Finding Aids
New Finding Aids
The business activities and personal lives of three generations of the James J. Hill family are revealed in this collection
of correspondence, diaries, financial records, maps, printed material, photographs, scrapbooks, railroad, land, mining, and other corporate records.
U.S. General Land Office. Registers of Indian Allotment Entries
Included in the U.S. General Land Office records,
Crookston, Duluth, and St. Cloud districts, are indexes to allotments made under the 1887 Dawes Act and the 1889 Nelson Act. The indexes can help you find information about individuals who applied for allotted acreages on several of the state's reservations.
Browse Finding Aids by Name
Select a letter below to browse an alphabetical list of finding aids by the names of creators.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I-K | L
M | N | O-Q | R | S | T | U-V | W-Z
What is a Finding Aid?
A finding aid is a users guide to a collection at the Minnesota Historical Society. Its purpose is to help you discover specific materials within each collection and identify where those materials are located.
A finding aid may describe personal or family papers, business or government records, photographs, sound recordings, moving images, oral histories, or print publications.
A finding aid has at least two parts. The first is an overview that explains what the collection is, who created it, when, and what materials or topics are included. The second is a detailed description that lists the contents of the collection. The list will not identify every item, but it will give enough detail to help you discover parts you can explore further by visiting the Library.
The finding aids on our web site represent less than 10% of our collections. To learn more about other collections, search our catalog.
Featured Finding Aids
Gordon & Ferguson RecordsPhotographs, scrapbooks, sales catalogs, stock certificates, financial and other business records focus on the products and history of Gordon & Ferguson and several other related furriers and outerwear manufacturing companies.
National Defense Vocational Training Photographs
Images from the 1940s show men and women taking aptitude tests and training and working in various occupations.
Norton & Peel Photograph Collection
Over 21,000 negatives, photoprints, and albums that focus on the commercial photography of C.J. Hibbard, Walter Norton, and Clifford Peel are detailed in a new inventory to the Norton & Peel photograph collection.
Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association Records
An alphabetical index (in PDF format) has been added to the records of the Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association. The index can help you find information about public school teachers who applied for retirement funds between 1915 and 1931.
Stillwater State Prison Convict Registers
Alphabetical indexes (in PDF format) have been added to the finding aid for the Minnesota State Prison Convict Registers. These indexes can help you find the inmate number for individuals imprisoned at Stillwater, 1854-1902.
Hubert H. Humphrey PapersAn inventory to the papers of Minneapolis Mayor, United States Senator, and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey has been updated. The collection includes materials from all three public offices as well as his family and personal life, 1968 presidential campaign, and 1970 senatorial campaign.
Marvin Krinke World War II Photograph Collection
Images captured by a US Army photographer feature a self-portrait, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, destruction outside Rome and Marseilles, soldiers, St. Peter's Altar, European towns, a snow scene, and bullet tracer trajectories at night
James J. Hill Papers: Selected Digital Items
Digitized versions of selected correspondence, clippings, and reports from the General Correspondence and Northern Pacific Reorganization series of the James J. Hill papers.
David Ramsey Dakota War Letter
A private in Company B of the Sixth Minnesota wrote to his cousin about prairie life and the Union's cause while he was stationed at Forest City, Minnesota to build a stockade during the U.S.-Dakota Conflict.
Richard Ferrell Flour Milling Industry History Collection
Marketing and promotional items, cookbooks, newsletters, architectural drawings, and photographs provide a 140 year overview of flour milling, milling companies, and mill products. Particularly strong in its coverage of Minnesota-based millers, especially Pillsbury, the collection also includes materials from neighboring states, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada.
Photographs from this collection are available in the Photo & Art Database.
Edward D. Neill and Family Papers
48 carte de visites and tintypes have been added to the Edward D. Neill and Family Papers.
Selected images are available in the Photo & Art Database.
Edward A. Walker Civil War Letters
Two letters (June 25, 1861 and September 9, 1863) written by Edward A. Walker, a private in Company D of the First Minnesota Infantry, to his friend George W. Knight provide a soldier's perspective on troop movements, camp life, and the cities of New York, N.Y. and Alexandria, Virginia.
A volume of handwritten sermons originally presented to the Bishop Seabury Divinity School in Faribault, Minnesota has been added to the papers of Bishop Henry B. Whipple.
The vice presidential, ambassadorial, and personal papers of Walter F. Mondale are listed in a preliminary inventory that will continue to be updated as the Walter F. Mondale papers are processed with support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities between July 2008 and June 2010.
Finding aids that list Mondale's senatorial papers, campaign files, and sound and visual recordings are available in the Library.
Arthur H. Jensen Minneapolis-Moline Negative Collection
More than 14,000 black and white negatives provide a thirty year glimpse of the Minneapolis-Moline Company, its products, offices, manufacturing facilities, executives, employees, and enthusiasts.
Finding Aids: Numerical | Topical
Selected images are available in the
Photo & Art Database.
