Our Exhibitions
Museum Admission $5 Adults, $3 Students, Free for WCHS members and children 7 and under.
Students doing research for a school project are free!
The Winona County History Center is home to a wide variety of exhibits about our area's past that include local businesses, the lumber industry, architecture, Dakota and early human life, geology, stained glass, wartime, the river and more! We also have the award-winning children's exhibit, Walking Through Time, that traces the human experience in Winona County, from cave dwellers, the Dakota, to pioneer settlers through a reproduction cave, tepee and steamboat pilot house (ages 6+). Preschoolers love to explore The Cube, an interactive area with hands-on activities related to the exhibits found in the museum. (Please note our children's areas are closed for your safety at this time.)
Along with the museum's permanent exhibits we offer a rotating exhibit schedule annually in the Slaggie Family Lobby of the History Center.
Along with the museum's permanent exhibits we offer a rotating exhibit schedule annually in the Slaggie Family Lobby of the History Center.
2020 Slaggie Family Lobby Exhibit Schedule
On Now and Extended through August 23 - Wildflowers of the Upper Midwest
Wildflowers of the Upper Midwest is an exhibition drawn for a collection of over 150 watercolor paintings created by Lydia Curtis. She created these pictures between 1958 and 1973, finding specimens near her home in St. Paul and then later Morris, Minnesota. Check out #AprilFlowers on our Facebook feed to also view paintings from the exhibition virtually.
Canceled - The Art of Fine Furniture 2020
The Art of Fine Furniture is an annual exhibit featuring unique new creations by professional and hobbyist studio furniture makers using time-honored craftsmanship. For the safety of the artists and visitors needing to travel for this exhibition the 2020 TAOFF is canceled and we are looking forward to a great exhibition for 2021.
August 28 - October 20 A Century of Civic Engagement: League of Women Voters Minnesota
The Minnesota Legislature finally voted YES on September 8, 1919 to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote and ending the 72-year struggle for woman suffrage.
But as distinguished Minnesota suffragist Clara Ueland said that day, "Today is the commencement rather than the end of our work." The League of Women Voters Minnesota was born, with Ms. Ueland as its first President, to help carry out the new work of empowering voters and defending democracy, with women now at the table – and in the voting booth. One hundred years later, LWV Minnesota continues to thrive as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting good government and civic engagement throughout Minnesota.
Come visit this vibrant exhibit that features Minnesota's suffrage story, highlighting the women who made it happen – and who continue to lead through the League of Women Voters to make democracy work for all. This exhibit is free! Admission to the rest of the museum is just $5 adults, $3 students, always free for WCHS members and children 7 and younger.
October 31 - January 4, 2021 Electrifying Minnesota
Discover how electricity has transformed the lives of Minnesotans since 1882. This interactive traveling exhibit was created by the Baaken Museum in partnership with the Minnesota History Center Traveling Exhibits Program.
Wildflowers of the Upper Midwest is an exhibition drawn for a collection of over 150 watercolor paintings created by Lydia Curtis. She created these pictures between 1958 and 1973, finding specimens near her home in St. Paul and then later Morris, Minnesota. Check out #AprilFlowers on our Facebook feed to also view paintings from the exhibition virtually.
Canceled - The Art of Fine Furniture 2020
The Art of Fine Furniture is an annual exhibit featuring unique new creations by professional and hobbyist studio furniture makers using time-honored craftsmanship. For the safety of the artists and visitors needing to travel for this exhibition the 2020 TAOFF is canceled and we are looking forward to a great exhibition for 2021.
August 28 - October 20 A Century of Civic Engagement: League of Women Voters Minnesota
The Minnesota Legislature finally voted YES on September 8, 1919 to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote and ending the 72-year struggle for woman suffrage.
But as distinguished Minnesota suffragist Clara Ueland said that day, "Today is the commencement rather than the end of our work." The League of Women Voters Minnesota was born, with Ms. Ueland as its first President, to help carry out the new work of empowering voters and defending democracy, with women now at the table – and in the voting booth. One hundred years later, LWV Minnesota continues to thrive as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting good government and civic engagement throughout Minnesota.
