On April 16, Minnesota Historical Society staff members James Fogerty and Charles Lenz presented to the Dalai Lama a Tibetan Oral History Project that they completed last year. His Holiness the Dalai Lama accepted this set of oral history transcripts in front of nearly 2,000 people at the Minneapolis Convention Center. 

The transcripts represent interviews with 22 members of Minnesota’s Tibetan community – the second largest in the nation – and document the lives of a diverse group of Tibetan immigrants. The interviews share stories of emigration, resettlement, adjustment to life in the United States, and in some cases, also recount dramatic tales of escape from Tibet to India. 

It’s time to visit the Society’s statewide historic sites, which are now open for the season. Learn the story of Minnesota’s past through interactive and engaging museum exhibits. You can search for images carved into a red quartzite rock ridge thousands of years ago, hear the tales of chambermaids working in the first territorial governor’s Victorian mansion, and marvel at the beauty of a historic lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior. These experiences and more await you at the Minnesota Historical Society’s historic sites. Looking for the perfect road-trip book? Check out “Minnesota Vacation Days” (it can provide inspiration for your next fun excursion, too!).

Hours and programs at the sites may have changed. Please check in advance for hours and admission fees. Call 651-296-6126 for a free copy of the Society’s “Come visit your place in history” travel guide.

Kids will have a blast at Mill City Museum this summer. Choose from one of two camps:

• History and Book Arts Camp, Aug. 14 - 18
  Kids ages 8 to 10 will spend a fun-filled week at Mill City Museum and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. They’ll explore different museum themes every morning through activities like baking bread and testing recipes in the Baking Lab, hiking the Minneapolis riverfront, watching a grain dust explosion and getting their hands wet in the Water Lab. After lunch each day, they’ll walk to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) for journal making and writing, papermaking, printmaking, and book making. Register today!

• Minnesota Eats Day Camp, Aug. 28 – Sept. 1
  Children ages 10 to 12 can eat their way through history while experiencing five metro-area historic sites in five days! Mill City Museum, the Kelley Farm, the Ramsey House, Historic Fort Snelling and the History Center are sites where kids will learn how foods and food preparation have changed throughout history. Participants will bake bread, hike the Mississippi riverfront, and tour the Washburn A Mill. They’ll also help bring in the harvest, cook over a hearth fire and learn about life as a 19th-century soldier. Register before June 30 and save $10!

Don’t miss this traveling exhibition – focusing on the controversial Berlin Olympics of 1936 – at the History Center in St. Paul. On loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the exhibit explores ways in which the Nazis used the Games for military training, pageantry and propaganda.

Because of the Nazi party’s rise to power, the Berlin Olympics became a worldwide focus of controversy. Observers in the United States and other Western nations questioned whether participation in the games would represent an endorsement of Adolf Hitler’s regime. Others argued that sports should remain separate from politics. Examine for yourself the tensions that characterized the 1936 Games, and learn how the Berlin Olympics ignited debates about racism and anti-semitism in the U.S. and around the world.

On May 27, join us for Hau Koda, the free grand re-opening of the Lower Sioux Agency located near Morton. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., you can tour the site grounds, which include an 1861 stone warehouse, walking trails, gardens and a tipi. There will be hands-on activities for children, including Dakota games such as double ball and the moccasin game, as well as baseball, hoops, and cup-and-ball. See how to put up a tipi and learn to plant agency and Dakota gardens. Please join us!

You won’t want to miss this year’s free Mill City Live concert series, held in Mill City Museum’s stunning Ruin Courtyard. Enjoy some of the hottest local music from 6 to 8 p.m. as well as dramatic views of the Mississippi River. A cash bar and food by D’Amico make this the perfect happy hour…grab your co-workers and head to Mill City Museum!

Brian Szott, Society curator of art, writes, "I am especially fond of this recent acquisition, an oil painting from 1917 by well-known Minneapolis artist, Frances Cranmer Greenman (1890-1981). This small (18 x 24”), intimate painting portrays her husband John Greenman relaxing with a book on a December night early in their marriage. I especially like how the match used to light John Greenman’s cigarette highlights his entire face. The colors seem so fresh and contemporary. What I would give for a pair of those silk pajamas and the time to relax with a good book!” Browse more than 117,000 additional historic images.

May and June are perfect months for exploring the northern part of the state. Leave city life behind as you trek north through the center of the Minnesota. Help with 1860s-era chores at the Oliver H. Kelley Farm, visit the boyhood home of aviator and environmentalist Charles A. Lindbergh, deepen your understanding of the lives and culture of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, then experience what life was like in a turn-of-the-century logging camp at the Forest History Center. Each site offers plenty of activities for visitors of all ages, as well as beautiful surroundings in which to simply relax.

Now is the perfect time to:

• Volunteer your time! We need your help for the Birth Records data entry project. Call 651-284-0434 to sign up today.

• Bring kids to Historic Fort Snelling for the kick-off to “Fort Kids: A Child’s Work and Play” summer program. May 27 and 28, Historic Fort Snelling.

• Make a gift to the Society’s Annual Fund to support the preservation and sharing of our state’s history for future generations.

When calling the Society’s general number, please use area code 651 (not 612). The correct phone number is 651-296-6126. We love hearing from you and are ready to answer your questions!

History Day, a nationwide social studies enrichment program, helps more than 700,000 students throughout the country get excited about and engaged with history. Last year, more than 25,000 Minnesota students participated in the annual competition.

The theme for this year’s History Day competition is “Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events.” Students who placed first or second at the Minnesota competition on April 30, 2006, are eligible to compete in the National History Day competition in Washington D.C. in June. Good luck, Minnesota History Day students!

Gear up for two memorable new exhibits at the History Center: ‘Red Wing Retro: Extraordinary Pottery, Everyday Life,’ opens July 1. Funding for the exhibit was provided by Red Wing Pottery.

‘Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust,’ on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and sponsored by Target, opens July 20. Escape the July heat by bringing your out-of-town friends and family members to the air-conditioned History Center, and plan to have lunch in the acclaimed Café Minnesota as part of your visit!

The Minnesota Historical Society began actively documenting the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) community in the early 1970s. Since then, the Collections Department has either added to or identified within its collection more than 200 artifacts that have GLBT association.

The artifacts in this collection reflect well-known events and people as well as the lives of ordinary Minnesotans.