Health and Medicine

Flour City Ornamental Iron Works strike casualty entering an ambulance

An injured casualty at the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works strike entering an ambulance, 1935.

Flour City Ornamental Iron Works strike casualty

A police officer and three others move a man injured in fighting during the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works strike, July 1935.

Mabel Ulrich, ca. 1914

Mabel Ulrich, ca. 1914. From W. G. Tinckom Fernandez, "Y. W. C. A. Traveling Lecturer on Sex Hygiene," Survey 32 (April 18, 1914): 76. Photo by Pearl Grace Loehr.

Mabel Simis Ulrich was a public health educator, physician, author, and public figure whose pioneering work in sex education propelled her onto multiple public health commissions in Minneapolis. She contributed to the cultural scene in Minneapolis through a bookstore that she owned, and headed the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) in Minnesota under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.

Women’s Advocates

In the early 1970s, women across Minnesota calling a legal information telephone line told staffers that they were experiencing physical abuse from their partners. In response, a group of St. Paul women formed Women’s Advocates to connect these callers with emergency housing and information. In 1974, the group purchased a St. Paul house and transformed it into a groundbreaking shelter for victim-survivors of domestic violence. In the following decades, Women’s Advocates expanded the shelter, initiated education programs, and advocated for policy changes—all with the goal of breaking the cycle of domestic violence.

Women’s Advocates building, 2024

Children gather outside the Women’s Advocates building in St. Paul, 2024. Used with the permission of Women’s Advocates.

Information card for women experiencing domestic abuse

Copy of an information card, developed with input from Women’s Advocates, that St. Paul police distributed to women experiencing domestic abuse in the 1970s. From "Battered Women: The Hidden Problem," a report by the Community Planning Organization, Inc, 1976. Battered Women Resource Center, St. Paul Records, 1971–1981, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Program from a forum about battered women

Program from a December 3, 1976 forum about battered women in St. Paul. From Women’s Advocates, Inc., Shelter Records, 1973–1984, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Women’s Advocates house log

Women’s Advocates house log, 1975. This notebook and others like it were used by staff and volunteers to document information about shelter residents. From Women’s Advocates, Inc., Shelter Records, 1973–1984, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Gale Family Library