To provide needed repairs to a historical building, the Old Church, on the Anoka County fairgrounds. Over 100 years old, the Old Church is also home to the Anoka County Arts Alliance during the week of the fair. The mission of the Anoka County Arts Alliance is to identify, provide support for, and promote the activities of the Anoka County arts community.
To repair the 1926 Old Settlers' Cabin to make it suitable for historical displays and programming. No historical displays or programming have been housed at the Cabin since the early 1950s. The fair board, along with the Kandiyohi County Historical Society, will use the repaired and enhanced space to display pictures and relics of the county's early history.
Funds will be used to repair the foundation and seal logs. Track lighting and secure display cases will highlight exhibits.
To hire qualified professionals to replace the roof and rehabilitate the windows on the Pipestone City Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
To hire a historic architect to assess the restoration needs for the historic Pipestone City Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places and current home of the Pipestone County Museum.
The Oliver H. Kelley farm in Elk River is a National Historic Landmark where visitors experience mid-19th-century Minnesota farm life. This historic structures report provides the foundation for future maintenance and preservation of the farmhouse while continuing to provide an important level of programming and public service. The Jeffris Family Foundation has awarded a matching grant of $25,000 to the minnesota historical society to fund half of the estimated costs of a consultant to prepare the report.
To provide educational opportunities for fair visitors to learn about the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in southern Minnesota. Between 1933 and 1939, the Olmsted County Fairgrounds was home to the regional headquarters of the CCC company 1774-V. The fair will create two exhibits documenting the living conditions of CCC and WPA workers, and the long-term impact of both programs.
To re-roof the barn on the Olof Swensson Farmstead, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operated as a museum by the Chippewa County Historical Society
To acquire professional services to implement preservation recommendations that will mitigate original 1936 wiring within the Onamia Municipal Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places
The Onamia Municipal Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was in need of a historic structures report / conditions analysis to provide restoration and management goals for the property. Currently the building is experiencing interior wall condensation, plaster erosion, water intrusion, energy loss, electrical system issues, and spalling of exterior mortar. The report documents current conditions, provide appropriate approaches to the treatment of existing problems, and outline a scope of future recommended work.
To increase the availability of resources about Minnesota in the Civil War, the Washington County Library combined Legacy Funds to purchase 170 copies of three featured titles that cover the topic.
Twenty copies of the children's selection B is for Battle Cry: A Civil War Alphabet, 50 copies of the student selection Soldier's Heart: A Novel of the Civil War and 100 copies of the adult selection Pale Horse at Plum Run: The First Minnesota at Gettysburg were added to the library's collection.
Partners: City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Schools
In November and December 2013, Minnesota residents had a unique opportunity to view a collection of photos by Gordon Parks and participate in a community conversation around his book "A Choice of Weapons," the 2013 One Minneapolis One Read selection. The exhibit, which was on display at Mill City Museum, also featured approximately 30 photographs created by Minneapolis high school students alongside images by Parks, on loan from The Gordon Parks Foundation.
In 2010, the Minnesota Historical Society researched the development of an Online Fur Trade Interactive Learning Experience as a supplement to the Northern Lights history textbook.
This web-based application, geared toward middle school students, will not only offer a glimpse of Minnesota's history, but also provides a lesson about the foundation of today's complex global economy.
With the help of Arts and Cultural Heritage funds, the Minnesota Historical Society is the first institution of its kind to fully digitize its entire oral history collection. This project promotes the discovery and use of the Minnesota Historical Society's oral history collection by digitizing 2,000 hours of recorded audio and making more existing oral histories available to the public on the "Becoming Minnesotan" website, education.mnhs.org/immigration. This collection represents a rich and unique source of history through the experiences of Minnesotans in their own words.
A secure online database for off-site historical records indexing was created by the Otter Tail County Historical Society. Existing databases were consolidated and imported to the new database. Web pages were created for trained volunteers to retrieve documents and enter indexing information. Staff is now better able to coordinate with volunteers who have electronic access to multiple finding aids via the internet.
