"The Other Swedes"
~ Honoring Them and Remembering Them ~ The Smoky Valley Writers ~
REWORKING THIS
~ Honoring Them and Remembering Them ~ The Smoky Valley Writers ~
REWORKING THIS
The Museum Movers:
Andeen Lungstrom Bellah Shannon Swenson Peterson
Andeen Lungstrom Bellah Shannon Swenson Peterson
Remembering them and their roles in the move of the Bethany College Museum Collection
Dr. Leon George Lungstrom
1915-2000
Dr. Leon George Lungstrom
1915-2000
Dr. Lungstrom retired at the end of the 1980-1981 school year, ending 30 years of association with the Bethany College faculty. On his last day at Bethany College in 1981, without any type of a retirement acknowledgement by anyone there, he simply walked home to begin a new chapter in his life, that of being retired. That is what I later learned. Maybe in those days that was standard operating procedure at Bethany College that everyone was treated that way.
It is not today, fortunately.
However, the Bethany College of the past, now and then, forgets to also recognize certain members in the faculty, for their contribution. Dr. Lungstrom is one of those professors.
It is not today, fortunately.
However, the Bethany College of the past, now and then, forgets to also recognize certain members in the faculty, for their contribution. Dr. Lungstrom is one of those professors.
>> The natural history collection and the taxidermy specimens
This is for Dr. Lungstrom's significant work concerning the Bethany College Museum and its Natural History Collection, part of which contained a sizeable taxidermy collection of which he and Dr. Deere were responsible for collecting from Smoky Valley contributors, and then researching, labeling and mounting.
Dr. Lungstrom was responsible for collecting 600 of these specimens for the college that would become part of the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966.
[Note: This museum, the Bethany College Museum, contained two collections, the Natural History and the Swedish Pioneer History. The museum as a whole has been referred to by many names. This is one of them, the most appropriate one because it reflects these two collections, the Bethany College Natural History and Swedish Pioneer History Museum (The Swedish Pioneer History collection came directly from Dr. Deere, numbering 900.). However, at times, like in this writing, this museum, is being referred to as the Natural History Museum due to the collection of items of which it is referring. Also to note there was at first the Natural History Museum which was started in 1982 and then later came the development of the Swedish Pioneer History Museum in 1926 when professors asked the Bethany College Board for permission to establish such a museum. (See Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg's, author of the 1967 Living in Lindsborg and Other Possibilities, chapter "The Olsson Trail," page 18, on pages 20 and 21.) ]
Today few people, other than Dr. Lungstrom's family and their contemporaries -- the last-living-links to this history such as other college professors and their families and the directors of the former McPherson County Old Mill Museum, know of the role he played at the Bethany College Museum with the natural history collections. For decades, he was the college museum's main taxidermist. Before college, he enrolled in the Northwestern School of Taxidermy correspondence course in 1934, the skills of which he most certainly brought to his museum work at Bethany. To that, he took the taxidermy courses being offered at Bethany, while learning the art of taxidermy on-the-job from taxidermist Professor Deere and Cornelius Larson.
Yet, in the summer of 1977, it is recorded in his book that in Denver, Colorado he attended a seminar in advanced taxidermy techniques, which would most likely mean that he was using this information to care for the taxidermy collection of the College that was moved to the 1962 established McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966, of which he had played a major role. This continued with the taxidermy collection at this new museum of which his last two positions held there were that of a co-director from 1980 to 1984, and then becoming a board member until the later 1980s, when he began researching for the writing of his 397 page book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. This, he finished in 1990 at age 75.
Dr. Lungstrom's specialty as a taxidermist was quite significant throughout the life of the Bethany College Natural History Museum and at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum. Some of the latest and largest animals in the collection were mounted by him such as the carriage horse, the family of three (3) bison, the bobcat, the smaller three pelicans, which he writes about. These were part of the collection.
The very sad history of this taxidermy collection was that after Dr. Lungstrom was no longer involved, the taxidermy collection as well as the fossil collection, although still exhibited in the front room of the Museum, would no longer have a college representative there to help care for it, promote it as a tourist attraction and an educational tool for the public, the Smoky Valley schools and the college. The reason may have been that those in charge of the Museum then, just had no clue on how to do this and were very reluctant to reach out to other science professors at Bethany for help. For whatever reason, this neglect continued for at least 40 years or so, until the new owner of the Museum, which changed its name to "Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum," in November of 2021, just had this permanent exhibit finally removed quietly to an undisclosed storage location, for an unsure future.
