by Mark Ritchie
I am always learning new things about our history as Minnesotans. Last year my #1 new learning was how Minnesota farmers and grain millers fed much of Europe during and after the first world war. I heard a tiny bit of this story from a friend in Chicago, who kindly pointed me in the direction of an exhibit on this history created by the government of Belgium. As often happens, one thing led to another and now that exhibit is on display at the Mall of America thanks to fast work by my colleagues at Global Minnesota. Curt Brown wrote a bit about this in the Star Tribune, “Thank You Letters from 1915 Point Back to Unlikely Hero.”
The opening of the exhibit was recorded and is a great dive into largely unknown history. Watch it here.
I will be talking more about this at the upcoming February gathering of the Minnesota WW 1 Roundtable. For more information just email me at [email protected].
Mark Ritchie is the President of Global Minnesota, an organization that takes relevant and timely information on international issues, foreign policy, and cultural topics, and provides the space and opportunity for Minnesotans to engage and discuss. He was Secretary of State for the state of Minnesota from 2009 to 2014.
