Hello! I’ve been doing some deep dives at the Minnesota Historical Society’s website of late and finding all sorts of interesting graphic finds.

I love looking back at old logo design and illustrations. Everything seems to have a handmade craft and thoughtfulness to it.

One of the first things that caught my eye was an old envelope commemorating the Hinckley fires in 1918. These fires basically swept through the area and killed quite a few people. It’s hard to fathom that today – that a fire would wipe-out a city like this, but trees were certainly more prevalent then and there weren’t a lot of alert systems.

I was reading a train helped rescue many residents and the engineers were labeled heroes. Such a fascinating and tragic event.

Back to that envelope. While the event is sad, the graphic on it is wonderful.

Dated 1949, it was sent to a resident in Stillwater. The graphic reads:

Minnesota Territorial / 1849 – Centennial – 1949: Disastrous fire swept Hinckley territory September 1, 1894. 418 unidentified dead buried at monument.

It’s amazing so many people perished in the fire.

My re-creation of the illustration

Since this is a just a neat looking graphic – however morbid it is and remembering a tragic event in Minnesota history – I decided to remake it (even added it to a t-shirt!).

What do you think?

Looks pretty amazing on the black tee.

If you wanted to see this envelope yourself, here is a link to it. Also, to learn more about the Hinckley fires, you can visit the Hinckley Fire Museum in Hinckley. It’s open in the summers, starting in May.