Main entrance and central tower of Palace 1886 - 1888

Henry Hamilton Bennett captured this stereograph of the "Main entrance and central tower of [Ice] Palace" during the Saint Paul Ice Carnival around 1886-87. These carnivals became a means to both celebrate and brand northern cities like Saint Paul, Minnesota and promote a unique regional identity. Consider how race and class are embedded here. The Ice Palace was not just a feat of engineering, but also a stage upon which class distinctions played out. Built by working-class laborers, the palace then became a site of leisure and spectacle for the middle and upper classes. It created a temporary fantasy world, where social hierarchies were both reinforced and momentarily suspended. Note how Bennett's image flattens the social complexities of the event. The figures in the foreground are mere accents to the grandeur of the palace. These carnivals offered a space for communities to come together, but the image reminds us to consider whose stories and experiences were centered, and whose were marginalized.