The Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, located in the Denkmann Memorial Building, received a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in order to better preserve the center’s documents and records.
The Swenson Center will use this money to bring in consultants who will assess the many problems within the building, preparing for future renovations of the center.
The director of the Swenson Center, Dag Blanck, is an Augustana alumnus and works at both the Swenson Center as well as Uppsala University in Sweden.
“The grant is a special category of grants that the NEH has, and it involves commissioning a study for our facilities. To think about [if] we have the right facilities or do we need to improve them,” Blanck said.
According to Blanck, an archival and architectural consultant will come to the Swenson Center in the next year to thoroughly analyze the issues within the building and discuss what should be done.
The Denkmann building was built in 1911 and has been renovated before. The Swenson Center has been dealing with some issues with preserving their materials due to the age of the building.
“There’s always an issue in Rock Island with humidity and water,” Blanck said. “That’s the worst thing you can think about for archives in the library. We have an HVAC system trying to fight the humidity of the Illinois summers, but that’s an issue.”
Lucas Henry is a professor of Scandinavian studies and also works for the Swenson Center. According to Henry, the grant is solely being used as a planning grant.
“It’s first to see what we need to figure out and exactly what we need to do to make sure that all the structures are in place,” Henry said. “To make sure that we can take care of these documents as well as we can.”
Once the planning is done, the Swenson Center will know how much money they need in order to complete the renovation and preservation needed. Then, the Swenson Center will apply for more grants for funds to complete the renovations.
The Swenson Center is the home of many important documents that date back to the 1840s. These documents include newspapers, journals, books and letters from Swedish immigrants.
Wendy Hilton-Morrow is a professor of communication studies, a member of the Swenson advisory board and the former provost at Augustana. Hilton-Morrow worked alongside a team while constructing this grant.
“The Swenson Center is a bit of a hidden gem on campus,” Hilton Morrow said. “It is dedicated to collecting and preserving a very important part of Swedish history.”
The Swenson Center is open to Augustana students and the public. People from all over the world can become members of the Swenson Center and utilize their materials. People who are interested in genealogy and Swedish history can seek out the Swenson Center to guide them.
