MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – September 29, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Museum participation schedule with Svensk Hyllningsfest, 80% use of tax credits on Raise the Roof campaign for Swedish Pavilion, one campground reservation opening for Hyllningsfest, 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 22-28, 2025:

We are pleased to announce our full schedule of involvement with Svensk Hyllningsfest – October 17 and 18!
-From 12:30-6:30 p.m. on Heritage Square on October 18 will be the inaugural Svensk Hyllningsfest Kubb Tournament! Details and registration at the link! If you haven’t played before, be sure to check out the “Intro to Kubb” course on October 17 behind 102 State St. downtown from 1-7 p.m.
-Our collections manager Lenora Lynam will be presenting a Swedish Genealogy Workshop both days from noon to 1 p.m. in Smoky Valley Virtual Charter School (SVVCS) (121 S. Main St.)
-Tom Holmquist will be presenting a brief history of the Old Mill at SVVCS at 1 p.m. on Oct. 17.
-We will have a booth at the “Bondemarknad” (farmers market) both days of the festival, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Stop by on Lincoln Street between city hall and the JO Sundstrom Conference Center to learn more about the museum and pick up a selection of homemade goods available from our gift shop!
-We will be running a half-price admission special to the museum on Saturday, October 18 of just $5 per person!
Last week, we received four new contributions or commitments to the “Raise the Roof” portion of the 1904 Swedish Pavilion repairs fundraising campaign – totaling $3,800!
This now puts us at 80% of the tax credits grant used and remaining donation capacity of $46,089.75.
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.The total contributed to the new roof is now nearly $42,900. Eligible donations may qualify for a 70% fully refundable tax credit on Kansas taxes. Current pledges and received donations under the tax credits grant are $193,201.40.
Learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof.
As a result of a cancellation, we currently have ONE opening for an electric site for a campground reservation on and around Svensk Hyllningsfest – October 16-19. Get it touch with us before it’s gone if you were looking for RV camping in Lindsborg for the festival!
The next daylong Online Swedish Genealogy Workshop on Saturday, November 8 is open and available for registrations!
Aubrey met with Dr. Gretchen Norland at Bethany College for a collaboration having students help develop 4th grade curriculum about the museum attractions!
Staff met to work on year end fundraising plans and Heritage Christmas on December 13! Aubrey also worked on contacting Heritage Christmas performers.
Staff met with Marjie of LBK Laser Designs on several new products for the museum gift shop.
We will be hosting a summit meeting for travel writers in the Swedish Pavilion next Monday, October 6!
Aubrey attended the regular Lindsborg Cultural Directors meeting last Wednesday.
Staff met with Betsy Davis of the McPherson County Community Foundation on Thursday for museum updates.
Staff applied for the Kansas Museums Association grant to make several minor repairs to the Swedish Pavilion porches.
Aubrey updated gift shop inventory totals. Adam removed an item from the online gift shop that was no longer available.
Aubrey prepared a speech about volunteering for the museum for an upcoming event at Soderstrom Elementary School.
The Museum Handy Crew worked on removing old fence posts that had been lying on the Pavilion porch and working on repairs to the Pavilion doors.
Two volunteer high school students worked on sweeping museum sidewalks and the Pavilion porches, as well as dusting in the Old Mill and Heritage Square rooms.
Adam worked on trying to resolve an issue with spam messages coming in through our online contact form.
Adam removed events from the website that have passed.
Adam processed a renewing individual membership. Make sure that you have in your new or renewing membership at www.oldmillmuseum.org/membership.
High school volunteers worked on cleaning and dusting exhibit cases and equipment in the Old Mill.
Adam finalized and submitted the contract form to the the first half of our Arts Commission General Operating Support grant.
Adam picked up our T-shirt restock order from Artshirt.
We continued with taste testing of our pancake mix in development.
Lenora worked on planning for the upcoming genealogy workshop for January 2026.
Lenora attended coffee at Sunflower Terrace for continued community outreach.
Lenora worked on cataloguing recently donated artifacts and moving them to collections storage.
Lenora is working with Don Dunlap on family research and an upcoming planned presentation for March.
Tyler finished scanning the Chester Bruce history papers collection. Indexing is currently in process. He also started on digitizing additional historical publications. 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!