In addition, I spoke on new interpretations of religion in America, for the Minnesota skeptics group, chaired by Bob McCoy, of whom more in a moment. The University of Minnesota, one of the largest such institutions in America, has a lively group of Atheists and Unbelievers, which I also addressed. However, when I spoke to a small honors class which was studying marxism, I was dismayed to find that nota single student had read Sinclair Lewis's novel Main Street, which used to be a standard text of American literature. So we have a lot to do yet, to re-install freethought culture in our schools.
Minneapolis is a great 'book town,' with numberous large secondhand stores, so someone must be reading up there. If you ever plan a trip to the 'twin cities,' be sure to allow plenty of time to scout the bookstores. I remember with great fondness one particular find some years ago: the Dresden edition of Ingersoll's works, now getting rather hard to find and expensive. This time I happened to find a volume of Norwegian-American Studies with an essay on Thorstein Veblen and St. Olaf's College, which declined to hire him on the basis of his questionable religious views. One unusual store, May Day books, in the old 'Seven Points' district, concentrates on anarchist literature, and always has a good stock of titles gathered from far and wide.
The library of the noted author Meridel LeSueur has been preserved at Augsburg College, which on May 15 sponsored a gathering of the community7's writers, artists, performers and musicians, to honor her. In February, 1995, she will be 95--has witnessed the whole horrendous sweep of the century. While quite frail, Meridel was able to attend the gathering, which also featured displays of crafts, books, political literature, etc. All who love the traditions of Freethought culture should find her books, which include a wonderful lyrical novel of the Depression, The Girl, collections of stories, and so on. For a catalog which includes many of her books, write her publisher, West End Press, Box 27334, Albuquerque, NM 87125. Her folk history North Star Country, which evokes the entire culture of Populism and the farmer-labor party, is abailable from the University of Nebraska Press in its Bison Books series. While during her long life, Meridel lived and traveled widely (including a period in the 'teens at Emma Goldman's anarchist headquarters in New York), she has always returned to and found sustenance in the Midwest, her home.
Meridel Lesueur's personal papers, including many volumes of journals, are int eh Minnesota Historical Society library, an enormous, imposing mausoleum near the State Capitol in St. Paul. While doing research there, I located the self-published books of a rural freethinker named Budd Reeve, of which more in a future issue of this newsletter.
Bob McCoy has a remarkable Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, located at 219 S.E. Main in Minneapolis, in the St. Anthony Main complex. McCoy, bearing a striking resemblance to W.C. Fields who so ably played a medicine show operator in the movies, has assembled an astonishing array of machines, gizmos, whirligigs, and so on that would do honor to the Wizard of Oz himself. This museum is 'the world's largest display of quack medical devices,' and includes materials on loan from the American Medical Associateion, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Bakken Library, and others. Visisting this museum is like entering the crazed under-psyche of America. For instance, ther's a prostate gland warmer of 1918, 'claimed to furnish constant heat to the rectal area. In the process it was said to excite the so- called 'abdominal brain' to relieve disease and--if used long enough--restore the user's sex drive.' I remember in the 1950s, that shoe stores had X-ray units which enabled one to see the bones of the foot; the problem was that they leaked radiation; by 1970, they were outlawed or effectively banned in all 50 states.
The radionics machine was invented by Albert Abrams in 1920; blood samples were placed in the device, and radio waves would indicate the malady of the patient. Dr. Crum's coetherator 'promised to regrow amputated fingers and toes with radio waves... The device also would kill insects within a 70-mile radius if a photo of the infested field was smeared with insecticide and inserted into the machine.'
Dr. Foote's Sanitary Bureau patented a serious looking contraption to 'prevent night emissions by arousing the wearer; made of aluminum--weighs but two drams and saves poinds of drugs and worry.' U.S. Patent granted Dec. 12, 1905. It's amazing and rather overwhelming how many such instruments are packed into the two rooms of the museum.
If we are devoted to Freethought, which presumably includes reason and the scientific method, it is well to be aware that the large number of our fellow citizens have avidly bought and believed in all manner of pseudo-scientific nostrums. In some ways, our high-tech wizardry remains just that. One splendid feature of this Museum is how McCoy, whose skills include printinng, has made numerous inexpensive reprints of advertisements, posters, brochures, reprints of articles from medical organization and the government etc. For more information, write Robert McCoy, 549 Turnpike Road, Golden Valley, MN 55416.