Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums will be honored six local history projects with a Minnesota History Award and two individuals with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Meeting and Conference on April 24 in White Bear Lake. 

Among those honored was Mower County’s “The Gertrude Project,” the one-act play that shared the life and history of Gertrude Skinner.

“Great example and model for local history,” said one of the committee members. “A one-act play is a very creative medium for sharing local history and the organization’s collection.”

This is the fifteenth award year. Award recipients completed projects or achieved the criteria for lifetime achievement in 2023-2024.  

 “We are proud to honor so many creative people and organizations for their efforts to preserve and share local history,” said Alliance Coordinator Liz Koele. “In fifteen years, the Alliance has honored over 50 organizations with a Minnesota History Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award, started in 2016, has honored nearly 25 individuals. A complete list of previous award winners is located on the Alliance website.

Award recipients for the 2025 Minnesota History Awards include:

Carver County Historical Society (Waconia) for their Carver County Veterans Searchable Registry project. 

Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County (Moorhead) for the Felix Battles Monument. 

Lake Minnetonka Historical Society (Wayzata) for their behind-the-scenes project The Consolidation of Lake Minnetonka Historical Society. 

Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery (Minneapolis) for their interpretive program Black Liberation: Dismantling Racism in Minnesota 1800s-1960s exhibit. 

Mower County Historical Society (Austin) for their interpretive program The Gertrude Project. 

Ramsey County Historical Society, Dan McGuinness, and Šišókaduta (Joe Bendickson) (St. Paul), for their publication Ramsey County History Magazine Dakhóta Issue, Fall 2023. 

Award recipients for the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award:

Barbara W. Sommer (Mendota Heights) for over 45 years of service to the Carlton County Historical Society and many other historical organizations and oral history projects across the state & country through BWS Associates. 

Sara Markoe Hanson (White Bear Lake) for over 30 years of service to the White Bear Lake Area Historical Society and other Minnesota historical sites and organizations.