8 min read

Local History News: August 16, 2023

Joe Hoover Aug 16, 2023 2:23:00 PM

Local History News - Minnesota Historical Society, Heritage Preservation

Field Note

Composite image three photos. 1-PRIDE letters 6 feet high and in rainbow colors. 2-Booth of the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. 3-MNHS Staff standing in front of 10th Anninversary of Marriage Equality Exhibit

Saturday, August 12 the Minnesota Historical Society joined the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County at Fargo-Moorhead Pride's "Pride in the Park" event at the Bluestem Center for the Arts, Moorhead, MN. This was the first appearance for the Minnesota Historical Society and the second for the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County at the event. Afterward, Joe Hoover from Local History Services, stopped by the Hjemkomst Center to see the new exhibit "At Last: 10th Anniversary of Marriage Equality in Minnesota" which explores the road to marriage equality in Minnesota and the impacts of the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Heritage Preservation Grants

Grants Office Webinar: First Steps Towards a Grant
August 17 @ 2 to 3 pm (CT) - Online: In this webinar, you will learn what you need to do to register for a grants portal login, how to apply, what the grant programs offer, what they can fund, and which resources are available for applicants. If you have never applied for a grant before or would like to hear about the basic process again, this webinar is for you. Presented by Grants Associate Gillian Maguire.
Join online: meet.google.com/zwx-krei-com
Join by phone: ‪(US) +1 386-361-3086‬ PIN: ‪420 891 978‬#

Small Grant Deadline
The next small grant deadline (requests of $10,000 or less) for the MHCHG program is Friday, October 13, 2023.

From the Blog

This week's blog post is from Blue Earth County Historical Society. Have a blog? Let us know!

Photo showing front and side of house that was purchased

We Bought A House!
In November of 2021, the Blue Earth County Historical Society shared our BOLD vision to expand the History Center. That’s a big bold vision that will take many steps, partners, dollars and planning. To achieve this vision, we realized early on that we need to take small steps to realize the dream. So, the first BOLD step is to purchase the house next to the History Center, to allow for future expansion. We’re happy to report that BOLD Step #1 has been accomplished thanks for BOLD History Heroes like you! Continue Reading »

From the Tube

This week's post is from Stevens County Historical Society. Have a video channel or podcast? Let us know!

Emelia Eck Profile
The Stevens County History Museum, in Morris, Minnesota, spotlights an extraordinary historic Stevens County woman. Watch Video »

Job Opportunities

Minnesota Historical Society's Job Announcement, Internship, Fellowship, and Volunteer Opportunity pages.

MNHS

Project Manager III - MN History Center
Facilities Maintenance Technician - Snake River Fur Post

LOCAL

Operations Manager - Glensheen Historic Estate, Duluth, MN
Membership Director - Duluth Children's Museum, Duluth, MN
Archeological Technician - Grand Portage National Monument, National Park Service, Grand Portage, MN
Collections Management Database Specialist - Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Tour Tech - Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN

REGIONAL

Annual Giving Coordinator - Wisconsin Historical Foundation, Madison, WI
State Archives Facility Operations Asst. - Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI
Program Administrative Coordinator - Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI
Art Museum Educator - John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
Exhibit Carpenter/ Fabricator - Betty Brinn Children's Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Academic Programs, Membership, and Event Coordinator - Hoover Presidential Foundation, West Branch, IA

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Museum Program Coordinator - Arlington Heights Historical Museum, Arlington Heights, IL
Museum Technician II - Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL
Digital Archivist - Naperville Heritage Society at Naper Settlement, Naperville, IL
Museum Program Coordinator - Arlington Heights Historical Museum, Arlington Heights, IL
Farm Museum Programs Supervisor - Fischer Farm, Bensenville, IL
Experience Coordinator - Historic New Harmony, University of Southern Indiana
Evansville, IN
Sacred Places Indiana Grants Manager - Indiana Landmarks, Indianapolis, IN
Programming & Content Coordinator - Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, IN
Events and Volunteer Coordinator - Massillon Museum, Massillon, OH
Director - Heritage Sylvania, Sylvania, OH
Museum Educator: STEM Engagement - The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art and Technology, Newark, OH
Curator - Gilmore Car Museum, Hickory Corners, MI
Assistant Curator of Collections Management - Sloan Museum of Discovery, Flint, MI
Contractor for US 250th Programming Handbook - American Association for State and Local History, Nashville, TN
Museums Collections Assistant - Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, Winnipeg, MB
Assistant Exhibit Curator - Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, Winnipeg, MB
Program Interpreter Level II - Children's Museum, Winnipeg, MB
Program Interpreter Level II Bilingual - Children's Museum, Winnipeg, MB

