Every student in Duluth learned about the Aerial Bridge from family or teachers. This table-top model in clay is typical in demonstrating how central to children and families the structure and impact of the bridge was and is to residents of Duluth.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This photograph may have been shot from Seventh Street and about Lake Avenue. The bright narrow strip in the lower middle of the image is Lake Avenue leading to the Aerial Bridge. The rectangle and three dots parallel to the piers of the canal are the remnants of the Whitney rock crushing enterprise. The Whitney Brothers, of Superior, Wisconsin, had a sand and gravel processing business that was functioning in 1919. The concrete form that is still in the water was the dredging/crushing building. A tunnel ran from the building to the Point. There was a conveyor belt and railroad spur adjacent to the concrete building. Sand from the Apostle Islands and gravel from Grand Marais were carried to Duluth on a small vessel named Limit. The business also used a tug the William A. Whitney. The Limit was secured to the concrete building and the load of sand or gravel was unloaded into the steel hopper using a jaw-like clam shell, steam powered device. The belt conveyed the materials to shore and it dropped into a tunnel where trucks were ready. On Federal lake charts it is referred to as cribs. Telephone lines are in this photograph. In 1880, the first telephones were installed in Duluth by Walter Van Brunt for C. H. Graves and Company. In 1881, the Duluth Telephone Company was incorporated with $10,000 capital. In 1882, the first telephone directory was issued for 30 subscribers. In 1898, long distance lines between Duluth, Cloquet and Carlton were strung. In 1899, Duluth had 794 telephones. In 1900, the Zenith telephone Company (independent) started operations in competition with Duluth Telephone Company. The tower is the Central High School clock tower. The 1892 school has been the Central Administration Building for ISD 709 since the late 1970s.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The American Exchange National Bank staff assembled with the bank's founder Hamilton M. Peyton who is in the front row with the white side burns. Peyton was bank president from 1879-1921. The bank merged with First National Bank and renamed First and American National Bank in 1929. It became First American National Bank in 1958, First National in 1974 and Norwest in 1983. In 1998 Norwest merged with Wells Fargo and elected to take the more familiar name Wells Fargo.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Clan Stewart members in highland dress with bagpipes and drums and a few men wearing WWI uniform coats are playing in an unidentified business setting.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Clyde Iron Works Incorporated manufactured heavy equipment from 1889 in Duluth. This is the manufacturing plant at Twenty-ninth Avenue West and Michigan Street from 1908. It had sales warehouses in several cities, including New York, Chicago, Savanna, and New Orleans. The company initial manufactured logging tools and eventually built cranes that could handle up to 2,000 tons. Its initial acclaimed machine was the McGiffert Log Loader first sold in 1902 whose inventor became a company officer.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The Hull-Rust-Mahoning mine established in 1892 in Hibbing is one of the largest open pit iron ore mines in the world, with a 1.5 by 3.5 mile footprint and depths up to 600 feet. It supplied as much as a fourth of all the ore mined in the U. S. during its peak production during WWI and WWII.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections