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January/February 2026
Happy New Year from Special Collections!
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In 2025, item usage of our Digital Collections increased again by 16% to 661,292 – our highest annual total to date!
The top 5 most heavily used digital collections were:
Google Analytics recorded 276,403 visitors to our Digital Collections in 368,839 online sessions.
Use of our archival finding aids again increased dramatically in 2025 – 95% for sessions (41,171) and 115% for users (35,922). We received 45 new archival collections throughout the year, 18 of which have been organized and rehoused.
Many thanks to our 2025 project workers Emma, Elaina, Emily, Katie, and Sara and to our dedicated volunteers Brian, Chuck, Dave, Jeff, Rita, Steve, and Will.
This year, we’re welcoming back Katie and Sara for the Northeaster photo digitization project, grant-funded by Friends of the Hennepin County Library. Elaina and Emily will wrap up the Legacy-funded neighborhood collection processing early this year.
Photo: Many hands make quick work at the wastepaper collection drive at Marcy Elementary School in 1944. Photo of students collecting newspapers from the Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection.
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A Discussion With… – From 1989 through 1995, Hennepin County Library produced the A Discussion With… television series of interviews with national authors on book tours. Filmed at the library's production studio at Ridgedale Library, each episode featured a 30-minute interview with the author of a recently published book. Episodes aired weekly on Metro Cable Network (Channel 6). Guests include mystery novelists, cookbook authors, self-help authors, historians, and journalists. Guests of note include Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Octavia Butler, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Barbara Delinsky, and Dr. William Sears. Watch them online.
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Preserve Historic Dinkytown Oral Histories – Between December 2018 and January 2019, Rob Hahn and Ossian Or collected 14 video oral histories on behalf of Preserve Historic Dinkytown. Individuals interviewed spent time in Dinkytown in the late 1950s through 1970s, and include Al Milgrom, Bill Tilton, David Baldwin, Doug Grina, Barret Hansen, Erik Storlie, Father Harry Bury, Kristen Eide-Tollefson, Laurel Bauer, Laurie Savran, Mike Gelfand, Monte Bute, John Wright, and Shel Danielson. This all-digital collection contains a series of 14 mp4 video files and accompanying pdf transcripts. Listen online.
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Voices of the Catalog Oral Histories – Seven audio oral history interviews with former Hennepin County Library catalogers. Under the leadership of head cataloger Sanford "Sandy" Berman, HCL was well-known in library circles for its innovative cataloging processes in the 1980s and 1990s. Voices of the Catalog was an oral history project created by library school students at St. Catherine University to document these cataloging innovations. Listen online.
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Hennepin County School Publications – More titles have been added to the school publications collection, including Dunwoody News, DeLaSalle’s Islander, and University High’s Campus Breeze.
These collections have been recently organized and rehoused, with finding aids now online:
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Folwell Neighborhood Association Records – Financial records, Folwell Focus newsletter, Urban Initiatives, meeting materials, and media created by the Folwell Neighborhood Association from the 1990s-2010s. Folwell Neighborhood Association (FNA) is the official neighborhood organization for the Folwell Neighborhood in northwestern Minneapolis.
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Southeast Como Improvement Association Records – Documents, photographs, audio and video material created or compiled by the Southeast Como Improvement Association (SECIA). Materials in this collection are from 1979 to 2020, with the bulk of the collection dating from the late 1990s to 2010. The Southeast Como Improvement Association was the official neighborhood group for the Como and Mid-City Industrial neighborhoods from 1983 until it became part of the East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership in 2024.
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Phillips West Neighborhood Organization Records – Documents and realia created or compiled by the Phillips West Neighborhood Organization. Materials in the collection are from 2003 to 2025. PWNO was incorporated in 2003 and is the officially recognized Citizen-Participation Neighborhood Organization with the City of Minneapolis.
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Tangletown Neighborhood Association Records – Documents include information on the Boulevard Theater building and proposed Boulevard Commons remodel, Lyndale Avenue, and the Fuller and Tangletown neighborhood participation in the Neighborhood Revitalization Program.
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Hennepin County Transportation Plans – Oversize maps and plans of proposed light rail lines and past bridges. Light rail lines were not constructed as depicted. Maps were created by various agencies, including the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, chiefly in the 1990s.
