"The Other Swedes"
~ Celebrating Them~
~ The Groupings, including Swedes from Sweden ~
1882 - 1966
Bethany College Swedish Museum Professor Curators
~ Their earliest collectors and the taxidermists
*******
The Old Mill Museum's Bethany College Inheritance of 1966
included of the 5,000 pieces was
Dr. Deere's Pioneer Swedish Collection of 900 items & Dr. Lungstrom's Natural History Collection of 600 Specimens*
Geological and Fossil Collections
*******
~ Celebrating Them~
~ The Groupings, including Swedes from Sweden ~
1882 - 1966
Bethany College Swedish Museum Professor Curators
~ Their earliest collectors and the taxidermists
*******
The Old Mill Museum's Bethany College Inheritance of 1966
included of the 5,000 pieces was
Dr. Deere's Pioneer Swedish Collection of 900 items & Dr. Lungstrom's Natural History Collection of 600 Specimens*
Geological and Fossil Collections
*******
The 1882 Bethany College Museum was off to a great start of becoming a well-organized museum under its founder and first Swedish curator and professor Johan August Udden. It was to become on a par with other similar sized museums of American colleges at the time. Decades later in 1966 it was stated by a former student, Carl Swenson, as he eulogized the last curator of the museum who held the position for 58 years, Dr. Emil O. Deere, that "The museum, largely the result of his efforts, has no peer among the mid-western Liberal Arts colleges.”1 In that same year, Tib Anderson, Director of the McPherson County Old Mill Museum said as he looked forward to accepting the College museum collections that “After the move ... you will find one of the finest museums of this kind in the mid-west...”2 In 1967, is this statement from Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg, Secretary of the Smoky Valley Historical Association, that the Museum, " . . . has one of the most valuable collections in the State and contains items which have attracted national recognition."3
Let us "honor and remember" the Bethany College Museum and all those that helped contribute to its success.
Let us "honor and remember" the Bethany College Museum and all those that helped contribute to its success.
Sources:
1-1966, Bethany College Carl Swenson Deere Eulogy
2-1966, McPherson County Old Mill Museum Director Tib Anderson
3-1967, Smoky Valley Historical Association Sec. Elizabeth Jaderborg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-1966, Bethany College Carl Swenson Deere Eulogy
2-1966, McPherson County Old Mill Museum Director Tib Anderson
3-1967, Smoky Valley Historical Association Sec. Elizabeth Jaderborg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The Bethany College Swedish Museum Professor Curators -
Click on Photographs
for their years as curators
Udden, Westlund, Welin, Deere
Lungstrom
- acting curator for the 1966 move, due to Deere's death -
for their years as curators
Udden, Westlund, Welin, Deere
Lungstrom
- acting curator for the 1966 move, due to Deere's death -
Udden Westlund Welin Deere Lungstrom
- Earliest Collectors -
Johan August Udden, Dr. John Rundström, Professor Lindholm, Otto Hawkinson, George Sohlberg,
Luther Dahlsten, A. Agrelius, Oscar Hubbard, Luther Swenson, Hugo Jacobson, David Bjorn, J. A. Anderson
Johan August Udden, Dr. John Rundström, Professor Lindholm, Otto Hawkinson, George Sohlberg,
Luther Dahlsten, A. Agrelius, Oscar Hubbard, Luther Swenson, Hugo Jacobson, David Bjorn, J. A. Anderson
* * *
The Museum's Taxidermists
Emil O. Deere, Cornelius Larson, Leon Lungstrom, Earl Gottschalk
Emil O. Deere, Cornelius Larson, Leon Lungstrom, Earl Gottschalk
The 1966 Move
For the "1966 Bethany College Museum Collections Move to the Old Mill Museum," go HERE.
The Planner
Deere
For the "1966 Bethany College Museum Collections Move to the Old Mill Museum," go HERE.
The Planner
Deere
The Movers
Andeen Lungstrom Bellah Shannon Swenson Peterson
The Collections
Bethany College had to give its museum away due to the 1968 razing of its home, Old Main. There was no place for it anywhere on campus. In 1966, the Natural History and Pioneer Museum collections of more than 5,000 items were moved to the 1962 founded McPherson County Old Mill Museum, which had a collection of approximately 500 items. To that, from the 5,000 college items, came "Dr. Deere's Pioneer Swedish Collection"* of 900 items for the museum, and an amazing amount of taxidermy specimens, not to mention the fossils. Six hundred (600) specimens were noted as "the Leon Lungstrom Natural History Collection"* in 1971, and, of that, half had been donated to Bethany College through the years by Kansas State University.
