In this week’s double update: porch repairs, Sunflower Summer, museum restorations 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.
The update took a “week off” last week, so this covers the last two weeks of museum happenings.
For May 13-27, 2024:
- Sunflower Summer is here! Now through August 11 with the Sunflower Summer app, Kansas students and their parents/guardians can get free admission to the museum! While you’re at it, use the app to also get free admission to more than 220 attractions and events across the State of Kansas!
- Critical front porch repairs on the main museum building started last week and are continuing into this week. These are great visual and safety upgrades for the central starting point for our visitors’ museum experience!
- More museum restoration work is happening on our campus, including repainting the one-room schoolhouse exterior, installation of vents for the schoolhouse roof, re-roofing of the Old Mill powerhouse, and restoration of the windmill on Heritage Square by the Museum Handy Crew. Mid Kansas Construction also visited last week to take measurements for upcoming work on guttering for the south side of the main museum building.
- Bidding is currently open for tuckpointing work on the Old Mill powerhouse exterior. Bidding closes on June 7.
- Preparations and planning are set for Midsummer’s Festival events that will be held on museum grounds on June 15, including the Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancer’s Bake Sale, Kubb Tournament, Viking reenactor encampment, Swedish dancing, raising the Midsummer’s pole, and multiple free demonstrations and mini-workshops. We’re restocking the gift shop in preparation and anticipation of an influx of visitors during the festival!
- We recently opened registration for an hourlong genealogy workshop on July 13 on the FamilySearch tool! Sign up for this great opportunity today! We also still have registration open for the daylong Swedish Genealogy Workshop on June 8.
- We were awarded a grant from the Smoky Valley Community Foundation for $2,975 to continue work on the Historic Image Database project! This will fund a high-grade filing cabinet (delivered last week) for the photos, archival supplies, and paying for 125 hours of work on scanning and tagging the photos during this summer.
- Lenora has worked on genealogy research for four different families during the last two weeks.
- Adam gave a mill tour to “Questers” – a club out of Hutchinson to encourage unique experiences.
- We added a new guest book at the entrance of the museum for our visitors. When you come, be sure to let us know where you’re visiting us from and how you heard about the museum!
- We have been meeting with a number of potential exhibit designers as we work toward redesigning several of our displays this year.
- NOW OPEN: “Skeleton-Of-Dog… Selected Geology & Natural History Artifacts from the Bethany College Collection Archives” is a temporary mini-exhibit at the museum featuring some unique artifacts not seen in public for decades!
- Our Endowment Campaign 2025 is ongoing to add $1 million to our endowment in supporting our annual operational budget to make sure that not only do we preserve these historical treasures, but we can also “keep the lights on.” Read more on the flyer and giving form below, or visit to www.oldmillmuseum.org/donations to learn more!
Thank you to our museum volunteers of the last two weeks!
Jerry Sperling, Tim Stewart, Betty Amos, Julie Ann Neywick, Tyler Hammond, Les Sperling, Leland Nelson, Mike Koch, Jerry Hammerton, Cathy Ahlstedt, and Karmon Almquist!