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Location | 502 West Water Street Decorah, Iowa, United States |
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Director | Chris Johnson |
Website | http://vesterheim.org/ |
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa is the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, with over 33,000 artifacts, 12 historic buildings, and a library and archives. This treasure showcases one of the most extensive collection of Norwegian-American artifacts in the world and highlights the best in historic and contemporary Norwegian folk and fine arts. Some of its buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Vesterheim’s exhibitions explore the diversity of American immigration through the lens of the Norwegian-American experience, and its classes welcome students to participate in the continual evolution of traditional folk art as it meets new influences. Vesterheim also offers educational events, publications, and lectures related to its mission.
Vesterheim Museum was founded in 1877 as the Norwegian-American Historic Museum. It began as a part of nearby Luther College. In 1965, the Norwegian-American Museum became an independent non-profit museum with its own staff and board of directors. Soon after, it was referred to as Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. In 1969, Luther loaned the artifacts owned by Luther to the museum. In 1991, the museum acquired legal title to that collection and the museum’s name was officially changed to “Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum.” Vesterheim means “western home” in Norwegian.
The museum's main building is the historic Arlington Hotel/Publishing House. Luther College purchased the abandoned building in 1932 and moved the museum collection to that site in 1933. Luther sold the building to Vesterheim for $1.00 in 1969. In 1973, the museum purchased land on Mill Street behind the main building for the future Heritage Park (initially called the Open Air Division).
The museum's first curator (from 1895 to 1902) was Haldor Hanson, Luther’s professor of music. He changed the focus of the museum to an institution dedicated to the everyday life of a Norwegian-American by combining artifacts already acquired by Luther and adding more. Curator from 1911 to 1921, Christian Keyser Preus brought the idea of an “Open Air Division” back to Luther College in 1913 after seeing a collection of buildings at a museum called Maihaugen in Lillehammer, Norway. Four buildings were moved to the Luther College campus between 1921 and 1930. It would become the first of its kind in the United States.
Knut Gjerset was curator from 1922 to 1935. Under his direction, the museum’s artifacts increased along with its recognition. In honor of the 1925 centennial of Norwegian immigration, museums in Norway made large donations of artifacts to the museum in Decorah. Maihaugen’s curator, Anders Sandvig, was in charge of collecting and shipping the gifts that would fill five semi-tractor trailers when they reached the United States. When the artifacts were on the way, Anders wrote to Knut telling of their journey, "May these objects work so that the Norwegian-ness in you will not die too soon and the connection with the homeland will because of this be tighter. Receive this gift as proof that we follow you all in our hearts even though the big Atlantic Ocean parts us." In 1930, Gjerstet bought 6,000 Norwegian-American artifacts known as the P. D. Peterson Collection from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and the museums in Norway made another large gift in 1939.
Vesterhem's Folk Art School began in 1967 with two classes - Hardanger embroidery, taught by Carola Schmidt of Decorah, and rosemaling, taught by Sigmund Aarseth from Norway. The folk-art education program grew in 1968 to five classes with 63 students from 12 states, and now offers over 100 classes each year in fiber arts, painting, woodworking, metal working, food traditions, language, and more, both onsite and online. "The National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition" and Gold Medalist program also were born in 1967. This annual exhibition is a collection of art work entered by contemporary artists from all over the country who compete for ribbons in five categories - rosemaling, weaving, woodcarving, knifemaking, and metalworking, and earn points toward a Vesterheim Gold Medal.
Heritage Park is a collection of 12 historic buildings located behind the museum's main building.
