How Women Have Shaped the State

Women in Minnesota: Weaving the Web of Society in the North Star State

Rhoda R. Gilman, a founding member of Women Historians of the Midwest and a former candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, considers the influence of women in Minnesota: the Willmar 8, the Schubert Club, the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association, and much more.

Lena Olive Smith

Lena Olive Smith

Lena Olive Smith, ca. 1920s.

Commitment and Guardianship of Lydia B. Angier, 1896–1907

Lydia B. Angier was declared insane and committed against her will to Rochester State Hospital in 1896. For the next three years, she wrote letters arguing for her release and restoration to her old life in St. Paul, where she had run a newspaper stand. Her letters provide a window into life inside hospitals for the insane at the turn of the twentieth century, where many people faced poor living conditions and abuse.

Newspaper coverage of Lydia B. Angier’s 1896 commitment hearing

Newspaper coverage of Lydia B. Angier’s 1896 commitment hearing

Newspaper coverage of Lydia B. Angier’s 1896 commitment hearing: “Will Be Cared For,” St. Paul Globe, November 14, 1896, page 8, col. 4.

Lydia B. Angier

Lydia B. Angier

Lydia B. Angier, ca. 1899. Photograph from box 113.H.I.4F-1 of the Fergus Falls State Hospital casebooks, 1890–1904, State Archives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul. Volume 12 (file nos. 2335–2633, October 1898–April 1899) contains case records regarding patients and their care, their care at prior institutions, and demographic and medical details, in addition to photographs of patients.

Karl and Florence Rolvaag

Karl and Florence Rolvaag

Karl and Florence Rolvaag, April 16, 1947.

Beaded book cover

Beaded book cover

Beaded book cover made at Birch Coulee before 1936.

Dakota embroidered miniature moccasins

Dakota embroidered miniature moccasins

Miniature embroidered moccasins made at Birch Coulee and given to Evangeline Whipple by Julia Walker Lawrence in October of 1908.

Lacemaking at Birch Coulee, 1893–1926

The lace-making school that operated at Birch Coulee at the turn of the twentieth century is an important part of the history of the Lower Sioux Indian Community. Although the school was an extension of the assimilation efforts directed towards Dakota people in the late 1800s, the Birch Coulee lace-makers used the project to support their community, and to continue a long tradition of communal artmaking among Dakota women.

Members of the 6888th Battalion sorting mail in Paris

Members of the 6888th Battalion sorting mail in Paris

Members of the 6888th Battalion, assisted by French civilians, sort mail at the 17th Base Post Office in Paris. Photograph by Crabtree, November 7, 1945. NAID 175539203, local ID 111-SC-426441.

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