Minnie D. Craig Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: Photo 2094

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Minnie D. Craig photograph collection consists mainly of portraits and photographs from the farm at Spiritwood, North Dakota. There is a portrait from Mrs. Craig's political career in North Dakota, while the other portraits deal with the Craig family, beginning with Virgil L. Craig, who managed the 4,000 acre farm at Spiritwood, North Dakota. There is a numbered descriptive list written by Minnie D. Craig in October of 1954 that gives information on most of the photographs. She numbered the backs of the photographs in pencil to correspond with the numbered list. These photographs were accessioned with her papers in 1954. The papers have been processed as Manuscript 282. Included in the manuscript collection are two scrapbooks, one which deals with the Craig family, beginning with Virgil L. Craig who managed the 4,000 acre farm at Spiritwood, North Dakota. The farm belonged to Edward O’Brien of Thomaston, Maine, from 1884 until it was sold in 1902. On the first page of this scrap book there is a portrait photograph of Mr. Virgil L. Craig, taken probably at the same time as the photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil L. Craig, number 2094.2.3, in the photograph collection. The collection also includes Mrs. Craig’s handwritten reminiscences of the Craig family and Mr. O’Brien. In the Portrait Series there are photographs of Mrs. Minnie Craig, including one of her in the North Dakota Delegation G.O.P. Convention in Kansas City June 12, 1928. There is a portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Craig as well as a photograph of the John McIntyre home in Warren, Maine which was the birthplace, marriage place, and place of death of Mrs. Virgil Craig (in 1920). Also included are two portraits, that of granddaughter Olive F. Craig and Virgil F. Craig’s grandson Frank E. Craig during World War II. As of 1954 Olive F. Craig and Frank E. Craig were the only living survivors of Virgil L. Craig, Farmington, Maine. The O’Brien Farm at Spiritwood, N.D. Series contains four images of farm work including a cyanotype of a load of grain ready for a trip to the Spiritwood elevator, a photograph of them ready for seeding with drills and drags, and two threshing scenes with Edward O’Brien Craig as the engineer. There are two photographs that show a bird’s eye view of the farm buildings, yard, and cattle. There is an image of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil L. Craig (Father and Mother Craig) with their driving team in 1883, as well as a photograph of the house taken around 1940 with Frank E. Craig, his wife Kathleen Craig and Minnie D. Craig standing on the back steps. There is also a photograph of the O’Brien Farmhouse after a cyclone, prior to 1901, taken probably about 1895.

Dates

1880 - 1949

Creator

Craig, Minnie D. (Minnie Davenport), 1883-1966. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

The Institute does not own the copyrights.

Biography

Minnie D. Davenport was born at Phillips, Maine, on November 4, 1883, the daughter of Marshall and Aura (Prescott) Davenport. Following high school graduation at Phillips, Minnie attended Farmington State Normal School and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She married Edward O. Craig in July, 1908. Edward, a native of Maine, was president of the bank at Esmond, North Dakota, where the couple resided while in North Dakota.

After becoming interested in politics during the 1919 Legislative Session, Mrs. Craig was elected in 1923 to the North Dakota House of Representatives where she served for six terms, culminating in 1933, as the first woman speaker of a House of Representatives in the nation. Minnie also was the state president of the Nonpartisan Clubs for two years and Republican National Committee woman from 1928 to 1932. In 1933, Mrs. Craig was appointed state worker for the Federal Emergency Relief Agency. In the 1935 Legislative session, Minnie was named assistant to the chief clerk and was chief clerk in 1937 and 1939. In 1946, Mr. & Mrs. Craig retired to California where he died in 1947. Mrs. Craig continued to live there until moving to her original home at Phillips, Maine, in 1959. She died on July 2, 1966 at Farmington, Maine.