How do you tell the story of a state- its history, its culture, its people? It's complicated and this mindful site from the University of Minnesota brings together a ream of wonderful artifacts contributed from a range of exhibits and organizations including the Kautz Family YMCA Archives, the James Ford Bell Library, and the University of Minnesota Archive. The materials here are divided into six...

For many people, Minnesota's Iron Range isn't just a geographic region, it is a way of life. Stretching across the northeastern section of the state, the Iron Range includes everything from vast bands of iron ore to counties with piquant names, like Koochiching. It is a largely rural area, where people's winter pastimes tend to involve skiing, snowmobiles, and ice fishing. This digital collection...

Minnesota is a large and vast state full of lakes. The Minnesota Digital Library is a large and vast website full of digitized photos of lakes and a great deal more. On their site, visitors can learn about projects which include the fascinating "Minnesota Reflections," a trove of over 135,000 photos and maps. As it is a large collection, the site also provides a few helpful user guides. In the...

Established in 1872 by the State of Minnesota as part of the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS) serves the people of Minnesota by providing systematic geoscience information to support the stewardship of water, land, and mineral resources. This rather lovely digital collection brings together a record of all items published by the MGS since its creation. Here, visitors...

What is the story of a small town if not the one told by its newspaper? For much of the past couple of centuries, small towns around the United States have celebrated life, death, anniversaries, new developments and much more in these modest broadsheets. This digital collection from the Darrell W. Krueger Library at Winona State University brings together three newspapers from the late 19th and...