Museum: Library

Research Library at
Edina History Museum
(in Arneson Acres Park)4711 W. 70th Street
Edina, MN 55435
612-928-4577

Hours:
Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Saturdays, 10 a.m. to noon
or by appointment

Free admission
Donations accepted!

Directions and map

Discover your own past at our research library

While many people visit the Edina History Museum for its exhibits, almost as many others come to research or browse at its non-circulating library.

Whether they're looking for information about their house, family, school, neighborhood or organization, researchers can find a variety of resources to review free of charge.

Researchers may make photocopies of material within copyright guidelines. Photographs may also be reproduced for non-profit purposes; see photo use policy more information on fees on restrictions on use.

The museum is staffed primarily by volunteers and a part-time director. We attempt to accommodate appointments with advance notice. Please call 612-928-4577 to arrange times outside of regular museum hours. To help expand our hours, please support us through membership or donation.

Resources:

This is only a partial listing of resources available at the Edina History Museum research library. With additional funding, we can provide an on-line catalog to our thousands of photos, books, documents and objects in our collection. See our wish list for more information about our library projects.

Edina high school yearbooks: The collection includes both Edina East and Edina West yearbooks. Missing years:

Edina phone directories: 1931 to present day. Early phone directories provide a wealth of information about residents, including names and sometimes ages of children in the household and residents' occupations and employers, Many directories include a reverse look-up by address.

The Crier, a monthly newspaper for the Country Club District (1930-1941). The newspaper covered news of the day, such as the hiring of the city's first police officer and the opening of the new Edina Theatre, in addition to school and community news. Similar to many newspapers of the era, The Crier had a detailed Society column that mentioned the parties, vacations and afternoon teas of neighborhood residents. The Crier is fully indexed, with a complete listing of topics, people and even advertisers that appeared in each issue.

Edina Tax Assessor Records: As the City of Edina converts its records to computer, the Edina Historical Society has received its paper housing records, which include a photo of the home, market value, home owners, sale dates and prices and building permits filed. Record-keeping began in 1958; records prior to that date are based on information collected from homeowners. Note: Morningside records do not begin until after 1966, when Morningside was annexed by Edina. Original records for the Country Club District are kept by the City of Edina's Heritage Preservation Board. Call Joyce Repya at the City of Edina Planning Department at 612-927-8861 for more information.

Maps, including plat maps showing early property owners in 1868, 1898 and 1913.

Photographs: Our collection includes thousands of photographic images of Edina people, homes, businesses, schools, farms and more. We are working on creating a searchable computer database; however, researchers must currently review paper records of our photograph to locate images. Your donation will help us make these photographs more accessible to the public. Please see our photograph use policies for information on making copies of our images.

About Town, the quarterly newsletter for the City of Edina. (complete set) In addition to city news, the publication includes a popular column on Edina history. Writers through the years have included Dudley Parsons, Deborah Morse-Kahn and Joe Sullivan. See the City of Edina's web site to view .pdf files of any issue. Paper copies are at the museum.

City of Edina newsletters from the 1950s through 1970s.

Images on the Wind, the literary magazine for Edina High School.

Edina Magazine, a monthly publication.

Oral histories. The Edina Historical Society has interviewed more than 60 residents and city leaders about life in Edina. The first interviews done in the early 1970s were with pioneer families; later interview subjects include police and fire chiefs, pastors, business owners, park directors and more. Duplicate tapes may be checked out for a small deposit; Transcripts are available for many interviews for free review or photocopying.