Portrait of Dr. Alanson George Aldrich (1856–1916). Photographer and date unknown. Used with the permission of the Anoka County Historical Society.

Portrait of Dr. Flora Aldrich (1859–1921). Photographer and date unknown, likely post–1900. Used with the permission of the Anoka County Historical Society

Dr. Russell Heim with a baby left at his office (12 West Lake St., Minneapolis), 1947. Photograph by Paul Siegel. Published in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, October 31, 1941.

Poster calling for the election of Dr. Russell Heim as Hennepin County Coroner, 1934.

Dr. Russell Heim, 1934.

Video about Australian nurse Elizabeth Kenny, founder of the Sister Kenny Institute, created by the Minnesota Historical Society, May 22, 2012.

Excerpt of a lawyer’s deposition of Bruce Brockway, conducted on August 27, 1982. Brockway was a person of interest in a Minneapolis murder case at the time. In the clip, he discusses his AIDS diagnosis and state of health. A gay activist and the publisher of the Twin Cities’ first gay newspaper (Northland Companion, later renamed Positively Gay and then GLC Voice), Brockway was the first documented Minnesotan diagnosed with AIDS. From the personal collection of Alan Lessik. Used with the permission of Britt Aamodt.

Excerpt of a lawyer’s deposition of Bruce Brockway conducted on August 27, 1982. Brockway was a person of interest in a murder case. In the clip, Brockway discusses his AIDS diagnosis and state of health. Used with the permission of Alan Lessik.

In 1981, Bruce Brockway wasn’t feeling well. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong. Then in June, the CDC published a report on five men in Los Angeles dead from a mysterious ailment. Britt Aamodt looks at Minnesota’s first documented AIDS case.