Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
(Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925)
Lydia's World Through Her Camera Lens

Sohlberg House with Parents

In 1904 Lydia’s parents, Andews Gustaf  (A.G.) and Ingrid Sohlberg, moved from McPherson, Kansas, fourteen miles due north to Lindsborg to their new retirement home on North College Street (North First Street) near Bethany College.

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- At McPherson home, just before Lydia's parents move to Lindsborg -

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Thus, this home, later referred to as  Sohlberg House, became the gathering place for their eight (8) children, the spouses and their grandchildren, and others, providing many  artistic and creative photographic moments for Lydia and her camera.

To vary the viewing experience, sometimes these photographs are displayed individually and then in groupings, or vice versa.

- A Sohlberg House Family Gathering - 

- The church, like it still is today, was central to the lives of Smoky Valley Lutheran Evangelical Swedes -

- C o n f i r m a t I o n    D a y s -
 1912

Confirmation days were such important days that professional photographers were hired for the occasion as was the case for the confirmation of Nina and her friends.  Nina is to our right, second from the Lutheran minister of Salina Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church.

- Lindsborg Confirmation Day Celebrations -

on Sohlberg House porch

Nina is 2nd in row

Lydia is on right, back row with a twin sister Anna Sohlberg who is behind Nina

on Sohlberg House front yard

Nina is third in row

Ingrid Sohlberg reading Bible in Sohlberg House Front Room -

- After Church One Winter's Day Around Sohlberg House -

Nina Sohlberg with father Ernest Ossain Sohlberg born in Kosta, Sweden

Nina Sohlberg

Lydia Sohlberg

Selma Sohlberg and the Alma Luise Olson home nextdoor to Sohlberg House
Selma was Nina's mother, Ernest's wife and Lydia's sister

N O T E
Miss Olson was "the first American woman" to receive Sweden's highest award for women.
- scroll to end for more information-

- Laundry Day in backyard of Sohlberg House -
One of Lydia's twin sisters:  Anna or Ida

- Fun Times Around Sohlberg House -

Lazy Days I

Lazy Days II

- Sohlbergs and Friends Celebrating "Bethany College's 30 Years Anniversary" at Sohlberg House -
1911

- Swedish American Presidential Candidate and Supporters at Sohlberg House -
Easter 1908
(Note US Flag has 45 Stars)

So far identified is the front and center Swedish American Presidential Candidate Honorable John A. Johnson Governor of Minnesota  and equally imposing celebrated Bethany Lutheran Church Dr. Rev. Alfred Bergin on the right.  Within the gathering are Bethany College President Dr. Rev, Ernst Pihlblad and his brother Arvin Pihlblad MD, art professor Birger Sandzén and his father-in-law, Eric Leksell,  behind the gathering wearing a hat.  (A slightly different composition of the photograph appears at the top of page 133 from 1965 Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas by Ruth Billdt, daughter of Dr. Rev. Alfred Bergin.)

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Also, discussed and shown earlier in the HOME page section are the photographs of Sohlberg House after the marriage of Emil and Lydia in 1916 titled Their 1916 to 1920 Sohlberg Home which can be found HERE. 

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- Next door to Sohlberg House -- The Alma Luise Olson Home -
 She was "the first American woman" to receive Sweden's highest award for women.

Behind these students would be the retirement home of Bethany College graduate Alma Luise Olson after she left her job with the New York Times, in 1940.  Miss Olson had an exciting career in international affairs and living in Sweden.  In 1940 she became "the first American woman" to receive Sweden's highest award for women, the "Vasa Medallion" during the reign of King Gustaf Adolf for spreading knowledge of Sweden to the United States. 

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We were to be Miss Olson's neighbors.  In 1962, my mother, Lois Fry Cochran, was thrilled when she at 39, my sister Melinda at 10, and I at 16, were able to rent Sohlberg House from Bethany College mathematics professor Anna Marm who eventually sold the house to us after our mother was able to finance it through a government loan!  Here we lived in the 1904 retirement home of our relatives, my mother's great grandparents and our great great grandparents, Anders and Ingrid Sohlberg. 

My mother, a polio invalid, would call Miss Olson on the phone and most likely have extensive conversations with her.  My sister would visit her often as a child.  She died on April 29, 1964 in her home.

Twenty years later Sohlberg House was donated to the Lindsborg Evangelical Covenant Church when our mother join my sister and me in San Francisco to live with us after having lifesaving surgery there.  Our mother had had a wonderful sojourn in Swedish Lindsborg for twenty-three years!!

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To move on to Lydia's photographs of Bethany College, go HERE for Deere's & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906 - 1925.  Or go HERE for Lydia's World Exhibitions, 2005-2011, the subsection of this section.

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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
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All color photography throughout Swedes:  The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated, or obviously concluded it is not.
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