According to Linda W. Slaughter, an early founder of North Dakota’s historical society, “All things existent must have a beginning…”

The State Historical Society of North Dakota can trace its beginnings back to the Ladies Historical Society of Bismarck and North Dakota. Following North Dakota’s statehood in 1889, a group of Bismarck women formed the Ladies Historical Society; an organization opened exclusively to women who had lived in Burleigh County before the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1873. The society quickly expanded to include all women who had resided in northern Dakota Territory before statehood. Men were permitted to attend meetings but were not allowed to vote or hold office in the organization.

The object of the Ladies Historical Society, according to board member Linda Slaughter, was to “collect and preserve the records and relics pertaining to the early history of the territory and state in correct and permanent form.” But the group soon faced a problem. As the society’s collections grew, adequate care for the objects became increasingly difficult. As Linda Slaughter recalled, “It was finally thought best to divest our society of all local coloring and reorganize as a state society, in which all persons and societies interested in historical work throughout the state could combine, and by united effort carry out the purpose of the society.”

The society was reorganized in late 1894 and on this day, February 25, 1895, it was incorporated under the name “The North Dakota Historical Society”. It took another 10 years before the North Dakota Legislature approved the legal status of the historical society as trustee of the State of North Dakota and its agent for the preservation of state history.

One office, a small museum and a library room in the basement of the old State Capitol building served as the society’s home until the Liberty Memorial Building was ready for occupancy in 1924. In 1981 the State Historical Society moved from the Liberty Memorial Building into its current location, the Heritage Center.

Today, 58 employees and many volunteers at the state museums in Bismarck and Pembina, as well as 56 historic sites, work to fulfill the historical society’s mission to identify, preserve, interpret, and promote the heritage of North Dakota and its people.

Written by Christina Sunwall

Sources:
North Dakota State Government- http://www.nd.gov/fac/historyinfo/history.html
Slaughter, Linda W. “The North Dakota Historical Society.” In Dakota Portraits: A Sentimental Journal of Pictorial History, Marion J. Piper (1964)

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