Midstory

12/09/2025

You don’t have to intern in New York. (Toledo’s cool, too!) 🐯

The Midstory team is out recruiting through partnerships with to bring the best and the brightest to cities like Toledo.

Our 2026 summer internship program is now accepting applications through March 8, 2026. Link in bio! 🔗

12/09/2025

✨ APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN! Become a Midstory intern to work in media, storytelling, research, design, data and more alongside some of the brightest students from across the nation.

Learn more and apply at https://www.midstory.org/internships/

**Applications due March 8, 2026 11:59 (ET)

In 2025, our ThinkLab program brought 25 students from all across the nation to Toledo, Ohio, to create and dream for the future of our region.🌟🎉🧠 Part of our mission is to get young people invested in our region by showing them what Toledo — and the Midwest — has to offer, and also to inspire them to think toward solutions-crafting for the challenges our community faces.

Video by Evan Blenko for Midstory.

11/09/2025

🚗 Today, Toledo is well-known for being home to the headquarters of Jeep. But before the Jeep, the city was famous for the Pope-Toledo. Pope-Toledos were fast, high-end cars — when not busy winning races, they were used to carry diplomats negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese war.

To learn more about Toledo’s history of inventions and industry, visit our Made in Toledo digital exhibit at midstory.org/made-in-toledo/.

Exhibit and design by Midstory in partnership with the Toledo History Museum. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the America 250-Ohio Commission.

11/09/2025

This week's comes to us from the historic Chicago Public Library. The library was first conceived in the wake of the Great Chicago in 1871 after the English Parliament donated 8,000 books to the city in order to encourage the creation of a public library. While libraries had existed in the city prior to the fire, they had been privately owned and imposed membership fees that kept knowledge consolidated among the wealthier class.

In 1873, the Chicago Public Library found its first home in a vacant water tank. The cavernous circular space featured tall book shelves and long desks for guests to pour over the newly donated volumes. The library did however relocate four times over its first two decades. The frequent relocation caused the creation of a library book delivery system in 1874. By working in tandem with small businesses and stores in Chicago neighborhoods, books were delivered by carriage to the nearest drug store. Due to having a library user enter a store to receive their reservation, foot traffic in small businesses rose and further helped Chicago's economy as it healed from the fire.

The library found its permanent home in 1897 on Michigan Avenue. Since then, the library has continued to serve as a place of widespread accessibility. In 1951, the library invested in delivery trucks - affectionately called 'bookmobiles' - that granted more neighborhoods access to the library's ever-growing collection. In 2015, the library began offering WiFi hotspots that users could 'check out,' widening access to information and serving underrepresented communities. Over 150 years after its humble beginning in a water tank, the Chicagos Public Library's mission has never wavered.

📸 Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Written and compiled by Karishma Kesapragada for Midstory.

Sources:
https://www.chipublib.org/cpl-history/

09/09/2025

Each spring, nearly a million visitors journey to Holland, Michigan, where 6 million tulips bring the city’s streets and historic districts into vibrant bloom. As the festival nears its centennial, the city’s cultural legacy continues to evolve.

The longest-running tulip festival in the U.S. has humble origins. In the fall of 1927, Lida Rogers, a biology teacher at Holland High School, suggested a city beautification project in memory of Holland, Michigan’s founding: a city-wide tulip planting. “[Rogers] petitioned and spoke to the city...

08/09/2025

For over 40 years, fair-goers in Des Moines, Iowa, have had their ears graced with the careful art of competitive husband calling, an Iowa State Fair tradition. Get the scoop behind Iowa’s biggest celebration here.

For over 40 years, fair-goers in Des Moines, Iowa, have had their ears graced with the careful art of competitive husband calling — an Iowa State Fair tradition in which competitors get on stage and call out to their husbands (who may or may not be in the audience) in their own, loud way. While [....

06/09/2025

This shines a light on a hidden gem off of Interstate 94: Take Exit 72, and for the next 32 miles, you will be treated to a view of metal sculptures ranging from geese to Theodore Roosevelt.

