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NEH & Minnesota

Between 2006 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Minnesota received $12.1 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Minnesota Humanities Center for projects that explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage. Below are some examples.

  • Twin Cities Public Television received $750,000 in 2007 to produce a ninety-minute documentary, Dolley Madison. The film examines how the first lady used her unelected position to help define the young American republic.
  • The Minnesota Humanities Center received $301,000 in 2010 for two teacher workshops on the topic Building America: Minnesota’s Iron Range, U.S. Industrialization, and the Creation of a World Power. About 180 teachers are attending these workshops to study Minnesota’s underappreciated northern tier and its role in American culture and history.
  • Minneapolis-based Public Radio International received $300,000 in 2007 to support development of Studio 360’s American Icons. This series of one-hour radio programs, which examines individuals, creative works, and products that have captured the American imagination, uses a website to invite listener participation.
  • The Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, received $147,000 in 2006 to conduct summer workshops for teachers on the topic of “Fort Snelling: A Contentious Ground.” The former military post helps illustrate the narrative of relations between Native Americans and settlers during the nineteenth century. One hundred teachers visited the site to learn more about the history of the Dakota tribe and the fur trade.
  • Architectural Legacy: The Search for an American Style 1880–1930 was the subject of walking tours and other public programs organized by the Winona County Historical Society with support from an NEH grant. The grant, totaling nearly $10,000, also supported a permanent exhibition on the city of Winona’s unique architectural style.
  • Evolving Attitudes toward the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1970, a radio documentary and companion website produced by Minnesota Public Radio, received an $89,000 grant in 2006. The project examined white responses to the civil rights movement in Mississippi.
  • The University of Minnesota received a $45,000 public programs grant in 2007 for “Telling River Stories,” a series of historical interpretive installations along the Mississippi River in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
  • The Minnesota Humanities Center has collaborated with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the National Museum of the American Indian on the Minnesota American Indian Treaties Project, a series of community discussions on Native American rights and history.
  • The Minnesota Humanities Center in 2010 sponsored the statewide traveling exhibit Journey Stories, organized by the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibit examines the intersection between modes of travel and Americans’ desire to feel free to move.
  • Absent Narratives: District del Sol & Lake Street is the result of a partnership of the Minnesota Humanities Center and the Chicano Latino Affairs Council and explores the development of St. Paul’s District del Sol and Minneapolis’s Lake Street as thriving centers of Latino culture in Minnesota.