THE BAKKEN

About The Bakken Museum:

The Bakken Museum was founded in 1975 by Earl Bakken, a Minneapolis native who discovered his passion for science at an early age. He was eight years old when he saw Frankenstein at a local theater, and marveled as Dr. Frankenstein used science and electricity to bring the monster to life. The movie inspired him, and many years later he developed the first wearable, external, battery-powered pacemaker.

Bakken also collected early medical equipment and books on therapeutic uses of electricity. The collections grew to become the world’s only library and museum devoted primarily to medical electricity. Now numbering approximately 11,000 books, journals and manuscripts, and 2,000 historic scientific and medical instruments, researchers from around the world visit to study the collections.

Visitors to The Bakken Museum enjoy dozens of exhibits that bring together artifacts from the collections and interactive experiences, while providing learners of every age the opportunity to explore the history and nature of electricity and magnetism.

The Bakken is committed to providing the highest quality science education through a variety of on- and off-site programming such as field trips, out-of-school programs, public programs and its award-winning Science Assets School Partnership program, developed in 2003 to reach students from groups traditionally underrepresented or underserved in science education—girls, students of color, and students of poverty.