History

Data@Museums

Minnesota Historical Society

The Minnesota Historical Society's exhibit Open House: If These Walls Could Talk uses census
data to help visitors better understand the families that lived in the house and its neighborhood.
Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Established in 1849 by the territorial legislature, the Minnesota Historical Society is older than the state of Minnesota itself, which was not admitted to the Union until 1859. Today, the society is one of the largest in the United States, operating 31 historic sites and museums, including the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, MN.

One of the Minnesota Historical Society's ongoing exhibits is the "playfully interactive" Open House: If These Walls Could Talk. Open House brings to life the adage "if these walls could talk" by using a single, existing house in the "Railroad Island" neighborhood on St. Paul's East Side as a window into the daily lives of people of the past. Visitors become detectives, piecing together the lives of the families who lived at 470 Hopkins Street. Stories of families—from the first German immigrants through the Italians, African Americans, and Hmong who succeeded them—are told through rooms representing different eras of the house.

To learn more about Open House: If These Walls Could Talk, visit the Minnesota Historical Society at http://www.minnesotahistorycenter.org/exhibits/open-house