The Sister Kenny Institute, opened in 1942, was a world-renowned center for polio treatment. Founded by Australian nurse Elizabeth Kenny, it was an early leader in the field of rehabilitation medicine and remains a prominent center for rehabilitation treatment and research.

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration created the Federal Writers' Project to employ writers who could not find work. These writers created guidebooks and ethnic history resources that are still used today.

From 1881 to 1920, the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) struggled to secure women's right to vote. Its members organized marches, wrote petitions and letters, gathered signatures, gave speeches, and published pamphlets and broadsheets to force the Minnesota Legislature to recognize their right to vote. Due in part to its efforts, the legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919.

The R.W. Lindholm Service Station in Cloquet was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1958, it was the only building concept ever constructed from Wright's utopian vision of a model American community called Broadacre City.

Donald Dayton, head of Minneapolis-based Dayton's department stores, teamed up with designer Victor Gruen to create a comfortable, convenient setting for Minnesota shoppers. In 1952, Dayton and Gruen unveiled their plans for Southdale, the nation's first enclosed, weatherproofed mall.