Northfield Public Library

The Northfield Public Library began in 1856 with a reading room and a circulating library set up by the Lyceum Society. The library is located in an expanded Carnegie building in the heart of downtown Northfield and plays a vital role in preserving the history of Northfield. The local history collection includes books, atlases, plat maps, school yearbooks, scrapbooks, newspaper and census microfilm, clippings, family histories, and more. The library's contribution to the Minnesota Digital Library includes three maps of Northfield from 1855, 1869 and 1968 and the Sept. 14, 1876, Rice County Journal, the day of the attempted bank raid in Northfield by the James-Younger Gang.