Local History Services joined a Central Minnesota Regional Group meeting in Cokato on October 7. The group gets together four times a year to discuss the work at their museums and offer support and advice to one another. At this meeting, Claudia Nicholson, the “Museum Lady” joined the group to discuss collections management needs at local organizations. Representatives from the Cokato Museum, Stearns History Museum, Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums, Mille Lacs County Historical Society, Sauk Centre Area Historical Society, Rockford Area Historical Society, Eden Valley Historical Society, Delano Franklin Area Historical Society, Wright County Historical Society, Paynesville Area Historical Society, and Meeker County Historical Society were in attendance.
Spotlighted Project: Increasing Access to Historical Healthcare Artifacts
Recipient: Regents of the University of Minnesota (U of M Libraries)
Funded Amount: $103,162.00
Project Details »
NOVEMBER Grants Open House
November 7 - Online: The Grants Office will hold a virtual Grants Office Open House using Google Meet from 2 to 3:30 pm in order to provide additional grants support to our communities. We encourage people to RSVP to Gillian with a short summary of what you want to talk about, and she will try to ensure that someone helpful will be available. Learn more »
Grants Office YouTube Playlist »
This week's blog post is from the MN Jewish Genealogical Society. Have a blog? Let us know!
A Photo Sleuth for the Ages
As a child, Ava Cohn was obsessed with old photos. When other kids were playing outside in the summertime, she says, “I would be inside going through the boxes of (family) photographs, asking my parents ‘Who is this? Who is this?’”
Eventually, that childhood fascination turned into an extraordinary career. Today, she’s known as “Sherlock Cohn, The Photo Genealogist,” and has built an international reputation with her talent for unlocking the secrets hidden in old (especially Jewish) family photos. Cohn will share some of her insights as the featured speaker at an upcoming MNJGS program on Zoom on November 17: “Clued-in: The Stories are in the Details.” Continue Reading »
This week's post is from the Minnesota Historical Society. Have a video channel or podcast? Let us know!
New MNHS Podcast Series "Minnesota Unraveled"
A new podcast by the Minnesota Historical Society pulls on the threads of the past to reveal new perspectives and expand our knowledge of the history we share. Host Dr. Chantel Rodriguez and her guests invite listeners to think like historians and recognize that learning about other people’s lives in the past can be a powerful way to reveal our place in the present. Listen to podcast »
Heritage Preservation YouTube Playlist »
Minnesota Historical Society's Job Announcement, Internship, Fellowship, and Volunteer Opportunity pages.
Additional Job Postings in the Field »
Image used with permission. From the collections of the Hennepin County Library.
Submit your history organization's news and events to localhistorynews@mnhs.org.
Event: 2024 Remembrance Dinner with Col. Jeffrey Williams US Army (Ret.)
November 1 @ 5pm - Duluth: St. Louis County Historical Society and Veterans Memorial Hall - Speaker Colonel Jeffrey Williams, US Army. Col. Williams holds the record for longest time in space for an American man, with over 534 days logged. His work includes time on the International Space Station with Expedition 13 and Expedition 21 as Flight Engineer, and Commander of Expedition 22. In addition to his time in space, Williams spent six days underwater as the commander of NEEMO 3 (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory. Cost: $60. Learn more »
Presentation: Examining Military Service From the Margins
November 2 & 10 @ 1 pm - Winona: Winona County History Center - Despite discrimination and frequent erasure, marginalized groups have continued to serve our country into the present. This two-part series will bring together Veterans and civilians from Minnesota and beyond to examine the experiences of female, Black, American Indian, LGBT, and immigrant service members across U.S. history, and the complicated dynamics behind serving a country that does not always serve you in return. Cost: Free. Learn more »
Presentation: Minnesota women’s clubs throughout the ages
November 6 @ 7 pm - Stillwater: Washington County Heritage Center - Immerse yourself in the ideas, concerns, and activities of rural women’s clubs in Minnesota from 1920-1990s as historian Kate Thomas analyzes the crucial importance of gender history to civic engagement in rural areas. Leave the program with a greater understanding of how rural women’s clubs provided opportunities for women working in the home and on the farm to gain leadership skills and assert their voices publicly at a time when they were often passed over for higher-level government positions or political office. Cost: Free. Learn more »
Presentation: The WASPS of WWII & Ethel Meyer Finley
November 7 @ 6 pm - Winona: Winona County History Center - Frederick Beseler will tell the story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II. He will highlight the stories of Minnesota WASP members, especially Ethel Meyer Finley from Lake City, a graduate of Winona State. She not only became a WASP pilot, but she also became an instructor pilot who taught male Army Air Force cadets to fly during WWII. Cost: Free. Learn more »
Exhibit Opening: Sounds of Lyon County: Ballrooms, Bands, and Music
November 8 @ 4 to 6 pm & November 9 @ 2 to 4 pm - Marshall: Lyon County Museum - Opening reception for the latest exhibit featuring items from the museum’s collection related to ballrooms and bands in Lyon County along with items on loan from individuals and other museums in Lyon County. Learn more »
