The Keweenaw Historical Society was founded in 1912 by a group led by John T. Reeder and John A. Doelle, who became the society's first president and secretary-treasurer respectively. The organization worked to "collect and preserve material bearing on the history of Keweenaw Peninsula, and to promote local historical study and research" (Box 10, Folder 3: Constitution).

The Houghton Public Library (now the Portage Lake District Library) provided a room for the storage of material collected by the society. The librarian also served as the society's curator (originally called custodian). Within the first few years of its foundation, the society had amassed a substantial collection of historical books, photographs, artifacts, and records.

After the death of President J. T. Reeder in 1937, the Keweenaw Historical Society became largely moribund, despite the efforts of James Fisher of the Michigan College of Mining and Technology (MCMT), who succeeded Reeder in 1939. Although some additions continued to be made to the society's collection, it was Roy Drier's collection at MCMT [see MS-020, Roy Drier Collection] that became more and more the destination of donated historical materials.

In 1961, the Houghton County Historical Society was founded as the successor to the Keweenaw Historical Society, which turned over its extensive historical collection to form the basis for the new organization's museum collections.