Minnesota Historical Society

Education, Outreach, and Content Development: MNHS develops Minnesota history curriculum, provides teacher education, and coordinates the Minnesota History Day program, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. Nearly 17,000 students from around Minnesota participated in History Day, with 64 students representing Minnesota in the national competition. Those students were awarded 7 medals, 3 finalists, and 7 honorable mentions. MNHS is undertaking the revising of Northern Lights, a print and digital curriculum used by more than 90% of sixth graders in the state, and expects to publish the third edition of Northern Lights in 2026. Dear Jacob: A Mother's Journey of Hope was the bestselling title from MNHS Press. The memoir by Patty Wetterling and Joy Baker tells the story of a mother, a family, and a community who never gave up hope for their kidnapped son, Jacob. The book's message resonated with readers, making up more than half of new book sales and 20% of overall sales for MNHS Press in FY 24. Through a sponsorship from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, MNHS distributed thousands of free resources to Minnesota educators that introduce Dakota and Ojibwe culture, history, and arts. The free resources were all claimed within the first seven hours.

Library and Collections: Our library and collections departments maintain and make available to the public the MNHS' collection of books, newspapers, maps, objects, photographs, works of art, oral history recordings, private manuscripts, and periodicals on Minnesota history. MNHS catalogs, restores, and digitizes documents and records to make them available for public use. MNHS gained 711 new acquisitions in FY24 across manuscripts, fine art, 3D, sound/visual, and maps/rare books. This includes a flight cap worn by Charles Lindbergh during a 1933 North Atlantic survey with his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, that lasted five months and covered nearly 30,000 miles over four continents. More than one million pages of current and historic newspapers were added to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub in FY24; more than 6.6 million pages are now available.

Heritage Preservation: Our Heritage Preservation department provides technical assistance and grants for historic preservation, administers grant programs supporting projects in preservation and interpretation of Minnesota history, and administers the National Historic Preservation Act in Minnesota. In FY24, more than $7.8 million was provided by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund for 174 Legacy Grants across Minnesota. Demand for these grants outweighs resources 2.25 to 1, and more than 76 counties have received $100,000 or more in Legacy history funds since 2009.