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.
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.” 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. FREE!
August 28 - December 31
Votes For Women: A Portrait Of Persistence - A Poster Exhibit from the Smithsonian
The crusade for women’s suffrage is one of the longest reform movements in American history. Between 1832 and 1920, women citizens organized for the right to vote, agitating first in their states or territories and also, simultaneously, through petitioning for a federal amendment. Based on the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of the same name, Votes for Women will broaden visitors’ understanding of the suffrage movement in the United States. The poster exhibition will address women’s political activism, explore the racism that challenged universal suffrage, and document the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment which prohibits the government from denying U.S. citizens the right to vote on the basis of gender. It will also touch upon the suffrage movement’s relevance to current conversations on voting and voting rights across America. FREE!
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery. This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
October 27 - December 31
Vote for Quilts
Continuing the celebration of 100 years of Women’s Suffrage check out this added traveling exhibition, Vote for Quilts, featuring creations from the Women’s Right to Vote: Revolution and Evolution quilt challenge. 36 twenty-four inch square quilts were made by quilters from across the nation in celebration the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. Quilts have been a voice for women championing causes for generations. The tradition lives on in this amazing project, becoming an exhibit, with works that range from the traditional to very modern. This exhibit is sponsored and created by the Dakota County Star Quilters.
Electrifying Minnesota - Postponed
The Minnesota Historical Society Exhibits to Go traveling exhibit program has been suspended due to COVID-19 for the rest of this year, but watch for Electrifying Minnesota to be rescheduled in 2021.
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.
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.” 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. FREE!
August 28 - December 31
Votes For Women: A Portrait Of Persistence - A Poster Exhibit from the Smithsonian
The crusade for women’s suffrage is one of the longest reform movements in American history. Between 1832 and 1920, women citizens organized for the right to vote, agitating first in their states or territories and also, simultaneously, through petitioning for a federal amendment. Based on the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of the same name, Votes for Women will broaden visitors’ understanding of the suffrage movement in the United States. The poster exhibition will address women’s political activism, explore the racism that challenged universal suffrage, and document the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment which prohibits the government from denying U.S. citizens the right to vote on the basis of gender. It will also touch upon the suffrage movement’s relevance to current conversations on voting and voting rights across America. FREE!
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery. This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
October 27 - December 31
Vote for Quilts
Continuing the celebration of 100 years of Women’s Suffrage check out this added traveling exhibition, Vote for Quilts, featuring creations from the Women’s Right to Vote: Revolution and Evolution quilt challenge. 36 twenty-four inch square quilts were made by quilters from across the nation in celebration the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. Quilts have been a voice for women championing causes for generations. The tradition lives on in this amazing project, becoming an exhibit, with works that range from the traditional to very modern. This exhibit is sponsored and created by the Dakota County Star Quilters.
Electrifying Minnesota - Postponed
The Minnesota Historical Society Exhibits to Go traveling exhibit program has been suspended due to COVID-19 for the rest of this year, but watch for Electrifying Minnesota to be rescheduled in 2021.
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 museums 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 museums 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.