SWEDES: TheWayTheyWere
  • Home
    • The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil >
      • ​"First Swedish Agricultural Company" Lindsborg Founders, 1868 >
        • Swedish Pastor Olof Olsson Immigrating to Lindsborg 1869, June 27th Arrival >
          • Church and Lindsborg Founder Pastor Olsson, 1869 - 1876 >
            • ​"He Gave God Glory" The Story of Olof Olsson, ​1841 - 1900
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Church" 1869 >
        • Their "Augustana Lutheran Synod," 1860 - 1962 >
          • The Augustana Heritage Association, 2000 - 2016
        • Their "Augustana Women's Missionary Society," 1892
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Home" Since 1907
      • Their Lindsborg's "First" Swedish Smoky Valley Community Chronicle 1909 and Their "Second" 1919 >
        • "Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas," 1965 >
          • "The Smoky Valley in The After Years," 1969
      • Their 1920s Coronado Heights Photographs and their Smoky Valley Historical Association (SVHA)
      • Their 1936 1873 Swedish Homestead, "The Old Deere Farm," The Peter J. Larson Farm, etc. >
        • Their 1873 Swede House
        • A Smoky Valley Swedish Virtual Memorial - ​"Dedicated to the Memory of the Smoky Valley Swedish Settlements" >
          • Recognizing & Thanking >
            • - Claude Koehn -- The Before and After
      • Their 1940 Deere Home >
        • Emil's and Nina's 1961 Thunderbird
      • 1943, After Lydia--The Building of the Lindsborg Hospital
    • Their Bethany College Handel's "Messiah" Performances, 1882 on... >
      • "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
    • Their Bethany College 1899 Swedish Artists' Midwest Art Exhibition
    • Their Bethany College 1902 "Terrible Swedes," Coach Bennie Owen, Their 1903 "Rockar Stockar"
    • Their Bethany College 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion
    • Their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations: 15, 20, 25, 100 years >
      • Their Celebrating 15 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1896. The First Bethany Annual, 1895-96
      • Their Celebrating 20 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1901. The "Forget-Me-Not," 1902 >
        • The King of Sweden's Emissary, 1901
        • Yale University's Bethany Club
      • Their Celebrating 25 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1906, "Souvenir of Lindsborg and Bethany College"
      • Their Celebrating 100 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1981, "The Centennial of Bethany College"
    • Their "I WAS THERE" Coin ~ Bethany College Celebration, 1902
    • Their Bethany College's 1937 Introduction to New Sweden, founded in 1638 >
      • Deere's Introduction to New Sweden
    • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1975 "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" >
      • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1953, "Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas"
    • Their friend, Leon Lungstrom, and his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas"
  • Swedish Immigration Story, 1854
    • "The Story of the Old Spoon" by Ingrid Anderson Sohlberg & Daughter Lydia Sohlberg Deere, 1937
    • Who They Left Behind
    • From Sweden with Love Collections >
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Portraits, 1867 >
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Glass
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Letters
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Royal Gold Thread Embroidery Sampler (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Post Cards (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Magazines, (c1940s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Books, 1819/1886 to 1899
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Albums, late 19th early 20th centuries
      • The Swedish Deere Coins -- 1801-1929
    • Lydia Sohlberg Deere's 1927 "Lindsborg Swedish Club's" Handwork >
      • Lydia's Signatured Black Book of Her Handwritten Sewing Instructions >
        • Nina Sohlberg's Child's Sewing "Little Dots" PICTURE BOOK >
          • The Lindsborg Swedish Club's "Allers Monster-Tidnings" magazine, 1940
  • Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
    • Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925 >
      • The Hats
      • The Smoky River
      • The Smoky Hill Bluffs
      • Coronado Heights -- One Winter's Day
      • In and Around Lindsborg
      • Sohlberg House with Parents >
        • Our Sohlberg Home and Neighbor Alma Luise Olson
      • Sohlberg House with Emil 1916 to 1920 >
        • Lydia's Travels with Deere 1916 - 1930s >
          • Lydia's California Photographs for Painting
