TUESDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – June 24, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Preservation Oaks podcast feature, FREE Historical Speaker Series, “Raise the Roof” Pavilion campaign, 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 June 16-23, 2025:

We are excited to be featured on episode 98 of the Preservation Oaks podcast that released last week! Our thanks to host Sean Radcliff for choosing Executive Director Aubrey Wheeler for this wonderful in-depth conversation!
The final presentation of the Historical Speaker Series (postponed from earlier this year) is TONIGHT at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24. Register for the FREE presentation at THIS LINK.
Amalia was hired in 1900 to teach in the Model School at Bethany College. More specifically, she started a new program in Slöyd, a curriculum of manual training that teaches the use of a slöyd knife to make a variety of structured projects, usually in wood.
Amalia was born in Sweden in 1868 and immigrated with her brother to the US in 1896. She attended a teacher’s college in Näs, Sweden.
Presented by Dr. Marlysue Holmquist. Dr. Holmquist is a retired Bethany College professor. Dr. Holmquist has spent considerable time researching and documenting furniture made in the Slöyd under Amalia’s instruction.

Amalia Rabenius
The stability repairs on the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion are now complete!
We are now arranging a professional deep cleaning of the interior to allow for a suitable “soft” reopening to the public (after a year and a half with very little human contact, the Pavilion needs a little TLC to once again be “presentable.”) We will announce here when the inside will be available to the public again when we know a more specific date. Later, we are making plans for a “Grand Reopening” event of the Pavilion.
We are now moving into the “Raise the Roof” portion of the Pavilion repairs fundraising campaign.
More tax credits are now 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 will also be opportunities to have a “roof tile” with custom wording added to a permanent honor wall to recognize contributions to replace the roof; details will be coming soon. Learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof.
Lenora is working on a presentation about Svensk Hyllningsfest for the Swedish coffee group. It will be the morning of Friday, June 27 THIS WEEK and is open to the public!
We were excited to receive a Nutt Legacy Grant from the McPherson County Community Foundation for more than $100,000 to repair the main museum building’s roof! Aubrey worked on the specific scope of work last week in preparation for putting the work out to bid.
Adam completed the museum’s Summer newsletter and physical copies have now been printed. These will be mailed and sent out to museum members this week!
Aubrey submitted a grant for aesthetic improvements to the museum gift shop and welcome area. Adam assisted with edits and supplemental images.
Aubrey submitted letters of intent for operational fund grants to four different foundations.
Aubrey researched possible contractors for a planned rotating exhibit hall development.
Lenora completed several historic research requests last week, including: Helping a researcher from Kansas City on Swedish research, Swedish family research for a couple who visited several weeks ago, research for a Kansas City resident on land records for his great grandparents’ farm near McPherson.
Adam delivered and mailed tourist rack cards to four different locations.
Adam researched the possibility of creating custom flour mixes based on historic Smoky Valley Roller Mills recipes.
Tyler continued working on the Historic Image Database on Tuesday and Thursday.
Lenora met for coffee at Sunflower Terrace on both Tuesdays to gather local oral history.
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!