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MNHS Press Newsletter: July 9, 2024

Jaired Johnson Jul 9, 2024 2:57:00 PM

Publisher's Note

Oskar's Voyage illustrator Kayla Harren leads young museumgoers in an interactive drawing demonstration.

On June 19 at the History Center, author Laura Purdie Salas and illustrator Kayla Harren gave an engaging and entertaining presentation of their new MNHS Press book, Oskar's Voyage, as part of the museum's ongoing summer series History Hijinks. In the Babe the Blue Ox Pavilion of the Then Now Wow exhibit, Salas showed slides of her research trip on the Paul R. Tregurtha, which inspired the story of Oskar, a curious chipmunk who stows away on a Great Lakes freighter. A book reading, drawing demonstration, and lively Q and A followed. Find your copy of Oskar's Voyage in the History Center gift shop, and at bookstores everywhere.

Events

Twin Cities Metro

7/19/2024, 1:00 PM, walking tour led by Roger Barr, A Murder on the Hill, James J. Hill House, St. Paul

7/20/2024, 10:30 AM, Travis Zimmerman, How the Birds Got Their Songs, Valley Booksellers Storytime Trolley, Stillwater

7/20/2024, 4:30 PM, walking tour led by Roger Barr, A Murder on the Hill, James J. Hill House, St. Paul

Greater Minnesota

7/11/2024, 7:00 PM, Joe Friedrichs, Last Entry Point, Zenith Bookstore, Duluth

7/13/2024, 1:00 PM, Cathy Coats, To Banish Forever, Jeffers Petroglyphs, Comfrey

7/14/2024, 1:00 PM—3:00 PM, Travis Zimmerman and Sam Zimmerman (Zhaawanoogiizhik), How the Birds Got Their Songs, Fitger's Bookstore, Duluth

7/27/2024, 12:00 PM, Travis Novitsky, Spirits Dancing, Jeffers Petroglyphs, Comfrey

In the Media

Oskar's Voyage, story by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrations by Kayla Harren, "Oskar’s Voyage: Stowing away on a Great Lakes freighter," WDIO, June 11, 2024

How the Birds Got Their Songs, story by Travis Zimmerman and illustrations by Sam Zimmerman, "Zimmermans pool their talent to create a beautiful children’s book," The Circle, July 5, 2024

Noteworthy

Attention, True Crime Fans!

This month, award-winning author Roger Barr, whose new book A Murder on the Hill: The Secret Life and Mysterious Death of Ruth Munson recently hit the Midwest Indie Bestseller List, will lead a walking tour of St. Paul’s Ramsey Hill neighborhood, where the infamous “torch murder” of Ruth Munson occurred. Free and open to the public, the tour starts at the James J. Hill House and will visit locations associated with the murder case and cover information about the city, the neighborhood, and the case not included in the book. Dates and times are Friday, July 19, 1:00 PM, and Saturday, July 20, 4:30 PM. Registration tables will be outside under the porte cochere at the James J. Hill House, 240 Summit Avenue, St. Paul. Books will be for sale, courtesy of Subtext Books. No pre-registration required—simply show up a few minutes before the start time.

New in MNopedia

Minneapolis Sound (music genre)

The Minneapolis Sound is a music genre popularized by Prince and his many side bands, including Morris Day and The Time, the Family, Vanity 6, and Apollonia 6, as well as Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (working most notably with Janet Jackson) and the Jets. The Minneapolis Sound defined the sonic landscape of the 1980s and 1990s with its heavy punk- and rock-guitar solos, hard-driving, funky bass lines, and synth-forward, new-wave pop sensibilities. In the twenty-first century, it continues to influence artists like Janelle Monáe, Lizzo, Bruno Mars, and Brittany Howard.

Minnesota Massacre (1978 election)

After the elections of 1974 the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) held both US Senate seats, all the state constitutional offices, and control of the legislature. Four years later Minnesota’s Republican Party (the Independent-Republicans, or IR) took the governorship and both US Senate seats by landslide margins while achieving an even split with Democrats in the State House of Representatives. The stunning turnaround came to be known as the Minnesota Massacre.