Additional Job Postings in the Field »

Do History Here

Photo of two women in victorian dress holding hands over a stream. Text on photo says Where the Mississippi starts
Image used with permission. From the collections of the Beltrami County Historical Society.

Submit your history organization's news and events to localhistorynews@mnhs.org.

Presentation: Remembering Beltrami's Adventures
August 17 @ 12 pm - Bemidji: Beltrami County Historical Society - Two hundred years ago, aristocrat and author Giacomo Beltrami left Italy and traveled to the United States, ultimately making a pilgrimage to Minnesota and Red Lake Nation. Giacomo Costantino Beltrami is the county's namesake, but what do you know of this daring adventurer? Historian and author Leo Soukup transports attendees to 1863 using Beltrami's own writings. Cost: Free. Learn more »

South Front Street Historic Pub Crawl
August 22 @ 6 pm - Mankato: Blue Earth County Historical Society - Come to this unique historic walking tour of the 400 and 500 blocks of Mankato’s South Front Street on Tuesday. But this isn’t any ordinary walking tour, the twist includes stops at Blue Bricks, Ummie’s, and The Square Deal; each with its own musical past and stories to tell. Cost: $25 members/$30 nonmembers. Learn more »

Presentation: Equality at the Ballot Box: Votes for Women on the Northern Great Plains
August 24 @ 7 pm - Albert Lea: Freeborn County Historical Museum - The book Equality at the Ballot Box is made up of compiled original essays from different scholars that illuminate key aspects of the movement. These scholars uncover previously untold stories of the women who traveled immense distances to win over a diverse, often contentious public. Cost: Free members/$5 nonmembers. Learn more »

Saving Your Stuff: how to care for art, heirlooms, and personal collections
August 24 @ 2 pm - St. Peter: Nicollet County Historical Society - Treaty Site History Center - Learn about the "ten agents of deterioration" from Megan Narvey is the Outreach Conservator at the Minnesota Historical Society, and how to preserve and protect the things you value. There will be a presentation followed by an open question and answer period. Recommendations for how to find additional resources will be provided at the event. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Book Reading: The Search for Beltrami's Heart
August 25 @ 10:30 am - Bemidji: Beltrami County Historical Society - Author John Eggers will take us back to 1823 and Beltrami's adventures through his book "The Search for Beltrami's Heart." Eggers will read his book and be available after the reading to answer questions and sign copies of his book. The Beltrami County Historical Society is giving away FREE copies of his book to each family attending the program AND throughout the day. After our program, stay for a piece of celebration cake and walk through their special Beltrami exhibit. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Continuing Education

North Oaks Farm Dairy Building
Highlighted Museum: North Oaks Farm, Dairy Building pictured, operated by the Hill Farm Historical Society, North Oaks MN.
Photograph by McGhiever, distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license.

