Hazen college student showcases history


By Daniel Arens

Elizabeth Nolan sits besides a display she put together, which features the history of Minot State University, the school she is attending. Nolan is a 2019 Hazen High School graduate.

Elizabeth Nolan’s exhibit on the university history is currently on display at the Pioneer Village Museum in Minot.

One recent Hazen High School graduate decided to bring a part of North Dakota history together over the summer.
Elizabeth Nolan recently completed an internship that features the history of Minot State University since its founding in 1913 to today, which is currently an exhibition with the Ward County Historical Society.
Nolan is a 2019 Hazen High School Graduate, and is currently attending Minot State University, pursuing a degree in history. She decided to find a local corollary to her overall degree in the history of her own college.
“I went through all the name changes and the story behind each one,” she said, referring to the several names the college has undergone over the last century. “I also have items on display representing each ‘era’ between the name changes.”
Nolan’s display is currently open to the public at the Eureka Town Hall in Minot’s Pioneer Village. The exhibition formally opened Aug. 5, and will close at the end of September. The display is open Wednesdays to Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m.
The items in the display were provided to Nolan from the Minot State Alumni Association, including diplomas, sweatshirts and other memorobilia. Nolan got most of the information from the university’s library, the Gordon B. Olson Library, including old school newspapers and the centennial book “When Dreams Come True.”
Nolan initially began her project after both interning and working with the historical society.
“I got a donation from a Minnesota lady whose relative had graduated from the Minot Normal School,” Nolan said. Minot Normal School was the original iteration of the college, prior to its issuing of Bachelor’s Degrees, which necessitated the first name change.
“I never knew it had been anything other than the university, and so I started looking into the history of that,” Nolan said. She said the most interesting thing for her was realizing how long it took for the transition to becoming a university (1983-1988) and the controversy regarding the school’s name during that time.
As Nolan continues to pursue her own history degree, she has already left a lasting mark on tracing the history of her own university.

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