FUNDING   OPPORTUNITIES

2007 Donor Recognition

Rocky Roots book
The RCHS seeks to update and republish the book Rocky Roots: Three Geology Walking Tours of Downtown St. Paul.  The book was originally published by the society in 1978. 

Seeger Book Film
In 2007 RCHS published a rare glimpse of the city’s industrial past, a past that put the city on the cutting edge of a national cultural revolution – refrigerators in every household.  This book, From Arcade Street to Main Street, a History of the Seeger Refrigerator Company by James B. Bell chronicles the history of this remarkable company (later known as Whirlpool) and its rise to national influence and prominence.  

Author Jim Bell has discovered an unusual and long-forgotten 1925 film of Seeger employees building an ice box (a pre-electric refrigerator) in the Seeger factory. At 18 minutes long, this silent film is a remarkable artifact which—when edited, placed in historical context, with illustrations and details of the company’s story before 1925 and formatted as a DVD—will add an unprecedented dimension to every copy of the Seeger book, a dimension that few other written histories could offer.  

While the book has already been published, adding the film will make the book much more authentic and give it a rare depth of reality. The film was made by Ray Bell Films nationally recognized industrial film maker ALSO located in St. Paul, near today’s Ford plant.   

We hope you will consider supporting bringing this rare film to life and making it available to a broad audience. 

Exterior Mural at the Gibbs Museum Admissions Building
Funding is needed to create and complete an exterior mural “The Four Families of Jane Gibbs” for the admissions building at the Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakotah Life.  The life of Jane DeBow Gibbs provides the framework through which the Society teaches about two cultures that, at least for a time, co-existed peacefully.  She led a fascinating life, which includes living with her own family in New York state, her “adoption” by a missionary family and her ensuing journey as a child to Minnesota,  her lifelong friendships with the Dakotah people, and her return to Minnesota and the Gibbs farm as a newly married pioneer woman.   If visitors are to appreciate the Gibbs Museum fully, it is important for them first to understand Jane’s basic story.  This understanding can be communicated most easily by visual means: through a mural outside the Museum’s admissions building, on the east side where school groups gather as they wait to tour the site.   

The mural, consisting of four large panels, will attract the attention of passerby, encouraging some of them to visit, and will serve as a visual representation of the true story of that time in 19^th century Minnesota when the Dakotah and the pioneers lived in cooperation and respect.  This is at the heart of the Gibbs Museum mission: the knowledge that a time of tolerance existed once long ago, and the belief that we must strive to achieve such tolerance today.
 
Tipi for the Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakotah Life
The Society is fortunate to be able to interpret a very important period (1835 – 1862) in Minnesota’s history when two cultures were living amicably side by side: the Native American Dakotah and the pioneers.  How the Dakotah lived is an integral part of the Museum’s interpretation.  

New replicas of tipi are needed at the Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakotah Life to replace the current damaged tipi. The tipi are made  from canvas, the material the Dakotah were using during Jane Gibbs era (instead of buffalo hide), and other replicas of original material such as wood for the poles.  Currently, the Society needs to replace one large tipi and 3 medium size tipi.

The Dakotah used tipi during the late fall, winter, and spring because of their easy portability.  Museum visitors will learn how tipi were made, assembled and used by the Dakotah people who visited the Gibbs farm to rest during their seasonal travels and to visit Jane Gibbs.

Dakotah Artifacts for School Outreach Program
One of the most successful and unique programs of RCHS is its Gibbs Museum’s Dakotah Outreach to Schools program. Entitled, “Daily Life of the Dakotah,” it is visiting a growing number of students on site in their schools.  The program depends on hands-on participation by the students which causes a good deal of wear and tear to the replica artifacts.  Following is a selection of some of the heavily-used artifacts that need replacing or repair:

·        pieces of flint in leather pouch for fire starting
·        wooden drill for fires starting
·        sewing needle and treading needle
·        Buffalo skins
·        Medicine Jar
·        Jigging Bag
·        Fur  pelts – beaver, skunk, muskrat, fox
·        Buffalo horn
·        Buffalo spoon
·        Center seamed Sioux style moccasins 

Starting with 250 students at three schools in 2005; we expect to reach well over 1,000 students in 2007.   This is an especially satisfying program whose goal is to build cross-cultural communication, by ensuring that students learn not only about Minnesota’s pioneers but about its original inhabitants—the Dakotah Indians—and that the two did in fact live amicably side by side. It is an example of tolerance, exchange of knowledge, and respect that is timely in today’s world of diverse cultures.   Please consider supporting this worthy educational endeavor.

