The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849 and is named in the Minnesota Constitution.
The society owns and operates 29 museums and historic sites, some within the Minnesota state parks. It currently holds a collection of nearly 550,000 books, 37,000 maps, 250,000 photographs, 165,000 historical artifacts, 800,000 archaeological items, 38,000 cubic feet of manuscripts, 45,000 cubic feet of government records, 5,500 paintings, prints and drawings, and 1,300 moving image items. These are stored in the $76.4 million History Center located in Minnesota's capital, Saint Paul.
