Northeast Minnesota Historical Center

The University of Minnesota Duluth Library's Northeast Minnesota Historical Center is a regional history archives for public research use. It is located in the UMD library annex, room 202. If you would like to visit the Center, come through the library's main entrance and proceed to your right where you will see a hanging glass sculpture with stairs and elevators - again to the right. Go up one level to the second floor and look toward your left for a ceiling sign directing you to the library annex.

The archives does not maintain a museum nor provide full-scale exhibits. There is no admission fee. Generally, resources at the Center are not well suited for use by young children. The Center hours vary so please see the Center's Hours Page.

Using the Center

The collections span 1830s to the present. The majority of holdings date between the 1890s and 1930s. Area history is well represented in categories of social history, development of Duluth, iron mining, Lake Superior shipping, lumbering, regional railroad development, and Duluth-Superior port development. The Center collects records to document St. Louis, Lake, Cook and Carlton counties. Resources include map and photograph collections, architectural records, manuscript collections, family papers, business and organizational records, oral histories, dozens of serials titles, and an extensive book and pamphlets collection. The Center does not hold Federal population censuses nor naturalization records. Browse the guide to the collection here.

The Center is a "closed stack" portion of the UMD library annex- it is not a browsing collection. The collections are described in published guides, in a card catalog, and other descriptive finding aids. Staff can assist you in determining if there are resources pertinent to your interest or research. The materials in the Center must be used at the Center; nothing from the collections circulate - they cannot be checked out or borrowed. Photocopies can be made by staff, if the original item will not be damaged. Copies cost ten cents a side. A minimum $1.50 service/postage fee is charged for requests made by mail or telephone when sent by mail. Most photographs can be reproduced. A current permission form plus reproduction and for profit/non-profit use fees schedule is available.

If you have specific questions about particular subjects or collections, please feel free to contact staff directly. Collections have explanatory descriptions and many have inventories or box lists that can be copied for your use.

Donating Records

If you are interested in donating records to the Center please contact the staff noted below. We are happy to consider donations at any time. Staff can indicate whether this is the appropriate repository for records and the best steps for their placement. Donations become the property of the Center through a signed donor form.

Contact Information

Patricia Maus
Curator
Northeast Minnesota Historical Center
University of Minnesota-Duluth Library
Annex 202
416 Library Drive
Duluth, Minnesota 55812-3001
Phone: (218) 726-8526
E-mail: pmaus@d.umn.edu

*Every effort is made to maintain hours of greatest convenience to unannounced patrons, but the Center reserves the right to close periodically for brief periods during these regular weekday hours when suitable staff supervision is not available. Unavoidably, staff is away occasionally for a full day or more resulting in the Center being closed during these regular posted hours. If you are coming from a distance or have a limited time for your visit, make prior contact to verify that the Center will be open.