The following new donations were recently received in Special Collections. These collections are unprocessed, but available for research:
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Ann Lynch Wirth House Documentation and Assorted Photos – Theodore Wirth House tour materials and photos. Includes additional historical photos of Tao Foods, Stewards Union meeting, and Forum Cafeteria.
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Carol Lindquist Cosmopolitan Study Club Programs – Annual program booklets for the Cosmopolitan Study Club that were added to our existing collection.
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Mary Watson Phillips Neighborhood Improvement Association Records – Records of the Phillips Neighborhood Improvement Association and other Phillips neighborhood activities from the 1980s and 1990s. Includes assorted local newspapers.
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Preserve Historic Dinkytown Records – Administrative archives of Preserve Historic Dinkytown and subject files on Dinkytown topics. Arranged in boxes by topic.
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Special Collections recently accessioned a portion of the Hennepin History Museum’s archival collections, including full, processed collections and small donations organized by general topic. Full collections include the MnDOT Right of Way Division Photographs (already included in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections) and the Minneapolis Retired Teachers Fund Association Records. Smaller donations will be integrated into our existing collections or organized as standalone collections in the future.
This donation is a result of the Hennepin History Museum’s reorientation of their collection and service policies as expressed in their strategic plan and other documents. Hennepin County Library and the Hennepin History Museum have enjoyed a longstanding, positive relationship, collaborating in digitization and programming efforts over the years. This donation is the most recent reflection of that relationship.
Check out some Minneapolis highlights from 1926:
Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, heir to the Swedish thrown, and Crown Princess Louise visited from Sweden. Boasting the largest proportionate population of citizens of Swedish ancestry in the United States, Minnesota welcomed the royal couple with a grand jubilee in late June. Certainly the finest month to visit our state!
Halfway through prohibition, restaurants like the Nankin advertised “Positively no intoxicating liquor of any kind will be allowed in this café” on their menus. You could get a steak dinner or Chow Mein dinner for one dollar, with a non-alcoholic mixed drink for fifty cents.
Construction progressed on the new water filtration plant in Fridley, which, along with the original 1913 Columbia Heights plant, would filter Mississippi River water for the entire city of Minneapolis and nearby suburbs. 300 men were hired to construct the facility, which cost $2,600,000, which is about $48 million in today’s dollars.
Babe Ruth visited too, making numerous stops throughout the city during his November appearance at the Pantages. The Great Bambino played football with the Gophers, dined with the mayor, went pheasant hunting, visited hospitals, played handball at the Minneapolis Athletic Club, and was made an honorary captain of the Minneapolis Police Department.
Young-Quinlan, the city’s finest women’s clothing store and first ready-to-wear dress shop, opened a new department store at the corner of Nicollet Ave. and 9th Street. Elizabeth Quinlan bought the land from George Dayton and hired New York architect, Frederick Ackerman, along with local firm Magney and Tusler, to design the elegant and modern, Italian Renaissance Revival building.
Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his lover, dancer Olga Milanoff, were arrested at a cottage on Lake Minnetonka on a morals charge. They had a daughter, Iovanna.
Recreational activities in the parks included baseball, football, and ice skating, but also pageants, horseback riding, and horseshoe.
Female employees of the Buzza Company, a greeting card manufacturer, won the Twin City championship of the amateur diamondball league.
Save the date for one of two upcoming house history programs. Registration will open next week.
Researching the History of Your Home
Sunday, March 1, 1-2:30 p.m., Sumner Library
Saturday, April 4, 10-11:30 a.m., Arvonne Fraser Library
Learn about the historical resources at the library and across the county that will help you piece together a history of your Minneapolis house, neighborhood or property. Staff from Hennepin County Library's Special Collections will explain and demonstrate resources, emphasizing online resources in the Digital Collections that will allow you to jump-start your research from home – including permit records, maps, city directories, newspapers, photos and more. This class is best suited for researching properties located in the city of Minneapolis, though some county-wide resources will be discussed.
James K. Hosmer Special Collections
Minneapolis Central Library
300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Hours: Monday - Thursday, 9am - 4:30pm.
Appointments are not necessary, but you do need to call Special Collections or check-in at the 4th floor reference desk upon arrival for department access. You can speed up your visit by requesting materials be pulled in advance. Photocopier and scanners are available. Please bring a flash drive to store your scanned images.
Photo: Inside the climate-controlled Special Collections vault, where rare books, negatives, and AV materials are stored.
Email specialcoll@hclib.org or visit hclib.org/specialcollections for more information.
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