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Antarctica, 1890s.
Click for full image It is usually left off of world maps, but in this one Antarctica is the guest of honor. Most flat map projections, even if they do include Antarctica portray it as a wide band of white, with little visualization of how it actually appears. Above is a map viewing the spherical Earth from a southerly position, providing the least distortion to Antarctica, but giving a very different view of where South America, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia lie in relation. The map's purpose is to show various expeditions to locate the South Pole; the map was reduced such that the labels are almost unreadable even in the original. From the multivolume The Book of History, 1890s. Labels: 1890s, antarctica, exploration, maps
Rural School, 1930s.
Click for full image A rural brick school, done in the style of numerous schools that were built during the 1920s and 1930s. Few rural school-buildings are still operating as schools today; if they are, the original building has been added on to numerous times over the past seventy years to accommodate growth or consolidation. Others have been torn down, sit in disrepair, or — the lucky ones — have been taken over by the historical society, an antique shop, or some other business and restored to usefulness. Labels: 1930s, architecture, rural, school
IDEA, 1940s
Click for full image When producing a movie, everything stems back to this box: IDEA. In the 1940s, these were the sources of ideas: "Play," "Short Story or Novel," "Newspaper Story or Current Event," "Original Story," "Magazine Article," or "Historical Incident." Way off on the left, however, there's one additional source that's not shown above: "Vice President in Charge of Production." If you want something unoriginal done that isn't in print or in the history books, go talk to the VP, he'll get it done. On another note: this particular flowchart is one of the few places the words "Restaurants," "Mimeograph," "Arsenal," "Publicity," and "Bits & Extras" fit together so well. From the 20th Century Fox flowcharts collection. Labels: 1940s, 20th century fox
Camera for the Year 2000, 1968.
Click for more info In the late 1960s, Zeiss-Ikon designer Fritz Costabel was trying to wrap his brain around the Camera Of The Future. In an early 1968 issue of Photoguide Magazine, he described a machine capable of sending photos home wirelessly, radar auto-focusing, and push-button automation. A few months later, the camera above showed up in Mechanix Illustrated: the Zeiss-Ikon "Utopica". Looking a phaser sidearm off the Star Trek set, the camera was a multifunction machine: it could both instantly print photos like a Polaroid, but also make movies on 16mm film. The un-ergonomic shape and the focus on analog film were a bit short-sighted, but he was just about right on. Cameras today are automatic, double-duty as movie cameras, and can instantly produce a photo and allow it to be sent all over the world - and it certainly would have blown his mind to know that all of that photographic futurism is today considered an add-on to a portable telephone. Labels: 1960s, photography
German POWs in Minnesota, 1940s
Click for full image As World War II progressed, captured German soldiers were increasing in numbers, and the U.S. needed to do something with them. Numerous POWs were scattered throughout the country and used as labor. Algona, Iowa was the main POW camp in the United States, and several Germans were sent to Algona Branch Camp Number 1 — located in Clay County, Minnesota, just across the river from Fargo. Farm labor was scarce due to the number of men recruited for the military, so POWs helped in the cultivation and harvesting of the crops. This was not a forced labor program; the German soldiers were paid for their work. The above photo was taken at on the Paul Horn farm; Horn was chosen to take POWs because of his position on Clay County's Farm Labor Advisory Board, and the fact he spoke German fluently. From an article in the 8/78 Binford's Guide. Labels: 1940s, Germany, POW, WWII
Dakota City, 1859.
Click for full image In the 1850s, as what would become the Dakota Territory grew in population and industry, townsites were claimed in hopes of profiting on the westward expansion. Dakota City was one: at the confluence of the Sheyenne and Red Rivers, opposite Lafayette, Minnesota, it hoped to grow and flourish. Today, it no longer exists. The location of Lafayette (which also no longer exists) is well documented, but the original location of Dakota City is still inconclusive. Image above from an 1860 edition of Harper's magazine, documenting a pre-Territory trip along the eastern border of Minnesota, a freshly-minted state at the time. Labels: 1850s, north dakota history
Barry Hall Dedication
Click for full image The day is nearly here: the reopening of what used to be the Pioneer Mutual Building, redesigned as Richard H Barry Hall, a part of NDSU's ambitious downtown expansion. In case you didn't know, I worked in that building from 1998 until 2004, and in that time I became more interested in the building's history and the history of the A.O.U.W., including acquiring some films, documentation, receipts and policy paperwork. Don't tell anyone, but I even grabbed a brick from the demolition of Pioneer East. The original building — a large office building for its time — is now a tiny, tiny part of a huge structure, and I'm becoming more impressed as time goes on to see its stature continue to grow and dominate the western edge of downtown Fargo. I plan on going to the dedication next month, and I intend to take pictures. Labels: aouw, ndsu downtown, pioneer mutual building
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