Workers at the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant pack .50 caliber machine-gun ammunition into cartridge boxes during World War II. At peak production in 1943, the plant employed 26,000 people, of which 60 percent were women. Photograph by the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company.

Victory-garden poster made during World War II. Minnesotans during both world wars were encouraged to plant backyard vegetable gardens so that farm crops could be used to feed more service members.

Men register in the Minneapolis Armory for the nation’s first peacetime draft, September 16, 1940. By the end of that first day, 400,000 Minnesotans were on the draft rolls.

Minnesotan Clifford N. Harris at a hospital for veterans. Harris developed lung problems from exposure to gas in World War I and from railroad work. He remained in the hospital for fifteen years and was released in 1942.

Minnesota’s “Gopher Gunners,” the 151st Field Artillery, return home to a tumultuous morning victory parade in St. Paul after serving with the 42nd “Rainbow” Division in France, May 1919. The scene was repeated that afternoon in Minneapolis.

2,200 school children form a “living flag” during ceremonies for the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) National Encampment in St Paul, September 3, 1896. The GAR was an influential organization for Civil War veterans of the Union Army. The new federal building (later known as the Landmark Center) is under construction in the background. Photograph by G. T. Brown.

Civil War veterans, ca. 1885.

Picture of Carl Rowan taken during his time as an ensign in the United States Navy. Uploaded by Flickr user Tennessee State Library and Archives, February 11, 2013. CC BY-NC-ND-2.0.

Three-M-ite sample collection, 1935. 3M’s first profitable product was Three-M-ite, a flexible sandpaper. Here, Three-M-ite was packaged as a sample so prospective buyers could see the product.