In 1977 when few serious historical monographs were devoted solely to women, the Minnesota Historical Society Press published Women of Minnesota: Selected Biographical Essays. Now, twenty years later, the MNHS Press has issued a revised version of this landmark study. Barbara Stuhler and Gretchen Kreuter, the editors of the original book, have added an essay on women's accomplishments over the last two decades, discussing the questions that confront women in the 1990s and highlighting such achievements as the number of judges, business leaders, and sports figures who have risen to prominence. For this new edition the editors updated the list of women in the Minnesota legislature and added brief biographies of another 104 women.

These biographical essays cover women from the early years of Minnesota Territory to the opening days of the feminist movement and include: educators Harriet E. Bishop, Mary Molloy, Ada Comstock Notestein, Maria Louise Sanford, and Agnes, Henrietta, and Nora Larson; political and labor leaders Anna Dickie Oleson and Eva McDonald Valesh; social worker Catheryne Cooke Gilman; writers Kate Donnelly and Maud Hart Lovelace; editor Jane Grey Swisshelm; librarian Gratia Alta Countryman; peace activist Fanny Brin; philanthropist Alice O'Brien; ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore.