Unfortunately, this is not an issue of the Ripsaw that is available through the Minnesota Historical Society’s Digital Newspaper Hub. I think I grabbed the image from an eBay listing years ago when someone was selling it. So it’s not possible to r...

So what was that about, exactly?

1955 City Directory ad. They did survive! But marketing ice differently for a while.

Here is an advertisement from 1919 that ran in the Duluth Herald — clear use of the word refrigerator when they were powered by ice.
 

I should add that this online research was made possible by the addition of more years (up to early 1940s) of the Duluth Herald on the Minnesota Historical Society’s Digital Newspaper Hub. Horray for searchable text!

Wow, thanks Brian! That looks like definitely 1930s or maybe even late 1920s. The electric refrigerators were really expensive and had some dangerous chemicals so they didn’t really catch on until the 1950s. Another story goes that women were gett...

I have a little projector made in the 1930s or ’40s, by the Jam Handy company. It was a company (in Chicago, I think) that made promotional filmstrips. Inside the projector was storage for three rolled up filmstrips. One of them was selling GE ref...

Attached is a clearer photo of Shuggy from the mid 1960s. Shuggy was the 7th cousin (DNA confirmed) to Elvis Presley who was also his friend.
 

Here is a copy of his album cover from Pazazz Records. The image is Shuggy on the cover. He traveled to Hollywood several times from Texarkana Texas where he was from. He sold several of his songs, one being “Empty Arms Again” to friends like Jerr...

Shuggy Smith aka Oscar Chatfield Smith was my father. He was born in Texarkana in 1936 and died in Texarkana in 1998. Shuggy had several children (17 so far) from different mothers and we have found each other with DNA confirmation. Shuggy did rec...

Great find HBH. This was before the days of “Divided back” postcards in 1907, so she wrote her info on the front with the image.

Note in the ad above, it says they only ice their Coolerator every 4-7 days. That means a big block of ice was delivered from the Duluth ice and fuel company, which was promoting the use of these devices that needed ice. Little did they know, some...

This led me to a fascinating search for the true history of Coolerators. They were still powered by a big block of ice at least until the 1940s, as shown by this ad from the Duluth Herald from May of 1940. This is a great example of how terminolog...

That’s an ice chipper! It’s seems Coolerator refrigerators weren’t cold enough to actually freeze ice but you could order a big block of ice and it would hold for awhile in the fridge. That tool is part of the process of getting ice cubes from the...

Ice pick. Patented by William F. Arndt and John H. Ganzer as US Patent No. 2,070,773 on Feb. 16, 1937.

“This invention relates to ice picks and it has for its object to provide a simple and convenient device for removing ice cubes which have been ...

Circles.
 

She was born in 1893, so the postcard would be from 1905.

And here’s a picture of her from Ancestry.com.
 

One year later, repair work is underway.

As a proud owner of a taxidermied bust of a two-headed calf, I can say that mine looks most like Alyssa Ware’s version. My calf was stillborn, and taxidermied by a farmer that traded it for an antique from my great grandfather’s shop. The mount al...

Glad you enjoy them -- and I appreciate you taking the time to express your appreciation!

Very relaxing.

Thank you for continuing to make these!

The original plan for this March 27, 1974 Duluth show seems pretty easy to verify, at least if we trust the Kiss fan site kissconcerthistory.com. It lists a schedule that aligns with the screenshot in this post, including both the canceled shows a...

And people can register at the polls on election day with the proper I.D. and/or a registered voter to vouch for them. The requirements are listed at sos.state.mn.us.

Thanks for sharing the photos and the story behind them. I appreciated the inclusion of the detail that the photographer grew up with a Nikon FM2 35mm camera, as that specific camera was the inspiration behind the design of my own current digital ...

What ever happened to The Duluth Manure-Spreader? Sounds like a fantastic publication.

New as of April 2024:

Light Skin Pod
Pez Davila interviews prominent Duluthians in a garage in the Fond du Lac neighborhood.

Available on: YouTube

Some say beef tallow has nutritional benefits because it is rich in vitamins A, D, E and K, and contains an acid that can reduce inflammation and improve fat metabolism. But with any health claims there are always just as many counterclaims, so of...

Is beef tallow in any way better than seed oil?

Larry was one of the original homesteaders at Emerson School.

AKA Tim Honey

He spent most of his time at Madeline Island, but in the late 1990s, he still maintained a very cool room at Emerson. He was my next door neighbor.

I like that response. The Colder by the Lake Comedy Theatre is definitely a part of the city’s cultural history, so his legacy is very much still in Duluth. And you are almost certainly correct about his identity. According to the obituary of Lawr...

It’s Lawrence Whalen, better known as “French Larry.” He died in 2013 and hadn’t lived in Duluth full-time since maybe the late 1980s, but one could argue he is “still in Duluth” and always will be.

A high degree of bullshit.