porterkim1Valley City  (CSi)  The Barnes County Historical Society Lecture Series Season 18 Presents: Dr. Kimberly Porter (UND) “Homesteading the Dakota Way” 7PM Thursday October 15th at the Barnes County Museum.

The presentation examines the ways that the earliest American settlers claimed the land that would become known as North Dakota.  It examines the process of claiming the land in terms of acquisition, living those first perilous years, keeping warm, keeping fed, keeping healthy and making it all the way to successfully making your quarter section your very own.  It is illustrated with photographs of the era, maps and primary materials gathered from the diaries, letters and newspapers of the era.”

Kimberly Porter received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1995.  She has been at the University of North Dakota since 1996, focusing her attention on United States history, particularly the 1877-1945 eras.  Accordingly, she teaches courses in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, as well as the New Era and the New Deal.   Dr. Porter teaches the History of North Dakota, and has published North Dakota: 1960 to the Millennium.

With regard to research, she focuses her work on matters related to rural/agricultural history and oral history.  Dr. Porter is currently engaged in researching/writing a biography of Henry Field, an Iowa-based entrepreneur who sold everything from wall paper to wedding rings, seed corn to spotted hogs, and garden seed to gasoline.  Along the way, he started one of the first privately held radio stations west of the Mississippi River, unsuccessfully ran for Congress, and urged Americans to thoughtfully consider what was being lost with the urbanization of their nation.

The public is cordially invited

All Lectures are at the Barnes County Historical Society Museum and held in conjunction with Valley City State University.  They are free and open to the public.

For more information contact Wes Anderson at 701-845-0966