Charles Rodgers, Government Records Specialist, takes a look at Stillwater Prison Industries. Since the 1890s, inmates have manufactured everything from twine to office furniture. The Society's collections include records, reports, photographs, and sample products that illuminate this unique enterprise.

Curator Matt Anderson shows a very old piece of food from the Minnesota Historical Society's collection: an original piece of hardtack from the Civil War. It's one of the more bizarre items in the collection, and an edible that was made to last.

The Hill Family Collection, which includes the papers of St. Paul tycoon James J. Hill and other Hill family members, contains over 8,000 individual photographs and graphic images.nbsp;nbsp; In this podcast project cataloger Jillian Odland shares just a few examples of the many photos, drawings, paintings, and posters found in the collection.

Acquisitions Librarian Patrick Coleman explains what fine press and artists' books are, why we collect them, and their importance to the culture of Minnesota. Several examples of these important works are shown; all are available in the Minnesota Historical Society Library.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. We commemorate this milestone with a look at some of the Minnesotans who have contributed their talents to NASA over the years, along with some of the space-related objects in the Societyrsquo;s collection. The space program endures as another legacy of Minnesotarsquo;s Greatest Generation.

Patrons of the Societyrsquo;s library know that it has ldquo;closed stacks.rdquo; Reference Assistants retrieve your requested books and bring them to you. In this episode, Acquisitions Librarian Patrick Coleman takes us behind the scenes to see where the books are stored, and how they make their way to the reading room.

The Minnesota Historical Society recently began a project to conserve several Civil War and Spanish American War battle flags. Doug Bekke, Assistant to the Textile Conservator, explains the painstaking process of examining and treating each of these historic banners.

We get into the Halloween spirit with a podcast on death-related objects in the Societyrsquo;s collection. Curator Matt Anderson provides an overview of changing funeral customs, and then shares a look at a casket, a hearse, tombstones, and more.

Through the Library of Congress' National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) the Minnesota Historical Society and its partners are developing a way to preserve and provide access to the digital records of state legislatures. Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Robert Horton, Minnesota Historical Society's Director of Library, Publications and Collections, discuss the importance of creating a digital trail that documents, records, and preserves the records of todayrsquo;s electronic legislature.

Collections Assistants Jane Wong and John Fulton discuss their efforts to catalog and photograph more than 3,000 different objects in the Richard Ferrell Flour Milling Industry History Collection. The size of the collection, together with some of the unusual items it contained, presented special challenges. You can learn more about the collection from Mr. Ferrell himself in an earlier podcast.