Remote Local History Research
Along with a lot of folks, Special Collections staff are adjusting to working from home, which includes remote reference services. We don’t have access to our hundreds of thousands of print resources and archives at the Minneapolis Central Library, but we do have favorite web resources for finding a lot of historical information about Minneapolis and Hennepin County online. The best part? Most of these resources are freely available to anyone, from anywhere.
Hennepin County Library Digital Collections: Obviously, our favorite of the bunch is our own Digital Collections. The collections currently include over 134,000 items and new content is added weekly. The database is heavy on photographs, but we also have building permit index cards, yearbooks, menus, Minneapolis Public Library annual reports, maps, and so much more. Not sure where to start? Try browsing by topic.
Digital Public Library of America: A national digital repository with nearly 37 million digital resources, including all of the resources in the HCL Digital Collections. Great for searching for images and documents across the country pertaining to local issues.
Hennepin County Interactive Property Map: Find current property information and link to section maps, lot surveys, tax information, recent recording history, and more.
Hennepin County Library Tumblr Archive: Browse over 1,500 blog posts going back to 2011. Browse by tag to find all posts related to a topic, such as WWII, artists’ books, African Americans, and more. Or search the archive with a Google site search (Example: Charlie’s Cafe site:hclib.tumblr.com)
HeritageQuest Online and Ancestry Library Edition: These two subscription databases available through HCL provide access to the U.S. Federal Census and other genealogy and history resources. HeritageQuest is always available from home with a Hennepin County Library card. Ancestry, typically for in-library use only, is currently freely available while libraries are closed during the COVID-19 crisis.
Library of Congress Sanborn Maps: The database includes Minneapolis Sanborn Fire Insurance maps (partial and complete) for 1885, 1889, 1904, 1912, and 1930.
Minneapolis City Directories: Technically considered one of the HCL digital collections, the City Directories for Minneapolis and St. Louis Park live in their own database. Search Minneapolis directories from 1859-1944 and St. Louis Park from 1933-1977. More city directories forthcoming.
Minneapolis Public Schools History: For photos and quick historical information about the schools.
Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums: Search the MN Collections database to find cultural objects and historical resources across over 20 area historical societies.
Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub: This database, from the Minnesota Historical Society, includes thousands of Minnesota newspapers from the 1840s to today. Remote access primarily covers through 1922. Includes African-American and Swedish newspapers from the early 20th century.
Minnesota Election Trends: The website search no longer fully functions, but the site is still great for lists of Minneapolis election facts for mayors, library board members, Park Board members, and more.
Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online: A map-based database of thousands of aerial photographs across Minnesota from the 1920s to the 2000s, from the University of Minnesota John R. Borchert Map Library.
Minnesota Historical Society Collections Search: Look for photographs, artifacts, collection inventories and more for Minnesota-wide topics.
Minnesota Official Marriage System (MOMS): Look up current and historical marriage records for most counties in Minnesota.
Minnesota Reflections: This digital repository includes contributions from almost 200 Minnesota historical societies, libraries, archives, and museums, including HCL.
People Finder: Search the Minnesota birth (1900-1934) and death (1904-2001) certificate indexes and more through the Minnesota Historical Society. Use the People Records Search for quick access to all.
Star Tribune Archive: This is the only not free, subscription resource on our list. The full-text searchable database includes three Minneapolis newspapers from 1867 to present (with a hold on the last three months). You can search the database and see results for free, but to view articles, a subscription is required.
UMedia Archive: Images, maps, manuscripts, video, audio, and more from the University of Minnesota collections. We use this a lot for accessing Gopher Yearbooks.
University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy: Over 80,000 open access documents, dissertations, and more. Great for searching for info on UofM alumni.
Need help with local history research? Want to start researching the history of your home? Curious about your neighborhood? Digging into family archives? Send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll do what we can with the resources we have to help you out.
