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The Center dates its origins to the personal collection of Thomas Barlow Walker, a lumber baron who allowed anyone to visit his home and enjoy his collection. From 1879 when he acquired his first pieces and allowed the first visitors into his home to 1927, when the Walker Art Gallery officially opened, Mr. Walker's collection continued to grow and became one of the leading attractions in the city. Despite opening just prior to the Great Depression, the collection continued to grow thanks to the support of the Federal Art Project-past of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. After World War II, the museum began to focus on modern art.

The Walker Art Center ranks among the five most-visited modern/ contemporary art museums in the United States

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The Walker Art Center features contemporary visual and performing arts exhibits and programs. In 1988, the Center opened the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden next to the museum. Both the Center and the Sculpture Garden are known to art lovers around the world. The Center offers one of the leading collections of modern art and is known for its innovative approach to connecting art with visitors. The sculpture garden remains one of the largest in the nation and over 20,000 art lovers attended its most recent festival. 

Walker Art Center

This tour would take several days to complete and is intended to offer a general introduction to the many museums and art galleries of the MSP metro. 

Museums and Galleries of Minneapolis and St Paul

Minneapolis tour

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<div>The original mill, built in 1874, was leveled by a flour dust explosion that claimed 18 lives. That explosion and the resulting fire destroyed much of the riverfront business area, cutting Minneapolis' milling capacity in half.</div><div> </div><div>The mill was rebuilt by 1880, with state-of-the-art machinery that permitted safer operations and higher-quality flour. By the turn-of-the-century, this was the largest and most technologically-advanced mill in the world. Automatic steel rollers replaced traditional millstones. According to contemporary sources, the mill produced enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread a day during its peak of operations in the 20th century. However, the mill eventually became obsolete and operations ceased in 1965. The structure was not well-maintained in the following decades and was nearly destroyed by a fire in 1991. The fire raised awareness of the historic value of the mill and led to a community effort to restore the remaining structure and create a museum at the site.&nbsp;</div>

Located in the ruins of what was once the largest flour mill in the world, the Mill City Museum commemorates the history of milling and the Riverfront. Exhibits present the history of the mill and the city's role as a center of flour production from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. The museum also preserves and interprets the history of the city and region with exhibits and programs that change throughout the year to make each visit unique and educational. 

Mill City Museum

The museum would not be the art museum it is today without
the significant contributions from Frederick R Weisman and Frank D Gehry. Weisman, the museum’s namesake, provided a
generous donation to build the University of Minnesota art museum a new
building. This Minnesota native was a
successful businessman and contemporary art collector who died one year after
the museum’s initial opening.

Home to 20,000 works of art, the Weisman Art Museum opened in 1993 and features American Modernism, ceramics, Mimbres pottery, and the most complete collection of Korean furniture outside of Asia. Internationally acclaimed artist Frank Gehry designed the building and its addition, which was completed in 2011. American artists represented include Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley.

Weisman Art Museum

The original part of the&nbsp;Minneapolis Institute of Arts was designed by the New York City firm McKim, Mead and White, and built in 1919. This firm designed numerous neo-classical buildings throughout the country including museums and hotels. The late Japanese architect Kenzo Tange designed an expansion in 1974, and architect Michael Graves designed the other expansion in 2006.&nbsp;

Established in 1883 as the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, this is the premiere fine art museum in Minnesota. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts maintains an extensive collection of over 80,000 objects from nearly every continent. The collection includes pieces as old as 40,000 years to modern works by Monet and other famous artists. The MIA has seven curatorial areas: Arts of Africa & the Americas; Contemporary Art; Decorative Arts, Textiles & Sculpture; Asian Art; Paintings; Photography and New Media; and Prints and Drawings. The museum receives around a half a million visitors per year.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Kitson's work had gained popularity due to her realistic historical accuracy. Gorham Manufacturing Company has made over 50 copies of "the Hiker" since&nbsp;purchasing the rights to it in 1921. The original statue located at the University of Minnesota is now missing the muzzle to the rifle and is known as "Iron Mike". This monument is to honor the U.S. soldiers that fought to protect their nation in the Spanish-American War. 
The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a war between the United States and Spain that ultimately ended with Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.
The war started with a struggle for Cuban independence from Spain in February 1895. There was a high demand for U.S. intervention became after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbour of the battleship USS Mainne,&nbsp;that was sent to serve as protection to U.S. citizens and property after there were anti-Spanish riots in Havana. Spain announced an armistice on April 9 and soon after the U.S. Congress sought resolutions that declared Cuba’s right to independence and demanding the withdrawal of Spain’s armed forces from Cuba.&nbsp;
On April 24th, Spain declared war on the United States. Following suit the U.S. issued a declaration of war on the 25th, which was ratified to the date of April 21 1895. After many battles over the course of the war, Santiago surrendered on July 17, ending the war.
The Treaty of Paris&nbsp;was signed December 10, 1898, Spain renounced any and all claim to Cuba, granted Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States. The Spanish-American War was an important turning point in the history for many reasons. Spain’s defeat ultimately turned the nation’s attention away from overseas colonial adventures and inward upon domestic needs, a process that would be a cultural and a literary rebirth as well as a much-needed economic change in Spain. The United States gained themselves a place with the world powers with overseas possessions and new found interests in international politics.&nbsp;

This 9 foot monument was created by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson in 1906. "The hiker" is a representation of the American soldiers who fought in the Spanish- American War, the Philippine-American War and the Boxer Rebellion. The statue is named after the term the soldiers used calling themselves "hikers".  "The hiker" was modeled after a photograph of Leonard Sefing, Jr., a veteran of the Spanish-American War was sent into a national contest. Many copies of this monument have been made but the original monument was unveiled on Memorial Day, 1906 at the University of Minnesota. It was placed here to honor the 218 University of Minnesota students who served in the Spanish-American War.

The Hiker

The Bell Museum of Natural History is a museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the campus of the University of Minnesota. On display are numerous animal specimens from all over the world. The museum is best-known for its dioramas which show caribou, timber wolves, bobcats, deer, moose, and a variety of birds from the wetlands. The museum also offers the Touch and See Discovery Room--a place where school groups and families can explore the natural world through interactive exhibits. The museum will move to a new location at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul campus in 2018.

Bell Museum of Natural History

The museum is named after Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic, which today is the largest manufacturer of pacemakers. Bakken was born in 1924 and attended the University of Minnesota where he earned a degree in&nbsp;electrical engineering. He founded Medtronic in 1949 and initially he focused on repairing medical equipment. Eventually, the company began to design its own equipment. Along with another doctor, Bakken&nbsp;developed the world's first wearable pacemaker in 1957. His interest in old medical equipment and books began in 1969 and for the next several years he acquired a sizable collection. He opened a small museum in the early 1970s at the corporate headquarters and then moved it to another office in 1975. Initially it was called the Medtronic Museum of Electricity in Life. That same year the museum was officially&nbsp;incorporated. The museum moved to the mansion in 1976 and added a storage vault in 1981. It changed its name to the current one in 1986.

The Bakken Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to the medical uses of electricity. It features a wide variety of hands-on exhibits that help educate visitors about the history of electricity and electromagnetism from 1200 A. D. to the present. This includes an exhibit on Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein, and a small theater recreating the laboratory of the mad scientist who created Frankenstein. The museum opened in 1975 and moved to the current location, the old West Winds mansion, a year later. 

Bakken Museum

The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line is located southwest of downtown Minneapolis. It operates between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. The Linden Hills Station is at Queen Ave. So. and W. 42nd St. You can also board at the Lake Calhoun platform, on Richfield Road south of W. 36th St. From Interstate 35-W, use the W. 46th St. exit. Go west to E. Lake Harriet Pkwy. Follow the Parkway around the Lake to W. 42nd St. Park in the pay lot to your left ($1 per vehicle) or cross the streetcar tracks for on-street parking.

The Minnesota Streetcar Museum focuses on the preservation of Minnesota's electric railway history by acquiring, restoring, maintaining, and operating a fleet of eight historic Minnesota streetcars on the Como-Harriet Streetcar Line in Minneapolis and the Excelsior Streetcar Line in Excelsior. MSM also preserves artifacts, papers, and photographs that it uses to interpret Minnesota's electric railway history.

