MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – February 17, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: FREE “Understanding Neurodiversity” workshop, FREE talk on Olson Saturday, Facebook “likes” goal, 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 February 10-16, 2025:

We have a FREE workshop upcoming on “We’re All Different: Understanding Neurodiversity” in partnership with Square Holes and sponsored by Lindsborg Masonic Lodge #397! This workshop will be at the museum at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 1 and is open to all!
Rescheduled: Our next presentation in the FREE online Historical Speaker Series will now be on THIS Saturday, February 22. Karen Humphrey will speak on Alma Luise Olson – a Lindsborg resident and Bethany graduate who became a New York Times correspondent headquartered in Sweden! The presentation is open to the first 100 people to register HERE.
Alma Luise Olson
We don’t do this often, but if you haven’t yet “Liked” us on Facebook, can you take a moment to do so? We’d like to break 3,000 followers before springtime! (Currently our followers are at 2,694.) This kind of small action really does make a difference for our public visibility!
We had a great turnout of 32 registrants for the Online Swedish Genealogy Workshop last Saturday, which included Maureen Taylor – The Photo Detective – Kathy Meade of ArkivDigital, Bob Johnson, and Marilyn Fettinger. Thanks to everyone who participated!
We have an opportunity to help the museum while picking up a great computer tablet for yourself! Two of these have already been sold; get one of the three remaining before they sell out!
We recently used grant funds to purchase five Lenovo P11 (2nd gen) tablets to implement our first augmented reality tour of the 1898 Smoky Valley Roller Mills, only to discover that Lenovo sells slightly different builds of the tablet under the exact same model name. Unfortunately, that slight difference – most likely in the GPS location services – means it won’t work with the Wintor augmented reality app we’re using for the tour, and Amazon is not accepting a return of the tablets.
This means a great opportunity for you! You can purchase one of these never-used tablets (specifications here) with charging cord and AC adapter, plus a heavy duty protective case (with hand strap, shoulder strap, and kickstand) for $265, which just represents the cost we paid for each tablet and case. This will help us to recover the grant funds and purchase different tablets that will work with the tour app.
Contact us at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com to make arrangements for your purchase!
We have available now sponsorship opportunities for Millfest 2025 on May 3! Details for doing YOUR part and details on how to sponsor are on the flyer below! Just get in touch at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com for more information.
Adam processed two renewing and two new museum memberships.
Adam worked on an application for a general operating funds grant through the Kansas Arts Commission. It’s expected to be finalized and submitted this week.
Aubrey worked on a grant to the Mellon Foundation.
Aubrey worked on emails to promote and prepare for Millfest.
Adam worked on clearing snow from the museum property walkways on Wednesday morning. For this coming week, the museum may be briefly closed to the public on Tuesday while staff clear the predicted snowfall.
The museum board of directors met last Thursday.
Lenora handled three research requests last week.
Lenora coordinated education students from Bethany College using the archives for a research project.
Lenora is working with Dylan at the Kansas State Historical Society archives to set up a workshop about scanning and managing digital files. Watch for a date to be announced.
Tyler is working on Svensk Hyllningsfest project, starting to upload scanned images to Flickr.
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!