Historic Photos

The Minnesota Streetcar Museum is proud to be a contributor to Minnesota Reflections, the Minnesota Digital Library.  To view MSM images in Minnesota Reflections, click here.

Each month Minnesota Reflections has someone write a piece called "Digital Delights", a sampler of photos from the Reflections website. The November, 2011, piece was written by MSM's Aaron Isaacs who wrote a brief history of streetcars in Minnesota. To view it, click here.

The Minnesota Digital Library Coalition (MDLC) — professionals from libraries, archives, historical societies, and museums across Minnesota — is creating a digital collection of the state's unique resources and special collections. The Minnesota Digital Library supports education, scholarship, and enrichment through Internet access to this collection. The MDLC provides a server and database environment and imaging support that is the technical foundation for current and future digitization activities.

Minnesota Reflections is the initial digitization effort of the MDLC. This digitization project, started in 2004, involves more than 125 participating historical societies, special archives, and libraries. The MDLC and participants digitized more than 80,000 unique photographs and images, collected the information on these images, and is creating a searchable database to help people access and use them.

For information about the Reproduction and Use of MSM Photographs and Images, click here. (pdf file)

To order images from the Museum, note the "Local Identifier" number at the bottom of the text accompanying an image and visit the MSM Store to print an order form.

Update history:

In November, 2007, 230 images were added bringing the total to 673.

In July, 2008, 130 images were added bringing the total to 803.

In August 2009, 333 images were added bringing the total to 1,136.

In June 2011, 411 images were added bringing the total to 1,547

To link to the complete Minnesota Reflections collection, click here.

Search note: Using the basic search function at the top right of each page searches the entire collection. For example, searching for "Snelling" yields many images of Ft. Snelling. Using the "Advanced Search" function will allow you the select the exact collection you want to search.