THE NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Abstract

THE NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORICAL MUSEUM By Knut Gjerset Decorah, Iowa, was the first great center of Norwegian pioneer settlement west of the Mississippl. It is noted for its scenic beauty and is surrounded by the large and prosperous Norwegian settlements of southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and northern Iowa, in one of the most productive agricultural regions in the United States. Two railroads, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, and the Rock Island enter Decorah, and the city is traversed by several fine highways. One of these is federal highway number 55, the shortest route and the one richest in scenery of those between Chicago and the Twin Cities, a road that is becoming a leading bus route and that will soon be paved throughout its entire length. Luther College, the oldest Norwegian college in America, was built in Decorah in the years of the Civil War. It is a college of high scholastic standing. It has fine buildings, and endowments have been large. It has a library of fifty thousand volumes housed in a new and adequate building. This library possesses the largest collection of NorwegianAmerican newspapers in the country, a most important source of information regarding this group. It also contains an archive department embracing, among other valuable records, about eleven thousand classified letters and documents that have been collected in the Norwegian settlements . About forty years ago, several teachers at Luther College who felt that the memory of their pioneer fathers and mothers should not be forgotten began collecting pioneer objects that had been preserved in the homes of early settlers. Hal153 154 STUDIES AND RECORDS dor Hanson, professor of music, became interested and spent much energy and a large part of his personal income in this work. Very little planning was at first noticeable in these efforts, and slight support was received from the college administration, but the collections continued to grow and thus a small museum was gradually created that was known as the Luther College Museum. In 1922 the present director was placed in charge of these collections. He found that the field offered an inviting opportunity for creating collections that would prove a valuable supplement to the historical material about Norwegian settlers in America to be found in the libraries of Luther College and of St. Olaf College, in the archives of state historical societies in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and in other repositories. He felt that archival material should be collected as extensively as possible and that a NorwegianAmerican historical museum should be created which would help one to visualize the living conditions and activities of the Norwegians who have come to dwell in America. In the summer of 1925, after the Norse-American Centennial celebration in St. Paul and Minneapolis, where the director had been in charge of a Norwegian-American cultural exhibition, he took definite steps to effect the realization of the museum idea. As an organization would be needed for the promotion of the plan, and as the establishing of a Norwegian-American historical association had for some time been discussed in the press, he advocated the merging of the two projects and the organization of an historical association which would help to maintain and develop a Norwegian-American historical museum. He asked a small group of men who were interested to meet in Decorah, and presented to them a preliminary program for such an association . With their advice and assistance he spent a part of the summer traveling about, acquainting leading men with the proposed program, and securing their opinions of the The Outdoor Museum THE NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM 1 55 plan. All expressed their interest and their willingness to cooperate, and in the fall of that year a meeting was called at St. Olaf College at Northfield, Minnesota, where the Norwegian- American Historical Association was organized, with a program essentially the same as the one presented at the preliminary meeting in Decorah, Iowa. When the association was incorporated, its "general plan of operation," under the terms of its charter, was "to obtain by gift and from membership contributions the funds required for" certain stated purposes, including that of " helping to maintain and develop the Norwegian- American Museum at Decorah...