Posts Tagged Minnesota

“In this Second World War women will be used physically as never before, for production of war materials, for substitute labor in factories and on farms as man power is drained by the armed forces, and for guard and emergency duty of all kinds in threatened areas, and for management of evacuations, if it comes to that. Women by themselves cannot win this war. But quite certainly it cannot be won without them.”

- Margaret Culkin Banning, author, stated this in her 1942 book Women For Defense.

Photo

Eugenie Anderson pictured at a DFL State Convention in Minnesota, 1954.

Eugenie M. Anderson (1909-1997) was the first woman appointed as a United States Ambassador. In 1949, President Truman selected Anderson to be the Ambassador to Denmark. She was the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark from October 20, 1949 to January 19, 1953.

She had been involved in local and state politics leading up to her appointment by Truman. After a trip to Europe and seeing the Communist state of Germany, Anderson joined the Democratic Party on her return to Minnesota. Anderson, along with Hubert Humphrey (future U.S. Vice President), eliminated the Communist sections within the party. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party formed out of these efforts, the DFL is still a leading political party in Minnesota today. This political activity earned Anderson the Ambassador role.

Information:
U.S. Department of State, Women in Diplomacy.
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.
Binder, David, “Eugenie Anderson, 87, First Woman to Be U.S. Ambassador,” New York Times, April 3, 1997.
Photo via Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection.

Herbert Sellner of Faribault, Minnesota invented the Tilt-A-Whirl in 1926. He built the first fourteen rides in his basement and yard. A year later, in 1927, he opened Sellner Manufacturing and the Tilt-A-Whirl made its debut at the Minnesota State Fair. 

One Tilt-A-Whirl costs around $250,000.

Further Reading
Chuck Haga, “Aug. 31, 2001: It’s been a tilting, whirling ride for 75 years,” Star Tribune, March 29, 2007. Found online here.
Koutsky, Kathryn Strand and Linda Koutsky. Minnesota State Fair: An Illustrated History. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2007.
Photos found on Minnesota Public Radio website.

Roosevelt at the 1901 MN State Fair

In 1901, vice president Theodore Roosevelt first spoke that the US should “speak softly and carry a big stick” at the Minnesota State Fair.

- On September 14, 1901, two weeks after he uttered his famous line, he became president when President McKinley was assassinated.

[Information found here: Koutsky, Kathryn Strand and Linda Koutsky. Minnesota State Fair: An Illustrated History. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2007, 162. Photo found here.