled “Minnesota Makes Ideas Pay,” which features numerous photos by B. Anthony Stewart and Jack E. Fletcher.

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History

The History of WDSE/WRPT TV

Sep 22, 2019 No Comments

WDSE-TV celebrates its 55th anniversary this month. This short video gives an overview of the early history of Duluth’s public television station.


History, Videos ,