          • Lydia's Palm Springs Pictorial Magazine, 1938-1939
          • Lydia's California Pressed Wild Flowers, c1930
      • "LYDIA'S WORLD" Photography Exhibitions in Lindsborg, 2005 - 2011
    • Lydia's Art, 1919-1938 >
      • Lydia's Art: The Kansas Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The California Collection >
        • The Sketches
    • Lydia's Art Professor Sven Birger Sandzén, 1871-1954 >
      • Lydia's Assignments for Professor Sandzén >
        • Students of Sandzén 2019 Exhibition
        • Bethany Home ~ Celebrating Artist Birger Sandzén through His Students' Paintings
    • Lydia's Art Professor Birger Sandzén's "Art Exhibitions" ... 1893-1940 >
      • Lydia's Art Professor Sandzén's Exhibition at the Babcock Gallery in New York, 1922
    • Lydia's Sandzén's Body of Work Reviewed by N.Y.C, 1984 "American Impressionism," author William H. Gerdts
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Charles Edward Hallberg, 1855-1940
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Oscar Brousse Jacobson, 1882-1966
    • Lydia’s Sohlberg Family Connection to Sandzén, 1880-1894-1993
  • Scientist Emil O. Deere
    • Deere's & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Bethany College "Campus from Above"
      • Bethany College "The Gateway" 1917 and "Bethany Campus Association" 1912
      • Bethany College "College Street," today's "North First Street"
      • Bethany College "Campus Life"
      • "Bethany College's Earliest Buildings" >
        • Bethany College "​Ladies Dormitory" / "Lane Hart Hall" 1883 - 1899 - 1983
        • Bethany College "Old Main" 1887-1968 >
          • Lydia's and Emil's Old Main Apartments, 1920 to 1940
          • Deere's Bethany College Classes in Old Main
        • Bethany College "Messiah Auditorium" / "Ling Auditorium" / "Ling Gymnasium" 1895 - 1946
        • Bethany College "Swedish Pavilion" 1904
        • Bethany College "​Carnegie Library" / "Bethany Library" 1908 - 1980
        • Bethany College "​Bethany Academy" 1882 -- Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings
    • Deere's 1959 Interview on Rev. Dr. Carl A. Swensson (On YouTube) >
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1857-1904 >
        • Swensson's "Bethany Lutheran Church" and the "Augustana Lutheran Synod"
        • Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings: "The Bethany Academy of 1882"
        • Swensson's Musicians' and Singers' "Messiah", 1882 on ... >
          • Thure Olof Jaderborg
        • Swensson's Swedish Artists of the 1890s
        • Swensson's "Bethany College Museum," 1882 - 1966
      • In Memorium**Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1904
    • Deere's Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1873-1943 >
      • In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
      • Rev. Dr. Pihlblad on Bethany College, 1904 - 1941
    • Deere's Swensson's "Bethany College Museum" 1882 - 1966 >
      • Bethany College Museum Collections' New Location,1966 >
        • Articles on the Bethany College Museum Collections Move of 1966
    • Deere's Bethany College Field Trips -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Deere's Swensson's Bethany College Museum Collections >
        • Cliff Dwellers' Pottery Collection
        • Fossils Collection, "The Find"
        • Taxidermy Collection
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on the "Bethany College Museum"
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on "Three Pioneer Scientists of Swedish Descent"
    • Deere's Smithsonian Institution's Souvenir, 1904
    • Deere's 1940 Presidential Address to the Kansas Academy of Science
    • Deere's 1955 Letter to President Eisenhower re Tuttle Creek
    • Deere's Service, 1901-1966 >
      • Deere's Education & Degrees
  • "The Other Swedes"
    • Honoring them and their works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \\\\/ >
      • Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady of Lindsborg
      • Photographer B.G. Gröndal ~ Remembering him for visually documenting Lindsborg and Bethany College in their earliest days
      • Miss Alma Luise Olson ~ Remembering her as "First Honored American Woman by Sweden" by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg >
        • Remembering Miss Alma Luise Olson and her most extraordinary life at home and abroad by Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
      • Artist Birger Sandzén ~ Remembering him for "sharing his art with the world," starting "first" at Lindsborg's Bethany College >
        • Dr. & Dr. Mrs. Charles Greenough III ~ Remembering them for their gift of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery
      • Artist Lester Raymer ~ Remembering him as the renown virtuoso artist and "behind the scenes" community supporter
      • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn ​​~ Remembering him for saving Bethany College from going under!​ >
        • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn (1923-2017) ~ Remembering him handing me my Bethany College Diploma on Sunday, May 26,1968
      • Dr. ​Elmer Copley ~ Remembering Bethany College's Oratorio Society Conductor who carried on "that" "Messiah" traditional excellence for 26 years, taking it to new levels >
        • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s" performance, 1976 >
          • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration” performance, 1981
      • Dr. William Holwerda ( MD) ~ Remembering him at the founder of "Svensk Hyllningsfest"
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg ~ Remembering her as the founder of the "Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers"
      • Mr. & Mrs. Hilding Jaderborg ~ Remembering them and their “Swedish Crafts Shop” – 65 years and 50 trips to Sweden
      • The Swedish Lindsborg Builders ~ Remembering them for the lovely homes they built
      • Dr. Greta Swenson and Mr. & Mrs. Mark Esping ~ Honoring them for founding Lindsborg's “first” "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas." 1986 >
        • Recognizing their Folklife Institute's "Swedish-American Heritage Center," 1996
      • Ms. Rebecca Copley ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” graduate to become an International Opera Singer
      • Mr. Bruce Karstadt ~ Honoring him as a Bethany College graduate for heading up a major national Swedish American institution
      • Mrs. Becky Larson-Anderson ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” woman graduate to become mayor of "Little Sweden" USA
      • Dr. Mark Lucas ~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world stage
    • The Smoky Valley Writers on "The Other Swedes" ​ ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Collection >
      • Mr. Bror Carlsson and Mr. Alf Brorson from Sweden ~ Chronicling Founder Pastor Olof Olsson's missionary journey to Lindsborg from Värmland, Sweden
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson ~ An author of countless Swedish & English publications, newspapers, articles and books ...
      • Mrs. Margaret Dahlquist Eddy ~ Providing the only known history on Lindsborg and Bethany College's earliest Swedish photographer, B.G. Gröndal
      • Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin ​~ Compiling foundational Swedish Smoky Valley Augustana Lutheran settlements' histories and more
      • Dr. Emory Lindquist ~ Chronicling Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg [Selma Lind] ​ ~ Chronicling the Lindsborg of her day, its early histories, and more
      • Dr. Leon Lungstrom ~ Chronicling college professors and providing the "only known written" account on the Bethany College Museum
      • Ms. Karen A. Humphrey ~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College society and culture in the earliest years
      • Mr. A. John Pearson & Mr. Kenneth Sjogren ~ Chronicling the Bethany College Presidents
      • Mr. Bill Carlson ~ Chronicling Lindsborg's earliest and later histories with a personal connection
      • Mr. Chris Abercrombie ~ Remembering him as the "historian," the SVHA president and his body of work
      • Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist ~ Chronicling key Swedish Augustana Lutheran Smoky Valley settlements other than Lindsborg
      • Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers ~ Chronicling the "only known written" story on the beginnings of Bethany Home
      • Smoky Valley Historical Association Members ~ Researchers, compilers and writers of " Where Did They Live? "
    • ​Smoky Valley History Research Writers Website Designers ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Websites
    • Bethany College Swedish Knights and Honored Ladies ~ Their Royal Swedish Legacy Listings
    • His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden ~ Honoring him in Lindsborg and at Bethany College, 1976 >
      • Mr. Bill Carlson's Lindsborg's Bethany Home & the Swedish King's Visit
  • Contacts
    • For Lindsborg, 1869, CONTACT Today >
      • 2020 Christmas in Lindsborg ~ 'Welcome to Annandag Jul Worship from Sunnemo & Lindsborg"
      • 2020 Christmas in LIndsborg ~ the Ljuskröna and Apple Tree Exhibit" online presentation
    • ​For Bethany College, 1881, CONTACT Today
    • Closing Remarks & Traveling through SWEDES >
      • The Swedish American Legacy Photographs >
        • ​Lydia's Lindsborg's Photography​, ​1900 - 1925
        • Lydia's Bethany's Photography, ​1906 - 1925
The Other Swedes
~ Honoring Him and His Works ~


