This wineglass is part of a "Centennial Set", which is comprised of a decanter and thirty-eight wineglasses. The set took highest honors for cut glass at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. After the Centennial, the Museum received the set as a gift from the Dorflinger Glass Company. It was the first American glass to enter the Museum's collections.

Each wineglass represents one of the thirty-eight states in the Union at the time of the 1876 Centennial, and is engraved with its crest, its motto, and the name of its governor.

This glass represents Minnesota, which was ratified as a state on May 11, 1858. The motto is “L’ETOILE DU NORD” (The star of the North). The governor in 1876 was John S. Pillsbury.