today's Featured List/November 24, 2014

state of Minnesota, as designated by the Minnesota Legislature. The state's motto and seal were both appointed in 1861. Minnesota did not designate another official symbol until 1945, when "Hail! Minnesota", then the official song of the University of Minnesota, was designated as state song. Minnesota schoolchildren have been the force behind the successful promotion of four official symbols: the blueberry muffin, the monarch butterfly, the Honeycrisp apple, and ice hockey. The 1918 black-and-white photograph Grace, taken by Eric Enstrom in Bovey and later reproduced as a color painting (pictured) by his daughter, was named state photograph in 2002. Through the years, the state legislature has also voted on unsuccessful bills to designate the Tilt-A-Whirl as official amusement ride, the works Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek as state book, and "Minnesota Blue" as official poem. (Full list...)