The Rock County Historical Society tells the story of Rock County and its citizens. To continue preserving our heritage we need your help.
The Rock County Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization, which permits your gift to qualify for the maximum tax benefits allowable by the IRS. Check with your tax or financial advisor.
Donations may be monetary or artifacts relating to Rock County history.
Monetary Donations
Monetary donations can be made in honor/memory of a person, a specific project, or general support.
To make a donation, make a check out to the Rock County Historical Society and drop it off or mail to the Rock County Historical Society at 312 East Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156. All donations qualify for maximum tax benefits allowed by the IRS.
Endowment
If you wish to set up an endowment to perpetually support the Historical Society, contact the Luverne Area Community Foundation. They can help you set up an endowment.
Artifact Donations
RCHS owns and cares for thousands of articles already in our collection. We appreciate your interest to donate items to RCHS and seek items that contribute directly to the unique history of Rock County.
Space and resources are limited, so we are selective in what we can accept. All items become the property of the RCHS and will not be returned to you. If the item is something that we already have, we may sell duplicate items to the public; the proceeds will go to support the Historical Society.
Please contact us if you are interested in donating to our collection. An Accession Form (pdf) is used for articles selected for inclusion in the archives.
We use the following guidelines for determining if your donation is a good fit for our collection:
- Relation to Rock County History - artifact must have direct relationship to Rock County
- Historical Context - The artifact has a story that makes the article interesting and adds to the history of Rock County.
- Condition - If the artifact is in very poor or fragile condition, we may not be able to accept it.
- Size or Volume - We must take into account the amount of storage space available when considering items for acceptance.
- Uniqueness - We may already have many examples of the artifact already in our collection (duplicates may be sold).
Some things RCHS is interested in adding to our collections:
- Identified photographs, stories, community records, or artifacts from any of Rock County’s communities, including the vanished towns. We especially need information from Ash Creek and Kanaranzi.
- Histories of businesses in Rock County.
- Yearbooks. We have many yearbooks from Rock County schools but are missing some years. Please contact us with the school and year of the book you are interested in donating.
- Editions of small, local newspapers. Many of the early communities had local newspapers.
- Family Histories of Rock County families.