Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum

06/03/2026

We added Maryland to our list of states that sent visitors...not that we're keeping track. ;-) Thank you for bringing your company to the Orphanage Museum!

05/31/2026

We've had a lot of out-of-state visitors already this season, but the two young men from South Africa who came today win the distance prize! They are working in the US till December. During their free time, they travel sites in the area. Volunteer Kathi was their tour guide.

Recently, people who signed our guestbook came from Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas, California, South Dakota, North Carolina, and Massachusetts!!

05/29/2026

Just like the Minnesota State Public School children, the students who came to the Owatonna State School (1946-1970) had different experiences and different memories. Overall, conditions were better at OSS than the orphanage. According to Harvey Ronglien, corporal punishment ended shortly after the institution changed in 1946. Many of the matrons remained the same, so they had to learn new methods of discipline.

05/28/2026

05/27/2026

This morning the OHS Child Development II Class visited Cottage 11. Reading "The Boy from C-11" by Harvey Ronglien is part of the curriculum, which includes a field trip here at the end of the semester.

How fortunate that this unique piece of child welfare history has been preserved!

05/21/2026

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧
When Tim Shea and I made our first visit to the Children's Cemetery since Christmas, we noticed a rosary was placed on the cross of Mary Alice Otten. It wasn't there before. Someone had added it to her marker recently.

I did a little research into her story and found only fragments. Originally from Carlton County, little Mary Alice spent nearly half of her short life at the State School. Just days after turning 3 years old, she died from 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘢 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴, which caused severe dehydration. There was no mention of her passing in the newspaper, as though her brief life slipped quietly from the world unnoticed. Her death certificate lists Lillian Otten as her mother and simply “Unknown” for her father.

Whatever the circumstances surrounding her life, it was deeply moving to see Mary Alice remembered. Every child deserves to be acknowledged, and perhaps in this small way, she is no longer forgotten.

05/20/2026

You have four days to experience the magical Built for Play exhibit at the History Center, showing the craftsmanship of master woodworker Cory Dotson.

Cory’s craftsmanship is still on full display throughout the Orphanage Museum hallways. He built the custom display cases that house the artifacts from State School days. We are deeply grateful to the Dotson family for choosing the Orphanage Museum as the recipient of the show’s proceeds.

05/19/2026

𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐦 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲
In August 2012, an Australian woman named Leonie Sheedy made a pilgrimage to Owatonna to learn more about our Orphanage Museum. She is a co-founder of Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN), which is a support, advocacy, research, and training group for the half a million children in Australia who were raised as state wards, foster children, or in orphanages. The organization was established in 2000, along with a mini orphanage museum in Sydney, Australia.

During her 2012 visit, Leonie spent hours touring the West Hills campus with Harvey Ronglien, learning how the museum grew and taking notes for an eventual national orphanage museum in Australia. CLAN was lobbying the Australian federal government to make it happen.

On Saturday 1 April 2023, the Australian Orphanage Museum finally opened its doors and welcomed guests from all over Australia to its official opening by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles. It's an honor to know that the Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum and Harvey & Maxine Ronglien played a role in inspiring their journey.

https://aomuseum.com.au/