Exhibits
Behind the Wire
Come and join us for the opening event of the new Veterans’ Memorial Hall exhibit titled Behind the Wire: Stories of a POW, which relates the experiences of POW Anthony Jurek, who was imprisoned in POW camps in North Korea for 33 months. Meet Tony and stroll through the exhibit.
Beverages and appetizers will be provided. This event is free and open to all!
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: the Great Hall of the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center, 506 West Michigan Street, Duluth, MN
The exhibit is free and open to the public. It will be on display until May 10, 2010.
Preserving the Old Country: The Experiences of Croatians, Serbians, and Slovenians in St. Louis County
The exhibit is open until March 16, 2010, during regular museum hours.
A traveling exhibit produced by St. Louis County Historical Society, entitled Preserving the Old Country: The Experiences of Croatians, Serbians, and Slovenians in St. Louis County will open to the public on February 1, 2010 in the Great Hall of the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center. The exhibit was developed by Kristen Belich, a Society intern from the College of St. Scholastica, and graphically designed by David Hodges, Curator of the Duluth Institute of Art.
The exhibit focuses on the "Old Country" (formerly Yugoslavia and now chiefly the modern states of Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia) and the immigration from it to northeastern Minnesota beginning in the 1860's and continuing through the larger wave of immigration that occurred between the 1880's and the 1920's. The political history of the region that provided the impetus for leaving the Old Country is explored in depth, as well as the reasons St. Louis County was chosen by so many southeastern Europeans as their final destination. It also explores the elements of cultural continuity readily apparent today, particularly evident in music, food, and family values.
Admission is through regular St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center ticket sales; members of the St. Louis County Historical Society receive free admission every day. The Depot is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
After the exhibit closes it will move for several months to the St. Louis County Courthouse in Hibbing, Minnesota, and subsequently will be available upon request to other organizations, as part of the St. Louis County Historical Society's Traveling Exhibit Program.
Selections from the St. Louis County Historical Society Collection: Paintings by David Ericson and Gilbert Munger
The exhibit is open until March 31, 2010, during regular museum hours.
St. Louis County Historical Society is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit entitled Selections from the St. Louis County Historical Society Collection: Paintings by David Ericson and Gilbert Munger in December 2009. The exhibit is in the Fesler Hallway off the Great Hall of the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center, 506 W. Michigan St., Duluth, Minnesota. Admission is included in the regular Depot tickets.
Native Duluthian David Ericson (1869-1946) is perhaps the most widely known of area artists. Ericson was a talented portrait artist in both oil and pencil, with wide ranging abilities in many genres.
Six Ericson works are featured in this exhibit, including this earliest surviving painting, a watercolor of the Duluth "skyline" from the waterfront in 1882, completed when the artist was 13.
One of Ericson's most unique bodies of work is a series of 14 icons painted for the Iconostasis at St. George's Serbian Orthodox Church, located on 104th Avenue West between West Gary and West McGonagle Streets in Duluth. Please contact Sam Miscevich at 218-626-1460 for more information on this series, or to arrange to see it.
Also included in the exhibit are pieces by landscape artist Gilbert Munger, who had ties to this area that began when his brother Roger moved here in 1869. The subject matter, however, spans the continent. There are three Munger paintings, along with his bust, which was produced in the studio of Massimiliano Contini, in Nice, France.
New Veterans’ Exhibit, Generations of Service, Now Open!
Veterans’ Memorial Hall, a program of the St. Louis County Historical Society, invites the public to its newest long-term exhibit, Generations of Service. This new exhibit presents the history of our local veterans from the Civil War to the Global War on Terror.
The exhibit officially opened to the public on Friday, August 7, 2009, and will continue to be open during regular museum hours of the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center. The exhibit will be a long-term exhibit on display for up to five years, though artifacts will be rotated. Admission is free to the public.
This exhibit includes artifacts such as a cannonball from the Civil War, to a leather bomber jacket worn by Harold Rutka in WWII, to a SCUD missile component from Desert Shield/Storm. Also, there is a three-dimensional underground mine scene, which focuses on the home front story. At another point, visitors can walk through a scene from Iraq, based on photos from a local veteran, Mark Hilleren.
Veterans’ Memorial Hall was established in 1909 and is a program of the St. Louis County Historical Society. It is the mission of Veterans’ Memorial Hall to preserve and collect veterans’ artifacts and to educate the general public about the history of veterans from northeastern Minnesota.
Contact: Daniel Hartman
(218) 733-7500
506 West Michigan Street
Duluth, MN 55802
dhartman@vets-hall.org
Duluth Artist Loans Four Paintings for Exhibit at Depot
The St. Louis County Historical Society is pleased to announce that Duluth artist Dale Lyons has loaned four original paintings for exhibit within the J. C. Ryan Forest History Gallery. The paintings, added in early December, focus on the use of draft horses in northern Minnesota logging in the late 19th – early 20th century. Lyons’ paintings are based on his research of the industry and era so as to be historically accurate. Lyons is an accomplished self-taught artist, with his first showing in 1984 at the Tweed Museum in Duluth. The use of draft horses is a new sub-topic for the gallery, and anyone interested in donating items with a history relating to St. Louis County draft horses may contact the Society’s Collection Manager at (218) 733-7583.
The J. C. Ryan Gallery hosts an extensive display of artifacts and information about St. Louis County’s logging history. There are three short videos about early lumbering and sawmill operations. Photos, artifacts and information portray the hardships of early logging camp life and the various uses of wood over the decades, as well as the tools used to harvest the timber. On display are many items, from two-man hand saws to vintage gas chainsaws.
The St. Louis County Historical Society museum and office are located in the St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center (“the Depot” building) at 506 West Michigan Street, across from the Duluth Public Library. There is public parking at 6th Avenue West and Michigan Street. One entry fee provides admission to building’s four museums. Annual membership holders of any organization housed in the Depot are admitted free. New memberships are available from the Visitor’s Services Desk. Museum days, hours and general information is available at www.duluthdepot.org and by phone at (218) 727- 8025.
Contact/More information:
Executive Director JoAnne Coombe at 218-733-7580
Navy Reserve Exhibit at the Depot
Veterans’ Memorial Hall opened the Navy Reserve exhibit, An Unforgotten Legacy, The History of the Duluth Naval Militia & Reserve on September 7, 2007 at the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center (the Depot). The exhibit focuses on the history of the Duluth Naval Militia and Reserve from its inception in 1903 to its closure in 2007. It includes an array of stories and events that were important to the men and women who trained or served at our local facility.
This exhibit has been organized by Veterans’ Memorial Hall with the help of the Navy Operations Support Center, Duluth, MN, USS Paducah and YP-61 Club, Northeast Minnesota Historical Center, and Minnesota Historical Society.
Veterans’ Memorial Hall is a joint project of the United States Military Service, veterans of northern Minnesota and the St. Louis County Historical Society.
Come, help us remember an important chapter of Duluth’s history.
For more information contact:
Daniel Hartman
Email: dhartman@vets-hall.org
Call: (218) 733 – 7500
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For information on our Affiliates' exhibits, go to: http://www.thehistorypeople.org/affiliates.asp.
