Historic Holidays with MNHS.

Homepage - MNHS.ORG

Featured event

Christmas in the Logging Camp Family Day

Sat., Dec 10, 2022, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

North Woods No. 1, the Forest History Center's recreated 1900s logging camp, comes to life under a blanket of snow during this yearly event.

Featured offerings

Weather Permitting exhibit at the Minnesota History Center.
Then Now Wow exhibit.
Our Home Native Minnesota exhibit now on view.
slider in html

Shop

Find the perfect gift for every history lover on your list!

Enter the Minnesota Mystery Flash Fiction Contest!

Tap into your inner Arthur Conan Doyle and submit a short historical mystery in the Minnesota Mystery Flash Fiction Contest!

Family History LibGuides.

Research your family history

Research your family's history online with our digital resources.

Classroom-ready resources.

Classroom-ready resources

Online and low-tech educational resources to support Minnesota's teachers and students.

Sinclair Lewis, ca. 1915.

Lewis, Harry Sinclair (1885–1951)

From MNopedia: Sauk Centre’s Sinclair Lewis, short story writer, novelist, and playwright, was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

History is Now.

History is Now

We are living in a historic moment. Together, Minnesotans and MNHS are capturing and sharing history in real time. Join us in creating conversations that lead to real connection, deeper reflection, new questions, and purposeful action.

Students on a field trip at the Minnesota History Center.

Field trips

Connect your students with history on a field trip to a MNHS historic site or museum. Scholarships and subsidies are available to offset transportation and admission costs.

True North Cabin Cookbook

New from MNHS Press: Celebrate life in the northland with seasonal foods and cherished stories, as recipes and personal recollections transport readers to a lakeside cabin in the north woods. 

Fund the Patrick Coleman Chair

Help endow our curatorial position for the acquisition and preservation of books and printed materials, and honor Patrick Coleman's legacy.

U.S.-Dakota War of 1862

The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 had a profound impact in shaping Minnesota as we know it today. Learn more about this disastrous time in Minnesota history in our U.S.-Dakota War video series.

Collections Item of the Day: Gopher State

This political cartoon is from 1858. This cartoon answers the age-old (okay, actually 164 year old) question – why are we the Gopher state? This very cartoon started it all. One of the first acts of the legislature of the new state was to amend the brand new constitution, enabling them to issue credit and loan $5 million (or $ 137,000,000 in today’s dollars) to railroad interests. While some were against this, most people supported the amendment: it passed with 25,023 votes in favor and 6,733 against. This cartoon is clearly in the nay column. It shows a railroad car full of bondholders being pulled by nine striped rodents with human heads, representing the legislators (many of whom also had a stake in the railroads). The issue of business looking for money never gets old, does it? Why gophers though? A good theory is that gophers were a major nuisance to homesteaders in the western, prairie-part of the state – the same place the railroads were going. The artist is R. O. Sweeny from Saint Paul; this was published as a broadside when the issue was being debated. From the messy ordeal of state development, we got both the railroads and our nickname.