Stargazing at the Old Minneapolis Public Library
Minneapolis Star, February 3, 1961: "You don't have to be a chimpanzee to visit outer space--you can make the trip Saturday from 4th St. and Nicollet Ave."
In February 1961, the Planetarium opened in the new Minneapolis Central Library. That year more than 1,200 city and county residents, including many school children, visited the new Science Museum & Planetarium each day. Maxine Haarstick, director of the Museum-Planetarium, was at the helm, flicking switches, sending planets into orbit, projecting sunsets and thousands of stars across the domed sky. "It makes you feel awful powerful," confesses Mrs. Haarstick. "You're standing here in the heart of the lower loop; but you can take people to the equator or anywhere on earth to see the stars visible there."
While planning the new planetarium, Haarstick, a former teacher, visited every planetarium in the United States, some with domes as large as 70 feet in diameter (the library dome measured 40 feet across). Haarstick left the library in 1979 to work for the Science Museum of Minnesota, the organization that would go on to run the Planetarium. Due to lack of funds, the library science museum exhibits closed in June, 1982. The planetarium continued to operate until 2002 when the old Central Library was demolished to make way for the new Cesar Pelli-designed building. While a planetarium was included in designs for the current building, it was never built. The new Planetarium is now open at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum.
Photos of Maxine Haarstick, 1961, from the Library’s Organizational Records.