Mr. Bruce Karstadt
~ Honoring him as a Bethany College graduate
for heading up a major national
Swedish American institution


Mr. Bruce Karstadt was a Lindsborg resident and is a Bethany College graduate who for over thirty years (30) has been the head of a major Swedish American institution in the United States.

H
is maternal great great grandparents Johannes Pettersson and Albertina Bengtsdotter Pettersson with his great grandmother Potentia (known as “Tensa”) Pettersson who at four-years-old with her brother Albert and three sisters Alvida, Nilla, and Beda left their Swedish hamlet of Drängsered, in the province of Halland for the port of Halmstadt in July of 1884.  Upon their arrival in New York City, they journeyed directly to Lindsborg arriving in the fall.  ​Tensa would marry George Nelson who was born in Smolan, Kansas, whose parents were from Småland and Västmanland, Sweden.  They had three daughters, Albertha (Mr. Karstadt's grandmother), Verna (who died as a young child) and Evelyn.

​Born in Lindsborg, Mr. Karstadt would graduate from Lindsborg Rural High School in 1969.  His youth, with his two sisters and like those of many of their contemporaries, was spent in a Swedish atmosphere, where, at times, it may have felt like being in Sweden.   His family was immersed in their Swedish traditions, cooking and celebrations as well as involved in those of Lindsborg with its traditional Swedish dancing and music.  In Lindsborg then, with the older generation, Swedish was still spoken on the streets, at the bakery, in homes, at church and at the Bethany Home for the elderly.

The aim, of course, for all those who immigrated to Lindsborg was to become Americans.  However, the other aim in Lindsborg was to always remember their Swedish heritage, as his great aunt 
Evelyn Nelson, so surely demonstrated.  She was one of the early founders of the adult Swedish dancing groups that his mother, Mrs. Patty Ann Sundstrom Karstadt, assisted with, and eventually took over.  Mrs. Karstadt was a Bethany College graduate and was an elementary music teacher at the Soderstrom Elementary School.  There, she was an early leader, in ensuring that the elementary boys and girls learn the dances and perform them regularly.  This found her managing the Swedish dancers at the school for many years. 

A few girls, who were headed for Lindsborg Rural High School, in 1963, asked Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg, whose husband, Dr. Einar Jaderborg,  was the principal there,  to organize a dancing group for the high school.  She did, and that dance organization was to become the beginning of what was later called and is called today the Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers.  They would first be recognized as "Ambassador" dancers after their debut performance at Expo 67, the World's Fair in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1967.
  Since then, the dancers have danced their way around the country and dance in Sweden every four years.    Thus, the beginnings of Mrs. Jaderborg's Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers can be traced back to the foundational years of Swedish dancing by Mr. Karstadt's great aunt Evelyn Nelson and mother Patty Ann Sundstrom Karstadt.​
​It was in 1990 that Mr. Karstadt was hired as the Chief Executive Officer and President of the American Swedish Institute (ASI) headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The Institute was founded in 1929 in the 1910 Swan Turnblad Mansion where the museum is located. 
​
​On 
September 11, 2020, from the online MINNPOST, it was reported in the article:  "The American Swedish Institute’s Bruce Karstadt: ‘Adaptation, experimentation and creativity’ " that "Under Karstadt’s stewardship, ASI has grown in size, reputation and global reach."  This was due to the add-on of the 34,000-square-foot Nelson Cultural Center which was finished in 
2012.  The Institute offers an array of Swedish cultural experiences found in exhibitions, public programming, and educational activities.  Its museum is noted as one of the leading museums in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Go Here, to learn more about the Mission and the Vision of ASI.
- The American Swedish Institute -
Founded in 1929
Comprising the Institute are the 1910 Swan Turnblad Mansion and the 2012 Nelson Cultural Center
Picture
Courtesy photograph from the American Swedish Institute website.
Before his job at ASI, Mr. Karstadt held the positions of Legal Counsel and Executive Assistant to the President at his alma mater, Bethany College, where he graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Political Science.  His studies continued in Topeka, Kansas, at Washburn University of Law, where he earned a Juris Doctor Degree in Law in 1977.

He first became professionally interested in Swedish and Swedish American affairs at Bethany College while working with college president Dr. Peter Ristuben (of Norwegian descent) whose tenure was from 1983 to 1990.  During this time, Mr. Karstadt assisted 
Dr. Ristuben in organizing a committee to prepare for the New Sweden 1988 binational Swedish American celebration of the 350th anniversary honoring the 1638 founding of New Sweden, a region that includes part of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York.  This New Sweden anniversary most likely involved every other head of a Swedish American entity in the United States.  (A similar event, involving Bethany College, extensively documented Here, celebrating New Sweden's 300th founding anniversary was in 1938 when Dean and Professor Emil O. Deere assisted President Dr. Ernst Pihlblad.)

