Spotlight on Minnesota's Constitutions
Spotlight on Minnesota's Constitutions
Now on view at Minnesota History Center
May 6 – July 5, 2026
Ticket price includes admission to all Minnesota History Center exhibits. MNHS Members get in free.
Why does Minnesota have two nearly identical original constitution documents? Discover why in Spotlight on Minnesota’s Constitutions.
There are two handwritten copies of Minnesota’s state constitution on display in the Spotlight Gallery. Both were written in August 1857.
Why two copies? Because Republican and Democratic delegates to the 1857 constitutional convention insisted on them. The parties never gathered as one: They met in different rooms within Minnesota’s territorial capitol building.
Eventually, five members from each party formed the Constitutional Convention Conference Committee to hammer out an acceptable draft. When it came time to approve the draft, Democrats and Republicans refused to sign a single document.
The solution? Copyists worked through the night of August 28, 1857, to prepare the two documents. They contain hundreds of differences in punctuation and grammar, but their meanings are essentially the same.
Versions of the constitution were printed, and the Minnesota Territory’s voters approved them in October 1857. Two months later, Minnesota’s constitution was submitted to the United States Congress for ratification. On May 11, 1858, the US Congress voted to admit Minnesota as the union’s 32nd state.
Pages of the documents on display will be changed weekly throughout the run of this exhibit. If you visit the Minnesota History Center multiple times during this period, be sure to take a second or third look!
The Spotlight Gallery will be temporarily closed June 2-12, 2026, due to construction in a neighboring gallery.
Additional resources
Funding provided by the State of Minnesota's Legacy Amendment, through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov. 4, 2008, and our generous donors and members.
Sponsor
The Women’s Organization of the Minnesota Historical Society (WOMNHS) was established in January 1949 to advance the Minnesota Historical Society’s core mission: to collect, preserve, and share Minnesota's history.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary in 1999, WOMNHS created the Women’s Organization Sites Enhancement Fund to support projects at the Society’s historic sites.
The Spotlight Gallery is dedicated to WOMNHS, in recognition of its exceptional and enduring support of the Minnesota Historical Society.
