AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

The Local History Services team at the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) was founded in 1916. For over a century it has supported smaller organizations across the state of Minnesota to interpret and preserve the history of their community. The Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums (MALHM) was formed in 1991 with the goal of local history organizations helping their peers, including with emergency response. MNHS and MALHM are partners in supporting local history across the state including with emergency planning, preparedness, and response for collections.


Minnesota is home to a thriving art, culture, and heritage community. As an example, there are an estimated 500+ historical organizations in the state, ranging from tiny all-volunteer area history museums to the Minnesota Historical Society. Minnesota is susceptible to natural disasters including tornados, flooding, fires, and winter storms that threaten the long-term preservation of cultural heritage.


This presentation will discuss Local History Services’ and MALHM’s roles in emergency preparedness and response and how they have evolved to become more collaborative over time. The role of field services will be explored in examples ranging from in-person response, establishing a network of emergency response caches, disaster plan writing workshops and mutual assistance networks and the Minnesota Alliance for Heritage Response. Finally, the crucial elements of partnership and respectful cooperation in our work will be highlighted.