In 2014, NAHA launched a campaign to support climate-control for its archives. Since then, the project has grown in scope to a state-of-the-art vault and special collections facility that will be shared between NAHA, Rølvaag Library Special Collections, and the St. Olaf College Archives. The funds originally raised by NAHA provided the needed matching funds required for an Infrastructure Challenge Grant provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This new facility will not only provide a safe environment for valuable archival materials, but it will also include staff offices, a reading room, classroom and exhibit spaces, and workspaces for processing and preserving collections.
Vault Enables Preservation
For almost 100 years, St. Olaf College has generously housed NAHA. The two institutions are independent entities, but they maintain close cooperation on common causes, such as the creation of the newly renovated special collections facility in the college’s Rølvaag Memorial Library, schedule to open in 2023. The new 5,317-square-foot vault will feature state-of-the-art climate control, storage, and handling.
The vault has a specialized, discrete HVAC unit, with both a centralized, computerized monitoring system sending real-time data to the St Olaf’s Facilities Department. Visual monitors that are outside each entry point allows Archives and Special Collections staff to monitor the environment without entering the vault. A clean-agent gaseous fire suppression known as 3M’s Novec Fire Suppression System will keep collections safe in case of an emergency.
The vault will maintain a temperature of 68 degrees F, and 42% humidity. The stability of both temperature and humidity will be crucial because fluctuations are the greatest cause of damage in items made from organic materials (paper, wood, cloth, etc). Items within the vault will be housed in special boxes that provide an additional layer of environmental protection, with each container creating an even more stable micro-climate for the materials stored inside.
A Center For Migration Studies
NAHA was founded in 1925 to commemorate the centennial of Norwegian immigration to the United States. Now, nearly a century later, NAHA is an invaluable source for the public and for scholars of migration history worldwide.
For researchers our collections are a window into countless topics. Our collections illuminate everything from the U.S.-Dakota War to the German invasion of Oslo, and from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to the Norwegian Royal Family’s tours of North America. We give a safe home to times that survive on papers and newsprint as photographs and video recordings, such as audio recordings.
Below is glance into our varied collections that tell the stories of Norwegians in North America:
- MOVING IMAGES
Rare footage of the Norwegian Royal Family at Camp Little Norway During World War II; film clips from the 1925 Norse-American Centennial. - PAPERS OF LITERARY FIGURES AND SCHOLARS
Ole Rølvaag, Theodore Blegen, Brenda Ueland, Ingrid Semmingson, Odd Lovoll, Elise Wærenskjold. - “AMERICA LETTERS”
Sent home to Norway by immigrants. - ORAL HISTORIES
Some were conducted by former NAHA editor Odd Lovoll as he prepared his critically acclaimed books The Promise of America and The Promise Fulfilled. - CHURCH RECORDS
Histories, constitutions, programs, and yearbooks of some 400 Norwegian-American congregations. - BUSINESS RECORDS
Rossing General Store in Argyle, Wisconsin; Chicago’s Peterson funeral home; architect S. Engelhard Sønnichsen. - ORGINIZATIONAL RECORDS
Norwegian-American singing societies; the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation; the Norwegian Teachers Association of North America; American Relief for Norway, Inc., a WWII-era initiative. - PAPERS OF DIPLOMATS AND POLITICIANS
Laurits Swensson, August Reymert, Marcus Thrane, Andrew Furuseth, Knute Nelson.
Stay tuned for more updates!