The entire collection of Dr. Lungstrom's specimens and the others as well as the fossils, and all that were considered a part of Bethany College's Natural History Museum collections were removed from the museum and placed in storage several months after a new museum owner took over as of August 1, 2021, when the institution's name was changed to the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum. ***
Biology professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom as a student at Bethany, first began his work as a taxidermist in the classroom of Dr. Emil O. Deere. He would most likely be remembered as the most committed taxidermist for the Bethany College Museum, for he mounted countless animals, and then would continue to care for them with their move to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966, taking an additional course in the summer of 1977 in Denver, Colorado, where he attended a seminar on advanced taxidermy techniques.**
* The Bethany Messenger, "Old Mill Prepares for Festival," by Burma Buaman, October 15, 1971.
**1990, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, "Leon Lungstrom" pages 229-250
*** Source: Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum start-up executive director's email of November 18, 2021.
The entire collection of Dr. Lungstrom's specimens and the others as well as the fossils, and all that were considered a part of Bethany College's Natural History Museum collections were removed from the museum and placed in storage several months after a new museum owner took over as of August 1, 2021, when the institution's name was changed to the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum. ***
Biology professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom as a student at Bethany, first began his work as a taxidermist in the classroom of Dr. Emil O. Deere. He would most likely be remembered as the most committed taxidermist for the Bethany College Museum, for he mounted countless animals, and then would continue to care for them with their move to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966, taking an additional course in the summer of 1977 in Denver, Colorado, where he attended a seminar on advanced taxidermy techniques.**
* The Bethany Messenger, "Old Mill Prepares for Festival," by Burma Buaman, October 15, 1971.
**1990, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, "Leon Lungstrom" pages 229-250
*** Source: Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum start-up executive director's email of November 18, 2021.
* * *
Bethany College Professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom
- Providing the "only" personal first-hand account on the Bethany College Museum -
From this 1990 book:
Bethany College Professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom
- Providing the "only" personal first-hand account on the Bethany College Museum -
From this 1990 book:
Sources:
For Dr. Lungstrom's Museum chapter click below:
dr._leon_lungstrom_on_the_bethany_college_museum.pdf
Download File
OR
go HERE
to its transcription.
For Dr. Lungstrom's Museum chapter click below:
dr._leon_lungstrom_on_the_bethany_college_museum.pdf
Download File
OR
go HERE
to its transcription.
* * *
As of August 1, 2021,
there is a new owner of these College collections,
the "Natural History" one including the large "taxidermy collection and that of the fossils"
was placed in storage,
per the start-up Executive Director, November 18, 2021.
Email of November 18, 2021.
Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum
2021, Discontinued exhibition of the 1966 1882 Bethany College Natural History Museum Collections by Swedes*
2021, Continued the exhibition of the 1966 1926** Bethany College Swedish Pioneer History Collections by Swedes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To learn more, go to Their 1882-1966 "Bethany College Museum"
~ The Natural History and Pioneer Swedish Collections, go HERE.
As of August 1, 2021,
there is a new owner of these College collections,
the "Natural History" one including the large "taxidermy collection and that of the fossils"
was placed in storage,
per the start-up Executive Director, November 18, 2021.
Email of November 18, 2021.
Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum
2021, Discontinued exhibition of the 1966 1882 Bethany College Natural History Museum Collections by Swedes*
2021, Continued the exhibition of the 1966 1926** Bethany College Swedish Pioneer History Collections by Swedes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To learn more, go to Their 1882-1966 "Bethany College Museum"
~ The Natural History and Pioneer Swedish Collections, go HERE.
- Old Main -
(1886 - 1968)
Old Main ~Last home for the Bethany College Museum
(1886 - 1968)
Old Main ~Last home for the Bethany College Museum
Photograph by Lydia Sohlberg Deere, c1920s
* * *
"Let Us Celebrate 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.
* * *
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.
