Rachael E. Martin
“Kalevala – More Than Just
a Town South of Cromwell”
Find out more about Finland’s national folk epic, the Kalevala. In this slide presentation we will explore the origins of these oral folk poems, the main heroes and some stories included in the epic, and what scholars say about the meaning of the Kalevala. Discover what life was like in pre-Christian Finnish culture and the role of mythology in a culture’s development.
Rachael Martin is a historian and scholar focusing on the local history of the Western Great Lakes region. She earned her MA from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in American Studies. As an outgrowth of her studies, Rachael developed a course and wrote a textbook on the history of northern Minnesota women. This course has been offered at all U of M campuses throughout Minnesota.
Rachael teaches other local history classes at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, at the University of Wisconsin, Superior, the College of St. Scholastica, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and for Community Education programs in Duluth and Superior and writes a monthly column on local history for the Senior Reporter magazine. She recently retired after 30 years as a museum director and educator in various museums throughout the region and now serves on the board of the Finnish American Historical Society.
Rachael is a native of northern Minnesota, where her Finnish grandparents homesteaded land on the Prairie River. Her mother was born on this homestead and grew up in Wright. Rachael grew up in Duluth and now lives on forty acres outside Superior, Wisconsin, where she and her husband maintain three vegetable gardens, 15 colonies of honeybees and a sauna.
9:00 Coffee and Conversation
9:30 Breakfast Buffet Available
10:00 Formal Program Begins
Duluth Radisson Harborview
505 West Superior Street
Duluth, MN 55802
(218) 727-8981
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