History of the NRCDHC Collection

In 2007 a group of librarians and archivists in the Northfield area began meeting to address the problem of Northfield’s historical records being kept at a variety of organizations all over town. The group wanted to develop a set of policies and practices as well as an infrastructure to provide a single portal for access to Northfield area history.  The founding organizations were the Northfield Historical Society, the Rice County Historical Society, the Northfield Public Library and Carleton College The group worked together to identify, describe, organize and provide access to books, manuscripts, photographs, institutional and corporate records, genealogical materials, and other materials relevant to understanding the history of our community and planning for its future. They created an affiliation that became known as the Northfield History Collaborative (NHC.) In 2020, the affiliation became known as the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection (DHC).

Online collections on the NRCDHC include materials from these organizations:

• Bridgewater Township
• Carleton College
• Christdala Church Preservation and Cemetery Association
• City of Dundas
• First National Bank of Northfield (now Merchants Bank)
• First United Church of Christ
• KYMN Radio (now 95.1 the One)
• Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Services
• Northfield Arts Guild
• Northfield Historical Society
• Northfield Hospital
• Northfield News
• Northfield Public Library
• Rice County Historical Society
• St. John’s Lutheran Church
• St. Olaf College
• Three Links Care Center

To begin searching these collections, visit the main website for the Northfield-Rice County Digital History Collection