# Minnesota Historical Society *Nonprofit educational and cultural institution, chartered by Minnesota's territorial legislature, that holds much of the state's historical and government record* The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit institution whose work is collecting, preserving and interpreting the history of [[Minnesota]]. The territorial legislature created it on October 20, 1849, years before statehood. The state constitution names it, and it is based at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul.[^1] State law addresses its money under Minn. Stat. 138.01, *Minnesota Historical Society; Finances*.[^2] The Society holds the record of its own founders. Its first president was [[Alexander Ramsey]], who began giving it his own papers in the 1860s.[^3] The Society's MNopedia entry on Ramsey records that the U.S. Senate exonerated him in 1854 in the 1851 Dakota treaty-fund matter, setting aside "evidence uncovered in its own investigations".[^4] As a custodian of government records, the Society's finding aids also document what was never deposited. Its guide to the county-branch records of the [[Minnesota Commission of Public Safety]] (1917–1920) lists no Carver County branch.[^5] Its finding aid for Wright County District Court records shows earliest catalogued holdings from 1881.[^6] The Society's self-descriptions can be set beside these documented holdings. It presents MNopedia as a "resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history".[^1] Its Humphrey research guide states: "In 1948, while mayor of Minneapolis, the city enacted the nation's first municipal fair employment law."[^7] The project's research located no comparative survey corroborating the superlative, and found a contemporary press account giving a different year.[^7] ## Who Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey urged that every newspaper printed in the territory be kept, calling the preservation of historical materials "a task not without its uses".[^1] [[Charles K. Smith]], the territory's first secretary, drafted the founding act. He and 18 other incorporators organized the Society on November 15, 1849.[^1] Ramsey served as its first president, and his own papers entered its collections from the 1860s.[^3] Daniel A. Robertson, a former editor of the *Minnesota Democrat*, chaired the committee that raised money for the Society's first building.[^1] ## What The Society is a nonprofit chartered by statute. Its finances are governed by Minn. Stat. 138.01.[^2] It runs MNopedia, an online encyclopedia published since 2011 under a Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant. It also runs the Minnesota Historical Society Press, which issues the quarterly *Minnesota History* and has more than 500 titles in print.[^1] ## When - October 20, 1849: established as the fifth act of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.[^1] - November 15, 1849: formally organized by Smith and 18 incorporators.[^1] - 1855: given a room in the State Capitol, after starting out in the territorial secretary's office, hotel rooms and store lofts.[^1] - 1856: a charter amendment allowed it to own unlimited property. The cornerstone of a planned building was laid at a gala on June 24, 1856.[^1] - 2011: MNopedia went online.[^1] ## Where The headquarters is the Minnesota History Center in downtown Saint Paul. Seven of the Society's historic sites are inside Minnesota state parks. Three are part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.[^1] ## How The Society's custody of the record runs through its finding aids, and those aids show both holdings and gaps: - **Wright County.** Court holdings begin in 1881, so no 1859 criminal case file appears in the catalogue. The finding-aid note does not establish whether this reflects loss, destruction or period filing practice.[^6] - **The Wright County affair.** The records of Governor [[Henry Hastings Sibley]] include a folder titled *Letters Received, 1859: Wright County Affair* (box 154.J.14.1B). The project did not retrieve its contents.[^8] - **The Peterson diaries.** The family of Swedish settler Andrew Peterson gave his diaries and papers to the Society, where the originals remain.[^9][^10] - **Mondale's Geneva address.** The Society holds the full text of [[Walter Mondale]]'s July 21, 1979 address to the UN Conference on Indochinese Refugees at the Palais des Nations.[^11] - **Both parties' feminist caucuses.** The Society keeps records of the [[DFL Feminist Caucus]], founded April 1973.[^12] It also keeps records of the [[GOP Feminist Caucus]], founded June 1973 as "GOP Women for Political Effectiveness" and renamed in 1975.[^13] ## How much Robertson's building committee raised $1,500 by selling sixty-two lifetime memberships. The money paid for two lots for a building site.[^1] The Society's public funding is governed by Minn. Stat. 138.01.[^2] ## How many The Society's printed and archival holdings run to nearly 550,000 books, 37,000 maps and 250,000 photographs. Its object collections include 225,000 historical artifacts and 950,000 archaeological items. It also holds 38,000 cubic feet of manuscripts and 45,000 cubic feet of government records.[^1] It operates 31 historic sites and museums, 26 of them open to the public. Seven are National Historic Landmarks.