CONTACT ENDING
This is a civilization that is vanishing away, little pieces to large chunks – from its very beginnings when it enter ed North America. That is what happens with assimilation and the experiment of ----- in America.
OLD MAIN
Other than the Native Americans, the main ethnic group that settled in this valley were the Swedes. Today, their decendents are now into the 7th generation. And becoming more American, it is now difficult to hold on to the history, the traditions in their purest forms; and the formation of the College which was unusually sophisticated for its time.
History is not interesting to most people. And unfortunately, this history presented here, is no different! As my numbers are showing.
The last-links to this history have been watching important aspects of it vanish away for many years to where it is almost gone, to where it seems that no one is interested in it, in institutions of learning –
The history is the story of the culture and without the story of the culture how can a culture survive? -- the cultural history is the infrasture upon which a living culture of that history rests which then justifies traditions and what a foundation
, and the crafts in colonies of Swedes, settled in this VALLEY. They
For me personally, SWEDES has become a celebration to our Swedish past, which has been preserved through the "caretakers" of our Kansas Swedish American Smoky Valley legacies. These have been cared for individually and corporately, compose of Swedish American, and, perhaps now, by an increasing number of non-Swedes, all of whom so understand the principal of preserving cultures; and in Lindsborg the culture is Swedish.
Working my way through SWEDES has also revealed some very sobering discoveries of the cultural loses endured for more than half a century; and to easily foresee future loses that could easily be resolved. A primary reason for starting this project was that I could personally see that the foundational history was being forgotten, I even was given a first hand observation as to how advance this situtation had become. There were some other dire circumstances added on as well that set me to work on SWEDES, not knowing of course that this project would take me close to a decade to finish. Actually, I thought I had finished it several times before this lasted date of finishing it.
Bethany College has taken the brunt of these Swedish culturally losses and I will just mention one for an example, which goes back to the 8th administration when Old Main was razed beginning the day after my May graduation in 1968. More to come
As an inheritor of Dr. Emil O. Deere and Lydia Sohlberg Deere estates (the Sohlberg-Deere Estate), living in their home and being surrounded by his extensive library and her art, knowing of their historical status and reputation at Bethany and in Lindsborg and that of their friends also -- knowing the grandchildren of these friends, owning the "Old Deere Farm," experiencing Hyllningsfest, singing in the Messiah, graduating from Bethany College, having Sandzén's Margaret Sandzén Greenough as a close family friend (after her friendship to my grandmother and mother), receiving books as gifts from Smoky Valley Writers and having conversations with many of these individuals on heritage conservation matters, all had a bearing on how I and my sister, Melinda O'Leary, were to treat pieces from these estates.
We did not look at these estates as ours only, we felt that appropriate pieces belonged to Lindsborg, to Bethany College and to Sweden. So when some attempt to share this cultural history with the Smoky Valley people failed, the best way of reaching out to them was through a website, to ensure that this information was readily assessible.
including the Bethany Lutheran Church events and the forming of the Women's Missionary Society of the Lutheran Augustana Synod there on June 6, 1892 which was to be of world-wide service, where fourteen (14) citizens would be honored so highly by four (4) Swedish kings, beginning in 1901 and ending in 2014, where town and the college would eventually become a destination for attracting European artists and opera stars developing it into a cultural mecca, not to mention the start of a college museum of 1881 which in 1966 had a reputation as having no comparative peer to it among the mid-western Liberal Arts colleges,
When all will be said and done regarding SWEDES, the purposes for creating it remain the same as its motto reads found at the bottom of each of its 163 sections: “~ restoring lost local histories ~ reconnecting past to present ," and that of "conservation” as this term relates to preservation; and to restoration of documents and photographs; and to archaeological, historical and cultural sites, and artifacts found in the Smoky Valley.
In this decade long creative process has been discovered as revealed in these sections of SWEDES, some of which might present opportunities from which conservation programs could evolve for individuals in Lindsborg and at Bethany College and or even corporately.
