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About The Bakken Museum

One Saturday afternoon in the early 1930s, a young Earl Bakken saw the film Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein´s electricity not only sparked the creature to life, it sparked Bakken´s interest in combining electricity and medicine. Bakken´s passion for science, tempered by his pastor´s admonition to use science to help others, led to his life work using electricity to benefit humanity.

Bakken grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and received his electrical engineering degree from the University of Minnesota. He cofounded Medtronic in 1949. In 1957, Bakken developed the first wearable, battery-powered, transistorized cardiac pacemaker. In 1969, he began collecting "old electrical machines" and five years later created the only museum and library devoted to electricity and magnetism in the life sciences and medicine. The collection was housed at Medtronic until 1976 when it was moved to its current home at the beautiful West Winds mansion on the west shore of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis.

Today, The Bakken Museum´s world-renowned collection consists of 11,000 books and 2,000 scientific instruments. Among its treasures are a 13th-century encyclopedia, Ben Franklin´s glass armonica and a first edition of Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein.

 

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Upcoming Events

Aug 2, 2010 - Summer Science Day Camp Session 7
August 2-6 - Girls & Boys Entering Grades 4th, 5th & 6th This week....
Aug 9, 2010 - Summer Science Day Camp Session 8
August 9-13 - Girls & Boys Entering Grades 4th, 5th & 6th This wee....
Aug 16, 2010 - Summer Science Day Camp Session 9
August 16-20 - Girls & Boys Entering Grades 7th, 8th & 9th This we....
Sep 25, 2010 - Inventors' Club Fall Session
Become a Bakken Museum Inventors' Club members and design and build yo....
Nov 25, 2010 - Museum Closed
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The Bakken Museum
3537 Zenith Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55416-4623, USA
info@thebakken.org