Our Lives, Our Stories: Minnesota's Greatest Generation

FAIN: MI-50060-07

Historical Society of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN 55102-1903)
Brian Horrigan (Project Director: January 2007 to January 2011)

Implementation of a permanent exhibition, a traveling exhibition, publications, a web site, and other public and educational programs exploring the collective experience of the generation that fought World War II and matured in the postwar decades.

The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) seeks support for the implementation of a major new thematic exhibit, Our Lives, Our Stories: Minnesota's Greatest Generation. The 6,000 square-foot exhibit, which opens August 2008 at the Minnesota History Center, explores the lives and legacies of Minnesotans who grew up during the Depression, came of age during World War II, and created the postwar boom. In our focus on a single birth cohort--men and women born around 1910-29--we are developing a way of understanding our history that is perhaps unique in American museums. The exhibit draws on an ongoing research and documentation effort, which encompasses oral histories, a website, a film competition, publications, outreach efforts, programs and a collecting initiative. MHS seeks funds to fabricate and install the exhibit, produce a range of gallery-based media components, and develop evaluation plans.