Augustana Historical Society

05/02/2024

Great write-up in the Augustana Observer of our recent Asian Studies history talk!

Augustana’s Historical Society (AHS) recently hosted its spring talk, featuring speaker Norm Moline, Augustana’s emeritus professor of geography. On Wednesday, April 17, Moline discussed the history of the Asian Studies program at Augustana and how it became the program it is today. The talk cov...

04/22/2024

Much thanks to our spring speaker, Norm Moline, for his great talk on the history of Asian Studies at Augustana College. Thanks also to the many attendees!

07/03/2023

Old Main soaking in the rays for the first day of summer. ☀️

04/04/2023

Swenson Center is hiring!

WE'RE HIRING! Come help us preserve our collections!

https://augustana.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp;jsessionid=47305795CCFBF4B165AA5C36BBA90B29?JOBID=160624

04/04/2023

Docents needed for Hauberg Estate tours!

02/01/2023

Speaking of winter memories, here are some great photos from campus that the college shared.

02/01/2023

Hi Augustana folks! The Augustana Historical Society is beginning work on a publication that will contain remembrances of winter traditions at Augustana College. Feel free to share your memories here...or toss them to the society's current President, Brian Leech, who is spearheading the publication.

05/27/2021

All of our members received the latest Augustana Historical Society publication a month or so ago--a Festskrift (or festschrift, to use the more common German spelling) celebrating the career of Dr. Dag Blanck, the Director of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana and a Professor at Sweden's Uppsala University. An old academic tradition, a Festskrift celebrates one scholar through the writings of others. This one contains some brilliant pieces, including an early piece of scholarship by Blanck that we found in Augustana's Special Collections!

Remember: all members receive new publications by mail. Our next one will be out in the coming months--a memoir by Dr. Bob Frank, a professor emeritus from Augustana's Physics Department.

04/10/2021

Here is the recording of Coach and Professor Paul Olsen's presentation for the Augustana Historical Society from this past week. If you missed the event, check out the video here!

Dr. Paul "Ols" Olsen shares his perspective on the Augustana student-athlete experience through the lens of over 50 years of experience in coaching and teach...

11/22/2019

Interested in the history of library and museum collections at Augustana? Check out the digitized version of "A History of the Augustana Library, 1860-1990: an international treasure" by Conrad Bergendoff, 1990. It describes early history of not only the Thomas Tredway Library, but also Augustana College Special Collections, Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center and Fryxell Geology Museum at Augustana College.

AHS has digitized 14 of its publications to date. Stay tuned for more! See all at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/ahsbooks/

Table of Contents: A Royal Beginning--From Chicago to Paxton--The Tower in Rock Island--In Old Main--C. O. Granere--The Denkmann Gift--Marcus Skarstedt--Ira O. Nothstein--William Baehr--Donald Rod--Lucien White--Ernest Espelie--John Caldwell--A Living Library--Librarians: Terms of Service. Appendice...

04/26/2019

In case you missed the presentation on Wednesday, here is a nice article about it. "A historical geographer, Fockler has researched more than 140 years of changes at Augustana and its campus. 'The great takeaway is that, from the get-go, Augustana hasn’t hesitated to adapt over time.'"

ROCK ISLAND — The building boom at Augustana College barrels on. In February the private college announced plans to open a $16 million building for new academic programs and expanded

02/26/2019

Local 4 News did a story about our book digitization project, check it out!

02/26/2019

The Augustana Historical Society has launched an initiative to make the Society’s books freely available through Augustana College’s online Digital Commons. The project has already made eight books both downloadable and searchable. These books trace the stories of Swedish-Americans who settled in the Midwest, built the Augustana Synod, and organized, taught, and studied at Augustana College and Theological Seminary in Rock Island. See the digitzed books at https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/ahsbooks/

The Augustana Historical Society has launched an initiative to make the Society’s books freely available through Augustana College’s online Digital Commons.

01/24/2019

The Augustana Historical Society is digitizing our publications! Seven have been digitized so far, including "A History of the Augustana Library, 1860-1990: an international treasure" by Dr. Conrad Bergendoff and "The Pioneer Swedish Settlements and Swedish Lutheran Churches in America, 1845-1860" by Eric Norelius. More are coming soon to Augustana Digital Commons, so be sure to check back often! Thank you to our generous donors who have made this project possible.

This book gallery contains digital copies of publications produced by the Augustana Historical Society, a not-for-profit organization of professional scholars, amateur historians, and above all friends of Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, bound together by their desire to preserve and tell Augus...

10/14/2017

Yesterday's pop-up exhibit for the class of '67!

05/05/2017

Students from Dr. Brian Leech's Public History class presented "The Lost Augustana Museum: A Pop-Up Exhibition" at Augustana's Celebration of Learning this past week. If you missed the presentations, be sure to check out the artifacts still on display on the 2nd floor of the Tredway Library.

04/17/2017

People who work with collections relating to Quad-City history in libraries, archives, museums, schools and historical societies are forming a new history group called the Quad-Cities Area History Network Inc.

04/27/2016

Check out the Augustana Historical Society's new website! It's a work in progress, but right now you can see some items from the museum collection and a listing of all our publications going back to 1931. https://augustanahistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/

Augustana Historical Society, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL