During your visit to the Minnesota History Center explore Minnesota history through ongoing and special exhibits. The Minnesota History Center also offers dining in Café Minnesota and two museum gift stores.
Exhibits
Minnesota’s Greatest Generation
Minnesota’s Greatest Generation explores the lives of the remarkable individuals who grew up during the Depression, came of age during World War II and took part in the post-war boom. Within the exhibit you can view classic film clips in a 1930s-style movie theater, get behind the counter of a 1930s soda fountain, watch a recreation of a World War II combat flight in a C-47 plane, join a “Rosie the Riveter” style assembly line packing ammunition shells, or see an M-8 armored vehicle and a 1955 Ford sedan, both produced at the St. Paul Ford plant.
Open House
Open House offers a glimpse into the daily lives of past Minnesotans. Explore a typical house from the Railroad Island neighborhood on St. Paul’s East Side and learn about families who lived there, from the first German immigrants through the Italians, African-Americans and Hmong. As you make your way through the exhibit try on uniforms that represent the lives of the brewery and railroad workers, housewives and hat makers of the East Side. Sit at the house’s dining room table and listen to a former resident recall meeting her future in-laws at a big family dinner. Looking out the living room window, you can learn about Laos and Thai refugee camps through visions from the journey that some of these families took to America.
Weather Permitting
Discover how Minnesotans cope with the weather, from how they’ve dressed for it to how they’ve played in it, battled it, talked about it and survived it. In Weather Permitting you can experience a tornado from a recreated 1960s home in a multimedia presentation focusing on the human experiences and emotions evoked by a series of tornadoes that struck Fridley, Minnesota in May of 1965, learn how the Weatherball became a downtown landmark and common word in the local vocabulary, or get a glimpse inside a vintage ice-fishing house.
Then Now Wow
Learn about the then and now moments that have shaped Minnesota in the Then Now Wow exhibit. The biggest exhibit ever created by the Minnesota Historical Society explores Minnesota’s history in the prairies, forests and cities, interacting with the people and animals who have made their homes here all the while. Throughout the exhibit take a journey on a Twin Cities streetcar and look out the window as different times and places go by. Discover the story of Rondo, a thriving St. Paul African American community ripped apart by I-94. Visit a pioneer family and envision what life was like in an 1870s sod house. Ride through Southwestern Minnesota and uncover the history of the area through music by Charlie Parr. Learn about the fur trade from the perspective of its main commodity, the beaver.
Dining in Café Minnesota
Take a break from your Minnesota History Center experience in Café Minnesota. Café Minnesota offers self service dining, with grill and stations with entrées, deli items and desserts, all made using local ingredients.
Shopping in the Minnesota History Center Museum Store
Be sure to stop the Minnesota History Center’s museum stores. In the History Center Museum Store you will find a selection of gifts and books related to the Museum exhibits, programs and collections as well as handcrafted items made by Minnesota artisans. Gifts and books unique to statewide historic sites are available to purchase in the Sights of Minnesota Store.
- The Minnesota History Center is ADA complaint. Complimentary wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis from the ticketing desk on the Center’s first floor.
- In addition to its ongoing exhibits, the Minnesota History Center features rotating exhibits related to Minnesota history. Changing exhibits of the past have ranged from Toys of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s to The War of 1812: Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Native Americans.