Gallery Talks
Last chance to view the exhibitions Norwegian-American Lutheran Colleges and The Peale Collection: Furniture from Hill Farm. Curators will talk about the exhibitions and answer questions from 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served.
Presentation by Eugene W. Johnson: T.G. Mandt to the Wahlin Family...145 Years of Moving America
2:00 p.m. in the museum's Amdal-Odland Heritage Center at 523 W. Water St.
The Mandt Wagon Company of Stoughton, Wisconsin, is significant in both agricultural and folk-art history in the Upper Midwest. Come and learn about this interesting Norwegian-American industry. T.G. Mandt was the son of a craftsman, and during the Civil War he worked for a company in Missouri making wagons for the U.S. Army. At the end of the war, he returned to Stoughton and started his own company that soon employeed 200 people, most of them Norwegian immigrants including rosemaler Per Lysne. Vesterheim has a Mandt Wagon Company wagon on display in the mill in the Open Air Division.
Free First Thursday
From Norway to America and Back Again
Explore the ongoing connections between Norway and American with presentations by Norwegian-Americans who have traveled to Norway, tours of the museum's Open Air Division, and the movie Crown Princess Martha: The American Story. More information coming soon.
Free First Thursday
Presentation by Kate Martinson and Harley Refsal, Folk Art and Handcraft: A Non-language-dependent Journey into Emigration, Immigration, and Rediscovery of Ethnic Heritage.
Free First Thursday
Iowa's Martyr Regiment: The Story of the Thirty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry
A presentation and book signing by author David Wildman.