Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past [Paperback]

Peg Meier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1981 | ISBN-10: 0932272061 | ISBN-13: 978-0932272065 | Edition: 1St Edition

A celebration of the everyday lives of Minnesotans through the centuries–those who paused here on their way to someplace else and those who made the state their home.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

The earliest European visitors to Minnesota marvel at the area's flora and fauna. A soldier at Fort Snelling contemplates deserting. Swedish settler Andrew Peterson makes a daily record of his haying schedule, dropping in, without comment, a note of his marriage. Sarah Christie pleads with her father in the 1880s for a chance to go to college. Turn-of-the-century accountant Walter T. Post keeps his family informed of his saving and spending habits. In the 1920s, the Pioneer Press publishes recommendations for young ladies seeking a spouse.

These stories and more emerge from select diary and journal entries, from published accounts and business records–the experiences of ordinary Minnesotans. Matched with drawings and photographs that capture a way of life at a particular moment, these impressions offer a telling history of the state in the words of its people.

Peg Meier, a longtime and award-winning reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is the author of Too Hot, Went to Lake: Seasonal Photos from Minnesota's Past, Coffee Made Her Insane, and The Last of the Tearoom Ladies.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Neighbors Publishing; 1St Edition edition (October 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932272061
• ISBN-13: 978-0932272065
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant visit to the history of my home state., December 22, 2001

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past (Paperback)

Bring Warm Clothes : Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past was written by a former columnist for the Minnesota Star and Tribune, Peg Meier. It is a great treat, both as a peek into the past and as a well "written" work of history. The author includes pictures, diary entries, newspaper articles, letters, and government documents to create her biography of the state.

The book is heavily illustrated. Among the visual works are paintings of Minnesota from its exploration years, mostly by Seth Eastman and Karl Bodmer, which capture the rustic and wild character of a land yet untrammeled by the fences, industrial complexes and housing developments with which most of us are familiar. For those who like to see photographic reality, there are photos of Minnesota's early pre- and post-statehood years during the 19th Century and of the 20th Century up to World War II. The former include pictures of the Civil War in which the volunteers of the First Minnesota Regiment participated. In all some 25,000 men from the state fought in battles like Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, losing some 2,500 men, almost one out of every ten. Other photos show the old homes, city and town streets, early industry, sod homes, and family and other groups that bring to life a time past.

Particularly enjoyable were the letters from the early settlement of Saint Paul and Minneapolis as presented in the merry correspondence of the Fuller family, and the witty press releases of Jane Grey Swisshelm in her paper the St Cloud Visiter, later the St. Cloud Democrat. The letters of Harriet Griswold reveal the fact that boom and bust economy is not new to our era, when her correspondence goes from exuberence and big plans in October of 1856 to bearly hanging on in September of 1858. The Civil War diaries of Sam Bloomer and Isaac Taylor and the World War I letters of Philip Longyear, an ambulance driver at the French front, bring those conflicts to a more vivid reality. The plight of the Native Americans and the fear and reactionism that the Indian Wars generated is also covered.

The author has, wisely in my opinion, allowed the primary sources speak for themselves. She adds very little interpretive material of her own and then only to clarify where necessary or to provide follow up information.

One of the principle points of note is the fact that most of these people had many of the same problems we have, and that they bring some of the same perspectives, same blind spots, and same sense of humor that we bring to our own daily lives. They lived one day at a time, facing an unknown future with the same uncertainty that we do. Some stories came out with a happy ending, some did not. It makes one wonder what some future writer of Minnesota history will say and think of our own times.

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Smiles, August 9, 2005

By 

V. Mace "Painter of Pictures with Words" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past (Paperback)

This is a wonderful guide into Minnesota's past. Letters and articles accompany photos that bring you to places that you've been and acquaint you with it's character. Truly a terrific book for those that love the warmth and charm of the characters and life that make Minnesota home!

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Keep you Warm, January 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past (Paperback)

An excellent collection of diaries and letters from Minnesota territory days thru early in her statehood. Accompanied by many great photo's depicting the times.A great fireplace companion!