Minnesota Streetcar Museum 

The Minnehaha Falls Regional Park features 53-ft waterfalls and is nestled along the Minnehaha Creek. Home to the Longfellow House Hospitality Center and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, a 50 mile outdoor recreation loop, the falls were make popular through Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Song of Hiawatha (1853). In addition to hiking, biking, and walking trails, the park, features 4 outdoor picnic sites, a picnic shelter, and paved trails and is home to the John H. Stevens House, the Princess Depot, and an off-leash dog park.  

Minnehaha Falls Regional Park

Located within Como Regional Park is the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, the latter of which is named the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. It was built in 1915 and the design is typical of conservatories built in the early 20th century. It features several gardens and rooms including a fern room, palm room, water garden, Japanese garden, and an impressive Bonsai tree collection. Visitors will see a wide array of tropical plants and flowers. When it was built, the conservatory replaced nine run-down greenhouses. In 2015 it was named after Marjorie McNeeley, a philanthropist who donated money to the conservatory as well as other cultural organizations. The park itself features many attractions and activities such as the zoo, fishing, picnicking, paddleboat rentals, an amusement park, a restaurant, and golf and mini golf.

Marjorie McNeely Conservatory 

This little former depot was built in 1875 and was on the first railroad line that connected the Twin Cities to Chicago. It replaced an even smaller station. It was given the nickname "Princes" for its gingerbread canopy covering the area in front of the entrance. Tracks can still be seen embedded in the ground next to the depot. The Minnesota Transportation Museum owns and operates the depot, offering historical exhibits there periodically.



Minnehaha Depot

American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) rose to prominence as a chronicler of the jazz age. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald's childhood home, school, and first house are all in the same area. He attended Princeton, but never graduated and used it as the setting for his first novel This Side of Paradise (1920). It was in the house listed above that he wrote the book during the summer of 1919. &nbsp;The home is “a brownstone two bays wide, with a
polygonal two-story window bay on the right, and the entrance, recessed under a
round arch that is flush with the bay front, on the left. At the mansarded roof
level there is a gable with two round-arch windows and decorative finials” (“F.
Scott Fitzgerald House”). &nbsp;The twenties were beginning to roar, and Fitzgerald headed for Paris with his attractive southern wife Zelda.&nbsp; He began to develop a problem with alcoholism and struggled as a writer to make enough money to match his extravagant lifestyle and still produce serious work. His third book The Great Gatsby (1925), the story of a gangster's pursuit of an unattainable rich girl, was close to a masterpiece.The Fitzgerald's literary fame was soon tinged with tragedy. Scott's alcoholism became worse while his wife became mentally ill. They both came back to the United States in 1931 to America in the grip of the Great Depression. His book, Tender is&nbsp;the Night (1934)&nbsp;was only brought by lukewarm reviews and poor sales. Fitzgerald returned to Hollywood and made a precarious living as a scriptwriter&nbsp;while struggling to control his alcoholism. His&nbsp;last novel, The Last Tycoon (1941) was only a third of the way&nbsp;finished before&nbsp;Fitzgerald died of a&nbsp;heart attack. Not until the 1950s did interest in Fitzgerald revive and his works&nbsp;became a veritable scholarly industry. He conveyed in his best novels and short stories the sense of youthful awe and the&nbsp;hope America's promises created in many people.

The F. Scott Fitzgerald House, also known as Summit Terrace, is part of a row house designed by William H. Wilcox and Clarence H. Johnson Sr.  A National Historic Landmark, the F. Scott Fitzgerald House in St. Paul, Minnesota was home to the famous author’s parents Edward and Mollie, who moved back to the city while Fitzgerald was attending Princeton.  Located in St. Paul’s Historic Hill District, this Victorian/Romanesque Revival style rowhouse is most closely associated with Fitzgerald’s literary fame and features similar environments to some of his later works.  During the summer of 1919, F. Scott Fitzgerald rewrote the manuscript that would become This Side of Paradise, as well as other short stories during his stay at the home until 1920.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald House

Fort Snelling was
established&nbsp;in 1820 at this strategic river junction&nbsp;to help maintain
American control of the region and its fur trade.&nbsp;Because fur traders
often&nbsp;utilized slaves, enslaved&nbsp;African Americans&nbsp;lived and
worked at Fort Snelling during its early years. By the time Minnesota became a
free state in 1858, the fort was used primarily as a place to stage when and
supplies for campaigns against Native tribes of the West. 

