The Alexander Ramsey House is an 11,000-square-foot mansion that was home to Minnesota's first territorial governor. The mansion contains approximately 14,000 original furnishings and has one of the most intact collections of Victorian-era artifacts in the Midwest.
Despite these assets and a sound public educational program, the site has experienced a steady decline in attendance. Arts and Cultural Heritage funding is supporting a project to understand the reasons for this decline.
Working with the Minnesota Newspaper Association, local historical societies and newspaper publishers, the Minnesota Historical Society launched an innovative project to expand the number of contemporary newspapers available in digital form.
In the pilot phase of the project, the Society developed a methodology for digitizing, preserving and indexing newspaper content. Those processes will be tested with six newspapers and optimized in 2011.
Through this funding, the Minnesota Historical Society is advancing the work of making collections information available online. The Society is photographing 3D objects in the collections and completing corresponding descriptions that will be published online, allowing web site visitors to access an increasing volume of historical information.
History Player in the Classroom is a popular program in which actors portraying historical figures come to Minnesota classrooms to give students "real life" lessons in history.
Support a new project that will aid in the development of a Montessori Language Proficiency Assessment for D/Lakota and Ojibwe languages for children 3-5 years.
Partner Organizations: Northfield Historical Society, Carleton College, Northfield Public Library, Rice County Historical Society and St. Olaf College.
The book "Pioneer Modernists" is about Minnesota women making significant contributions to art in the early 20th century.
The text documents the first generation of women modernist artists. Although the book begins with the familiar story of Wanda Gag who left the state and gained her historical significance elsewhere, that story is only meant to set the themes of the book that provide critical organization needed to understand those women who remained in Minnesota.
To preserve and make available the early issues of the Range Facts, a weekly newspaper that was published from 1934 to 1941 by W.A.Fisher and edited by George A. Perham, It covered the Mesabi and Vermilion range towns as well as adjacent rural areas and gave extensive coverage to state, county and local affairs, sports, social news, farming, obituaries and Depression programs. Copies were not sent to the Minnesota Historical Society until 1942 when the Virginia Daily Enterprise assumed ownership.
Recognizing the importance of reaching K- 12 students, as well as their parents and teachers, much of the Minnesota Historical Society's web site is specifically aimed at these groups. While the existing web site is widely used, it has become unwieldy and difficult for the intended audiences to explore and engage with the Society's plethora of content and services.
The Chicano Latino Affairs Council in collaboration with the Minnesota Humanities Center will use funding to address the education challenges and opportunities faced by Latino students. The central theme and core value is “culture and language matter,” that culture and language is an asset and not a liability. A research project will focus on identifying specific strengths in Latino culture that improve education engagement.
