Collectors Day 2025
*The event has already taken place on this date: Sat, 11/01/2025
Please help us keep this calendar up to date! If this activity is sold out, canceled, or otherwise needs alteration, email mindy@kidsoutandabout.com so we can update it immediately. If you have a question about the activity itself, please contact the organization administrator listed below.
The Bell Museum is excited to celebrate its fourth annual Collectors Day, a daylong event where members of the community are invited to share and showcase their own personal collections.
Visitors will interact with collectors as they share stories about their gathering process and their passion and enthusiasm for their collections. The Bell will also invite visitors to learn more about its scientific collections and their important role in research and understanding natural history.
View a variety of collections ranging from Lego minifigures and turtles to lava lamps and tube radios. A few highlights attendees can expect to explore from community collectors include:
- Troll dolls from the early 60s through today
- Antique and modern marbles featuring a variety of designs and materials
- Seashells collected from around the world
- Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes, the earliest type of commercial photography
Additional featured collections from:
- Ramsey County Historical Society’s Gibbs Farm – coins, nails, buttons and more from the 1995 Archeological dig of the Gibbs Family’s sod house
- Andersen Horticultural Library – selections from rare book collections featuring mushrooms, lichens and other forms of life that live in symbiosis with each other
- Children’s Literature Research Collections/The Kerlan Collection – process art, biographies, photos, and more from five authors/illustrators in the Archives and Special Collections at Elmer L Andersen
- University Archives – historical newsletters, books, posters, newspaper & magazine articles, and other publications produced by the Bell Museum and the University of Minnesota
- Goldstein Gallery – a selection of animal-related objects including birds featured in a postmodern tea kettle, an alligator bag with matching accessories, a variety of children’s shoes, a pair of Hmong apron panels and more
- James Ford Bell Library
- Minnesota Veterinary History Museum
- Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine
This is an in-person event at the Bell Museum and is included in the cost of regular admission.
*Times, dates, and prices of any activity posted to our calendars are subject to change. Please be sure to click through directly to the organization’s website to verify.