At the start of the Civil War
1,000 Minnesota men were billeted in wooden barracks of the fort as they
trained in preparation for battle. The fort also included a hospital for sick
and wounded troops.&nbsp;By the end of the war 25,000 men from throughout the
region had passed through Fort Snelling for training, or to recover from wounds
and illness. 

Over 1500 Native Americans
were detailed at Fort Snelling during the U.S. Dakota War. 
 
During the Spanish American War, Fort Snelling once
again served as a training camp. Many of the existing stone and brick buildings
were constructed after 1898 in order to house the infantry, cavalry and
artillery units that trained here. 
 
After the Civil War,&nbsp;Fort
Snelling&nbsp;became the headquarters of the U.S. military’s Department of the
Dakota and served as a training and supply&nbsp;center for campaigns aimed at
pacifying American Indian nations in the West during the second half of the 19th
century. During the 1880s the fort&nbsp;was often home to African American
troops known colloquially as "Buffalo Soldiers." &nbsp;

Following
the Selective Service Act of 1940, Fort Snelling Reception Center was created
to process new recruits&nbsp;and prepare them for military service.&nbsp;

Built to guard the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers in the 1820s, Fort Snelling served a significant role in shaping early history of Minnesota as a territory and state. From here, the federal government—through the U.S. Army—was able to gain control of the lucrative fur trade and to establish formal relationships with the Native American tribes in the area. This part of Minnesota was, at the time, part of the Northwest Territory (comprised of what are now the Great Lake States as well as the northeastern portion of Minnesota). The fort is located on a bluff, affording it excellent views of the surrounding area. Historically, the junction of the rivers also has significant cultural meaning for Native Americans. It served as a gathering place and, for the Dakota, is the site of their creation story. It was also here that the Dakota were sent to live in an interment camp after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. The fort, which is a National Historic Landmark, was an active military installation for over 120 years.

Fort Snelling

The AAW works to support and educated people around the world about the artwork of lathe-turning wood crafting. Woodturning as a craft has existed for over 4,000 years and is found in several ancient cultures. It is a unique form of wood working since it involves the wood spinning at a fast rate during the cutting process, which differs greatly from other forms of wood working. Due to the age of the craft and the unique pieces of work which are created by it, the association was founded in the hopes of encouraging others to practice in this craft. It was founded at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the two are closely affiliated.The association holds annual symposiums each year. The location of the symposium alternates in order to not alienate members living on different sides of the country. The symposium gives members and opportunity to demonstrate wood turning in action, display their works of art, and to sell some of their crafts.&nbsp;In addition to the national symposium, the association gives its members educational opportunities, scholarships, insurance coverage, a bimonthly magazine, and a place to display and market their works of art.The Association is a affiliated with groups around the world. It has over 330 local chapters in the United States, with more chapters located in places like Canada, Japan, England, and Taiwan. There are also three virtual chapters which are online and allow for members to be more widespread. The virtual chapters also specialize in different forms of wood turning.

The American Association of Woodturners (AAW) is the leading organization in the United States demonstrating finely crafted artworks of wood turning. The association was founded in 1986 and is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and has over 15,000 members around the world. AAW holds an annual national symposium, and generously sponsors organizes activities for outreach to new members as well as educational activities.

American Association of Woodturners Gallery of Wood Art

The city started to buy the land that is now the park in 1890 in order to protect what remained of the mounds. Excavations first took place in the 1850s. Some excavations were not done carefully—mounds were simply dug up—and unfortunately looting took place as well. Nonetheless, excavations revealed several types of including small bundle burials, log tombs, put burials, and simple burials. A few contained a variety of death offerings such as projectile points, copper ornaments, and bear teeth.

Established in the late 1800s, this 17-acre park features six ancient burial mounds, the earliest of which date back between 1,500-2,000 years ago. These early mounds were created by the people of the Hopewell culture. As such, this site is the only distinctly Hopewell site in the state, and one of northernmost examples of this culture in the country. For centuries, Native Americans buried their dead here, including the Dakota peoples. The mounds rest on limestone rock that is 450 million years old. Originally there were at least 16 mounds at this location and 19 more nearby above what is now Carver's Cave but these have been lost to development over the years. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

Minneapolis tour

Walker Art Center

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information