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Rev. Chris Deines -- Current pastor
* ACQUIRE copies for a TOTAL of 2
OR, LIST COPIES in the libraries’ databases if Bethany College library already has them
**ACQUIRE another copy for a TOTAL of 2
***FIND within Bethany College library, as these works were created by Administration personnel
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Mr. A. John Pearson
"Editor-at-Large" for many Smoky Valley books and writings on "The Other Swedes"
Founder of "Smoky Valley Historical Publications" and "Bethany College Press"
– which will never grow old with the descendants of the Swedish Smoky Valley people, which will be able to live on into perpetuity through technology available in our digital age.
Losses of the closeness that Lindsborg had with Bethany College – growing apart from one another
Incredibly reticent on matters of right or wrong, on injustice, etc.
The Kansas Academy of Science would most probably have records on this museum and still do most definitely know about its last curator Dr. Emil O. Deere who held that position for 58 years.
The lack of crediting individuals in Lindsborg and at Bethany College could very well be a mindset characteristic that traveled along with the first Swedes which settled into this rural part of Kansas. When one looks up these Swedish terms, Lagom and Jante Law, one can understand why such recognitions has been frond upon and continues to be. While at the Glass Museum in Sweden, I learned first hand that this “is alive and well” in Sweden.
Outside of their traditions, the “recognition and honoring” of others, or even “thanking others,” it seems, has been a very difficult endeavor due to beliefs which have come over from Sweden. And to advocate for losing one’s cultural heritage just could not be done. To let “it go” is better. To keep peace.
With the times == Sweden’s model
Today's college has no record of its Bethany College Museum as stated in a December 19, 2018 email from the Wallerstedt Learning Center Archives. The only information that remains with the College is that found in only 2 copies in the Archives of Bethany College Biology Professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom’s "Museum" chapter found in his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas."
-- vv
Cultural Loses and potential for Lindsborg, for Bethany College
(If the losses and the potential continue not to be recognized as important to the foundational building and development of the historical infrastructure of Bethany College, upon which the whole institution has been resting its certain Swedish and Swedish American roots of identity which has given it purpose, its meaning, it values and visions for building a better tomorrow, then the College will continue to lose its way for the future.) What was once lost is now found – John Newton 1725-1807.
LOSSES
$5 – 15 Million
Alumni Support – for years
An ongoing endowment
85% of Alumni Support
1882 – 1966 -- The Bethany College Museum – the Collections
1893 – 1986 -- Artist Birger Sandzén paintings entrance in the Advent of Modernism Exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (where he would have been declared as part of the “Modernism” movement in America.
1986 - 2000 -- Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas and the Swedish-American Cultural Heritage Center
1993 credit to Tom Jaderborg for photos of Sandzén’s book
2006 – 2011 -- Lydia Sohlberg-Deere Bethany College Photography Gallery for Bethany College
1983 on The lost “Swedish” first built building at Bethany College which played the earliest role in the College’s life
1882 The College’s first building of 1882, Bethany College Academy Building (has been showcased since 2013 exclusively as Lindsborg’s First School House from 1879-1882)
2015 Non replacement of memorials to those which played significant roles in the early life of Bethany College: Dean and Dr. Emil O. Deere, Biology and Geology Professor
POTENTIAL LOSSES and Solutions
A promise of an endowment
Alumni support ongoing
Friends of Lindsborg
The early books on Bethany, Lindsborg and its people
Recognition and honoring professors, students, employees, Lindsborg residents/friends and behind the scenes friends who have helped Bethany College in significant ways.
that have been honored by the Crown of Sweden
Presidents and Professors who built Bethany College in Significant and Behind the signs ways:
Employees who built Bethany College in significant and behind the scenes ways
Headlines from Lindsborg -- 2019, June 27
-- Lindsborg News Record --
- beginning with Lindsborg's 150th year -
June 27, 2019 - Church Page: "Religious Freedom motivates Olsson's arrival in Lindsborg on June 27, 1869"
Local Voices: "Carl Swensson, a constant iconic presence" by Swede Alf Brorson
July 4, 2019 - Front Page: "President Jones departs Bethany College"
July 11, 2019 - Front Page; "City of Lindsborg to purchase an electric car" -- The Tesla Model 3
Local Voices: "Carl Swensson, a constant iconic presence" by Swede Alf Brorson
July 4, 2019 - Front Page: "President Jones departs Bethany College"
July 11, 2019 - Front Page; "City of Lindsborg to purchase an electric car" -- The Tesla Model 3
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