Land O' Lakes!

There's water, water everywhere in Minnesota, known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes."

Minnesota became the thirty-second state on this day in 1858. The state's name was derived from the Dakota Sioux Indian word for "sky-tinted water," referring to the Minnesota River and the state's many lakes.

In honor of Minnesota State Day, we present a scenic photograph of one of its wonderful, watery landmarks.

On a single day in August 1851, Alex Hesler and his assistant, Joel E. Whitney, reportedly made eighty-five daguerreotype views in Minnesota, including this view of Minnehaha Falls.

While on display in Hesler's Chicago studio, one of these views was purchased in 1854 by George Sumner as a gift for his brother, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. The senator in turn presented it to his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who reportedly used the image to draw inspiration for his narrative poem "The Song of Hiawatha."

Both poem and view were wildly popular, attracting other photographers to Minnehaha Falls and leading Hesler to make copies of his original.

Source: Merry A. Foresta. American Photographs: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996).

Pictured: Alex Hesler, 1823 Canada–1895 USA, Falls of Minnehaha, Minnesota, about 1855, salted paper print mounted on paper, 8 x 6 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.