This handkerchief, now in the collection of Hennepin History Museum, is one of many commemorative items made to celebrate the centennial of Minnesota’s statehood in 1958. It bears the Minnesota Centennial logo, with one face looking toward the past and one looking [...]
Today, it seems too bizarre to have happened, but it did. What’s more, it happened twice. The John H. Stevens House was transported by schoolchildren. This piece of rope, held in the collection at Hennepin History Museum, is a fragment of one [...]
How will we look back at the events of 2020? A perspective from Augsburg University historians Augsburg University has a rich history going back to 1869 when it became the first seminary founded in America by Norwegian Lutherans. Today the liberal arts [...]
This marching music stand in the collection at Hennepin History Museum was used by a clarinetist in the Minneapolis Journal Newsboys’ Band. It would have screwed into a bracket on the front of the clarinet and held sheet music so that he could see it while [...]
A Minneapolis phone book’s moment of Hollywood fame By Gary Hornseth and Chris Steller Phone book from 1972 that Robert Redford, playing Bob Woodward, reaches for in the movie All the President’s Men. “Say, there, Ma Bell, I love the [...]
The last Saturday in September is Save Your Photos Day. Here is a handy infographic from our archivist with tips on organizing and storing your old photos. Want to print it? Download PDF here
Of all the public high schools in Minneapolis, Central High had the honor of being the first. The roots of Central High School took hold in the 1860s, when Union Elementary School added high school level education to its curriculum. Over its [...]
The phrase “Safe Energy – No Nukes” can be found on protest signs, bumper stickers, and t-shirts like this one in Hennepin History Museum’s collection. The anti-nuclear movement in Minnesota was strong throughout the late 1970s and 80s and left an impression on the environmentalist perspectives of today. The Northern Sun Alliance was a large proponent of the movement and created this shirt with the help [...]
Minneapolis, and the United States as a whole, is facing its history in a new and urgent way. The death of George Floyd has reverberated around the globe, and we in Hennepin County find ourselves at the center of it all. Hennepin History Museum [...]
Madame Mitchell was a talented local milliner in the late nineteenth century and the creator of this hat, which can be found in the collection of Hennepin History Museum. She worked in Chicago for twenty-five years before opening a store on Nicollet Avenue in 1883 which was known for its elegance. She sold hats and bonnets, ribbons and plumage, and many other accessories [...]