The Painter-Bernatz Mill is at 200 North Mill Street, in Heritage Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Old Stone Mill was built by William Painter, one of Winneshiek County's earliest European settlers, in 1851 and is commonly believed to be the oldest building in Decorah. [1]
The Norris Miller House is at 118 North Mill Street, in Heritage Park. Norris Miller, a carpenter from Ohio, built this house in west Decorah in 1856. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Norwegian immigrants Hans and Anna Haugan built the house on a farm southeast of Decorah during the 1860s and lived in it at least until 1880. The house is a representative example of the husmann dwelling (Norwegian: hytte) used in Norway during the 19th Century. Husmann is the name for the Norwegian tenant farmer with leasehold estate somewhat similar to the Swedish torp or the Scottish crofter. [2] The husmann formed a key element of the Norwegian farm culture. The house used by typical husmann was often a simple log cabin or cottage made of rough hewed lumber. [3]
This represents a typical Norwegian landowner’s home. The Valdres House was built about 1795 on the Moahaugen farm in Heggenes, Øystre Slidre, in Oppland, Norway. The house was enlarged and a covered entry added in the 1860s. Vesterheim acquired the house through the efforts of the rosemaler Sigmund Aarseth and of Kolbein Dahle, director of the Valdres Folk Museum in Fagernes, in the valley of Valdres, Norway. The house was taken down and shipped to Vesterheim in 1975-76. The house was reassembled by Norwegian carpenters commissioned by the Valdres Folk Museum.
Erik Egge built this house in 1852 on his farm five miles (8.0 km) southeast of Decorah. In July 1853, he married Helen Pedersdatter, a widow with two small children. From December 1853 to March 1854, newlyweds Rev. Ulrik Vilhelm Kore and his wife Elisabeth lived with the Egges. Koren was a pioneer Lutheran minister who played a significant role in the development of the spiritual and intellectual development of Norwegians in America. He played an active part in the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, holding various positions including president of the synod from 1894 until his death in 1910. Elisabeth Koren was an author of The Diary of Elisabeth Koren, 1853-1855 which provides detailed insight into what it was like for four adults and two children to spend the winter in a one-room 14-by-16-foot (4.3 by 4.9 m) log house. [4]
Norsvin Mill was built in the 1800s in Norway and given to the Luther College Museum by Knut Norswing so that it might house the millstones brought to America by his grandfather, Knut Norsvin. The mill and stones came from the Kongsken farm in Vang, Valdres, Norway.
Rovang Parochial Schoolhouse was built in 1879 by the Washington Prairie Lutheran Congregation. For two weeks per term, the children/grandchildren of Norwegian immigrants were allowed to attend the parochial school to be educated in their Norwegian heritage, including speech, language, writing, and religion.
Tasa Drying Shed was built in approximately 1865 by Knut Thompson Tasa and was used to dry barley to make beer. Other common uses were for drying grains for human and animal use or used as a bath house.
Mikkelson-Skree Blacksmith Shop was located in Houston County, Minnesota, and brought to Vesterheim’s Heritage Park in 1971. It was built around 1854 by Mikkel Mikkelson Sinnes and was used as a home and blacksmith shop. It is similar to blacksmith shops in Norway. The shop was donated by the Darrell Skree family.
Wickney House was built by Anders Vikne (Wickney) in 1879 on a farm in Northwood, North Dakota. The house and most of the furnishings were donated to the museum by his granddaughter, Ruth Wickney, and moved to the present site in 1982.
Erikson-Hansen Stabbur was built by Hans Erikson in Byron, Minnesota, to store food. It was built on stone pillars to keep out rodents and other animals. The stabbur was moved to the present site in 1988.
Bethania Lutheran Church was a country church built in 1903 near Northwood, North Dakota. Vesterheim Director Marion Nelson was in search of an altar made by Osten Pladsen to add to Vesterheim’s collection and found one in a church that was up for auction. Because church and religion were a very important part of everyday life for the Norwegian immigrant, it was decided to buy the entire church, its pews, and the communion rail, pulpit, and baptismal font built by Pladsen. The altar had already been donated to Vesterheim. The church was relocated to its present site in 1992.
Decorah is a city in and the county seat of Winneshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,587 at the time of the 2020 census. Decorah is located at the intersection of State Highway 9 and U.S. Route 52, and is the largest community in Winneshiek County.
Luther College is a private Lutheran liberal arts college in Decorah, Iowa. Established as a Lutheran seminary in 1861 by Norwegian immigrants, the school today is an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The upper campus was listed as the Luther College Campus Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
The Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, commonly called the Norwegian Synod, was founded in 1853. It included churches in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Bagn Bydesamling is a small museum located in the hamlet of Dolven, south of Bagn at Sør-Aurdal in Innlandet county Norway. The museum is situated in the traditional district of Valdres and is run as a subsidiary of Valdres Folkemuseum.
