Exploring the Museums of Winona

The history and culture of Winona, Minnesota, is rich, diverse, and celebrated by the town’s many excellent museums. A visit to any one of Winona’s museums will enrich your understanding and appreciation of the town. Plus, it’s an activity the entire family can enjoy. Let’s explore the museums of Winona and what they offer visitors.

Polish Cultural Institute and Museum

In the mid-1850s, Kashubian-speaking Polish immigrants began to migrate to the Winona area. Their descendants still call Winona home, which is why the town is known as the Kashubian Capital of America. To preserve Polish culture and the Kashubian language, the community established the Polish Cultural Institute and Museum.

Exhibits feature household items brought over by Polish immigrants, war medals, newspapers, and other artifacts. Younger visitors will enjoy the museum’s collection of antique dolls and other toys. Historic photographs show how the Polish community and the town of Winona flourished. Be sure to stop by the gift shop, where you’ll find T-shirts, CDs, and an impressive selection of Lubiana porcelain.

Winona County History Center

Located in a former National Guard Armory building, the Winona County History Center takes visitors on a journey back through time, all the way back before humans roamed the earth. As you make your way through the balcony gallery, you’ll trace a timeline that starts with the formation of the area’s unique geology, including the Sugar Loaf Bluff. The timeline continues through the time of early humans, the era of the Dakota tribes, and European settlement, and ends with the diverse communities that currently call Winona home.

The kids will enjoy the Walking Through Time exhibit, where they can explore a cave, a teepee, and a steamboat pilothouse. Other exhibits illustrate how business, entertainment, and architecture have evolved since the founding of Winona.

Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, so it’s no surprise that Winona is home to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. This unique museum is home to some of the most renowned marine artworks in the world. Paintings by Monet, Renoir, and Picasso grace the museum walls. You can also view photography that showcases stunning marine plant life and wildlife.

The museum also houses several dynamic sculpture pieces. Perhaps the most famous work of art at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” Visitors are also invited to stroll through the 3.5 acres of American Prairie-style gardens that surround the museum.

The Bunnell House

In the 1840s, Wapasha, chief of the Dakota, granted permission to Willard Bunnell, a local fur trader, to build a cabin in what is now the nearby township of Homer. Due to his fur-trading success, Bunnell was eventually able to build a larger house that still stands in Homer. Constructed from northern white pine, the Bunnell House is one of the Midwest’s premier examples of Rural Gothic architecture. Visitors to the house will learn what life was like as the area transformed from Dakota land into Winona County.

These are just a few of the excellent museums in the Winona area. No matter which one you visit, you’ll have fun exploring Winona’s history.