Art & Architecture

The Minnesota History Center, which opened in October of 1992, is not only home to the Minnesota Historical Society’s collections it provides a place for visitors to discover their connections to the past. This landmark building houses a museum, library, classrooms, and conference rooms, the 314-seat 3M Auditorium, two museums stores and the renowned Café Minnesota.

Collecting items from the state’s past helps illuminate Minnesota history. The museum’s innovative, interactive exhibits showcase the collections. Visitors can climb aboard a 24-ton box car or experience the extremes of Minnesota weather in a multimedia show that recreates the power of a tornado.

Through the library’s centralized reference area, researchers can gain access to 1,120,000 archaeological objects; 230,000 artifacts; 174,000 books; 346,000 photographs; 19,000 maps; 6,000 paintings, prints and drawings; 36,000 cubic feet of manuscripts; 53,000 cubic feet of government records; and four million issues of 4,000 Minnesota newspapers and periodicals.

These items are kept at the History Center in about 100,000 square feet of storage space. The building’s 427,000 square feet also include 44,000 square feet of museum space and 12,800 square feet of classroom space.

The Minnesota History Center has been called the finest building constructed in Minnesota since the State Capitol was completed in 1905. The building, its art and architecture, and the resources it holds, together form the history – and future – of Minnesota.

Minnesota Profiles
Brooks Family Courtyard
The footprints of the buildings and the street that once extended to the grounds of the History Center return in the form of a courtyard art project by nationally recognized artist Andrew Leicester of Minneapolis.

The sculptural group, Minnesota Profiles, represents the former location of Summit Avenue with bench-height walls designed to depict the foundations of two apartment buildings that gave way to 1960s urban renewal. A series of terra cotta columns marks the edge of where Summit Avenue once crossed what is today’s History Center courtyard. Each column represents a different native Minnesota tree and features a three-dimensional silhouette portrait.

In October 1994, 140 volunteers sat for profile portraits and provided brief personal histories detailing their relationship to Minnesota. Leicester chose 37 profiles. These faces can be found in the 14 ceramic columns. Leicester spun the profiles into terra cotta and incorporated them into the columns. The artwork was unveiled Aug. 13, 1995, but the names of those chosen were not revealed. It will remain a mystery for those participants wondering if their faces inspired the artist.

Live trees provide shade, while the foundation of the sculptures can be used as a place for people to sit or take part in events.

Leicester’s other major projects include the Cincinnati Gateway and the G-Nome Project at Iowa State University.

Charm Bracelet
Floor of Great Hall, Level 1
When artist James Casebere finished his work for the Minnesota Historical Society, the floor itself was a work of art. Ten images, representing Minnesota’s history and character, had been transformed into the components of a giant Charm Bracelet. But that bracelet isn’t whole. Its shattered pieces appear to have fallen into the floor of the Great Hall.

The charms were sculpted out of three-eighths-inch-thick bronze plates, then embedded in concrete. Terrazzo, a black, stone-like substance, was poured over the concrete, encasing the charms.

The charms and what they represent are: tractor (agriculture); printer’s ink roller (communication and freedom of speech); tipi (Minnesota’s American Indian population); mill (Minnesota’s lumbering and flour milling industries); house form Rondo Avenue (African Americans in Minnesota history); power plant (Prairie Island nuclear power plant on the Mississippi River); turtle (Ojibwe totem for medicine and healing); bear (Ojibwe totem for defense and warriors); fish (Ojibwe totem for learning and teachers); and whooping crane (Ojibwe totem for leadership and direction).

Some charms symbolize a sense of loss and irony. The ink roller can represent freedom of speech, or the lack of it. Two of the symbols, the house from Rondo and the power plant from Prairie Island, represent displaced people. St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood was home to a thriving African-American community until the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s. And one of the last remaining populations of Dakota Indians in Minnesota lives on Prairie Island.

The four animal symbols are part of a group of five Ojibwe totems. The fifth totem symbolizes sustenance. In the bracelet it has been replaced by the tractor. The whooping crane, which was placed outside the charm, is an endangered species. The crane’s position in relation to the rest of the charms can be interpreted to mean that it is flying into the light of the Great Hall windows, or that it is flying out of the chain of Minnesota history. Casebere uses it as a metaphor for history in general.

Even the links are symbolic. Crooked linked lines, instead of a smooth circle, represent the chain. This symbolizes an Ojibwe ceremony that reminds participants of life’s temptations to stray from the straight path. American Indian rock carvings and the concept of cyclical time also influenced the artist.

Sky Mural
Level 3 of the Great Hall, West Wall
When you are standing on the third level of the Great Hall, you may get the impression that you are surrounded by windows. That was the inspiration that fueled the work of Bob Bonawitz and Tim Michelson as they completed the sky mural on the north wall. The two men, from Studio Intonaco, are St. Paul artists specializing in murals and frescoes. The names of major Society donors run along the lower right side of the mural. Along the left side, a quotation by Sigurd F. Olson, the Minnesota naturalist and philosopher, reads: “If we can move into an open horizon where we can live in our modern world with the ancient dreams that have always stirred us, then our work will have been done.”

Glass Etchings
Above Entrances
Beautiful glass etchings can be spotted above the John Ireland and Kellogg Boulevard entrances and the courtyard doors. These geometric etchings complement the building’s classic architecture. Brit Bunkley created the sandblasted panels. The panels indirectly refer to Minnesota’s past, culture and geography. He designed the images to be open to multiple interpretations. For example, one etching combines images of grain elevators and printed circuits, representing both agriculture and high technology industry.

Star Motif
Throughout the Building
An eight-pointed star can be seen in the ceiling of the Great Hall and throughout the building. Each pair of points represents the letter M for Minnesota. The star stands for Minnesota, the North Star State. The state was the northernmost state until Alaska joined the union.

History Center Building Facts
The History Center is constructed of granite from Rockville, Minn; travertine (limestone) from Winona, Minn.; copper; Georgia marble; and Minnesota hardwoods.

Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, of Minneapolis, won a national design competition to become the building’s architects. BOR-SON/Knutson was the general contractor.

Percent for Art
The construction budget for the History Center included a Percent for Art appropriation. Minnesota Profiles is the third, and last, of the public art projects incorporated into the History Center. The others are Glass Etchings by Brit Bunkley (windows above the main doors and in the entry hallway) and the inlaid bronze Charm Bracelet sculpture (Great Hall Floor) by James Casebere. Percent for Art is administered by the Minnesota State Arts Board.