Endowment Giving

The Patrick Coleman Chair
Curator of Maps, Rare Books, and Print Culture

What is the Coleman Chair?
Funds raised to establish The Patrick Coleman Chair, Curator of Maps, Rare Books, and Print Culture, will be used to support a senior-level curatorial position focused on the acquisition and preservation of books and printed materials. Upon Mr. Coleman’s retirement, funding for this named endowed chair will empower MNHS to engage in a national search to hire a senior-level professional at a competitive level by providing ongoing resources for attending conferences, purchasing items relevant to the history and culture of Minnesota, and supporting strategic collecting to further MNHS’s mission. The named chair will ensure that the collection Patrick Coleman has curated over four decades continues to grow in breadth and depth, taking care to establish a relevant and accessible collection to support research by MNHS Gale Family Library patrons, ranging from young students to authors and scholars. Importantly, the chair will also identify current Minnesota book artists and writers producing works in our lifetime that will be of significance well into the future, and make present-day acquisitions to ensure their preservation in MNHS’s collections for decades to come.

About Patrick Coleman
Patrick Coleman is a dedicated scholar of Minnesota history, literature, and the arts, and a uniquely gifted and skilled bibliophile. During his four-decade tenure at the Minnesota Historical Society, Mr. Coleman acquired 100,000 volumes for the Gale Family Library, establishing it as a premier resource for scholarship on all Minnesota topics. In particular, Mr. Coleman has significantly enhanced MNHS’s holdings in Minnesota cultural history, including fiction, poetry, fine press, and artists’ books. Some of his past leadership roles include serving as the president of the Library of Congress’s Minnesota Center for the Book, presiding over the Minnesota Book Awards, and continuing as a strong supporter of the Saint Paul Public Libraries and the University of Minnesota Libraries. His leadership roles and strong connections to professional organizations in the field have been an invaluable asset to the Minnesota Historical Society.DONATE

Campaign committee members

• Chris Coleman, co-chair
• Phyllis Goff, co-chair
• Nina Archabal, MNHS Director Emerita
• Ford Bell
• Connie Coleman
• Emmett & Carrie Coleman
• David Hakensen
• Sally Johnson
• John Kaul
• George Latimer
• Nick Linsmayer
• Lee Lynch & Terry Saario
• C. Peter Magrath & Susan Thon
• Ellen A. Michelson
• Rob Rulon-Miller
• Mary Rothchild & Dan Bruggeman
• John & Nina Tuttle
• Paul Verret*

*Paul Verret enthusiastically agreed to serve on the Campaign Cabinet prior to his passing in the summer of 2020. We honor his commitment and friendship with Patrick Coleman by including him in this list of committed supporters.