Digitization of Ecologic History in the Driftless Area of Minnesota

Partners: Winona State University, Winona County Historical Society

The Winona County Historical Society (WCHS) and Winona State University (WSU) have formed a partnership to digitize several items to make them more accessible and educate the community about the local ecologic history of the Driftless Area. This project will digitize the surveyor's field notes from January 21, 1862, and a herbarium specimen book of local Winona flora compiled in the 1890s by a student attending Winona State Teachers College (now Winona State University).

The surveyor's field notes provide a record of the Winona area as it appeared in the middle of the 19th century, including landmarks and natural resources. The herbarium specimen collection seems to have been compiled under Dr. John M. Holzinger, a faculty member in the late 1890s until the 1920s at Winona State Teachers College and an internationally renowned botanist.

The items to be digitized are held by WCHS and housed at their main museum facility in the Laird Lucas Library and Archives. WCHS will grant WSU permission to make items publicly accessible through its digital repository, OpenRiver.

In addition to the digitized materials, this project plans to construct a digital map from the 1862 surveyor's field notes. This map will reconstruct the mid-19th century Winona landscape, showing the vegetation, landmarks, and waterways as detailed in the field notes. WCHS and WSU are planning an interpretative program to introduce the community to this project. Also, create educational opportunities for the community to learn about the Driftless Area's ecologic history.