by Shana Aue
Quick Summary
Learn about the merger of the two collections in the Minnesota Digital Library from the University of Minnesota Duluth.
The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) Archives is one of the earliest and biggest contributors to the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL), with over 3,800 records from our collections currently in MDL. Until recently, records from UMD were split into two MDL collections: University Archives and Northeastern Minnesota Historical Collections (NEMHC). This represented a historical separation in the collections held at UMD. “University Archives” contained materials collected and owned by the University of Minnesota Duluth, while “NEMHC” contained materials collected and owned by the St. Louis County Historical Society (SLCHS) but held on permanent loan at UMD.
Collections from SLCHS had been on permanent loan since 1977, when they were first transferred to UMD along with many collections from the Minnesota Historical Society. These collections were part of the Minnesota Regional Research Centers (MRRCs), a network of eight centers across Minnesota that provided local access to collections documenting the history of each region. The MRRC at UMD was called the Northeastern Minnesota Historical Center. In 2007 the Center ceased operations as an independent entity. The University took over responsibility for the care and funding of all the collections it encompassed, which remained at UMD. Many items from them, which are of great local interest and historical value, were scanned and added to MDL.
In 2025, SLCHS transferred ownership of their collections held at UMD to the University of Minnesota. For most, this is a change on paper only; researchers have always had the same access to all collections held at UMD, no matter their ownership. But this change has allowed the UMD Archives to streamline some of our processes to provide better and easier accessibility for those who use the Archives. One change is that UMD’s materials in MDL have been combined into one collection. All items contributed by UMD can now be accessed in the University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, University Archives collection.
The UMD Archives would like to thank the MDL staff, who fielded the technical challenge of combining our collections. And we are grateful to the St. Louis County Historical Society, who originally collected so many important photographs, maps, documents, and other records. They are a crucial partner in local history research in Duluth, and we are honored to continue to care for these collections.