The executive director of the startup of this newly owned museum, upon my email inquiry, replied on November 18, 2021 with:
"While it may feel disturbing to hear that the Bethany College mounts are not currently on display, after having been out for so many decades, there is no cause for alarm. It was simply time for a change, to rotate and share other of the 20,00-plus artifacts in our care. The animal mounts are safely in storage, and checked on regularly. For one of the first times, the museum has a comprehensive Collections Management Policy that will dovetail well with a new Strategic Plan set to evolve in early 2022.
"As we walk through those processes, every aspect of the collection will be thoroughly and thoughtfully considered and evaluated. We remain honored and committed to serving as a designated county and regional repository for many valued historic items unique to this area. As we work to consistently identify and implement industry best practices, the museum will become better-equipped to care for its artifacts, records and the 12 to 15 heritage buildings which also comprise its collections.** "
This was because this permanent exhibit had simply become a "white elephant" due to neglect by the staff. All along, if a couple of science college professors had taken an interest to become involved a little to collaborate with the museum staff, this exhibit could have become a fabulous one, with inviting field trips for students of all ages to enjoy, and, even, with adding some classes or workshops concerning the taxidermy collections.
It is true that during the time of the college museum's collections move to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in the summer of 1966 that the college was going through a very trying time financially with other pressing challenges. This continued on for many years. So many years, that maybe they just could not have dealt with helping the Museum with its natural history taxidermy collection. As a result, the "natural history" collection, such an important collection for any college to own, was just simply forgotten, to the point that today new administration members and students are surprised to learn that there was a Bethany College museum on their campus. To "any" natural history museum director and curator in the world, such as for example the Smithsonian's National Natural History Musuem, would consider the neglect of this college natural history collection indeed a true tragedy.
So will the life's work of Dr. Deere's 58 years to build the College Museum Natural History Collections be just forgotten as well and that of the other preceding Swedish curators, founder J. A. Udden, J. Westlund, J. E. Welin, who made valuable contributions along with Dr. Leon Lungstrom's?
This is for Dr. Lungstrom's significant work concerning the Bethany College Museum and its Natural History Collection, part of which contained a sizeable taxidermy collection of which he and Dr. Deere were responsible for collecting from Smoky Valley contributors, and then researching, labeling and mounting.
Dr. Lungstrom was responsible for collecting 600 of these specimens for the college that would become part of the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966.
[Note: This museum, the Bethany College Museum, contained two collections, the Natural History and the Swedish Pioneer History. The museum as a whole has been referred to by many names. This is one of them, the most appropriate one because it reflects these two collections, the Bethany College Natural History and Swedish Pioneer History Museum (The Swedish Pioneer History collection came directly from Dr. Deere, numbering 900.). However, at times, like in this writing, this museum, is being referred to as the Natural History Museum due to the collection of items of which it is referring. Also to note there was at first the Natural History Museum which was started in 1982 and then later came the development of the Swedish Pioneer History Museum in 1926 when professors asked the Bethany College Board for permission to establish such a museum. (See Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg's, author of the 1967 Living in Lindsborg and Other Possibilities, chapter "The Olsson Trail," page 18, on pages 20 and 21.) ]
Today few people, other than Dr. Lungstrom's family and their contemporaries -- the last-living-links to this history such as other college professors and their families and the directors of the former McPherson County Old Mill Museum, know of the role he played at the Bethany College Museum with the natural history collections. For decades, he was the college museum's main taxidermist. Before college, he enrolled in the Northwestern School of Taxidermy correspondence course in 1934, the skills of which he most certainly brought to his museum work at Bethany. To that, he took the taxidermy courses being offered at Bethany, while learning the art of taxidermy on-the-job from taxidermist Professor Deere and Cornelius Larson.
Yet, in the summer of 1977, it is recorded in his book that in Denver, Colorado he attended a seminar in advanced taxidermy techniques, which would most likely mean that he was using this information to care for the taxidermy collection of the College that was moved to the 1962 established McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966, of which he had played a major role. This continued with the taxidermy collection at this new museum of which his last two positions held there were that of a co-director from 1980 to 1984, and then becoming a board member until the later 1980s, when he began researching for the writing of his 397 page book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. This, he finished in 1990 at age 75.
Dr. Lungstrom's specialty as a taxidermist was quite significant throughout the life of the Bethany College Natural History Museum and at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum. Some of the latest and largest animals in the collection were mounted by him such as the carriage horse, the family of three (3) bison, the bobcat, the smaller three pelicans, which he writes about. These were part of the collection.
