That’s My Middle West: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s St. Paul
Ticket price includes admission to all Gale Family Library exhibits. MNHS Members get in free.
Visit the Gale Family Library’s Lobby for a glimpse into St. Paul author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s early life and influences, told through photos, maps, newspapers, letters, and other historical materials from the Minnesota Historical Society collections. The display also features a dazzling array of editions of The Great Gatsby from the 1920s to today, and shares a slice of Fitzgerald’s influence on American culture since he burst onto the literary scene.
The display, titled That’s My Middle West: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s St. Paul, will run from March 20 through May 31 at the Gale Family Library, on the second floor of the History Center, which is free and open to the public. More than 50 items from the Minnesota Historical Society’s Collections, including books, letters, photographs, newspapers, and government documents, will provide insight into Fitzgerald’s time in St. Paul.
Items on display include:
An inscribed copy of The Farewell Address of George Washington, a textbook used by a teenage F. Scott Fitzgerald.
A copy of Fitzgerald’s debut novel, This Side of Paradise signed by the author and inscribed to the Minnesota Historical Society.
The St. Paul Daily Dirge, a parody newspaper created by F. Scott Fitzgerald to hand out at a party held in St. Paul in 1922.
Event
Thursday, April 10, 2025, 1:00 - 7:00 PM
Minnesota History Center
Free
Join the Minnesota Historical Society and the Friends of the St. Paul Library for a live reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, 100 years to the day after it was published. This will be a full read through of the novel, from start to finish. You never know who you’ll hear reading, so drop in for a page, a chapter, or the entire book!
Photos provided are courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. Permission to use the images is granted in connection to this display; any other uses require additional permissions from MNHS.