Augustana Historical Societ...Augustana Historical Society records, 1918-2011 | Augustana College
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Administrative/Biographical History
Development and Goals
At a Library Committee Meeting of Augustana College in 1930, President Gustav Andreen proposed organizing an Augustana Historical Society (AHS). With sufficient interest, he was authorized by the committee to appoint a committee to "make preliminary surveys and suggestions for the organization of such a society" (Library Committee meeting minutes, January 16, 1930). He appointed C. W. Foss, history professor; O. N. Olson, Seminary professor; and O. L. Nordstrom, professor of economics. The three men met in the office of I. O. Nothstein, Augustana librarian, on January 22, 1930 to devise a draft of a constitution for the Society. I. O. Nothstein was elected secretary and C. W. Foss presided as chairman. The original objective of the Society was to preserve documents and objects of historical interest relating to "Scandinavians in America and of the religious movements among them, especially of the Augustana Synod, and of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in general" (AHS meeting minutes, March 12, 1930). Another priority of the group was to encourage historical research and publication. The first publication of the group was Professor Fritiof O. Ander's thesis on T. N. Hasselquist which appeared in 1931. This was the first of many books to be published by the Society (see appendices for a list of all of the AHS publications). Today, the Augustana Historical Society has many of the same goals as originally established for the organization. Their object, as stated in the revised constitution of 1996, is to: "locate, gather, preserve, and publish literary materials bearing on the history of Augustana College, on the relationships of the college to the Lutheran Church, on the history of Swedish immigration to the United States, and on cultural connections between the United States and Sweden."
Special Projects
Early in 1970, a committee was formed to organize and identify historical materials in the AHS collections. The project was slated to begin in the summer of 1970. During the summer months, two Augustana students went to work with the collections. At the AHS board meeting on November 5, 1970, Dr. Fryxell reported on the summer project and the minutes are indicated as follows: "Materials were cleaned, cataloguing checked, protective covering applied and systematic storage provided. The collection is presently stored in North Hall." The artifacts in the AHS collections were more thoroughly researched by Everett and Hortence Lindorff, members of AHS and members of the Curatorial Committee. Starting in 1979, and volunteering for more than 12 years, the Lindorffs inventoried, organized, and traced the origins of the various artifacts. The items in the collections that were deemed not relevant to the AHS mission were donated to area museums or other departments of the college or were sold at auction. In 1991, the Lindorffs held an open house at the new AHS Museum located at Denkmann Hall.
Administrative Information
This collection has been organized into nine series: Administration, Meeting minutes, Correspondence, Financial records, Publications, Historical research and writings, Special Events, Photographs, and Miscellany.
Series I. Administration 1918-2000 and undated is organized into five sub-series: General, 1930-2000; Membership, 1932-2001 and undated; Museum, 1918-1992 and undated; Committees, 1934-1983 and undated; and Officer papers, 1934-1986. The General sub-series contains information about the early formation of the group, versions of the AHS constitution, and board member lists. The Membership sub-series contains general membership information as well as membership lists. The Museum sub-series consists of three sub-subseries: General (1918-1922 and undated), Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1993-1998), and Bishop Hill Donation (2000-2001 and undated). General includes information about artifacts collected by the AHS. NAGPRA includes documents pertaining to the society's compliance to the 1990 act. Bishop Hill Donation includes information pertaining to the donation of artifacts by the AHS to Bishop Hill. The Committees sub-series contains papers used by several AHS committees including the Museum Committee, Curatorial Committee, Historical Committee, and Old Main Committee. This is not a comprehensive collection of committee records, but rather a grouping of committee information that was separated out by AHS officers or members. Many other committee reports are contained within the Meeting Minutes series. The final sub-series is the Officer papers. These are papers that were donated by AHS officers that have been kept together due to the volume of annotations and additional materials they contain.
Series II. Meeting minutes, 1930- is arranged chronologically. Besides the actual minutes, this series contains agendas, officer reports, committee reports, and other materials related to the monthly meetings held by the Augustana Historical Society.
Series III. Correspondence, 1930-2005 and undated includes letters received by officers of the AHS and in some cases, carbon copies of outgoing mail. This is not a comprehensive collection of correspondence and where appropriate, correspondence has been kept with other materials. Most notably, the publications series contains correspondence relating to publications.
Series IV. Financial records, 1930-1999, 2012 includes a variety of materials that would be handled by the treasurer including bank books, receipts, account statements, and cancelled checks. This series also contains materials created by the treasurer including reports, some correspondence, receipt books, and a cash book. The materials are arranged chronologically with the unbound materials at the beginning of the series, and the bound materials (receipt books and cash book) at the end. Also included is information relating to AHS's designation as a 501(c)(3) organization.
Series V. Publications, 1931-2012 and undated has been divided into five sub-series: Manuscripts information, 1931-1998; Occasional papers, 1975-1977; Papers to be considered, 1979-1999; Newsletters, 1980-2012 and undated and Other publications, 1935-2000. The Manuscripts information sub-series contains materials relating to the publication of the Augustana Historical Society monographs; see the appendices section of this finding aid for a comprehensive list of AHS publications. The information found in this sub-series is organized by publication number, which is generally chronologically ordered. Not all of the publications are represented in this sub-series and information relating to specific publications varies. Materials found in this sub-series include reviews, publicity materials, drafts, proofs, notes, printing information, and correspondence between authors and editors. The Occasional papers sub-series includes two shorter papers that were published by the society. The papers are listed as Occasional paper no. 12 and Occasional paper no. 13, but it is unknown how many of these articles were published. The Papers to be considered sub-series includes several proposals for publications. It doesn't appear that these papers were ever published. The Newsletter sub-series contains final versions of the AHS Newsletter as well as drafts, notes, and proofs of some issues. The final sub-series in this series is Other publications. This sub-series contains other items published by the AHS including brochures and booklets. Some of the items might be comparable to the "occasional papers" but were not marked as such.
Series VI. Historical research and writings, 1965-1998 and undated contains a variety of notes and articles on various historical topics. When known, the purpose of the material has been listed as part of the folder name. In some cases, these were materials compiled for a larger purpose such as an article or presentation. Notably, there are several articles written by Conrad Bergendoff that were originally published in the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly. The materials in this series have been arranged chronologically and those items that are undated are situated at the end of the series and organized alphabetically by title.
Series VII. Special events, 1941-2002 contains information relating to events hosted by the Augustana Historical Society. Included as special events are historical marker ceremonies, AHS annual dinners, and other events.
Series VIII. Photographs, 1950s-1990 and undated contains images of AHS members from the late 1950s, members at a meeting in 1990, and a proof sheet of images of a man standing in front of the bell tower on the Augustana campus. There are other photographs in other series of this collection most notably in "Augustana: A Historical Chronicle" (see box 1).
Series IX. Miscellany, 1931-2005 and undated includes newspaper clippings, newsletters from other organizations, AHS stationery samples, AHS note cards, AHS logos, and other items.