1 day Ago By Jay Gabler
SUPERIOR — Since the Twin Ports pride themselves on global seaway connections, it's appropriate that their Festival of History was conceived on the other side of the Atlantic. "A good colleague of ours in Dublin introduced us to the Dublin Festival of History," said University of Minnesota Duluth history instructor David Woodward. "It's huge.
250 events, all over. We're sitting around, and we're like, why can't we do that in Duluth? We have all these museums. Why don't we bring people together?" ADVERTISEMENT Included in that "we" was Woodward's UMD colleague Steve Matthews, associate professor of history.
In 2022, the two launched an event Woodward pitched as "the Homegrown (Music Festival) for history geeks." The idea took off, with attendance tripling between 2022 and 2024. The festival is returning from April 2-8, with events taking place at several different locations — ranging from Glensheen to the St.
Louis County Depot to the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center. John Gidley, the Bong Center's executive director, said a few dozen people attended the museum's Festival of History event in 2023.
"I bet you only two or three of them were people that I'd ever seen in here before," said Gidley. "I was kind of shocked." In addition to the Irish inspiration, the festival was born of the relationships forged between UMD and local institutions through the university's museum studies certificate program.
Since that program was launched in 2016, "well over 100" students have taken advantage of it, said Matthews. "The largest number are history students," said Woodward, "but a huge number of students are art history majors, anthropology majors, sustainability majors, English majors. I've actually had a couple business majors that want to get into nonprofit management.
" The students complete internships at museums like the Bong Center, getting hands-on experience while making meaningful contributions to programming. "Almost every single exhibit has had intern input," said Briana Fiandt, curator of collections and exhibits at the Bong Center. "I was going to try to point out specific ones," said Fiandt as she looked around the museum, "but they all have.
" ADVERTISEMENT In addition to interns from institutions like UMD and the University of Wisconsin-Superior, the Bong welcomes youth volunteers. That leads to informal mentoring as the high school students connect with their college peers. "They ask each other, what do you intend to be, and what do you want to do with (your education)?" said Gidley.
"The kids really helped (build) this," said Fiandt, standing near an exhibit featuring a model of a WWII-era South Pacific post office, "and then the intern did all the research and put the display together." The internships are key to UMD's museum studies certificate program, as well as the public history concentration within the history major. The Twin Ports are well-suited for such programs, said Woodward.
"We have a large number of heritage institutions versus other cities of the same size," Woodward said. "If we were doing this in Mankato, if we were doing this in St. Cloud, we wouldn't have the opportunities we have here.
" While an experience at a Duluth or Superior museum might not have the pizzazz of "the big, sexy internships at the Smithsonian or (the Minneapolis Institute of Art)," Woodward continued, "our students are well-placed to make a difference in the smaller museums that might have two or three employees. Then our students can come in and really make a difference." "It's museums like this that are the bread and butter for most people," said Matthews, referring to the Bong Center.
"This is your local museum. This is your community center for an awful lot of activities." ADVERTISEMENT During this year's Festival of History, the Bong Center is hosting an April 4 presentation on the recent discovery of "Marge," the fighter plane famously flown by Richard I.
Bong in World War II. The wrecked plane's discovery, while thrilling for historians, presents a challenge for the late ace's namesake museum. The original P-38 cannot be displayed in Superior, as the wreck must remain at its current location in the Papua New Guinea jungle.
"We have some long-term plans for exhibit work," said Fiandt. "We have so much photographic and video footage that I think we can put together something really good, even without having an actual artifact here." Other highlights of this year's festival include a connection to the event's original inspiration as Dublin historian James Curry presents two talks, including one on the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial.
Curry was struck, said Woodward, to discover that three of the quotes featured on the memorial are from Irish authors. Well-known Duluth historian Tony Dierckins will be presenting a talk drawn from his recent book "Twin Ports Trains" at the festival's opening event, April 2, at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. Participating organizations will table at the event, making it an "open house of all the heritage organizations," said Woodward.
A pair of April 4 presentations at Zeitgeist spotlight newspaper comics: Artists Carl Gawboy and Chris Monroe will have a conversation on the topic, preceded by Rain Newcomb's presentation on the history of the art form. "The festival is celebrating local, regional, national and international history," noted Woodward. "We don't want to just be regional or local.
We want to celebrate heritage in general." ADVERTISEMENT Indigenous perspectives will be represented at events including an April 3 presentation on "Rivers of Lake Superior's North Shore" at the 1854 Treaty Authority Office in Duluth; and an April 5 Zeitgeist screening of the documentary "Birchbark." That film explores commonalities between the Ojibwe of our region and the Karelian people of northwestern Russia.
Woodward acknowledged this year's festival is taking place at a time when American museums are in a "tough spot." "Upwards of 60% of the funding for museums in the United States is federal," said Woodward, "and one of the biggest clearinghouses for that is (the Institute of Museum and Library Services). With that being defunded right now, I think there's an outcry nationwide (in) all the museums.
" Amid the current challenges, said Matthews, programs like the ones at UMD provide transferable skills. "There are private companies that have been hiring our students to do preservation work," said Matthews. "There are companies with adjacent concerns, like architecture firms, that are quite keen on having somebody who can get into the background of everything they're working with.
So we all have to keep light on our feet." Woodward emphasized that museums like the Bong Center, and events like the Festival of History, are as much about the present as about the past. "This museum is not about the past.
It is in subject matter, but it's actually an integral part of this current community," said Woodward. "Public history is all about our values today. It's not about 1920.
It's about us." ADVERTISEMENT.