Workshop: Telling Your Place-Based Stories
November 22 @ 1 to 3 pm - Minneapolis & Online: Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, U of MN - The places in your life tell stories: your stories. Explore how to use place-based storytelling techniques and StoryMaps software to tell YOUR story. This hybrid workshop led by Shana Crosson and Hawona Sullivan Janzen is the first in The Hub's Collaborative Learning for Change series. Cost: Free. Learn more »
Class: Gingerbread Architecture: The Sweet Elements of Design
November 23 @ 11 am - Sauk Centre: Stearns History Museum - Tap your inner architect at this delicious all-ages workshop. Learn the basics of architecture and structural design using everyone’s favorite building materials – gingerbread and frosting. Learning couldn’t be more sweet! Taught by built environment preservation specialists, Evan and Emily, this hands-on interactive workshop shows you how to create your own scrumptious architectural masterpiece. Location: 510 Art Lab. Cost: $15. Learn more »
Explore Minnesota - State of MN's Tourism website
Listings: History & Heritage Events | Historic Exhibits | Lectures & Workshops
Register for an Account »
Highlighted Museum: Prospect House & Civil War Museum, Battle Lake, MN.
Photograph by Farragutful, distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license.
Free to Minnesota Residents. Funds provided by the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society. Learn more »
Looking Ahead with a Long-Range Preservation Plan
January 9, 16, and 23, 2025 @ 10:30 am to 12 pm (CT) - Online: Midwest Art Conservation Center - A Long-Range Preservation Plan (LRPP) will help your institution to prioritize preservation needs and develop concrete goals for the short-, medium-, and long-term. In this 3-session online course participants will draft their own LRPP and learn how to use it to achieve conservation treatment goals and to submit competitive grant proposals for state and federal funding. The course will also focus on key concepts of preventive conservation and how to assess preservation goals at your institution. This workshop includes group participation activities and a recommended 4-6 hours of independent work time outside of class. Cost: FREE Minnesota Residents/$400 Non-Minnesota residents.
Write (or Re-Write) Your Emergency Plan
February 12, 19, and 26, 2025 @ 10:30 am to 12 pm (CT) - Online: Midwest Art Conservation Center - This online course will cover the fundamentals of Emergency Preparedness, explain the essential components of an Emergency Plan, and walk participants through the steps to develop a plan for their own organizations. Provisions for both major and minor emergencies will be discussed, as well as how to address a disaster within a larger emergency. Participants will work with a plan template and will customize it for their own needs and risk factors. Each participant will be required to complete an institutional risk assessment questionnaire (time estimate 2-4 hours) and work on their own institution’s plan (time estimate 4-6 hours) between the sessions. They will conclude with a draft of their new Emergency Plan to share with their institution and board. Cost: FREE Minnesota Residents/$400 Non-Minnesota residents.
Interpreting Energy at Museums and Historic Sites
November 7 @ 2 to 3:15 pm - Online: American Association for State and Local History - Join Dr. Leah Glaser, author of Interpreting Energy at Museums and Historic Sites, for a discussion on historic energy use and its relevance to contemporary energy issues, focusing on public engagement with cultural and socioeconomic factors contributing to climate change. Glaser will explore how cultural institutions can reinterpret historic places to inspire new narratives about energy production and use. Cost: $25 members/$45 nonmembers. Learn more »
Strategy, Planning, and Outcomes: Bridging your strategy work with ground-level impacts
November 7 @ 12 to 1 pm (CT) - Online: Propel Nonprofits - Explore the connections between organizational strategy and service impacts. You will walk away from this webinar with an understanding of the nine gears of effective nonprofits, strategy planning frameworks, and the practical application of outcomes development. Cost: Free. Learn more »
Virtual Workshop: Putting It All Together: Preparing for 2026 at Small History Organizations
November 21 @ 11 am to 3 pm (CT) - Online: American Association for State and Local History - The U.S. 250th is an opportunity to share history that tells everyone’s story and to strengthen the history field. AASLH has developed key resources to help practitioners both conceptually and concretely plan for this commemoration’s transformative potential. Attend this workshop to learn about the Making History at 250 field guide, our new handbook of low-resource programming ideas, and how to effectively apply these tools to your site or organization. Cost: $45 members/$65 nonmembers. Learn more »
2025 Annual Conference-Call for session proposals
American Association for State and Local History - The AASLH 2025 Annual Conference will be held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 10-13. Session proposals are now being accepted and are due on December 13. The theme of the conference is The American Experiment. As we approach America 250, we history practitioners can help the public at large explore the origins of our civic institutions, think critically about how they’ve changed, and how they will actively shape our nation for the next 250 years. Learn more »
Join us at one of the Minnesota Historical Society's FREE Local History Workshops in Minnesota, where you can learn how to edit Wikipedia, share your community's local history, show relevancy, and promote your museum/organization.
