Luther College

Luther College Archives
The Luther College Archives collects, organizes, preserves, promotes, and makes available records of enduring historical, legal, administrative and fiscal value.

The archives are used by college administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and others.

The collection consists of a variety of formats including

•handwritten manuscripts •office records •meeting minutes, photographs •audio visual material •video tapes •photographs.

The collections have been organized into 18 record groups to aid in access for staff and researchers. These must be used on site.

Special Collections
Preus Library has several substantial collections which were donated directly or indirectly by individuals whose names are used to designate the collection.

Bishop Bang   Collection
Anton Bishop Bang was the author of numerous books on general and Norwegian church history and had a fine library. The collection was especially rich in Norwegian literature and history, church history, geography, and topography. This is a 5,000 book collection.

Haldor Hanson Collection
This is a collection of 3,000 books and periodicals which were donated to the library in 1930. The arrangement is summarized below:

•Y1 General periodicals •Y10 Church periodicals •Y20 Reports of church organizations and conventions •Y30 Reports and publications of other institutions and societies •Y40 Reports of individual Norwegian-American authors •Y90 Works in Norwegian, published in the United States

Knut Gjerset Collection
During his lifetime Gjerset donated many books to the Luther College Library. While most of them focused on Norwegian cultural, historical and literary subjects, others represented his wider range of interests. These books can be found by searching on the title phrase “Knut Gjerset Collection” in Magnus. Personal correspondence and research culminating in several of his books are located in the Luther College Archives.

Other Special Collections
Numerous core materials from the beginning days of the library at the College have been placed in Special Collections, although some remain in the main library collection. Early Luther College student organizations donated a number of works to the college library from their private libraries when they dissolved. These books or periodicals had been purchased with their own funds.

•Mimer -- Begun in 1873 as a reading society and dissolved in 1889 when 900 books were absorbed by the college library. The catalog of this collection indicated the books were mostly standard works of English, American, and Norwegian literature with some books focused on history and the natural sciences.

•Normannalaget – Organized in 1892 to be a Norwegian literary society but ended temporarily in 1918. It was reorganized in 1925 and lasted another four or five years. The society donated its collection of 150 volumes of Norwegian literature to the library.

•P.A. Munch – Started in 1903 as a society to promote the study of history and ended in 1919. Its collection of 125 books focusing on history, especially of the Scandinavian countries, was given to the library in 1920.

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