In 1888, the Evangelical Lutheran Church held its convention in Minneapolis. Rev. Falk Gjertsen of the Norwegian Danish Conference invited several men to his home to discuss the possibility of starting deaconess work in Minneapolis. Soon, Sister Elizabeth Fedde, who had come from Norway in 1883 and founded the Norwegian Hospital in Brooklyn, and began deaconess work there, visited Minneapolis on vacation. With Elizabeth Fedde’s help the hospital in Brooklyn was able to secure two deaconesses from Norway. Fedde returned to Minneapolis in July of 1889. The Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Institute was incorporated on August 17, 1889. 

Scope and Content: 
Correspondence, catalogs, clippings, histories, annual reports, photos, tributes, yearbooks, certificates, and contracts of a Minneapolis institution founded in 1888 under the leadership of Sister Elizabeth Fedde of Brooklyn, New York.