Whether you're curious about how information gets added to Wikipedia or want to find new ways to share your community's history, this workshop will boost your confidence in editing the world's largest encyclopedia. In this workshop you will also learn how to use AI to help you write your Wikipedia articles and how Wikipedia can help your museum. The cost is free, and lunch is provided, but registration is required. Learn more »
Workshop Agenda
Additional Educational Opportunities »
Museum Grants for American Latino History and Culture
November 15 - (Deadline): Institute of Museum and Library Services - This program supports projects that build the capacity of American Latino history and culture museums to serve their communities, and broadly advance the growth and development of a professional workforce in American Latino cultural institutions. Learn more »
Save America's Treasures
December 12 - (Deadline): Institute of Museum and Library Services - This Historic Preservation Fund grant program is designed to support the preservation of nationally significant historic properties and collections, the grant program is competitive and requires a dollar-for-dollar match. Individual properties or collections that received an SAT grant in the past are not eligible for additional funding. Learn more »
Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions
January 9, 2025 - (Deadline): National Endowment for the Humanities - Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized organizations preserve and manage humanities collections, ensuring their significance for a variety of users, including source communities, humanities researchers, students, and the public, by building their capacity to identify and address physical and intellectual preservation risks. Learn more »
Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
January 10, 2025 - (Deadline): National Endowment for the Humanities - Cultural institutions can effectively preserve humanities collections for future generations by implementing environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies that manage environmental conditions and protect against disasters. There are three levels of funding for environmentally sustainable preventive care projects: Planning (up to $50,000) for strategy development, Implementation Level I (up to $100,000) for addressing specific challenges, and Implementation Level II (up to $350,000) for large or multifaceted challenges identified by a professional team. Learn more »
2025 Tribal Nations Tourism Grant Program
Explore Minnesota - The intention of the grant program is to support development and promotion as it pertains to forming or expanding sustainable tourism assets, culture, heritage, arts, agritourism, and outdoor recreation for the economic benefit of the 11 federally recognized Tribal Nations and their communities in Minnesota. Learn more »
2025 Recovery Grant Program
Explore Minnesota - Providing funds to individual and collaborative nonprofit Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and other tourism promotion organizations by providing funds for the purpose of tourism marketing and promotion for the economic benefit of their communities. Learn more »
Additional Funding & Award Opportunities »
A content update to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub today added 6,159 new issues and 88,280 new newspaper pages.
New publicly available titles & date spans:
New issues for the years 2009-2015 were also added to several existing current newspaper titles, available to view only in the MNHS Library.
Effort underway to save home of first Black resident in Fergus Falls
FOX 9 — A home on East Summit Avenue in Fergus Falls currently serves as the office for a local nonprofit, but it is also an important piece of the city's history. "It not only tells about the diversity of our community, it tells that great story about the movement west of people after the civil war," said Chris Schuelke, Executive Director of the Otter Tail Historical Society. Watch Video »
The Creepy Doll Contest Is Back—and It’s Time to Cast Your Vote for the Most Terrifying Toy
Smithsonian — With Halloween on the horizon, it’s time to get into the spooky spirit. And what better way to do that than by looking at photos of eerie vintage dolls? The History Center of Olmsted County in Rochester, Minnesota, is once again hosting its annual Creepy Doll Contest. Back for its sixth year, the competition shines a spotlight on the museum’s collection of terrifying toy dolls. Continue reading »
You’ve heard of pop-up stores; Minneapolis has pop-up voting sites
StarTribune — ...The first pop-up was at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and attracted a long line of voters. City spokesman Allen Henry said 637 voters voted at the art museum Tuesday, which he said was a “new record for pop-up voting not just for the city, but the entire state of Minnesota.”... Continue reading »
Judy Garland's famed ruby slippers were stolen here in 2005. Now you can tour the crime scene
INFORUM — The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, offers a curator-guided tour explaining how the theft went down. It was the worst moment in the museum's history. Continue reading »
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Featured BookSo Cold! by John Coy and illustrated by Chris Park. Minnesota Historical Society Press. Author Event |
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Origins of the Vietnamese Community at St. Adalbert Church, St. Paul |
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Minnesota History Organizations Directory• County, Chapters, and Local |
Minnesota Main Streets |
Preservation Specialists Directory |
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