MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – September 22, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: “The Teichgraeber Legacy” – video recording on demand, Magic at the Mill results, “coming soon” teases, 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 September 15-21, 2025:

- - Last week, we were pleased to present a special Zoom presentation on Theodore Teichgraeber, the owner of Smoky Valley Roller Mills when the current building was constructed in 1898, and the entire Teichgraeber family. (The flour mill is still preserved in original, operable condition at the museum – the only historic mill of its kind in the Midwest that still functions.) We had 19 registered attendees.
    Don Dunlap, Theo’s great-grandson, was our special presenter.
    Did you miss it? No problem! You can watch the video recording of the presentation at the link HERE.

We held our second annual “Magic at the Mill” card tournament at the museum on Saturday, September 20. About 20 players were in attendance! We held this evening of fun in collaboration with local gaming store Spelbok, featuring a prerelease “Spider-Man” set theme tournament! Thank you to everyone who came out and joined us for this unique annual evening event.
It’s still too early for a full announcement on two projects, but we want to “tease” these exciting projects in development; keep watching here for updates to come soon! First, we are working on recipe development for a new – and also a classic – flour mix that we plan to offer for sale. Second, we are working on offering a full-day genealogy online genealogy workshop that should have a broader appeal. Stay tuned for details to come soon!
The next daylong Online Swedish Genealogy Workshop on Saturday, November 8 is open and available for registrations!
With stability repairs on the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion now complete, we are now in the “Raise the Roof” portion of the Pavilion repairs fundraising campaign.
Tax credits are still available for the 2025 tax year for donations under this campaign. Proceeds go to help with a new planned Pavilion roof that will be more durable and with a more historically accurate look! There are also opportunities to have a “roof tile” with custom wording added to a permanent honor wall to recognize contributions to replace the roof! Details are at the link below.
After processing a new contribution last week, the total contributed to the new roof is now more than $37,900. There is still capacity for nearly $50,000 in donations possible under the grant, with eligible donations qualifying for a 70% fully refundable tax credit on Kansas taxes. Current pledges and received donations under the tax credits grant are $189,401.40.
Learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof.
An important note that we are now closed for campground reservations on and around Svensk Hyllningsfest – October 16-19. See possible alternate options HERE.
Adam gave an Old Mill tour to about 35 people from a Hutchinson homeschool group last Friday.
The museum staff is working on preparing for Heritage Christmas on December 13!
Staff is working on the museum’s responsibilities for the Svensk Hyllningsfest parade, including Adam submitting the parade entry registration.
We will be hosting a summit meeting for travel writers in the Swedish Pavilion on October 6!
Aubrey renewed our sam.gov ID.
Caroline and museum staff have applied for funds from the Nutt grant and the McPherson General grant in support of our Heritage Trust Fund grant application for a variety of repairs to the Old Mill.
Adam ordered a branded tablecloth for use at marketing promotion and special events.
We will be hosting the Swedish Ambassador for a short visit to the Swedish Pavilion on October 18 as part of Svensk Hyllningsfest.
Adam fixed the introduction video in the main gallery, which had been glitching.
Adam researched a possibly way to display historic 3D stereogram images of the Swedish Pavilion from when it was at the 1904 World’s Fair.
Adam worked on communicating with a leader of the Wichita Kubb Club about a planned inaugural Svensk Hyllningsfest Kubb Tournament.
Adam organized a staff and board special retreat for November 6 on a special topic that will take longer to address than during regular monthly Board of Directors meetings.
The Museum Handy Crew worked on making the Swedish Pavilion doors easier to use and open.
High school volunteers worked on cleaning and dusting exhibit cases and equipment in the Old Mill.
Lenora assisted a college student with research on Coronado Heights and Professor Udden.
Lenora attended coffee at Sunflower Terrace for continued community outreach.
Lenora worked on cataloguing recently donated artifacts and moving them to collections storage.
Tyler worked on Tuesday and Thursday scanning historic books and uploading them to Google Drive. Watch here for an announcement when they are fully available to the public!
Lenora met for coffee on Tuesday at Sunflower Terrace.
Lenora has continued working on an indexing project under contract with ArkivDigital.
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!