Harris Burkhalter

Harris Burkhalter is an intermittent librarian in the Hennepin County Library system and has studied Minnesota history at Minnesota State University Mankato and library science at St. Catherine University. He has presented at the OLAC-MOUG Conference, NAHA-Norway Conference, and Northern Great Plains History Conference, and has served as a judge on Minnesota History Day since 2011.

The story behind Minnesota’s official state photograph

By Harris Burkhalter

Oct. 27, 2015

Photographer Eric Enstrom composed “Grace” to represent survival in the face of hardship.

Mankato’s teacher college was a 19th-century pioneer for women’s rights — for about a year

By Harris Burkhalter

April 7, 2015

In 1872, Julia Sears was hired to head the Mankato State Normal School, making her the first woman to hold such a position of power in the U.S. In 1873, the school board replaced her with a man.