The Minnesota Historical Society announced the 2017 recipients of the Gale Family Library Legacy Research Fellowships, which includes a Cass County site.
This is the fourth round of fellowships awarded by MNHS, made possible by funding from the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. This competitive fellowship is designed to support research on Minnesota history conducted at Gale Family Library at the Minnesota History Center. The fellowship is open to any post-college Minnesota scholar.
The 2017 winners included Cecelia McKeig, Federal Dam, for the History of Ah-Gwah-Ching Sanatorium, focusing on cultural and social interaction. Ah-Gwah-Ching, just south of Walker, opened in 1907 primarily as a tuberculosis clinic. Minnesota Public Radio noted the facility was designed by state architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., who also is known for creating the plans for many homes along St. Paul's historic Summit Avenue.
But perhaps the most impressive part of the center's history is its art collection, MPR reported in 2004, noting the art collection was in storage. During the Depression, MPR stated lithographs, watercolors, wood sculptures and other art forms were created and put on display at Aw-Gwah-Ching as part of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Arts Project.
Other fellowship projects included: Carol Ahlgren, Crystal, The Jefferson Highway in Minnesota;
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Krista Finstad Hanson, St. Paul, Assisting Japanese-Americans from Resettlement Camps; Cory Haala, Inver Grove Heights, The Many DFLs in Rudy Perpich's Minnesota: Grassroots Liberalism in the Age of Reagan; Michael Lansing, Minneapolis, The Cradle of Carbohydrates: Minneapolis and the Making of the World's Food; Joshua Preston, Minneapolis, The Early 20th Century Professionalization of Nursing in Minnesota; Alan Slacter, Plymouth, The Visionary, the Hero and the Russian Jews: Sept. 1, 1894 in Brook Park, Minnesota; Barb Sommer, Mendota Heights, The Little-Known History of Romansh Immigration to Minnesota.
All fellowship recipients receive a stipend and will write articles for MNopedia, MNHS' online resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events and things in Minnesota history. Several recipients hope to produce articles for "Minnesota History" magazine as well.
The Minnesota Historical Society is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution established in 1849. The MNHS collects, preserves and tells the story of Minnesota's past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs and book publishing.