Come visit this vibrant exhibit that features Minnesota's suffrage story, highlighting the women who made it happen – and who continue to lead through the League of Women Voters to make democracy work for all. This exhibit is free! Admission to the rest of the museum is just $5 adults, $3 students, always free for WCHS members and children 7 and younger.
October 31 - January 4, 2021 Electrifying Minnesota
Discover how electricity has transformed the lives of Minnesotans since 1882. This interactive traveling exhibit was created by the Baaken Museum in partnership with the Minnesota History Center Traveling Exhibits Program.
See it at the History Center!
Women's Temperance Union Coffee Cart, c. 1900This unique bit of our past is a coffee cart that was used on the streets of Winona by members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union to sober up those stumbling out of the city's bars.
Rock Shelter ReproductionThe earliest evidence of humans living in Winona County is based on the discovery of a Woodland tradition site (circa 800 B.C.- 900 A.D.) known as the La Moille Rock Shelter south of the city of Winona on the Mississippi River.
This is a replica of that site. In 1889, T.H. Lewis made 43 tracings of the glyphs, or drawings, which covered the walls and roof of LaMoille Cave; he observed that there were “more (petroglyphs) in this cave than have been found at any other point in the Mississippi valley.” |
J.R. Watkins' Original Desk, 1868Its where it all started, The Watkins Company was founded by J.R. with a new formula for liniment, good for man or beast. Since starting in his kitchen, the company is still known internationally for its personal, kitchen and household products. Including Liniment.
Light of Learning Mural Studies, by Kenyon Cox, 1910The Winona Public Library, just a block away from the History Center, is home to a mural entitled, The Light of Learning. It was created by Kenyon Cox, the famous artist also responsible for many works in government buildings including the Minnesota State Capitol, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Several of his original studies are part of an exhibit showcasing our library's history.
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Our Other Museums
Along with our main museum, The Winona County History Center, we operate the Historic Bunnell House and The Rural Heritage Museum!
Our other museum will be closed for the 2020 Season due to COVID-19
The Bunnell House is open during the summer and visitors take a step back to the 1850s when touring the fully furnished home of Winona's first permanent Euro-American settlers, the Bunnells. Willard was up to no good and travelled west to escape a run in with the law over some silver coins. He was a trapper, fur trader, and strong willed man. His wife Matilda, who spoke French, Dakota and Ojibwa, soon followed. Not a dainty housewife, Matilda could also held her own in the wild frontier. Their children moved on when they both died of tuberculosis about ten years later, and Willard's brother Lafayette moved in, who was quite the character himself. Come tour their unique steamboat gothic house and learn what life was like as canoes gave way to steamboats.
The Rural Heritage Museum examines the life of the rural pioneers and agricultural heritage of Winona County through exhibits about machinery, the farmhouse, chores, tools, pioneer spirit and ingenuity, plus more. Also tour the Hill Family log house, a log barn, and the Gainey-McCarthy Schoolhouse.
Our other museum will be closed for the 2020 Season due to COVID-19
The Bunnell House is open during the summer and visitors take a step back to the 1850s when touring the fully furnished home of Winona's first permanent Euro-American settlers, the Bunnells. Willard was up to no good and travelled west to escape a run in with the law over some silver coins. He was a trapper, fur trader, and strong willed man. His wife Matilda, who spoke French, Dakota and Ojibwa, soon followed. Not a dainty housewife, Matilda could also held her own in the wild frontier. Their children moved on when they both died of tuberculosis about ten years later, and Willard's brother Lafayette moved in, who was quite the character himself. Come tour their unique steamboat gothic house and learn what life was like as canoes gave way to steamboats.
The Rural Heritage Museum examines the life of the rural pioneers and agricultural heritage of Winona County through exhibits about machinery, the farmhouse, chores, tools, pioneer spirit and ingenuity, plus more. Also tour the Hill Family log house, a log barn, and the Gainey-McCarthy Schoolhouse.