Quick Summary
Minnesota Digital Library staff recently attended the Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums annual conference in Duluth. Highlights from the conference included touring local museums, networking with current and future contributors, and attending inspiring sessions led by colleagues across the state.
The Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums (MALHM) is a professional organization of historical societies large and small from all over the state. Each year, MALHM holds a conference to support their mission of “Peers Helping Peers.” This year, the conference was held in Duluth.
Many Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) contributing organizations are members of MALHM, so MDL staff regularly attends the event. We staffed an information table and discussed potential new projects with many of the attendees, who were excited to get more involved with the work of MDL.
Breakout sessions provided many opportunities to learn about public history projects happening all over Minnesota. Highlights included a Black Heritage Trail under development in Hastings, the Minnesota Historia “weird history” video series, community engagement projects with underrepresented groups in Minnesota, creative writing projects for K12 students based on primary sources, and the potential for AI in museums.
We also enjoyed several tours of museums in the Duluth-Superior area, including the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center, the Fairlawn Mansion, the Glensheen Mansion, and the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.
The MALHM conference is a valuable event and we appreciate being able to connect more directly with our colleagues. We are already looking forward to next year’s conference!
