Manuscripts Collection
The League of Minnesota Poets was organized in St. Paul in February 1934 as "an organization of men and women who are willing to work zealously to make Minnesota poetry conscious and conscious of its own poets." Its major objectives were to encourage the study of Minnesota poetry in the state's schools, to discover and create newspaper and magazine outlets for the work of Minnesota poets, to publish periodic collections of verse, and to accumulate material for an historical scrapbook of the League's activities.
During the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s the League held membership meetings;
participated in radio prorgrams; and sponsored exhibits, poetry contests, and other
activities.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics
should
St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1984.
Microfilm available for sale or interlibrary loan from the Minnesota Historical Society.
Original historical scrapbooks (9 volumes) were destroyed after filming.
Portraits of League members were removed from the scrapbooks and are cataloged separately in the Minnesota Historical Society sound and visual collection.
Accession number: 7077; 13,415; 14,166; 14,832; 15,264; 16,476
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001729447
Includes minutes, treasurer's reports, and reports of regional affiliates.
Volumes 1-8 contain biographical portraits of members of the League of Minnesota Poets, compiled by League historian Carmen Nelson Richards in 1952. For each poet there is usually a photograph, an autobiographical or a biographical sketch, and published or unpublished poems. The volumes are arranged alphabetically by surname and given name. The eight volumes are paginated continuously.
Volume 9 contains scripts for a series of thirteen radio programs (called "Minnesota Centennial Poetry on the Air") presented in 1949 on radio station KROC (Rochester, Minnesota) by the League of Minnesota Poets and the Minnesota Historical Society in conjunction with the observance of Minnesota's territorial centennial. The series was produced by League member Katherine M. Miller and includes poems written by Minnesota poets on Minnesota themes.
Consists of chronologically-arranged letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and poems.