Meeting the Moment

May 8, 2025

Dramatic technological, cultural, and systemic change has been swirling around us all for many years now. As historians who look back at key moments and movements that have shaped our world, it is a strange feeling to realize that we are living in such a time ourselves. But this gives us a great opportunity to do our job to document history as it is happening, and to provide a historical perspective on current events to help people make sense of things. 

The intense pace of actions coming out of Washington D.C. over the last four months have made the last few years seem almost serene. And the first question I often get from friends and acquaintances is "how are you doing, do you have federal funding that is at risk?" Fortunately, the short answer for Hennepin History Museum is that we don't have any federal grants. 

But the long answer evokes a series of additional questions to raise. What will happen if The Smithsonian, a standard-bearer and resource in our field, is significantly harmed? Will the Institute of Museum and Library Services still exist to help organizations like ours for future grant opportunities that we will need? Similarly, if the National Endowment for the Humanities can no longer fund state humanities centers and National History Day, what does that do to the infrastructure of public history in this region, state, and nation? 

And that is just looking at one aspect of organizational health in this field. The bigger issues that are playing out with pressure exerted on colleges, universities, and independent non-profits everywhere is how much or in what ways these organizations are willing to have their operations and values dictated from outside their community. The impacts of these questions are reverberating in the news every day. 

For our part, Hennepin History Museum is committed to defending our most core values and activities. For a number of years now we've been on a journey to present relevant, compelling history in our communities, and we believe that this grassroots activity is more important than ever. Here are a few examples of work from just this last year that we have done, as well as what we are planning for the year ahead. 

• The exhibit In Memoriam: Residents of Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery features the oldest cemetery in Minneapolis, which became the final resting place for the average citizens of Minneapolis, including immigrants, African Americans, women, children, pioneers, and veterans. After the exhibit opened last fall, Pioneers & Soldiers received notice from the National Park Service that they were being designated as part of the Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. In the past month, this program was removed from the Park Service's website but was reinstated a couple weeks later.  We are partnering with the cemetery on an event on June 7 to honor this important designation. The underground railroad operator and the three freedom seekers resting in Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery give all of us inspiration for how to live our lives today. 

• In partnership with Professor Christopher Lehman from St. Cloud State University, we are developing an exhibit to open this fall about the remarkable life of Eliza Winston and how it sheds light on the abolition movement in Minnesota that helped shape our state's culture and values. 

• Since 2022 we have expanded our programming beyond the Hahá Wakpádaŋ oral histories to offer more indigenous-led programming focused on environmental history and culture, including the tremendously popular Dakota Plant Walks both last year and this spring. 

• Hennepin Fest is a brand-new program on May 31 that showcases authentic voices from our community, bringing people together to celebrate the rich history of women in art and music in Minnesota. 

• Hennepin History magazine continues to evolve with relevant content as highlighted by a recent excerpt from a new book about Cornbread Harris, known as the father of the Minneapolis Sound, and, in our current issue, articles that highlight the confluence of art and power locally. 

• Our summer walking tours put local history and public policy into context, helping people understand the local impact of federal environmental law (Skunk Hollow: the Story of a Swamp in St. Louis Park), learn the history of local government corruption and reform (A Raucous Ramble Around Minnehaha Falls), see neighborhood creation and revitalization up close (Washburn Fair Oaks Park), and experience the results of community action for urban beautification and activism (Lyn-Lake Street Art). 

• With the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder upon us we will continue to showcase local artists who have documented these events to try to put them in a historical context. And we will continue to explore history from further back in time that illuminates our present situation. 

 This current moment has prompted us to take a fresh look at the pledge we made in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. In that moment, we had just finished hosting the groundbreaking exhibit Owning Up: Racism and Housing in Minneapolis.  Despite the difficulties of the COVID pandemic, we managed to follow up on that work with Human Toll: A Public History of 35W and Separate Not Equal: The Hale-Field Pairing. This trio of exhibits showed the power of exploring history that has visible impact on the lives of people in the here and now. 

While we are proud of the progress we have made, we know there is still a long way to go. And we're ever more mindful of the responsibility that comes with preserving and exploring history right here at the center of events that shook the world five years ago.  

So in summary, we want to take this opportunity to reassure everyone that Hennepin History Museum is inspired to keep expanding people's idea of what a public history organization can do, and to make history relevant for a populace that sorely needs some grounding in what was and inspiration for what can be.  

Our current vision statement says that "history unites communities when everyone is represented." We ask you to join us in this work, to make sure your perspective and your community is represented. We would be honored for you to encourage your friends and family to join us at our events, visit our exhibits, and to pass along your copy of Hennepin History magazine to others when the content inspires you. 

Whatever the future holds, we will engage with it in the confidence of knowing who we are, where we came from, and how we can stay connected to each other. 

–John Crippen, Executive Director