Glare Report 10/7: finished Ice Palaces

[pegkerr]

I finished reading my research book Ice Palaces while at work today. I worked on reconciling my checkbook tonight after the girls were in bed rather than spending the time on writing stuff. Gotta keep those plates spinning, even if I'm back to novel writing.

Ice Palaces was pretty good, but I felt greedy for more. I wanted much more information on structural detail, especially, and all the hoary details of actually building the things. The book included drawings for several palaces which were planned but never built, due to unseasonably warm weather. Presumably I could easily swipe one for my own ice palace.

There was a mention of someone named Robert Olsen, who in 1975 when he was a student at St. Olaf College (my alma mater) came and asked the St. Paul Carnival committee why they weren't building ice palaces anymore. So they told him, "Why don't you build one?" And he did, a rather modestly sized one, and got college credit for it--I suspect it was his interim project. Anyway, the book called him an "ice palace historian." I wonder if he might have some of the sorts of info I'm looking for and I could track him down through the college's alumni office. With a name like Robert Olsen, he should be real easy to find here in Minnesota[/sarcasm]. Hmm. My sister was class of '76, I think; maybe she'll remember him? I'll have to ask her.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Behold the power of Google. Searching for "'Robert Olsen' 'ice palace'" gets you all sorts of hits.

Call the "St Paul Winter Carnival Association, because "Architectural drawings of carnival ice palaces collected by Robert A. Olsen are also in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections."
http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00205.html

Sounds like he'll be easy to track down.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"...gets you all sorts of hits."

Okay. So it gets you four hits. But they're useful hits.

B

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Thank you! I will contact him when I get back into town.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

He wrote a book: A History of St. Paul Ice Palaces. I can't find it on Amazon, either new or used, but you can poke around elsewhere. Surely it's a in Twin Cities library somewhere.

B

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I just did a search. After all, I work at a library.
I found:
A history of the Saint Paul Ice Palaces / Robert Arthur Olsen, 1974
is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Also:
Architect to the kings of the carnivals : 'Cap' Wigington and his ice palace 'babies' / Bob Olsen, also at the MHS.

Also owned by some library in the state:
Icy pleasures : Minnesota celebrates winter
Tales of fire and ice : a video history of the St. Paul winter carnival [videorecording (VHS)].
St. Paul's wild and woolly winter carnivals / by Beverly Pechan
A frozen fable [videorecording (VHS)].
The 100th anniversary of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, 1886-1986 / by Kathleen Petters.
Chilling tales : a history of the St. Paul Winter Carnival ice palaces / by Mary Jean Jecklin.
Cap Wigington : an architectural legacy in ice and stone / David Vassar Taylor ; with Paul Clifford Larson

I'm emailing a complete list to myself. Let me now if you want to know more about these.