Practical Preservation: Applied Approaches to Collections Care
August 22 @ 10 am (CT) – Online: Texas Historical Commission - Learn about ways to implement preservation practices that are feasible and sustainable. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Centering Historic Preservation in Community
August 25 @ 11 am (CT) – Online: Museum Association of New York - Learn about one site's journey to address a building's needs with limited resources. Cost: Free. Learn more »

Arsenic in Collections
September 6 @ 12 pm (CT) – Online: Connecting to Collections Care - Learn about methods for detection, personal protective equipment, and how to work with these collections safely and effectively. Cost: Free. Learn more »

TIPS & TOOLS

Advocating for Social Justice Work in Museums - Margaret Middleton
History in handwriting: family archives in public history - National Council on Public History

Additional Educational Opportunities »

Funding & Awards

Americans and the Holocaust: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association - Libraries can apply to host the Americans and the Holocaust exhibit that will travel in a second round from 2024 to 2026. This traveling exhibition examines the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. Learn more »

Laura Jane Musser Fund
The fund was established by the estate of Laura Jane Musser of Little Falls, MN to continue the personal philanthropy which she practiced in her lifetime.

Rural Initiative
September 1 thru October 2, 2023 - (Applications accepted): Through the Rural Initiative, the Laura Jane Musser Fund encourages collaborative and participatory efforts among residents in rural communities that will help to strengthen their towns and regions. The applicant community must have a population of 10,000 or fewer. Program planning grants up to $5,000 and program implementation grants up to $25,000 will be considered.
Learn more »

Intercultural Harmony Initiative
September 15 thru October 16, 2023 - (Applications accepted): Through the Intercultural Harmony Initiative, the Laura Jane Musser Fund supports projects that promote mutual understanding and cooperation between groups of community members of different cultural backgrounds. Project planning grants up to $5,000 or implementation grants up to $25,000 will be considered. New programs or projects in their first three years are eligible.
Learn more »

News

Beltrami County Historical Society Awarded National Endowments for the Humanities
Grant
Beltrami County Historical Society was awarded a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its project, Collections Care Training Prioritized for Responsive and Proactive Preservation. The Historical Society was among 61 awardees of 114 eligible applications in this grant round. The grant, valued at $8,910, will be used to train staff and volunteers at Beltrami County Historical Society to deliver appropriate collections care in response to action items outlined in the Society’s 2022 Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) study. Continue reading »

Historical society asks county to restore funding, include rate of inflation
Moose Lake Star Gazette — County commissioners to consider revising their annual funding from $40,000 in 2023 to $54,000 for 2024. The county is the main benefactor of the Historical Society. In a letter to the commissioners, Historical Society Executive Director Carol Klitzke and Society Board Chairperson Emily Swanson pointed out that the asking was more a restoration than an increase. Continue reading »

Vietnam War vets share their stories at exhibit grand opening
Marshall Independent — Residents had a rare opportunity on Tuesday to get a firsthand look at the Vietnam War. A group of about 70 people visited the Lyon County Museum for a grand opening of the new Vietnam War exhibit along the Veterans Wall. The event included a panel of six speakers who shared their experiences as soldiers in Vietnam. Continue reading »

Ask Us: No certain answer on why dey gave Darfur (MN) dat der name
Mankato Free Press — Q: In the July, 29, 2023, edition of The Free Press, an article focused on the concern that the war in Sudan, a country in Africa, would spread to its Darfur region. It went on to say that the region was also the site of war crimes two decades ago. I don’t think there were any war crimes in Darfur, Minnesota, but what is the connection between the name of this small town in Watonwan County and the region in Africa? Continue reading »

Come Inside the Healing Hut
Minnesota Women's Press – I have always been curious about building structures. I built dolls from sticks and scraps when I was a kid in a Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. As an alleged adult, I’m still building structures, and now they’re bigger, bolder, and will hopefully change the world. Continue reading »


Featured Book The Great Get-Together, Author Karlyn Coleman, Illustrator Cori Doerrfeld Minnesota Historical Society Press. Book Launch Date: August 26 @ 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Location: Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, MN	Featured Article Minnesota History “I Thought I Would Wright You a Few Lines”: Solomon G. Comstock and Civil War Veteran Pensions Volume 68, Issue 3, 2022	Featured Article MNopedia Wealthy Apple Featured MNopedia Article

Minnesota History Organizations Directory • County, Chapters, and Local • Statewide/Topical Historical • Regional History Coalitions • Professional Organizations	Minnesota Main Streets Reinvigorate your community's commercial district.	Preservation Specialists Directory Look up products or services.

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