MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – April 7, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Chalk the Välk artist demo this weekend, Pavilion repairs begin, upcoming workshops, and more!

In our weekly 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 last week and looks ahead at what’s coming.

For March 31 – April 6, 2025:

On THIS Saturday, April 12, we will be participating in the Chalk the Välk event in Lindsborg. As a side attraction to the main chalk art competition on the Välkommen Trail, we are sponsoring Éowyn – a local Lindsborg high school senior artist – to create sidewalk art from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the museum! We invite everyone to stop by and see her work!
Éowyn is graduating from Lawrence Virtual High School and Smoky Valley High School this May. She works with a variety of media, including watercolor, graphite, alcohol markers, ink, polymer clay, and oil paint. She has won multiple art awards, including Best of Realism at the Bethany College Regional Show in 2024, Gold and Silver at the League Art show in 2024, First Place at McPherson College’s Art Pop 2023 competition, and Grand Champion at the Tri-Rivers Fair 2024.

A commissioned watercolor painting of the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion that Éowyn created for the museum’s holiday cards.
Last week Perfect Blend construction to began the physical structural repairs for the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion! Because they are beginning repairs on the interior attic space of the Pavilion, it may be several weeks before the public starts seeing the results of the work. When completed in an estimated 6-8 weeks (and after some robust dusting), this will allow us to safely reopen the Pavilion to the public! Thanks to everyone who donated to help us reach the $151,500 needed for these critical repairs!
Two upcoming genealogy workshop events are coming soon and are now open for registration! (Please note that we are now using a new process with the Eventbrite platform for registration and payment.)
Sue Schlichting with Pursuing YOUR Past will present “Inspiring the Next Generation of Genealogists” on Saturday, May 31. It is free for museum members or just $10 for non-members. Register and pay for the presentation at the link HERE.
Then on Saturday, June 7, we’ll have our next virtual Swedish Genealogy Workshop with four great sessions, including the return of Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective. The cost is $50, or $30 for museum members. Register and pay at the link HERE.
Last week on Monday, March 31, we had a free online Zoom workshop on “Digital Image Preservation: Scanning & Saving Your Family Photos,” which attracted about 50 registrants.
Also, last Friday, we had a free in-person presentation from Dr. Jeff Broome of Arapahoe Community College about Susanna Alderdice – a 19th century settler near where Lincoln, Kansas, is today – who in 1869 was caught up in the violence in the Midwest surrounding conflicts between the United States and Native American tribes. This brought in about a dozen attendees.

Thanks to everyone who attended this great museum-sponsored programming!
Staff members progressed on many points of important planning for Millfest and Millfest for Kids next month. Mark your calendars to attend Millfest on Saturday, May 3!
Aubrey coordinated with vendors and demonstrators, as well as communicating with Millfest for Kids schools. She also arranged for the International Harvester Collection Club to bring an antique tractor show to Millfest and placed orders to make sure the gift shop is well-stocked for Millfest. Adam worked on securing sponsorship logos, lining up sponsor yard signs, confirming music entertainment, printed off posters for distribution, ordered Old Mill Mint ice cream, worked on designing the Millfest program, and designed and sent in two print ads for newspaper publication. Lenora worked with Aubrey on Millfest for Kids planning.
We still have available sponsorship opportunities for Millfest 2025! Details for doing YOUR part and details on how to sponsor are on the flyer below! Just get in touch at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com for more information. We are currently at $5,500 total in sponsorships!
We have an opportunity to help the museum while picking up a great computer tablet for yourself! THREE of these have already been sold; get one of the TWO remaining before they sell out!
We recently used grant funds to purchase five Lenovo P11 (2nd gen) tablets to implement our first augmented reality tour of the 1898 Smoky Valley Roller Mills, only to discover that Lenovo sells slightly different builds of the tablet under the exact same model name. Unfortunately, that slight difference – most likely in the GPS location services – means it won’t work with the Wintor augmented reality app we’re using for the tour, and Amazon is not accepting a return of the tablets.
This means a great opportunity for you! You can purchase one of these never-used tablets (specifications here) with charging cord and AC adapter, plus a heavy duty protective case (with hand strap, shoulder strap, and kickstand) for $265, which just represents the cost we paid for each tablet and case. This will help us to recover the grant funds and purchase different tablets that will work with the tour app.
Contact us at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com to make arrangements for your purchase!
Adam processed four renewing memberships. Thank you! We currently have 124 current and active memberships, but another 49 are overdue. Not sure if your membership is current? Give us a call at 785-227-3595 or email at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com to confirm!
We received our first-half payment from the Kansas Arts Commission for the 2024-2025 General Operating Support Grant! Adam is now working on the reports and paperwork necessary to receive the second-half payment.
We completed an application request for an operational funding grant from the Mingenback Foundation in McPherson.
Aubrey gave a presentation program about improvements and restoration at the museum to a social group at Bethany Lutheran Church.
Aubrey gave an Old Mill tour to visitors from Cloud Community College on Saturday.
Adam scheduled a tour for 53 students from Salina for May. Get in touch with us at 785-227-3595 or oldmillmuseum@gmail.com to schedule your own guided Old Mill tour for your school group!
Aubrey arranged for a contracted grant consultant for 100 hours in 2025.
Adam ordered an ad placement with The Marquette Tribune annual travel guide.
Lenora has been working on recording oral histories on the Lindsborg Sale Barn that used to be located near the current Co-op. She also had a recorded historical conversation with several women at Sunflower Terrace last Tuesday. This week, she will be working on oral histories about the historical Riverside Station and cottages that were on First Street.
Lenora fulfilled a records request from the archives.
Lenora and Tyler continued working on the Hyllningsfest photo project. It has now passed a milestone with more than 8,100 images and has drawn more than 336,000 total views!
Lenora has continued working on an indexing project under contract with ArkivDigital (10 hours)
Need a great gift for the genealogist or history enthusiast in your life? NEW in the museum gift shop, you can now purchase a gift certificate good for a free registration to one of the museum’s Online Swedish Genealogy Workshops anytime in 2025 ($50) or a 2025 Pursuing YOUR Past presentation ($10). Your gift recipient will receive a one-time-use code by email or mail good to pay for the registration fee for one of these popular sessions!