[^1] Its finding aid for the Saint Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority records that the Western and Eastern Redevelopment programs were approved in 1952 on more than 60 acres. It also records that "by the end of 1957, all 1,064 families and 253 single individuals had been relocated".[^14] ## In the at-issue record **Federal actions.** On January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] issued release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. In it, Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^15] The project's record lists the hiring suit as [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]], directed at Minn. Stat. §43A.191, and as live as of June 18, 2026.[^15] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds no other U.S. state so described. The record does not show the Society as a party to the suit. **Commission of Public Safety.** The Society's MNopedia entry records the following:[^16] - The Commission was created by legislation signed April 16, 1917. - It had seven members chaired by Governor [[Joseph A. A. Burnquist]], with "broad powers to act to ensure public safety in wartime". - It mandated English-only school instruction in 1917. - It required non-citizens to register property in 1918. The Society's county-branch guide lists Anoka, Becker, Beltrami, Blue Earth, Clay, Cottonwood, Hennepin, Kandiyohi, Kittson, Pennington, Polk, Ramsey, Renville, St. Louis, Todd and Washington; Carver County is not among them.[^5] The record shows the absence; it does not establish its cause. **Breweries.** The Society's brewery research guide lists no Carver County brewery among its collections.[^17] The project records the claim of a pre-Prohibition Chaska brewing trade as unverified. **Refugee Act.** The [[Refugee Act of 1980]] (Pub. L. 96-212, 94 Stat. 102) was Senator Edward Kennedy's bill, S. 643, introduced March 13, 1979.[^18] The project corrects an earlier attribution to Mondale. Mondale's documented instrument is his Geneva speech, which ends: "Unless this conference gives birth to new commitments, and not simply new metaphors, we will inherit the scorn of Evian."[^11] **Louis Hennepin.** The Society's MNopedia entry gives Louis Hennepin's dates as ca. 1640–ca. 1701. It records that his later books claimed a journey "from Illinois down to the Gulf of Mexico and back before his capture", some three thousand miles in a month, and falsely presented him as La Salle's most trusted associate.[^19] The at-issue record notes that Wikipedia gives 1626–1704 ([[At issue 069 - The two standard references disagree on when the]]; [[At issue 059 - Hennepin County is named for a man the]]).[^19] **Fort Snelling.** The Society's own reference work uses the term "concentration camp" for the stockade below Fort Snelling. It defines the term as "a place where people are confined, often in poor conditions, without regard to legal norms of arrest". The entry records that the stockade was established November 7, 1862, and held roughly 1,600 Dakota and mixed-race non-combatants, mostly women, children and the elderly. An estimated 130 to 300 of them died ([[At issue 062 - The Minnesota Historical Society's own reference work uses]]).[^20] A separate MNHS account, carried in the at-issue record, puts the toll at "nearly 300" over the winter after the forced march of November 7–13, 1862.[^21] **Treaties.** The [[Treaty of Mendota]] was signed August 5, 1851, at Pilot Knob, with Luke Lea and Ramsey as commissioners.[^22] The at-issue record states that the treaty promised $1,410,000 with interest. It also states that the Society records these promises "did not come to pass".[^22] The Society's U.S.–Dakota War timeline records that the 1863 federal Dakota Expulsion Act made it illegal for Dakota people to live in Minnesota and voided all Dakota treaties. The timeline adds that the act "has never been repealed."[^23] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Ramsey, the Society's first president, was a commissioner at Mendota in 1851 and the subject of the 1854 Senate exoneration.[^22][^4] ### What - The Society's account of the 1851 [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux]] "traders' paper" is cited in the project's record. That record adds, from MNopedia, that the document was not read aloud or translated and that all but two leaders signed.[^24] - The Society's page on bounties records a $500 payment to Nathan Lamson and a $200 rate dated September 22, 1863.[^25] ### When - September 9, 1862: Ramsey gave an address in which a sentence missing from the prepared manuscript "appeared in all published versions", according to the Society.[^3] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Minnesota Historical Society* (revision 1375916946, retrieved 2026-10-27) — founding dates, incorporators, early quarters, building fund, MNopedia, Press, holdings and site counts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Historical_Society [^2]: Office of the Revisor of Statutes, *Minn. Stat. 138.01, Minnesota Historical Society; Finances* (2025) — statutory provision on the Society's finances. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/138.01 [^3]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Alexander Ramsey* (U.S.