Company Profile
The Bakken Museum
Company Overview
The Bakken Museum is a multidisciplinary institution located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Bakken Museum inspires a passion for innovation by exploring the potential for science, technology and the humanities to make the world a better place. The museum is Minnesota’s only Smithsonian-Affiliate Museum and features a world-renowned collection of books and artifacts, multiple galleries focusing on the wonders of invention, plant medicine, bio-technology, and science, and The Florence Bakken Medicinal Garden.
Company History
The Bakken Museum acquired its name from Earl Bakken. In 1949 Earl co-founded Medtronic, which would become a world leader in medical device manufacturing. In 1957, working with Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Minnesota, Bakken developed the first wearable, external, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker.
By the early 1970s, Earl had assembled a sizable collection of books and was being offered significant early electrical machines. In 1976, its present home was acquired–a mansion located on the west shore of Lake Calhoun (now Bde Maka Ska) in southwest Minneapolis. The house, called West Winds, was designed by Carl Gage for William Goodfellow and combines English Tudor, European Gothic Revival, and other architectural styles. It was built in 1928–30 and had been a private residence until it was acquired by Bakken.
In 1999, the size of the facility was increased from 13,000 to 25,000 square feet. Today, The Bakken Museum includes five major exhibits, two classrooms, a student workshop, a collection vault, a reading room and library space, and two acres of gardens and grounds.