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March/April 2026
Check out what’s happening this spring in Special Collections.
New in the Digital Collections
 City Directories, Phone Books and Yellow Pages – Minneapolis Area Phone Books (1933-1975) and Yellow Pages (1933-1963) have been added to the City Directories Collection. This collection includes the Minneapolis City Directories (1859-1963) and directories for many suburban Hennepin County municipalities. The collection can be browsed or keyword searched by address or last name, by individual directory or across all directories.
These directories are of particular interest to house history hunters, longtime residents, family historians, and other local history researchers.
 Chamber of Commerce Publications – To help promote business interests and developments in Minneapolis and the region, the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Association began producing in 1927 a glossy, illustrated magazine, “Minneapolis – Metropolis of the Northwest”. Hardship from the Great Depression ended the publication in 1932. It was resurrected in 1937 as a scaled back bifold newsletter simply entitled “Minneapolis.”
In 1945, they started another newsletter called “Civic Council Activities”, later renamed “Minneapolis Civic Activities”. Then in 1946, the association was renamed the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, and in 1949 a new glossy, illustrated magazine was launched – “Greater Minneapolis.”
The library has digitized all these publications (up to 1979). They provide valuable information on the Minneapolis business community, with profiles of businesses and businesspeople, urban and regional development, and the social and economic challenges faced by the city and metro. The publications can be browsed by title or date, or keyword searched.
The Civic & Commerce Association also donated hundreds of photographs used in the original magazine to the library.
Researching the History of Your Home
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.
Exploring the Shoreham Repository
Saturday, April 4, 1:30-3:30 p.m., Northeast Library
Explore an experimental archive focused on the interstitial world of the buffers of Northeast Minneapolis's Shoreham Yards. The living collection tells a layered story of the landscape that connects local and global economies of extraction and consumption and also creates pockets and pathways for wildlife. Compiled by artist Gudrun Lock from 2019 to the present, the archive houses pollution reports, species surveys, maps, photographs, artworks, personal notes and observations, plant pressings, degraded underpants from a citizen science soil experiment, found objects, a short experimental film, and more.
The Shoreham Repository contains items created and collected by 14 artists and researchers who were drawn to the complex history of this living landscape. Gudrun and some collaborators will be onsite if you have questions about the collection. Drop-in program, no registration required.
Preservation at the Library: A Behind the Scenes Look
Monday, April 27, 10-11 a.m., Minneapolis Central Library
Minneapolis Central Library houses one of the last remaining full-service preservation departments in a public library in the U.S. Learn about the preservation services, tools, and treatments used to prolong the life of the library’s print collections. Meet in the Special Collections department on the 4th floor. Collaborator: Minneapolis Community Education. Lifelong Learning 55+ Programs.
Explore more library events.
 These two collections, part of the Kittleson WWII Collection, have been recently organized and rehoused thanks to our volunteer and map enthusiast, Will Craig. The finding aids are now online. The maps have not been digitized:
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World War II Maps – Hundreds of WWII maps, many published by the U.S. War Department and OSS, arranged geographically into European and Pacific Theaters, with Newsmaps arranged chronologically. OSS maps illustrate a variety of topics within and between individual countries, like land use, physical geography, agriculture, population, utilities, ports, roads and transportation, industry, and more, all during the war years. The Newsmaps, which were produced weekly from April 1942 to April 1946, illustrate progress of fighting on the war fronts and were often instructional and persuasive. They include photographs, charts, and other graphics.
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World War II Photo Maps – Dozens of WWII maps distributed by the Associated Press and published in Minneapolis newspapers. The glossy, black and white maps are printed on photo paper and arranged geographically into European and Pacific Theaters, and World maps, then chronologically. The Wirephoto maps illustrate action overseas, including bombing sites and movement of troops, especially on the eastern and western fronts. Maps occasionally feature edits made locally such as cut-outs, painted over areas, and additional transparencies taped or glued to surface.
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Jenna’s New Arrival
Our Archivist, Jenna Jacobs, welcomed her third child, Anneliese, at the end of January. Congratulations, Jenna! She’ll be out until mid-May. If you’ve been working with Jenna on a donation and are ready to make the move, email Ted and Bailey at specialcoll@hclib.org.
And if you want to see more cute babies, look no further than the HCL Digital Collections!
 Parking Improvements at Minneapolis Central Library
If you’ve been frustrated in the past to find no available parking when you arrive at the library, the situation is now much improved! In an effort to improve parking availability for library patrons, new rules and rates were introduced in January to discourage all-day or commuter parking. Learn more about the new parking ramp hours and rates on our website.
Find over 1,000 photos of downtown Minneapolis parking options through the years in our Digital Collections, including the one above, of cars packed like sardines in a lot behind the Hotel Beaufort at 3rd Ave. S and Washington Ave. S in 1958.
At the end of March, Minneapolis will welcome thousands of public library staff across North America for the biennial PLA Conference, presented by the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association. And April 19-25 is National Library Week! This year’s theme is “Find Your Joy.”
Above, an unidentified child receives her first library card at the Ridgedale Library Reopening in 1999. This photo and thousands more can be found in the library’s institutional archive. How does your library bring you joy? Read more stories of library joy and share your own with Friends of the Hennepin County Library.
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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