Historic Minneapolis photos and documents dating to the 1800s are now available online, in a new digital archive maintained by the city.
The new catalog of the city's history — which can be found at www.flickr.com/mplsarchives — will be updated regularly. Officials are looking for visitors to the site to send in tips if they have information about the people and places in the photos. The project of uploading the information began this summer with the help of the City Clerk's Office and a group of interns working for the city through the Urban Scholars program.
The site will also include some historic video clips. Most of the images and documents posted will be related to city government.
Among the highlights showcased so far: snapshots from the construction of the 3rd Avenue Bridge, in 1914, a variety of public health informational campaigns educating residents about the dangers of rats, and aerial shots of the Mississippi River from the mid-1950s.
The collection also includes a treasure trove of fire safety demonstration photos from 1957 and images from a long-forgotten Miss Firefighter pageant.
Erin Golden
