The Minnesota Historical Society continues to build a culture of evaluation. An evaluation coordinator provides technical assistance and support to staff who evaluate ACHF projects and programs. An institutional Evaluation Action Team, along with consultation from Wilder Research, helps provide strategy and direction for evaluation capacity-building efforts. Interns from the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute at the University of Minnesota also support evaluation efforts that may include logic model design, evaluation planning, instrument design and data analysis and reporting.
Since completion of the Ramsey Redevelopment Project in 2011, the Alexander Ramsey House has been operating under a new model, but without a new business and marketing plan. This project allowed the Historic Sites division to hire a consultant to lead the site staff and MNHS technical advisers through a business planning process. Project objectives were to articulate goals and an operational plan for the site, identify target markets for the site and ensure the site would continue to meet institutional mission and financial goals.
MNHS continued to support opportunities to help students, teachers and the public learn about Minnesota and the Civil War. Funding provided ongoing support and coordination. Production of 10 short films focused on this era yielded two documentaries repeatedly aired by Twin Cities Public Television. Topics included Dred Scott and Harriet Scott, Governor Ramsey and Minnesota's entry into the war, the Battles of Antietam, Nashville and Gettysburg, women warriors, perils and prison camps and the election of 1864, among others. Teachers were made aware of these resources via statewide workshops.
To provide professional development for one staff member at the national American Association for State and Local History Conference in St. Paul, September 17-20, 2014.
To provide professional development for one staff member at the national American Association for State and Local History Conference in St. Paul, September 17-20, 2014.
To survey the exterior of the building, make historically sensitive recommendations, and create construction-ready documents for needed improvements that will enhance the exterior of the historic building without negatively impacting the historic structure.
This project requests funding to conduct and transcribe twelve oral history interviews focusing on the religious experience and interactions among immigrant groups in nine Twin Cities neighborhoods in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
To hire a qualified professional to restore the last two of thirteen stain glass windows in the B'nai Abraham Synagogue, listed in the National Register of Historic Places and now used as a community center.
To monitor the temperature and relative humidity in the Wright County Heritage Center in order to better preserve evidence documenting Wright County history.
To hire a qualified consultant to prepare planning documents that will help preserve the Howard Lake City Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
To stabilize structural elements and repair the roof of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and used as a music center.