The very sad history of this taxidermy collection was that after Dr. Lungstrom was no longer involved, the taxidermy collection as well as the fossil collection, although still exhibited in the front room of the Museum, would no longer have a college representative there to help care for it, promote it as a tourist attraction and an educational tool for the public, the Smoky Valley schools and the college. The reason may have been that those in charge of the Museum then, just had no clue on how to do this and were very reluctant to reach out to other science professors at Bethany for help. For whatever reason, this neglect continued for at least 40 years or so, until the new owner of the Museum, which changed its name to "Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum," in November of 2021, just had this permanent exhibit finally removed quietly to an undisclosed storage location, for an unsure future.
The executive director of the startup of this newly owned museum, upon my email inquiry, replied on November 18, 2021 with:
"While it may feel disturbing to hear that the Bethany College mounts are not currently on display, after having been out for so many decades, there is no cause for alarm. It was simply time for a change, to rotate and share other of the 20,00-plus artifacts in our care. The animal mounts are safely in storage, and checked on regularly. For one of the first times, the museum has a comprehensive Collections Management Policy that will dovetail well with a new Strategic Plan set to evolve in early 2022.
"As we walk through those processes, every aspect of the collection will be thoroughly and thoughtfully considered and evaluated. We remain honored and committed to serving as a designated county and regional repository for many valued historic items unique to this area. As we work to consistently identify and implement industry best practices, the museum will become better-equipped to care for its artifacts, records and the 12 to 15 heritage buildings which also comprise its collections.** "
This was because this permanent exhibit had simply become a "white elephant" due to neglect by the staff. All along, if a couple of science college professors had taken an interest to become involved a little to collaborate with the museum staff, this exhibit could have become a fabulous one, with inviting field trips for students of all ages to enjoy, and, even, with adding some classes or workshops concerning the taxidermy collections.
It is true that during the time of the college museum's collections move to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in the summer of 1966 that the college was going through a very trying time financially with other pressing challenges. This continued on for many years. So many years, that maybe they just could not have dealt with helping the Museum with its natural history taxidermy collection. As a result, the "natural history" collection, such an important collection for any college to own, was just simply forgotten, to the point that today new administration members and students are surprised to learn that there was a Bethany College museum on their campus. To "any" natural history museum director and curator in the world, such as for example the Smithsonian's National Natural History Musuem, would consider the neglect of this college natural history collection indeed a true tragedy.
So will the life's work of Dr. Deere's 58 years to build the College Museum Natural History Collections be just forgotten as well and that of the other preceding Swedish curators, founder J. A. Udden, J. Westlund, J. E. Welin, who made valuable contributions along with Dr. Leon Lungstrom's?
For now, though, the only real "footprint" that the Bethany College Museum ever existed is found in Dr. Lungstrom's 1990 book History of Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. One may find a mere mention of it in some of the other Smoky Valley writers' work. At least now, there are several sections on it in SWEDES. The College has two (2) copies of Dr. Lungstrom's book in the archives, per Director Denise Carson in a saved 2017 email.
In conclusion, Dr. Leon George Lungstrom was never recognized for his professional college work regarding the natural history collections especially in the field of his skill as a taxidermist and then especially with his role in moving the College collections to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, with his work there, as well as for the book he wrote to preserve and promote college history: History of Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas.
It is my hope that sometime in the not so far future, Dr. Lungstrom will be recognized appropriately by his dear alma mater, Bethany College, posthumously, for the countless hours that he devoted to her, for his book, as well as by the new Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum, for his countless hours of commitment there while still working at Bethany College, and then in retirement when this museum was known as the McPherson County Old Mill Museum.
In conclusion, Dr. Leon George Lungstrom was never recognized for his professional college work regarding the natural history collections especially in the field of his skill as a taxidermist and then especially with his role in moving the College collections to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, with his work there, as well as for the book he wrote to preserve and promote college history: History of Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas.
It is my hope that sometime in the not so far future, Dr. Lungstrom will be recognized appropriately by his dear alma mater, Bethany College, posthumously, for the countless hours that he devoted to her, for his book, as well as by the new Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum, for his countless hours of commitment there while still working at Bethany College, and then in retirement when this museum was known as the McPherson County Old Mill Museum.
In 1998, I visited the McPherson County Old Mill Museum's front room where most of the fossil and mounts from the 1966 move from the College were located in a permanent exhibit until 2021. Below is a slide show of the photographs I took that show "the way these College exhibits were," of which Dr. Deere maintained at the College, and Dr. Lungstrom cared for during the move and after it for some time at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum.
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* On Thursday, November 18, 2021, 09:21:28 AM PST, Kay Quinn <kay.quinn@oldmillmuseum.org> wrote:
Go HERE to Dr. Leon Lungstrom ~ Husband, Father, Citizen and Friend ~ His Värmland Swedish Ancestry.
Go HERE to
Go HERE to
Go HERE to
Go HERE to
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" Let Us Remember Them "
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
" Let Us Remember Them "
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
