About the Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) was established by the Minnesota Territory's legislature in 1849, nine years before statehood, which makes it older than the state it documents. By the early twentieth century its library already held 100,000 volumes. Today MNHS operates 26 historic sites and museums across Minnesota that together draw about 850,000 visitors a year, and its headquarters is the Minnesota History Center, which opened in 1992 on Kellogg Boulevard in St. Paul with exhibit galleries, program space, the library and collections storage under one roof.
The collections are broad: books, letters and government records, photographs, maps and atlases, oral histories, works of art, sound recordings and three-dimensional artifacts, plus an archaeology collection of more than 950,000 objects reaching back roughly 11,500 years. MNHS Press publishes books on Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, produces Minnesota History magazine, runs the online encyclopedia MNopedia, and hosts the Minnesota Unraveled podcast. Current History Center exhibits include Our Home: Native Minnesota, on how the state's Native communities have sustained their cultures and ties to place, and The Stories We Keep: 25 Objects from MNHS, drawn from the Society's holdings. For schools, MNHS publishes the Northern Lights sixth-grade curriculum and gives Minnesota sixth graders a free one-year History Pass.
Collections and Research Services
Genealogists and house historians head for the Gale Family Library inside the History Center, a research library that has been collecting since 1849 and is open for on-site research; appointment details are on the library hours page. The library's Minnesota People Records search pulls together birth records, death records, state census entries, veterans' graves and the Gold Star Roll by name. The Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub provides millions of digitized newspaper pages, and the Collections search covers photographs, maps, manuscripts and artifacts. Staff answer questions by phone at (651) 259-3300 and by email, publish research guides and self-help pages for the most common questions, and run a distance copy request service for archival material if you cannot visit. Start with our guide to free family history research to see how the MNHS indexes fit with federal census and vital records, and with old city directories, which are a standard tool for tracing a Twin Cities address year by year.
Planning Your Visit
The Minnesota History Center is at 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102; the main number is (651) 259-3000. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and over, veterans, active military and college students, $8 for children 5-17, and free for the youngest children and for MNHS members, whose membership also covers general admission at all 26 sites. Parking in the History Center ramp is $6 a day ($4 for members). Opening days and times vary by season and by site, so check mnhs.org before you go, especially for the historic sites outside the Twin Cities, many of which are seasonal. The Society's "Hit the Road for America's History" itineraries map ten driving routes that link its sites around the state.
Explore Minnesota's Historical Landscape
Use the When It Was app to discover historical businesses, landmarks, and buildings throughout Minnesota. See how your community has transformed over the decades.
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