Minot's Common Heritage

FAIN: PY-234493-16

Minot State University (Minot, ND 58707-0001)
Bethany Andreasen (Project Director: June 2015 to January 2018)

A collaboration between Minot State University and the Minot Public Library that would digitize family letters, personal documents, photos, film, and video for the residents of Minot, North Dakota, and the surrounding region. Minot has seen unprecedented social and economic change in the last decade due to the oil boom, and the city suffered a devastating flood in 2011 that destroyed 4,000 homes. The project aims to preserve and interpret community and personal documentary materials and to reconstruct and safeguard Minot’s cultural heritage going forward.

This project aims to digitize family letters, personal documents, photos, film, and video for community members in Minot, North Dakota and the surrounding region. It uses preservation and a shared digital archive to document community identity at a time when Minot is being rapidly transformed after an unimaginably disastrous flood and by significant population and industrial growth related to the explosion of oil activity in the region. It trains university students as digital ambassadors who can continue this work beyond the time frame of the grant. Organized by the MSU History Department, the project involves partnership with the Minot Public Library and area assisted living facilities to ensure broad community access and participation. Public programming in partner organization venues will highlight themes from the resulting collections and an online digital archive will offer permanent access to all community members.