"The Other Swedes"
~ Celebrating Them~
~ The Groupings, including Swedes from Sweden ~
BOARD OF MCPHERSON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (mcphersoncountyks.us)
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 ~
BOARD OF MCPHERSON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (mcphersoncountyks.us)
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
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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
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- 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
The Planner
Deere
The Planner
Deere
The Movers
Dr. Andeen Dr. Lungstrom Dr. Bellah Mr. Shannon Emer. Swenson Mr. Peterson
MOVING THE BETHANY COLLEGE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS TO THE OLD MILL MUSEUM
In his chapter on the Museum, Dr. Leon Lungstrom writes that Deere, at eighty-nine (89), was preparing for the Museum's final College end, for the distribution of its two major collections, the Natural History Collection which would include the Taxidermy Specimens, 600 of which were from the Dr. Leon Lungstrom Collection;* and the Pioneer Collection which would include museum founder Udden's American Indian Cliff Dweller Pottery Collection of 300 items and Emil O. Deere's Pioneer Life Collection of 900 items. There would be a total of about 5,000 Bethany College Museum items added to the 500 items at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum.
For the move to take place in the summer of 1966, with well planned out directives by Deere who worked diligently with colleagues and friends: Swedish American Bethany College seventh president Dr. Kenneth Andeen; professors of biology Dr. Leon Lungstrom and Dr. Glenn Bellah; professor of history Jerry Shannon; professor of Physics Emeritus Christian Swenson; and Bethany graduate Sandzén Memorial Gallery Co-director artist Carl Peterson.
For the move to take place in the summer of 1966, with well planned out directives by Deere who worked diligently with colleagues and friends: Swedish American Bethany College seventh president Dr. Kenneth Andeen; professors of biology Dr. Leon Lungstrom and Dr. Glenn Bellah; professor of history Jerry Shannon; professor of Physics Emeritus Christian Swenson; and Bethany graduate Sandzén Memorial Gallery Co-director artist Carl 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.
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
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
* * *
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.
* * *
BELOW
McPherson County Old Mill Museum's
Bethany College Museum Natural History Collection of 1999.
The Old Mill Museum received these from Bethany College in 1966.
BELOW
McPherson County Old Mill Museum's
Bethany College Museum Natural History Collection of 1999.
The Old Mill Museum received these from Bethany College in 1966.
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
* * *
Curator Dr. Emil O. Deere at 88 at the Bethany College Museum in Old Main
Last official Swedish Curator of 58 years
1965
Curator Dr. Emil O. Deere at 88 at the Bethany College Museum in Old Main
Last official Swedish Curator of 58 years
1965
* * *
"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.
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As of August 1, 2021,
the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum,
the new owner of these College collections placed
the "Natural History" collection including the large
"Taxidermy collection and that of the fossils" in storage,
per start-up executive director's email of November 18, 2021.
As of September 19, 2024,
the Lindsborg News-Record article:
"Museum's inherited trove sees scant light"
the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum
is now looking for new owners for the stored collections.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of August 1, 2021,
the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum,
the new owner of these College collections placed
the "Natural History" collection including the large
"Taxidermy collection and that of the fossils" in storage,
per start-up executive director's email of November 18, 2021.
As of September 19, 2024,
the Lindsborg News-Record article:
"Museum's inherited trove sees scant light"
the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum
is now looking for new owners for the stored collections.
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