History

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Minnesota

A Stillwater Jaunt

Over the weekend, I did a little shopping in downtown Stillwater, Minnesota.  One of my favorite places to visit is the old Isaac Staples’ Sawmill.  Isaac Staples was one of the founding fathers of Stillwater.

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Quilt and more

Test Your Knowledge of Sewing History

Good Morning, Class.  It’s Monday–and I hope you have been studying… it’s time for a  POP QUIZ! Sewing History Quiz 1.   Hand sewing is: A.  Nearly 50,000 years old. B.  Over 20,000 years old. C. Something to be avoided at all costs.   2.  TRUE or FALSE The world’s first sewing machine patent was granted…

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Photography

Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

“Listen, my children and you shall hear…”  Today is the eighteenth of April-the anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride to warn his fellow colonists of the impending invasion by the British.  Paul Revere’s ride was vividly commemorated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in a poem that many school children memorized.   (I can still recite the…

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Minnesota and more

An (Andrew Carnegie) Library Jaunt

Stillwater, Minnesota is the home of one of the Andrew Carnegie Public Libraries established in the US, England, Ireland, Canada and elsewhere throughout the world.  Steel magnate and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie immigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1848.  He worked his way up from factory worker in a bobbin factory to one of…

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Photography

Ghost Town General Store

  As I mentioned earlier in the week, my family and I traveled to Colorado last weekend for the wedding of my niece. While there, we visited the St. Elmo ghost town.  This silver and gold mining town flourished from the 1880s to around 1920, when the last mine closed.  Some say that the buildings…