Women | Page 15 | MNopedia

Minnesota State Reformatory for Women, Shakopee

Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee (MCF-Shakopee) is Minnesota’s only state women’s prison. Women reformers pushed for its existence in the 1910s, arguing that women needed a place away from men where they could receive training instead of punishment. It opened in 1920 as the State Reformatory for Women. Over the next hundred years, it became increasingly crowded, and its focus shifted from “retraining” its prisoners to confining them.

Mi Perú-Minnesota banner

Mi Perú-Minnesota members model a diverse range of traditional Peruvian dance attires while holding a banner with the group's logo. The banner was made in Huancayo, Peru, and intended to be used for the Modern Huaylarsh group dance. Photo by Sarah Leon Waddell, 2022. Used with the permission of Sarah Leon Waddell Photography.

Marvel Cooke

Marvel Cooke, ca. 1950s.

Dakota cradleboard ornament with quillwork

A cradleboard ornament made of hide decorated with dyed porcupine quills, created by a Dakota woman between 1775 and 1850. Pelagie Faribault would have made quillwork ornaments in a similar style.

Faribault, Pelagie (1783–1847)

Pelagie Faribault was a métis (Native and European) woman who received Wita Tanka (Big Island, also called Pike Island) from her Dakota kin as part of an 1820 treaty with the United States. The Faribault family had influence among their Dakota relatives, and Pelagie in particular was known for her acts of generosity.

Lace collar

Lace collar made and used between 1850 and 1900. Accession T.53-1949, Textiles and Fashion Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Woman’s straw hat

Woman’s close-fitting straw hat, 1888. Accession 7196.2, 3D Objects Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Drab cotton gloves

Pair of drab cotton gloves, ca. 1850–1875. Accession 2009.300.5713 a, b, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of The Jason and Peggy Westerfield Collection, 1969.

Arrest of Cecelia Regina Gonzaga, 1885

Cecelia Regina Gonzaga, an African American assigned a male sex at birth, lived in St. Paul for four weeks during the summer of 1885. After a police officer arrested her for wearing women’s clothes on August 20, he took her into custody and questioned her at the Ramsey County Courthouse. He released her later the same day, but Gonzaga quickly left the city by train and returned to St. Louis.

Sewing machine used by Nellie Stone Johnson

Electric-powered treadle sewing machine used by Nellie Stone Johnson of Minneapolis, Minnesota, at her alterations business. It features a flat wood table and a foot pedal. Johnson was a prominent civil rights activist and union organizer, as well as the first African American elected official in Minneapolis. She opened and operated her own sewing and alterations shop in 1963.

Gale Family Library