Ongoing Exhibitions

Ongoing exhibitions in Vesterheim's Open Air Division are open from May 1 to October 31. Check here for information about the buildings.

Ongoing exhibitions in Vesterheim's Main Building are open all year and include home life in nineteenth-century Norway, a 25-foot wooden sailboat Tradewind, an immigrant log house from 1853, and thousands of examples of Norwegian and Norwegian-American materials. You will enjoy displays of folk art that range from centuries-old woodcarving to beautiful contemporary rosemaling (decorative painting). Learn about Norwegian traditions and follow the immigrant story to see how Norwegian-Americans maintained their heritage in their vesterheim, their “western home.”

Museum's Main Building

First Floor

Lobby Murals

• Scenes of Norway during the mid-1800s, the peak time of immigration, reproduced from Vesterheim’s fine-art collection

Tempoary Exhibition Gallery
(Asbjørnsen Gallery)

• Changing exhibitions on special topics

The Home in Norway

• Early home furnishings
• Folk costumes
• Cooking equipment
• Replica of a Norwegian home

The Atlantic Crossing

• The ship, TradeWind
• Norwegian fishing boat, Nordland
• Altar from the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Brooklyn, NY
• Fine art
• Utvandring (Leaving) exhibition about the early years of Norwegian emigration

Second Floor

The Home in America

• Home furnishings
• Log home, Selland House

Wood and Its Decoration

• Chip carving, acanthus carving, dragon-style carving, kolrosing, burnt decoration, and much more
• Rosemaling, historical and contemporary

Silver (Granrud Gallery)

• Silver from Norway
• Bridal crowns

Third Floor

Textiles (Maland Walker Gallery)

• Textiles by Norwegians and Norwegian Americans
• Tools for textile production, including looms and spinning wheels

Temporary Exhibition Galleries (Anna Hong Gallery and Hauge Gallery)

• Changing exhibitions on special topics

Basement

Military Exhibitions

• Norwegians in the Civil War
• WWII 99th Infantry Battalion (Sep.) and O.S.S. NORSO Group

Church Gallery

• Including the carved altar of Lars Christenson and altar paintings by Herbjørn Gausta, August Klagstad, and Sara Kirkeberg Raugland

Immigrant at Leisure

• Children’s toys (Storlie Gallery)
• Sleds and skis
• Musical instruments

The Norwegian-American Press

• Printing press and linotype machine