Aerial view of Anoka State Hospital, 1937.

Aerial view of Anoka State Hospital

Aerial view of Anoka State Hospital, 1937.

Anoka State Hospital

When the fourth state hospital for the insane at Anoka opened in 1900, it became the first state transfer hospital for patients considered incurably insane. The hospital was the first in Minnesota to be built according to the cottage plan to reduce the institutional feel for its chronic patients. It remains one of the finest examples of the cottage plan in Minnesota.

Portrait of Dr. Alanson George Aldrich (1856–1916). Photographer and date unknown. Used with the permission of the Anoka County Historical Society.

Dr. Alanson Aldrich

Portrait of Dr. Alanson George Aldrich (1856–1916). Photographer and date unknown. Used with the permission of the Anoka County Historical Society.

Portrait of Dr. Flora Aldrich (1859–1921). Photographer and date unknown, likely post–1900. Used with the permission of the Anoka County Historical Society

Dr. Flora Aldrich

Portrait of Dr. Flora Aldrich (1859–1921). Photographer and date unknown, likely post–1900. Used with the permission of the Anoka County Historical Society

Dr. Russell Heim with a baby left at his office (12 West Lake St., Minneapolis), 1947. Photograph by Paul Siegel. Published in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, October 31, 1941.

Dr. Russell Heim with baby

Dr. Russell Heim with a baby left at his office (12 West Lake St., Minneapolis), 1947. Photograph by Paul Siegel. Published in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, October 31, 1941.

Poster calling for the election of Dr. Russell Heim as Hennepin County Coroner, 1934.

Dr. Russell Heim election poster

Poster calling for the election of Dr. Russell Heim as Hennepin County Coroner, 1934.

Dr. Russell Heim, 1934.

Dr. Russell Heim

Dr. Russell Heim, 1934.

Downfall of Russell Heim, 1947–1952

In 1952 Russell Heim (1886–1960) was a practicing physician and, after 1942, Hennepin County’s elected coroner. The Minneapolis Star called his narcotics prosecution “one of the most sensational trials of a public official…in the history of Minnesota federal courts.”

Sister Kenny

Video about Australian nurse Elizabeth Kenny, founder of the Sister Kenny Institute, created by the Minnesota Historical Society, May 22, 2012.

Bruce Brockway on his AIDS diagnosis

Excerpt of a lawyer’s deposition of Bruce Brockway, conducted on August 27, 1982. Brockway was a person of interest in a Minneapolis murder case at the time. In the clip, he discusses his AIDS diagnosis and state of health. A gay activist and the publisher of the Twin Cities’ first gay newspaper (Northland Companion, later renamed Positively Gay and then GLC Voice), Brockway was the first documented Minnesotan diagnosed with AIDS. From the personal collection of Alan Lessik. Used with the permission of Britt Aamodt.

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