Multimedia | Page 288

First Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul

First Minnesota State Capitol, 1853–1872.

First Minnesota state flag, 1893

The first Minnesota state flag, designed by Amelia Hyde Center of Minneapolis and embroidered by Norwegian immigrants Pauline and Thomane Fjelde. The flag was exhibited and won a gold medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. The flag’s design incorporates symbolic elements around the state seal, including pink-and-white lady’s slippers (Cypripedium reginae); a red ribbon; the state motto, “L’Etoile du Nord” (the Star of the North); and three dates: 1819 (the year of the founding of Fort Snelling), 1893 (the year of the flag’s adoption), and 1858 (the year of Minnesota statehood). The nineteen yellow stars refer to Minnesota’s place as the nineteenth state admitted to the Union.

Black and white photograph of men of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry in field works after the battlefield of Fair Oaks, Virginia, 1862. Evidence of the newly-attached Company L, the Second Company Minnesota of Sharpshooters, can be seen in the center-right of the photograph: a Sharps breech-loading rifle is hanging over a blanket.

First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry after the Battle of Fair Oaks

Men of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry in field works after the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, 1862. Evidence of the newly-attached Company L, the Second Company Minnesota of Sharpshooters, can be seen in the center-right of the photograph: a Sharps breech-loading rifle is hanging over a blanket.