It was during the preparation time of this New Sweden '88 event that Mr. Karstadt came face-to-face with the workings of Swedish and Swedish American affairs in our country that set his sights on a career that would be focused on
 strengthening the ties between Sweden and America, the goal of which this New Sweden celebration had certainly achieved.  As a result of their participation in that event, Dr. Ristuben and Mr. Karstadt were rewarded for their efforts in 1990.  For Dr. Ristuben, 
His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, recognized his leadership and endeavors by bestowing on him the highest award upon non-Swedes which was that of the "Officer of the First Class Royal Order of the Polar Star;" and for Mr. Karstadt he was recruited by leaders at ASI, whom he grew to know during New Sweden ‘88 to consider the top-level position at ASI, which he then accepted after an interview in summer 1990.

While at ASI, Mr. Karstadt's works and leadership ability continued to flourish in countless matters of Swedish and Swedish American importance.  These have found him being honored many times throughout his career.  One such early honor was in 1994 when he was made Honorary Consul General of Sweden for the State of Minnesota, a post he continues to hold.  Then, jumping over to the past 9 years, in 2012, he received the Carl Sandburg Medal from the Swedish American Historical Society in Chicago; in 2013, from Uppsala, Sweden, he received the Gold Medal for creating a strong Sister City relationship between Uppsala and Minneapolis; in 2014, he received from the Swedish Crown, the Swedish Insignia of the "Royal Order of the Polar Star, Commander First Class;" in 2018, he was selected as the Swedish American of the Year by the Swedish chapters of the Vasa Order of America; and, in 2019, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Sweden’s Lund University.

In 2018, it was also reported by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, that "He also serves on the boards of Friends of House of Sweden in Washington DC, American Friends of Uppsala University, and the Swedish Council of America.*

​​Perhaps, the most heartfelt honor he received, though, was from his hometown Lindsborg, in 2019, when he was selected to be the Grand Marshall during Lindsborg's 150th Founding Anniversary Celebration for their October Svensk Hyllningsfest celebration, the biennial Swedish pioneer festival that was organized in 1941 and is unique-to-Lindsborg,  which honors those Swedish immigrant pioneers of the late 1800s, who first settled in Lindsborg and in the surrounding Smoky Valley enclaves.  

​It was in 2003 that his parents, Steve and Patty Karstadt, were similarly honored by being chosen the King and Queen at this festival.  This was
 due to their lifetime as committed supporters of Lindsborg's Swedish heritage, traditions and culture, his mother particularly for her place of leadership near the beginning of the Lindsborg Adult Swedish Dancers that she helped to found and of which she was the first instructor, as well as her ensuring that elementary school children learn Swedish dances while coordinating them.  Then, his father, who was of German and English descent, had attended Bethany and was a Navy World War II veteran, totally supported his mother's career and Swedish dance commitments for innumerable years, while he was also a longtime supporter of, and participant in, the ongoing, since 1882, Bethany College Oratorio Society Messiah chorus performances during Holy Easter Week, which is Lindsborg's most far-reaching cultural and Christian gift to the world.  

Thanks to his parents, Mr. Karstadt's career opportunity to serve Swedish and Swedish American communities has been a "win" "win" experience for all!

* Source: August 13, 2018, Augustana College, News, "Swenson Center advisory committee member named Swedish American of the Year"
Other sources for this article are from: 
-LinkedIn
-July 7 2016, UMGAS online magazine, Music & Arts, "Catching Up:  American Swedish Institute President Bruce Karstadt"
-2018: Press Release Vasa Order from website pdf file, "The Swedish American of the Year Committee 2018 Bruce Karstadt" 
-April 24 2018, Nordstjernan, People, "Swedish American of the year"
-May 24, 2019, ASI article, "Bruce Karstadt, President/CEO of the American Swedish Institute, Awarded Honorary Doctorate From Sweden’s Lund University"

-October 3, 2019, Lindsborg News-Record "Hyllningsfest Committee names Bruce Karstadt as parade Grand Marshall"
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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
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All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
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