–Dakota War of 1862) — first president; donor of his own papers from the 1860s; September 9, 1862 address. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/alexander-ramsey [^4]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Ramsey, Alexander (1815–1903)* — 1854 Senate exoneration despite its own investigations. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/ramsey-alexander-1815-1903 [^5]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Minnesota Commission of Public Safety: Records of County Branches, 1917–1920* (research guide) — counties held; Carver County absent. https://libguides.mnhs.org/publicsafety/primary [^6]: Minnesota Historical Society, finding aid gr02765, *Wright County District Court Records* — earliest catalogued holdings begin 1881. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-finding-aids-public/library/findaids/gr02765.html [^7]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Hubert H. Humphrey: Mayor, Senator, and Vice-President* (research guide) — the 1948 "first municipal fair employment law" statement. https://libguides.mnhs.org/c.php?g=769550 [^8]: Minnesota Historical Society, finding aid gov015, *Governor Henry Hastings Sibley Records* — folder "Letters Received, 1859: Wright County Affair," box 154.J.14.1B. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-finding-aids-public/library/findaids/gov015.html [^9]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Peterson, Andrew (1818–1898)* — the Peterson journal. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/peterson-andrew-1818-1898 [^10]: Carver County Historical Society, *The Peterson Diary* — family donated the diaries and papers to the Minnesota Historical Society. https://www.carvercountyhistoricalsociety.org/peterson_diary.php [^11]: Walter F. Mondale, *Address to the UN Conference on Indochinese Refugees*, Palais des Nations, Geneva (July 21, 1979), Minnesota Historical Society — full text. https://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00697/pdf/UNSpeech19790721.pdf [^12]: Minnesota Historical Society, finding aid 00173, *DFL Feminist Caucus Records* — founded April 1973. https://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00173.xml [^13]: Minnesota Historical Society, finding aid 00828, *GOP Feminist Caucus Records* — founded June 1973 as GOP Women for Political Effectiveness; renamed 1975. https://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00828.xml [^14]: Minnesota Historical Society, finding aid gr00386, *Saint Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority Records* — 1952 programs; relocations completed by end of 1957. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-finding-aids-public/library/findaids/gr00386.html [^15]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — title of the release; Attorney General's certification. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^16]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Minnesota Commission of Public Safety* — creation April 16, 1917; membership; powers; 1917 and 1918 orders. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/group/minnesota-commission-public-safety [^17]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Breweries in Minnesota* (research guide) — no Carver County brewery listed. https://libguides.mnhs.org/breweries [^18]: U.S. Congress, *Refugee Act of 1980*, Pub. L. 96-212, 94 Stat. 102 (1980) — the enacted statute (S. 643). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-94/pdf/STATUTE-94-Pg102.pdf [^19]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Hennepin, Louis (ca. 1640–ca. 1701)* — dates; the claimed Gulf journey; false claim of La Salle's trust. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/hennepin-louis-ca1640-ca1701 [^20]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Fort Snelling at Bdote: Civil and U.S.-Dakota Wars, 1861–1866* — "concentration camp" term and definition; November 7, 1862; about 1,600 held; 130 to 300 deaths. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/fort-snelling-civil-and-us-dakota-wars-1861-1866 [^21]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Forced Marches and Imprisonment* (U.S.–Dakota War of 1862) — the November 1862 march and imprisonment. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/aftermath/forced-marches-imprisonment [^22]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Treaty of Mendota* (U.S.–Dakota War of 1862) — signed August 5, 1851 at Pilot Knob; commissioners Lea and Ramsey; treaty promises. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/treaty-mendota [^23]: Minnesota Historical Society, *U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 Timeline* — 1863 Dakota Expulsion Act; "has never been repealed." https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/timeline [^24]: Minnesota Historical Society, *The Traders' Paper* (U.S.–Dakota War of 1862) — the 1851 traders' paper. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/traders-paper [^25]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Bounties* (U.S.–Dakota War of 1862) — $500 payment to Nathan Lamson; $200 rate dated Sept. 22, 1863. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/aftermath/bounties