2019 Exhibits from the Minnesota Historical Society

We are pleased to share with you our upcoming slate of exhibits for 2019 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul and a special exhibit opening at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post in Onamia. Please mark the dates for these exciting offerings.

Check our website throughout the year for more information. Press kits will be delivered three months ahead of the exhibit opening.

The 1968 Exhibit

Closes Jan. 21, 2019, Monday, MLK Jr. Day (Saturday, Dec. 23, 2017 - Monday, Jan. 21, 2019)

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

The 1968 Exhibit returns for a final run after an acclaimed nationwide tour. It's been 50 years since 1968: The Vietnam War, protests, assassinations. Peace signs, love-ins, psychedelic rock. From the darkest hours to the incredible highs, see the year come alive in this mind-blowing exhibit. This exhibit is created by the Minnesota Historical Society, in partnership with the Atlanta History Center, the Chicago History Museum and the Oakland Museum of California. (5,000 sq. ft.)

First Avenue: Stories of Minnesota's Mainroom

Opens May 4, 2019 (Saturday, May 4, 2019 - Spring 2020)

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

Since 1970, the club now known as First Avenue and 7th Street Entry has been at the heart of the Minnesota music scene. The First Avenue exhibit takes you inside the sights, sounds and stories of this landmark venue that put Minnesota music on the map. Meet the musicians, the staff, and the regulars-and look back at how the scene has evolved over five decades. The exhibit draws from the MNHS Press book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" by Chris Riemenschneider. (5,000 sq. ft.)

Somalis + Minnesota

Closes June 9, 2019 (Saturday, June 23, 2018 - Sunday, June 9, 2019)

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

From artists to elected officials to teachers and other professionals, members of the Somali community shape-and are shaped by-the fabric of daily life in Minnesota. This exhibit showcases the history of the first wave of Somali immigrants who arrived in Minnesota in the 1990s and their community today, highlighting their culturally rooted values like hospitality, family bonds, and interdependence. This exhibit was developed in partnership with the Somali Museum of Minnesota. (2,400 sq. ft.)

Open House: If These Walls Could Talk

Closes July 2019

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

This interactive exhibit brings to life the adage "if these walls could talk" by using a single, existing house-in the Railroad Island neighborhood on St. Paul's East Side-as a window into the daily lives of people of the past. Stories of families, from the first German immigrants through the Italians, African Americans and Hmong who succeeded them are told through rooms representing different eras of the house. Visitors become detectives, piecing together lives of the families who lived at 470 Hopkins Street. (3,000 sq. ft.)

Our Home: Native Minnesota

Opens Dec 7, 2019 (A multiyear exhibit with no end date. The gallery will feature Native American history with exhibit themes that rotate every few years.)

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

Minnesota is home to the Native people of the Ojibwe and Dakota. They are construction workers, doctors, educators and lawyers. Their stories and livelihood are embedded in the water we drink, the land we walk upon, the air we breathe and the history we tell. Through oral tradition, Western research, traditional stories, archaeology and the depth and breadth of the MNHS collection and archives, this exhibit will guide visitors through the stories of Minnesota's first inhabitants, their history, cultural traditions and what it means to live here. (2,700 sq. ft.)

Irvine Community Gallery (free)

Ongoing

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

The new Irvine Community Gallery is dedicated to ongoing, socially responsive exhibits, exploring stories and issues that Minnesotans experience today. Exhibit topics in 2019 include immigration stories, #MeToo and mapping racial prejudice, as well as art exhibits, including a Native American teen photography show. Located on the History Center's first floor, the gallery is free and open to the public during regular museum hours. (678 sq. ft.)

One Hundred Years of Healing: The Ojibwe Jingle Dress Dance Tradition (name is tentative)

Opens April 2019

Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, Onamia

The global influenza epidemic that killed millions of people worldwide from 1918-1919-including thousands of North American Indians and Alaska Natives-was the tragic inspiration behind a revolutionary new tradition of healing that emerged in Ojibwe communities of the United States and Canada: the jingle dress dance. Through photographs, oral tradition, and a display of jingle dresses from the MNHS collections, visitors will learn about the jingle dress dance and how its origins can be traced to the Mille Lacs Ojibwe. The exhibit commemorates the epidemic and the 100th anniversary of the jingle dress dance. It is being developed in partnership with the University of Minnesota Department of American Studies and the Mille Lacs Ojibwe community.