Harley Refsal is an internationally recognized figure carver, specializing in Scandinavian flat-plane style of woodcarving.
Ole Juulson Kvale was a Lutheran minister and U.S. Representative from Minnesota.
Nordic Fest is a weekend festival held annually in Decorah, Iowa, to commemorate the traditional customs and culture of Scandinavian countries, especially Norway. The event always occurs over the last weekend in July and often draws estimated crowds of 50,000 to 75,000.
Anders Sandvig was a Norwegian dentist most noted for having founded Maihaugen, an innovative regional ethnological and architectural museum in Lillehammer, documenting the vernacular architecture of Gudbrandsdalen.
Karlton Jerome Rosholt was an American journalist and author.
Ulrik Vilhelm Koren was a Norwegian-American author, theologian and church leader. A pioneer Lutheran minister, he played a significant role in the development of the spiritual and intellectual development of Norwegians in America. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren has been called the "patriarch of Norwegian American Lutherans."
The Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United States is a general term to describe the Lutheran church tradition developed within the United States by immigrants from Norway.
Realf Ottesen Brandt was an American Lutheran minister.
Gerhard Brandt Naeseth was an American librarian and genealogist who specialized in the field of Norwegian-American immigration.
Herbjørn Nilson Gaustå also Herbjorn Gausta was an American artist who is best known for his landscapes, portraits, and scenes from rural settings. He left an early record of immigrant life in his portraits and paintings and helped establish a place for art in the culture of Norwegian-Americans.
Haldor Johan Hanson was an American hymn writer, publisher and author.
Symra was a Norwegian language periodical published between 1905 and 1914.
Washington Prairie Methodist Church is a historic church building located southeast of Decorah, Iowa, United States. The congregation was established by Ole Peter Petersen. He returned to his native Norway in 1853 and founded the first Methodist congregation there. Washington Prairie Methodist is considered the mother church of Methodism in Norway. In the early years the congregation met in private houses. They built this church building themselves from 1863 to 1868. With its pediments and entablature/cornice it is Greek Revival in style. However, the windows on the side elevations are Gothic. It also features a round-arch entry on its gabled end. By 1888 services were only held here quarterly, and continued until about 1920, when the church was officially closed. Over the years some vandalism and settling of the structure occurred. The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah restored the church and adjacent cemetery in 1972. The bishop of the North European Methodist Conference participated in its re-dedication later that year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Painter-Bernatz Mill, also known as the Old Stone Mill, is a historic building located in Decorah, Iowa, United States. The original part of the mill was constructed by William Painter in 1851, and it was expanded to its present size in the next year or two. A mill race was constructed from a dam on the Upper Iowa River, and it was routed beneath the building to power the turbine. It was the first of at least 15 mills that used this river as its source of power. The lower two floors are composed of native limestone. The original hip roof was removed sometime between 1874 and 1890 and the present gable roof was built giving the mill a large loft. Diesel power replaced water power in 1947. The building continued to operate as a mill until 1964. It became a part of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in 1971, and houses exhibits on agriculture and industry. It is also a site in the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area. The former mill is the oldest building in Decorah. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The Jacobson Farm is located southeast of Decorah, Iowa, United States. It was owned and operated by the Jacobson family for 127 years. One generation overlapped the next, which led to a gradual evolution of changes instead of sudden changes. This evolution is exemplified in the house and barn, which have been altered over the years to accommodate changing needs but contain some of their original construction. The original portions of the buildings shows a mastery of Norwegian log construction. The later additions were also built according to the Norwegian tradition as independent units, but using framing techniques that adapted from American builders. There is also a substantial amount of written documentation in the form of letters, diaries, tax receipts, and photographs that help to precisely document the history of the farm.
The Norwegian-American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library (NACGNL) is a not-for-profit Norwegian genealogy research center and library located at 415 West Main Street, Madison, Wisconsin. Through membership and service fees, it is accessible to both amateur and expert researchers. The library includes collections of Norwegian parish records, census records, government records, bygdebøker, and family histories. The library holds American records, such as obituary records, immigration, and government records, and church records from the American Lutheran Church. An online access to some records is available to members.