Recently visited this impressive building in St. Paul- the Minnesota History Center which is not only a museum with changing exhibits, lectures, concerts, programs, and other events, it houses the Historical Society with a multi-story library and archives for research. I visited several exhibits including Weather Permitting which captures all the weather extremes and the MN philosophy on this snowman: "No matter what Minnesotans do, weather is a part of it. Living in MN means learning to cope with challenging weather extremes and a kaleidoscope of seasons." Generations have dressed for it, played in it, battled it, talked about it, and survived it.
My favorite was MN150 which opened in 2008 to celebrate 150 years of MN statehood. Culled from 3000 entries from all corners of the state and world, a panel chose 150 people, places, and things that have shaped MN. Wide ranging in scope, topics include sporting events and persons, inventors and inventions, businesses (Greyhound Bus), political figures and pop icons (think Hubert Humphrey and Bob Dylan), cultural traditions (Paul Bunyan). Definitely too much to take in on first blush, a repeat visit is necessary.
All in all, a great way to spend a wintery, cold afternoon!
2 comments:
I love the architecture of the museum and the MN exhibit sounds really interesting. Are the grounds of the museum nice?
Hard to tell with all the snow! Will be fun to go back in the spring.
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