Ferrell, Richard L., collector.

Few industries are as closely associated with Minnesota as flour milling. From 1880 on, Minneapolis enjoyed a reputation as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World.” Countless mills crowded both banks of the city’s Mississippi River waterfront, drawing power from St. Anthony Falls. General Mills still maintains its corporate headquarters near the city.

In 2007, the Minnesota Historical Society acquired a significant portion of the Richard Ferrell Flour Milling Industry History Collection. For 40 years Mr. Ferrell, who once managed Pillsbury’s historic A Mill on Minneapolis’s east bank, collected flour milling objects, photos, advertisements, and memorabilia from all parts of the United States and Canada. Today his collection represents the premier record of the industry’s development from the mid-1800s to the early 2000s.

Richard L. Ferrell spent much of his career as a milling engineer and plant manager with Pillsbury. Born in 1939, he grew up near Akron, Ohio. Mr. Ferrell was hired in 1967 as a plant engineer at Pillsbury’s facility in Springfield, Illinois. His career subsequently took him to West Virginia, Minnesota, and Kansas. Although he was a lifelong collector of various interests, his work with Pillsbury first prompted Mr. Ferrell to collect milling material.

Items produced by Minnesota-based millers form the core of the collection at MHS, but it also includes material from companies in neighboring states, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada. The collection is comprised of documents and records housed with the Manuscripts collections (described in this document), including company premiums, trade journals, photos, and postcards showing mills throughout the region, and three-dimensional artifacts housed with the Artifacts Collection (see MHS Curator for further information) including flour bags, barrels, and advertising broadsides. Given Mr. Ferrell's association with Pillsbury, the collection also includes many items featuring that most celebrated advertising icon, the Pillsbury Doughboy.