University of Minnesota history on display at the Minnesota State Fair

The University of Minnesota is honoring its 175th anniversary this year, and we’re celebrating with a show-and-tell at the Minnesota State Fair, which runs Aug. 27 through Sept. 7.

Stop by the University of Minnesota Central space in the Crossroads Building (on Dan Patch Avenue east of the grandstand) and you’ll find a museum-style display featuring artifacts, artworks, photos and other objects representing some of the University’s inventions and landmark accomplishments.

Among the items you’ll see:

• Objects representing Norman Borlaug, arguably the University’s most influential and celebrated alumnus. Borlaug’s work to develop new varieties of wheat in the 1940s spawned the “Green Revolution” and is credited with saving a billion lives. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. He established the World Food Prize in 1986 and is the only scientist in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, DC. 
  
  The statue of Borlaug at the fair is a two-foot-tall replica of the full-sized statues in the Statuary Hall and across the parking lot from his namesake building on the St. Paul campus.
   
• A reproduction of the logbook page with notes chronicling the development of the Honeycrisp apple — the fruit that put the University’s apple breeding on the world map with a giant red pin. The page includes other names considered for Minnesota’s official state fruit, including Honeycrunch, Supercrisp, Extracrisp and Northcrisp. 
   
• An early version of the first-ever external pacemakers. At the request of University of Minnesota physician C. Walton Lillehei, alumnus Earl Bakken invented the first wearable pacemaker in 1957. The pacemaker transformed cardiac care, extending and improving millions of lives worldwide.
   
• A partial replica of the bubble oxygenator, which was a key innovation in open-heart surgery in the 1950s. Initially constructed from everyday objects and laboratory equipment (as you’ll see), it influenced the design of all subsequent oxygenators and established the University as a world leader in cardiac surgery innovation. 
   
• A 33-year-old computer from the University of Minnesota Crookston. Its significance? In 1993, the Crookston campus began providing each full-time student and faculty member with a notebook computer and preinstalled software — a first in the nation — and became known as the original “Laptop U.”  
   
• An agricultural “robot dog.” Associate Professor Ce Yang and her team of researchers have developed high-tech tools to aid in precision agriculture. They include the Omni AgRobot (“robot dog”), which can navigate between rows of corn.
   
• Murals of Twin Cities campus scenes by Adam Turman — a popular artist, muralist, printmaker and University alumnus, whose merchandise space in the grandstand has become wildly popular. Turman’s bold illustrations riff on Minnesota culture with unique and stylized takes on everything from the Stone Arch Bridge to Babe the Blue Ox to his alma mater.
   
• A giant megaphone, pennants, buttons, programs, tickets and other memorabilia related to University of Minnesota sports and the people who cheer for them. In case you haven’t heard, cheerleading was invented here in 1898. 

There are plenty more items, spanning the fields of science, apparel design, politics, the mining industry and the arts. 

Other highlights

As usual, the University’s building will be filled with numerous displays, educational opportunities and interactive fun.

• New this year is a “quilt wall” featuring photos and stories of other University of Minnesota firsts and accomplishments. 
   
• You can weigh in at the “chalk wall” in the back of the building, where a different question will be posted every day. Some examples: “What is your favorite Minnesota lake?” “What would you like to see invented next that would make life better?” And “What’s something you hope exists 175 years from now?”
   
• There will be three booths with special guests that vary each day, including the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Glensheen, the Solar Vehicle Project Team, the Bell Museum and the University’s new AI Hub. 
   
• You’ll have the chance to vote on which University of Minnesota initiative is most important to you.
   
• Also back this year is the display of all five of the mascots for the University of Minnesota’s campuses — with spinning apparel choices, vaguely like Mr. Potato Head — for you to design for a photo opportunity. 
  
  
• One of those mascots — Goldy Gopher — will be making an appearance on the stage outside the Central Building each day from noon to 1 p.m. (In case you haven’t heard, Goldy was just elected to the national Mascot Hall of Fame.)
  
  
• In the athletics realm, you can buy maroon and gold merchandise and purchase tickets for upcoming sporting events, including football games at Huntington Bank Stadium. 
  
  In case you’ve forgotten, the most recent game played there was on Nov. 29 of last year in the cold and snow against Wisconsin. The Gophers beat the Badgers 17-7 in front of 46,038 hardy fans to keep Paul Bunyan’s Axe. That epic traveling trophy will also be on display at the fair!

Learn more about the University of Minnesota’s presence at the State Fair.