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.
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.
WDSE-TV celebrates its 55th anniversary this month. This short video gives an overview of the early history of Duluth’s public television station.
This postcard of the Duluth Shipping Canal was mailed 110 years ago today — Sept. 19, 1909. The postmark fades out a bit, but other details on the card indicate it was mailed from Orr, Minn. to a resident in Duluth’s Friendly West End.
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company is copyright 1906. The photographer is not credited.
Who is this guy and what’s his deal? His hat bears the number 581. The photo is from Christensen Photography of Duluth, Minn.
The state fish hatchery at 6008 London Road, near the mouth of Lester River in Duluth, was constructed in 1888 and operated until 1946. The photo above, from Detroit Publishing Company, is dated by the Library of Congress as “between 1900 and 1910.”
The undated postcard above, published by Elton H. Gujer Company of Duluth, depicts the Sunrise Motel in Hermantown.
These two cabinet cards presumably feature two different women, although they look a touch similar. The mystery isn’t just who they are, but also what the deal was with Howorth.
Even if you’re not a history nerd, you’ve got to admire the effort put into finding and recreating these photos and the point of view. The images are from John McLoughlin’s @duluth_then_and_now account on Instagram.
View of Duluth on the Shore of Lake Superior (1870)
The Minnesota Reflections database contains a large number of high-quality historic photographs of Duluth. Most of these are scans of old prints in excellent condition. Some of the photos in the collection, however, come from torn, faded, scratched, taped or otherwise damaged prints. Many of these damaged prints belong to the collection of photographs taken by Paul B. Gaylord, a photographer from Ohio who moved to Duluth in 1869 and published some of the earliest images of the area.
A recent post on Perfect Duluth Day featured a “Postcard from the West End of Duluth” that was properly captioned by the postcard company. The postcard shown above, however, shows a similar scene and is captioned as “West Duluth, Minn.”