Beginning close to Gladstone and ending in Regent, North Dakota, The Enchanted Highway is a collection of statues created by local artist Gary Greff. Most installations in the collection are placed along County Highway 21 and include a parking lot and kiosk. The only exception is “Geese in Flight,” which can be viewed from the Interstate and is the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world.

The first piece to be created was “World’s Largest Tin Family,” constructed in 1991. Greff wanted to make Regent a destination for travelers, a goal which also inspired the transformation of Regent School into Enchanted Castle. The motel and restaurant heightens the atmosphere of enchantment with a medieval theme, tavern and steakhouse.

So the next time you find yourself passing through southwestern North Dakota, take a detour to admire the towering statues. And maybe stop by the Regent gift shop to pick up a sculpture in miniature, too.

Written and compiled by Kiran Hubbard for Midstory.

Sources: https://www.ndtourism.com/articles/gary-greff-enchanted-highway-sculptor
https://www.ndtourism.com/regent/attractions-entertainment/family-fun/enchanted-highway

📸 Images 1 and 2 courtesy of Ken Lund via Flickr.
Images 3-4 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

05/09/2025

To streamline our Slack notifications, our interns each pick a personal emoji reaction. What would you pick? 🤩💻📇

This summer, our ThinkLab program brought 25 students from all across the nation to Toledo, Ohio, to create and dream for the future of our region.🌟🎉🧠 Part of our mission is to get young people invested in our region by showing them what Toledo — and the Midwest — has to offer, and also to inspire them to think toward solutions-crafting for the challenges our community faces.

Read more about our 2025 summer cohort: https://www.midstory.org/2025-summer-interns/
Our 2026 program is now open for applications: https://www.midstory.org/thinklab-college/
(links in bio 🔗)

Video by Evan Blenko for Midstory.

05/09/2025

This week’s highlights the Detroit Photographic Company based in Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit Photographic Company started as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s, launched by William A. Livingston Jr. and Edwin H. Husher. This photographic firm mass-produced colored prints for sale by acquiring the selective rights to the “Photochrom” process.

The Photochrom process was developed in Switzerland and allowed for Detroit Photographic Company to include colored prints in their sales, however, the firm still sold black and white photographic prints. During World War I, new printing methods that permitted mass production were developed, allowing firms competing with the Detroit publishing company to sell their products for cheaper prices. As a result, the Detroit Publishing Company’s business declined until it went into receivership in 1924 and liquidated its assets in 1932.

📸 Photos courtesy of Library of Congress.

Written and compiled by Annie Wang for Midstory.

Sources:
https://www.loc.gov/item/2016815624/
https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/pr272_detroit_publishing/
https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/detroit-photographic-companys-views-north-america-ca-1897-1924

04/09/2025

"The Office" spinoff "The Paper" is set in Toledo, Ohio. 🗞️ Here's how Toledoans feel about it.

Read the full story: https://www.midstory.org/the-paper-is-set-in-toledo-ohio-heres-what-toledoans-think/

Reporting by Desiree Luo, video editing by Evan Blenko and the Midstory team.

03/09/2025

"The Paper," set in Toledo, Ohio, premieres tomorrow. 🗞️ We got the scoop on how Toledoans feel about it.

In the first promo image released for “The Office” spinoff “The Paper,” actor Domhnall Gleeson stands on a desk while speaking to an office of employees.  But while most viewers’ eyes would be drawn to Gleeson, Stephen Gullette zeroed in on the photo’s bottom right corner.  Next to a r...

03/09/2025

From World War II's "Spaghetti Bowl" to America’s first foreign football championship, Toledo, Ohio's "Italian Bowl" marks both a win for international sports tourism and a return to football’s blue-collar spirit.

When the championship game for the Italian Football League touched down in Toledo in June 2025, it brought with it competition between the region’s best Italian restaurants, most athletic mayors, and overqualified football coaches. But the week of festivities that brought over $1.9 million to the ...