Alexander Ramsey House

09/20/2025

There are still 3 opportunities left to join us for an Irvine Park Walking Tour before the season ends. We hope to see you there!

Remaining Dates:
Sunday, September 21st
Thursday, September 25th
Sunday, September 28th

Get your tickets at the link below!

Discover materials associated with a particular person or name. Includes birth, death, census, veterans graves, and Gold Star Roll records.

02/26/2025

There's still time to register for this Friday's Ramsey After Dark (2/28/25). This month's theme is "The Other Victorians."

It’s easy to stereotype the Victorians as prim, polite, and prudish, living in a strictly gendered and rigidly hierarchical society. But every age has its countercultures, nonconformists, radicals, and iconoclasts. We’ll explore the forgotten individuals and subcultures who defied the mainstream norms of Victorian society, including same-sex couples, gender nonconformists, utopian communes, radical feminists, “free love” advocates, and many others who prove that the world of the late 19th century was far more diverse and complex than we often remember.

Tours at 5:30 & 7:30.

07/31/2024

Cyanotype photo album owned by Alexander Ramsey’s in-law Rebekah Furness, containing amateur snapshots from the 1870s through the 1910s.

Cyanotypes, more commonly known as “blue prints,” are a type of photography first developed for scientific purposes in 1842 by the astronomer and chemist Sir John Herschel. The process uses paper or cloth soaked in light-sensitive chemicals to create a blue-tinted negative image. Compared to other early photographic processes, cyanotypes were relatively easy and affordable to create, requiring only paper, minimal chemicals, and a cold water rinse to develop an image. Transferring the original negative image to another light sensitive paper to form a positive print was also a much simpler process than with other photographic techniques.

In the 1870s, the simplicity of the cyanotype process made it the first type of photography that was accessible to amateurs. At the time, most photographic equipment was costly, with photos taken on glass plates requiring considerable chemical expertise and to develop and print. Cyanotype photography allowed the first amateur snapshots to be taken and developed at home by hobbyists.

The popularity of the format declined rapidly after 1888, when the Eastman Kodak company introduced celluloid film and its first Kodak camera. The cyanotype process continued to be used to reproduce architectural schematics up through the late 20th century, when it was replaced by xeroxing and digital printing (although, even today, architectural plans are still known as “blueprints.”)

07/30/2024

Coin purse.

07/30/2024

Wooden box featuring Cupid and Psyche.

Originally written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius, the tale of Cupid and Psyche overcoming various obstacles to their love was first widely distributed in 1469, when the first printed edition of Apuleius’ works were published. Ever since, the story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and has remained a favorite subject in painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. By the 19th century, the figure of Cupid (with or without Psyche) had come to be a widely recognized symbol of love and romance.

07/29/2024

Oil lamp.

07/28/2024

Portrait of Alexander Jenks Ramsey (1846-1850), ca. 1849.

The dress shown here is typical of the styles worn by both young boys and girls in the 1840s. At the time, boys and girls usually wore nearly identical clothing until around the ages of 5-7. It was considered an important rite of passage for a boy to become old enough to be “breeched” (begin wearing pants and more masculine-coded clothes).

Alexander Jenks Ramsey was the first child of Alexander and Anna Ramsey, born in 1846. His parents usually called him “Sonny.” In July of 1850, Sonny contracted the mumps, a disease that today is preventable through vaccination, but was one of the leading causes of child mortality at the time. On July 28th, Sonny passed away. Alexander Ramsey wrote in his journal:

“About 12 at midnight our dear boy sunk…at 5½ AM he expired without a groan - oh my God how bitter is this cup. Give myself + poor wife strength to drink to its dregs. Never, never did I conceive could there be such a weight of affliction laid upon a poor mortal. - The only consolation a stricken heart can find is that our lovely boy has gone to a ‘world of Glory’”

Three days later, next to the price of butter, Ramsey added, “Oh how desolate & lonely is our house- the little merry laugh is no longer heard in the morning- our own dear dear boy has left us.”

07/27/2024

Today's is a booklet commemorating the laying of the cornerstone for the current state capitol building. The cornerstone was laid by Alexander Ramsey , July 27, 1898.

07/26/2024

Calligraphy set with brush holder and inkwell. This item, with Arabic writing on the sides, is one of many international objects that were likely purchased primarily as conversation pieces.

07/25/2024

Gaslight (today electric) chandelier.

The Alexander Ramsey House was originally equipped with gas lighting. Gas was provided by the St. Paul Gas Light Company, which had been co-founded in 1856 by Alexander Ramsey. The gas burned was coal gas, produced by superheating bituminous coal in the absence of air. The St. Paul Gas Light Company expanded into electric service in 1882.

The Ramsey House was electrified in bits and pieces starting around 1900. This chandelier is one of several fixtures that was not electrified until the Minnesota Historical Society took over the property in 1965.

07/24/2024

Bound collection of serialized novels.

In the 19th century, there were two main ways to read novels: they could be purchased as hardcover books, or serialized in newspapers and periodicals. The Ramsey-Furness family frequently collected serialized chapters of novels that had been published in newspapers and magazines and then hired a bookbinder to bind them in a handsome hardcover volume.

Splitting the difference between hardcover books and periodicals were “dime novels,” printed on cheap pulp paper and sold in newsstands. Targeted at working-class readers, most “dime novels” featured lurid subject matter and sensational storylines. One exception was the series of “Seaside Library” dime novels series, which published serialized versions of popular literary novels from respected authors in single issues costing $0.10, or full novellas in “double issues” costing $0.20. Published in the pulp dime novel format, these editions were intended to be easily portable and advertised as vacation reading (hence the name “Seaside Library”).

This bound collection of Seaside Library novels was owned by Marion Furness, and contains the novels, ‘Sir Gibbie’ (1879) by George MacDonald, “Heart and Cross” (1863) by Margaret Oliphant, ‘Cyrilla; or, The Mysterious Engagement: A Love Story’ (1853) by Baroness Jemima von Tautphoeus, and ‘The Fallen Leaves’ (1879) and ‘Jezebel's Daughter’ (1880) by Wilkie Collins.