Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum - Duluth — Attraction in Duluth

Who knows when the inner nerd will come forth. This place brought out mine. It may not be everyone's cup of tea. Mr Karpeles must have been a pack rat of the odd. He collected many original documents of obscure origin, but related to famous people. When I was there the traveling exhibit was about Castro & Che Guevara. In the exhibit was one of the first proclamations signed by Castro, after the revolution, and Che's military registration card with his fingerprints in it. There was a diary from the CIA man in Cuba open to a page with his handwritten description of Che. As I said, maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but great for nerding out. The permanent collection here had a letter from the queen appointing Sir Francis Drake to head the English fleet in the engagement with the Spanish Armada, and Alexander Graham Bell's scetch of his first idea for a telephone. I thought all this was cool. Just understand 3you need the correct frame of mind, and this place can be a gem waiting for...

What a quaint and interesting place to visit for free in Duluth, MN. I visited on January 19th, 2025. It was -30 below windchills outside and Karpeles Manuscript Museum was a warm and beautiful place to visit to get out of the house and be away from the cold.

The museum has an exhibit titled “Man’s Inhumanity Toward Man” on display currently. As one may imagine, there are some very sad and disturbing manuscripts on display, yet it felt very important to read about and see these texts about the dark side of man and to acknowledge the atrocities that we are capable of committing against one another.

Luckily, there is also an art exhibit on display by Duluth artist Annmarie Geniusz which has a mix of stained glass works and paintings. The juxtaposition of her beautiful art among the horrors of the manuscripts was incredibly helpful.

The museum director was onsite and was engaging, helpful, and knowledgeable.

I would absolutely recommend checking out this exhibit or...

The space itself is worth the visit, let alone the very cool manuscripts. The building is a beautiful converted Christian Science church with amazing acoustics - essentially a whispering gallery (we tried it out - standing one end and whispering to each other at the other side). The director is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. When we visited, there was a unique Star Trek exhibition, which was great to see, including the original draft of the musical score, as well as the rescue report for the Titanic and one of Martin Luther King's original speeches. The manuscripts are on rotation so there's no guessing what you may find there. This place is a hidden gem that I would completely...