Explore

The Minnesota Historical Society has been preserving and sharing content since 1849 — nine years before Minnesota's statehood. This set of source-rich projects, stories, and tools represent a gateway into our efforts to bring Minnesota history online.
  • Family portrait.
    Discover materials associated with a particular person or name. Includes birth, death, census, veterans graves, and Gold Star Roll records.
    Minnesota People Records
  • Leather drawstring bag decorated with floral beadwork.
    Search photographs, artifacts, maps and atlases, oral histories, works of art, sound recordings and much more from MNHS Collections.
    Search Collections
  • Start your research here. Tools, library and archival collection guides and information on distance and in-person library services.
    Gale Family Library/Research Help
  • Many newspapers, including "Anishinaabeg Today," arranged on top of one another
    Access to millions of digital newspaper pages through the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub.
    Digital Newspapers
Books

Books

Books we publish on the history, art and culture of the Upper Midwest.

Find a good book to read
magazines

Minnesota History magazine

A lively, richly illustrated magazine published quarterly. Purchase recent issues; issue archive temporarily unavailable.

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MNopedia

Minnesota’s online encyclopedia with entries about significant people, places, events and things in Minnesota history.

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Preservation

​​The Minnesota Historical Society preserves and protects the objects, documents, places, and buildings that make Minnesota home. State legislative archives, grant information and support for local history conservation and preservation projects.

Explore Preservation

Stories and more

Stonewall GLBT button.

LGBTQIA + Communities In Minnesota

LGBTQ stories and historical resources brought together in one place.

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woman looking into camera.

The US Dakota War of 1862

It has been over 150 years since the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, a disastrous time in Minnesota history. The war had a profound impact in shaping Minnesota as we know it today. This site is a resource for learning about the war, its causes, and its far-reaching consequences.

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Group of people.

This Day in Minnesota History

A chronological compendium of remarkable and curious events in the history of the North Star State.

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