IIGS™ Newsletter - February 1999
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IIGS™ Newsletter - February 1999
Hundreds of press releases cross my desk at work every week and the majority are filed in the waste basket. But one captured my interest last week because it was genealogy-related.
The entire press release on Vesterheim, a Norwegian American Museum, follows. But first, I'll add that this release inspired me to do a search for other museums with holdings of genealogical interest. For an overview of some of the resources I found during that search, read "Genealogical Holdings of Interest" in this issue. Now for the Vesterheim release.
The special exhibit, Immigrant Iowa, on view until April 15 in the Hauge Large Gallery of Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum, opens the traveling trunks of five different Iowa immigrant populations. The exhibit, which showcases the similarities and differences of the groups through the objects they brought with them, is a collaboration of five ethnic museums in Iowa--the National Czech and Slovak Museum from Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the Danish Immigrant Museum from Elkhorn, Iowa; the Pella Historical Village from Pella, Iowa (Dutch); the German American Heritage Center from Davenport, Iowa; along with Vesterheim.
Immigrant Iowa includes Vesterheim's of the popular traveling exhibit, "Leaving Norway--Coming To Amerika: The Contents of an Immigrant's Trunk," which Vesterheim completed in 1998. The four other museums have contributed similar trunk exhibits to share their own ethnic immigrant stories. The trunks are packed with everything the immigrants believed they would need for their new life in America--clothing and accessories, coverlets, kitchen utensils, tools, and religious tracts. Also included are copies of historical photographs and documents like early immigrant passports and vaccination certificates.
The project was the idea of Darrell Henning, Vesterheim's chief curator. He thought it would be interesting to explore immigrant populations of Iowa through the same subject.
"It is interesting what the museum institutions, and the people they represent, have felt was important to preserve," said Henning. "All five groups in the exhibit display religious tracts; articles of clothing, particularly children and women's clothing; examples of immigrant papers and documents; and, with one exception, ethnic food preparation materials."
"The exhibit," continued Henning, "shows not only what people brought, but what they saved and what they didn't save. The contents of the exhibit are as revealing about the immigrants' impressions or ideas of what life would be like in America, as they are about subsequent generations' interest in preserving family history and ethnic identity."
During the middle of the 19th century, wave upon wave of immigrants, mostly from Europe, left their homelands to start a new life on the American frontier. From the 1820s to the opening of the prairie lands, the states and territories bordering the Upper Mississippi valley were the new frontier. Iowa was squarely in the middle of this region, and many communities sprang up with a distinct ethnic character.
With a main complex of 16 historic buildings in downtown Decorah, Iowa, a farmstead and country church about seven miles outside the city, and the Vesterheim Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library in Madison, Wisconsin, Vesterheim is the largest, most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated to a single immigrant group. The museum is open every day of the year, except major holidays.
For more information on Immigrant Iowa, or on any other aspect of the museum, call 319-382-9681, or write to Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, 523 W. Water St., P.O. Box 379, Decorah, IA 52101-0379.
Or, you can visit the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum website or email the museum at langton@vesterheim.com.