Life stories of ordinary people of Minnesota, through the form of letters, diaries, & photographs. Every day life from the beginning of the 19th century to the dawn of World War II.

Take a trip back in time with award winning Star Tribune reporter Peg Meier.

Peg Meier's candid interpretation of the joys and pains of childhood through the decades--at home, at school, at play--reminds us that we were all children once, too.

Stories of the creative, bold, and diverse men and women throughout Minnesota's history who have built exceptional businesses. Here are portrayals of people driven by an entrepreneurial spirit to found enterprises from 1849 to the present.

Winner of a Spur Award, presented by the Western Writers of America (WWA), for the Best Western Nonfiction Historical Book. Renowned historian Annette Atkins presents a fresh understanding of how a complex and modern Minnesota came into being in Creating Minnesota. Each chapter of this innovative state history focuses on a telling detail, a revealing incident, or a meaningful issue that illuminates a larger event, social trends, or politics during a period in our past. A three-act play about Minnesota's statehood vividly depicts the competing interests of Natives, traders, and politicians who lived in the same territory but moved in different worlds. Oranges are the focal point of a chapter about railroads and transportation: how did a St. Paul family manage to celebrate their 1898 Christmas with fruit that grew no closer than 1,500 miles from their home? A photo essay brings to life three communities of the 1920s, seen through the lenses of local and itinerant photographers. The much-sought state fish helps to explain the new Minnesota, where pan-fried walleye and walleye quesadillas coexist on the same north woods menu. In Creating Minnesota Atkins invites readers to experience the texture of people's lives through the decades, offering a fascinating and unparalleled approach to the history of our state.