MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – September 23, 2024 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Magic at the Mill card tournament success, tickets for “Sleepy Hollow” available, 55% on Swedish Pavilion tax credits grant, 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 September 16-22, 2024:

Last Saturday, more than 30 people turned out for the first ever Magic at the Mill card tournament event!
These unique and first-of-their-kind Magic the Gathering card game competitions were held at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum and included a guided our of the 1898 Smoky Valley Roller Mills. A portion of each registration fee went to support the Old Mill Museum!
Thanks to everyone who came out and made this such a successful and fun opportunity. From talking afterward with collaborator business Spelbok, we’re going to try to make this an annual event!
Thanks to The Salina Journal for covering the event!
- Tickets for the return of a Lindsborg Halloween tradition – “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” performed on the museum’s Heritage Square – are now available for purchase online at www.broadwayrfd.org!
  Scheduled for 7 and 8:30 p.m. on October 10, 11, and 12 (with a bonus Midnight performance starting at 11:15 p.m. on October 12), tickets are limited to just 25 per showtime, so reserve yours today for this unique spooky experience!
  The spooky classic story by Washington Irving will be presented in a progressive roving theatre style in which the audience moves with the actors from scene to scene around the Heritage Square at the Lindsborg Old Mill Museum. This storybook tale, with all its thrills and chills, revolves around the bumbling schoolteacher Ichabod, the coquettish Katrina, and Ichabod’s brutish rival, Brom Bones, and saving the best for last – the ride of the headless horseman!
- We are now at 55% on fundraising commitments under the Community Service Program (CSP) Tax Credits through the Kansas Department of Commerce. Read about all the latest here and let us know how much you are interested in contributing: www.oldmillmillmuseum.org/save-the-pavilion!
  We’ve had 34 individuals, families, and businesses commit to contribute to this progress to the tune of $132,884.25. We need about another $30,000 before the funding for the essential structural repair is secured.
  Any Kansas resident (or out-of-state resident who files a Kansas income tax return) can qualify to receive back a 70% fully refundable tax credit on their Kansas return with a donation of $250 or more to the project! The available tax credits will be used to enhance fundraising efforts for the Pavilion Restoration & Improvement Project. The credits are expected to raise $238,000 in donations, which will fully cover critical stabilization repairs to prevent collapse of the historic structure and will partially cover installation of a new, more historically accurate roof.
  
  Filling out the tracking chart to the next mark…
- The next subject in the speaker series will be about Henry Lungstrom at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 12.
  A machinist, inventor, and genius, Henry was born on a farm SE of Lindsborg in 1891. Henry’s 6th grade education and a curious nature led him into the world of manufacturing, working for Hagstrom Brother’s Manufacturing Co until 1930, when the firm sold the Lindsborg branch to him. Years later it was brought to light that the US government had hired him during WWII on a secret project to build the trigger system for three atomic bombs.
  Presentation is by Steve Borell. Steve, a Lindsborg native, grew up watching Henry and learning from the man who became a friend to his father and to him.
  The Historic Speaker Series is a set of online talks in partnership with the Smoky Valley Historical Association featuring great historical figures in Lindsborg and Smoky Valley History.
  Registration is completely FREE to the first 100 to sign up and is made possible with a grant from Humanities Kansas. Registration is open now online at: www.oldmillmuseum.org/historical-speaker-series/#Lungstrom
- Our next online Swedish Genealogy Workshop is scheduled for October 26 and is now open for registration HERE. The popular workshop has four sessions and runs $50 for non-members and $30 for members (look for the code in a recent email). Registration is limited to 100 attendees, so register today!
- “Old Family Photos: Trash or Treasure?” is an hourlong online presentation on photo identification and preservation planned for Saturday, November 2. Registration is $10 or free with code for museum members. Register at the museum gift shop HERE.
- Staff continued with planning for Heritage Christmas and Millfest 2025.
- Aubrey met with a representative of Kansas Commerce about planning for a themed week in Kansas in March 2025.
- Aubrey worked on updating employee and board member handbooks, as well as written museum policy documentation.
- Adam submitted two new grant funding requests.
- Lenora interviewed with Humanities Kansas for a story about the Svensk Hyllningsfest project for their newsletter. Under the project, she had five Hyllningsfest films digitized, primarily from the 1940s and 1950s.
- Lenora and Tyler worked on sorting and scanning Hyllningsfest materials.
- Lenora also worked with some experts in Sweden to learn more about our collection of Swedish books and a rune stick.
- 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!