Museum Collections
Showroom display toy for the Hilltop Trailer Sales company, ca. 1960’s.
Artifact Collections
ACHS has over 19,000 physical artifacts at the History Center. These items range from tiny pins to large pieces of furniture, from photographs to clothing. While some objects may be too large or too fragile to be easily removed from storage, in many cases our artifacts are also available for research. Our full museum database can be searched at the History Center, and staff will retrieve specific artifacts for patrons to look at.
We continually add items in our collection to the publicly accessible, searchable database called MN Collections. Check it out!
Don’t forget our Exhibit Hall has many items on display. Can’t make it to the building? No problem…just click here and take a tour of our online displays.
Documents from the Anoka Masonic Lodge collection.
Archival Collections (Manuscripts)
The archival collections contain a large variety of materials, including diaries, family photographs and scrapbooks, newspapers, handwritten notes, letters, play programs, personal journals, advertising, compiled histories, and more!
If you are coming into the History Center to do research, these files can be searched or browsed through our museum database.
Over the coming year, we will be making more of our collections available publicly online: click here to go to the MN Collections website to check for new additions.
Interview with Natalie Haas Steffen, 2015.
Oral History Collection
We have more than 250 oral interview audio files and typed transcripts at the History Center. Click the subject links below to find the interviews:
We regularly conduct new Oral Histories, and will make more of the existing collections available online.
Tell your story!
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Tell your story! 〰️
Use these forms to document your family and business life. We would love to include it in our collection when you’re finished!
PURPOSE: To record an individual’s singularly important and unique story to pass their legacy on for current and future family members.
GUIDANCE: Use this booklet as a memory jogger and aid to writing or recording a personal history. It may be used to document yourself, a family member, or significant person in your life. Don’t feel pressure to complete this in one sitting but consider spreading it over a period of time. You can use it to assist while interviewing an individual for a video or audio recording, or as a personal journal prompt.