Building Permit Preservation
In 2003 the City of St. Paul donated its collection of 180,000 building permits, dating from the first permit issued in 1883 to 1975, to the Ramsey County Historical Society.  The Society has embarked on a multi-year, multi-phase project that will result in the ultimate preservation of the original permits—and that will make the fascinating information they contain vastly more accessible to the general public as well as to specialized researchers. 

 Building permits are often the only paper record of important turning points in the city’s history.  They document the built environment of a community in a very tangible way.  They also document social history, economic development, and cultural development in St. Paul over several generations.  It is the Society’s goal to properly preserve, house and make easily accessible to the public the historical permit collection.

Land Acquisition for Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakotah Life
In January 2006, RCHS bought 1.5 acres immediately adjacent to the west side of the current Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakotah Life in Falcon Heights. The property is the only remaining land available of the original Jane and Heman Gibbs farm, which was purchased and settled in 1849—the same year that Minnesota became a Territory. This reunites the current Gibbs Museum site with a portion of what once was the 160 acre parcel of land the newlyweds – Heman and Jane Gibbs – bought early in the spring of 1849.   This purchase brings the Gibbs Museum property up to a total of 8.73 acres.  The Socirty still owes $323,000 for the land.  With this additional land, the Board of Directors will now begin the rare opportunity of planning systematically for how to use the entire site to its best advantage.

 The Gibbs Museum Land Purchase Debt Retirement
On April 9, 1999 the Ramsey County Historical Society purchased 6 acres of land at Gibbs Museum from the University of Minnesota.  The Society leased the site in 1949, owning only the land under the family’s home and original white barn.  Now, with RCHS ownership of the entire 8 acres comes the opportunity for expansion of the Gibbs Museum historical interpretation to include an earlier time period and the story of Jane Gibbs’ childhood years with the Santee Dakotah at Lake Harriet.
Our need to retire the debt for the land purchase is of high priority.
 Total cost: $248,800, remaining: $131,560

RCHS and Gibbs Museum “General Operating” Funds
Arguably the most needed support, the general operating funding pays for the overhead which occurs with day to day operations. While donors supply funds for interesting projects from time to time, it is critical for the Society to develop support for “where needed most” to pay for essential operating expenses.

The Gibbs  Museum Interpretive / Visitors Center  
Tying the Gibbs  Museum together will be a new Interpretive/Visitors Center. This building will provide museum displays, classroom areas, and meeting and service spaces, exhibit areas for RCHS historical artifacts collections and traveling exhibits.

Additions to the RCHS Endowment
The Ramsey County Historical Society has been blessed with friends and members who have contributed generously to provide a modest endowment fund for the Society. The RCHS Endowment Fund generates a steady income stream for the publication of  Ramsey County History magazine and the general operating expenses. As RCHS operations grow, so too must the RCHS Endowment Fund, and additional support is needed to keep the Society moving forward. 

Gift Planning
Many have chosen to provide for the future of the Society through an outright bequest in their will or through one of the many gift planning vehicles available to donors.  There are many ways to structure planned gifts that benefit both the donor and RCHS.  For more information, please call Priscilla Farnham at (651) 222-0701.

Gifts-in-Kind
The Society may be able to benefit greatly from  Gifts-in-Kind, donated products or services for use in our programs. If you have goods or services to offer please let us know. 

It's easy to make a gift to the RCHS
Gifts made “to be used where needed most” offer the Society the most flexibility in maximizing the impact of your gift. Our legal name is Ramsey County Historical Society, Inc. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation. Outright gifts to us may be fully tax-deductible for the donor’s income tax purposes.  Our IRS Federal Identification Number is 41-6009039.  Please contact us for more details.

Gifts of highly appreciated securities or other types of property may provide a particularly attractive gift vehicle for most donors. In order to transfer shares of stock to us, ask your broker to transfer them to our Merrill Lynch account number 693-04E-09.  Please notify us know when you do so.

 For more information about giving to RCHS please call us at (651) 222-0701 or email admin@rchs.com.