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In high school, I would go to my Uncle Emil's library and pick out several Bethany College yearbooks and spend endless hours looking through them.
In high school, I would go to my Uncle Emil's library and pick out several Bethany College yearbooks and spend endless hours looking through them.
Their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations
15, 20, 25, 100 years
15, 20, 25, 100 years
From October 15, 1881 to February 16, 1904, Swedish American Dr. Rev. Carl A. Swensson devoted his life to the college he founded, Bethany College. After its first 15 years, the first formal experimental review on Bethany's progress came about for her friends, her patrons and her students. With its success, annual reviews followed, and today they are found to be larger with hard covers and bonded, having morphed into annual volumes we call "yearbooks."
My Uncle Emil, from the time he became a student at Bethany in 1899 to the end of his life in 1966, was given one of these each year. When he died he had a collection of sixty-seven (67) of these annual reviews. They were first known as the Bethany Annual, later known as the Forget-Me-Not, then the Bethany Daisy, i.e. The Daisy, and finally the Bethanian.
In high school, when visiting his and my Grandmother's (Nina Sohlberg Fry's) home, the home that his late wife Lydia Sohlberg Deere had designed, Deere House, I would go to his library and pick out several yearbooks from the bookshelf and return to the sofa in their dining room and, it seemed, spend endless hours looking through them.
All of these wonderful annual narratives and photographic essays of Deere's were returned to the College upon his death in 1966. However, there were two of early importance that "somehow" remained with his estate. They were the very well worn and falling apart "Bethany Annual. 1895-'96" celebrating 15 years of Bethany, and the 1902 Annual "FORGET-ME-NOT" highlighting 1901 and celebrating 20 years of Bethany.
My Uncle Emil, from the time he became a student at Bethany in 1899 to the end of his life in 1966, was given one of these each year. When he died he had a collection of sixty-seven (67) of these annual reviews. They were first known as the Bethany Annual, later known as the Forget-Me-Not, then the Bethany Daisy, i.e. The Daisy, and finally the Bethanian.
In high school, when visiting his and my Grandmother's (Nina Sohlberg Fry's) home, the home that his late wife Lydia Sohlberg Deere had designed, Deere House, I would go to his library and pick out several yearbooks from the bookshelf and return to the sofa in their dining room and, it seemed, spend endless hours looking through them.
All of these wonderful annual narratives and photographic essays of Deere's were returned to the College upon his death in 1966. However, there were two of early importance that "somehow" remained with his estate. They were the very well worn and falling apart "Bethany Annual. 1895-'96" celebrating 15 years of Bethany, and the 1902 Annual "FORGET-ME-NOT" highlighting 1901 and celebrating 20 years of Bethany.
- A "welcome" page inside the first "yearbook" of Bethany College -
1895-96
1895-96
Source: Bethany Annual. 1895-96
These two annuals were of special significance to Dr. Swensson, in recording the "celebrations" of the significant progress of his young college, her distinguish faculty and her students. The "Bethany Annual. 1895-'96," was especially important because it was "THE FIRST ANNUAL OF BETHANY!" The 1902 Annual "FORGET-ME-NOT" was especially important in recording the royal event visit to Lindsborg of Bethany's hosting King of Sweden Oscar II emissary and his wife, Bishop Von Scheele and Lady Von Scheele, in 1901, who were traveling throughout the United State visiting Swedish Lutheran churches of which Bethany Lutheran Church was one. On this rare royal visit, Dr. Swensson would become a Swedish Knight. Also, in this 1902 Annual, it recorded information on YALE UNIVERSITY'S BETHANY YALE CLUB!
The two other documents, not annuals, also of a celebratory nature with historical photographs and sketches are today Deere's ready-to-throw-away the printed 1907 "Souvenir of Lindsborg and Bethany College" celebrating Lindsborg and 25 years of Bethany during the presidency of Dr. Rev. Ernst Pihlblad; and our family's 1981 "The Centennial of Bethany College" celebrating 100 years of Bethany during the presidency of Dr. Arvin Hahn. This document gives concise historical information on Bethany enumerating and discussing her first eight (8) administrations.
To go to each of these four historical Bethany narratives, click on their images below:
The two other documents, not annuals, also of a celebratory nature with historical photographs and sketches are today Deere's ready-to-throw-away the printed 1907 "Souvenir of Lindsborg and Bethany College" celebrating Lindsborg and 25 years of Bethany during the presidency of Dr. Rev. Ernst Pihlblad; and our family's 1981 "The Centennial of Bethany College" celebrating 100 years of Bethany during the presidency of Dr. Arvin Hahn. This document gives concise historical information on Bethany enumerating and discussing her first eight (8) administrations.
To go to each of these four historical Bethany narratives, click on their images below:
Their Celebrating 15 Years of Bethany College
1881-1896
The Bethany Annual. 1895-'96
- Swensson's "First" Experimental Annual -
click below to go there
1881-1896
The Bethany Annual. 1895-'96
- Swensson's "First" Experimental Annual -
click below to go there
Their Celebrating 20 Years of Bethany College
1881-1901
Forget-Me-Not
Annual 1902
Featuring the King of Sweden's Emissary to knight Swensson and information on Yale University's "Bethany Yale Club" -
click below to go there
Their Celebrating 25 Years of Bethany College
1881-1906
(filled with photographs of Lindsborg and Bethany with a history page on each)
click below to go there
Their Celebrating 100 Years of Bethany College
1881-1981
(giving a most concise history of Bethany's first 8 administrations)
click below to go there
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Daisy yearbooks: 1913 & 1915
Gifts from the late Hilding and Esther Jaderborg
Daisy yearbooks: 1913 & 1915
Gifts from the late Hilding and Esther Jaderborg
My Bethanians
1965, 1966, 1967,1968
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~ restoring lost local histories ~
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