The property preserves the childhood home of Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), best known for his 1899 treatise The Theory of the Leisure Class.

[5] The Veblen farmstead stands east of Nerstrand in eastern Rice County, north of Minnesota State Highway 246.

[5] Thorstein Veblen, born in Cato, Wisconsin, in 1857, lived on this farm in his youth and returned often as an adult, due in part to his inability to find steady employment.

The product of an austere agrarian upbringing, Veblen, who has often been called one of America's most creative and original thinkers,[6] coined the term "conspicuous consumption" in the widely influential The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).

[2] The property's simple vernacular styling illustrates early influences on Veblen's life as the son of immigrants, growing up in a tightly knit Norwegian-American community.