MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – February 2, 2026 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: “Cultural Crawl” talk on birdwatching Friday, “A Day with the Birds” exhibit, and more!

In this update, keep up to date on what staff and volunteers at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum are working on to lift up the history of Lindsborg and the surrounding region. This weekly update both looks back at what happened and looks ahead at what’s coming.

For January 26 – February 1, 2026:

On Friday, we are pleased to present a FREE Cultural Crawl presentation by Bill Brock on birdwatching in the Smoky Valley and the Christmas Bird Count.His presentation will be held at the museum at 2 p.m. on THIS Friday, Feb. 6 as part of the collaborative Lindsborg Cultural Crawl.
Learn more about how to fill out your Cultural Crawl passport and the potential to win prizes as a result, visit www.smokyvalleyartsandfolklifecenter.org/events/cultural-crawl. This is the LAST cultural crawl you can attend to get extra entries in the Cultural Crawl drawing on Saturday, February 7, which includes a top prize of $250, one of two $150 prizes, or a children’s gift basket with a $250 estimated value!
Last week we opened “A Day with the Birds” temporary exhibit which will run through March 7!
Developed by the Kauffman Museum in Newton, Kansas, the traveling exhibit includes taxidermized birds, informational panels (in both English and Spanish) and many hands-on interactive elements. The exhibit is included in regular museum admission!
Special thanks to the Bethany College track team for helping us with heavy lifting of the exhibit boxes and volunteers Betty Amos and Leland Nelson for their help with exhibit assembly!
Come see this wonderful exhibit while it’s here – fun for all ages!
We had 25 participants in last Saturday’s “Discover Your Past” Virtual Genealogy Workshop!
Upcoming in genealogy workshops, we have a half-day Beginning Swedish Workshop for February 21, 2026. It will cost $20 or just $10 for members. Then on March 21, we will have our next regularly scheduled Swedish Genealogy Workshop. Members receive a $20 discount. Register today!
Adam one renewing membership last week!
Even so, we are currently showing about 85 recent membership supporters who are overdue on renewing.
Have you renewed your museum membership? (Are you sure?)
Memberships are a critical source of reliable support for the museum! And we now have an exciting new option – Lifetime Membership!
Give us a call at 785-227-3595 or email at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com, and we will be glad to check on your status. It’s also a great time to think about becoming a new member if you’ve never been one before, or to purchase a gift membership for someone special in your life! See www.oldmillmuseum.org/members for details!
Sponsorship opportunities for Millfest 2026 are now open and available! With a new sponsorship coming in last week, already we have had $4,650 in event sponsorship dollars come in!
Scheduled next year for Saturday, May 2, this is the one time annually that our visitors can take guided tours of the 1898 Old Mill IN OPERATION! The festival also includes, music, entertainment, arts & crafts, antique tractor show, games, demonstrations and face painting!
Giving levels to sponsor run from as little as $25 to get your name in the program to $5,000 or more to secure topline “Brought to you by…” overall event sponsorship. You can also choose to direct your donation to specific Millfest attractions, including face painting, tractor show, Old Mill tours, or music performances! See full details including how to arrange your sponsorship with the forms included below.
We are more than 1/3 of the way toward the funds we will need under the “Raise the Roof” campaign to repair the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion’s roof in a more durable and historically accurate way, with $106,431.15 donated to the roof phase of the project. Last week we applied for a Legacy Nutt grant to try to close the funding gap to finish the project; even so, more will likely be needed to be able to complete this phase 2.
If you would like to help with Raise the Roof, you can learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof. Contributions made now will not be eligible for the special tax credit opportunity, but may have tax benefits as a qualifying donation to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization charity.
We have several recognition reward levels available: These include recognition on our website and an invitation to a special VIP event once all of the funds needed for the roof (at $100 or more) and opportunities to have a “roof tile” with custom wording added to a permanent honor wall (at $1,000 or more)!
We are continuing our critical Harvest of Giving fundraising event into 2026 as our topline goal in $50,000 in unrestricted donations – to keep the museum lights on and the doors open in 2026 – has not yet been met. Currently, this effort is at about $40,000.
In the space of four years, a major source of public funding has gone from covering half of our annual expenses to less than 8% and is not showing any signs of returning. Because of this, it is more important than ever for generous private donors, businesses, and organizations to step in and ensure that the rare experiences at the Museum continue to be available in 2026. Learn more and make your charitable donation today at www.oldmillmuseum.org/harvest-of-giving.
As a result of motorists driving donuts in the snow on the campgrounds, they will be closed until further notice so that the grounds conditions can be improved and not be made worse by this behavior.
Lenora met with representatives of the Central Kansas Conservancy, the City Parks Department, and the Kansas Infrastructure Hub to discuss creating a trail head at the south end of the campgrounds. Currently the proposed scope would be a new restrooms and a parking area and would be funded by a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks grant under the proposal. Currently the next steps will be seeking out updated quotes for the work.
The Museum Handy Crew continued to focus work on the Implement Building on Heritage Square last week.
We submitted a formal request to reallocate dollars from our 2025 Legacy Nutt Grant from the main museum building roof to the roofs of the Implement Building, Heritage Center, Train Depot, Telephone Building, as well as repairs of the ceiling to the train depot. These were determined to be a more urgent priority.
Lenora worked on exploring a grant for for a mural on the north side of the main museum and adjacent brick building.
Last week, we closed out final documentation for the $250K SPRINT grant. Lenora also is nearly complete on the final report for the Humanities Kansas Svensk Hyllningsfest photo project.
The recipe has been finalized for our new gift shop food project. Adam will now work on package design this week. Watch here for more details coming soon!
Lenora attended weekly coffee at Sunflower Terrace and Swedish Friendship Coffee on Friday in these continued community outreach opportunities.
Lenora met with Marc Anderson on Wednesday to discuss volunteer opportunities.
Adam cleared snow from walkways and porches last Monday after the large snowfall.
Adam research the new Kansas Folklife presentation opportunities through Humanities Kansas.
Adam is working with the Board of Directors to get postings up for the next museum Executive Director.
Lenora worked on ArkivDigital document indexing for five hours last week under a contract with the organization.
Tyler is continuing to work on digitizing our collection of printed literature, while Julie Ann continues with adding to our Historic Image Database collection.