Volunteers: The Engine That Runs the Danish American Archive and Library (DAAL)

Twice a year, The Danish American Archive and Library (DAAL), located in Blair, Nebraska, is invaded by a faithful corps of volunteers from around the country to help accomplish the goal of collecting, preserving, cataloging and making available to the public all materials related to Danish immigrants and their descendants. Remarkably these same people have been coming twice a year for the past 22 years!

The DAAL had evolved starting in the early 20th century at Dana College through the efforts of various Dana faculty and staff members when Dr. John W. Nielsen took it over in 1986. At that time, 12 to 15 local volunteers came to work once or twice a week, doing everything from accessioning materials to sorting, coding, cataloging, and storing the materials in acid-free boxes and envelopes at the Archive’s location in the lower level of the Dana College library.

After hearing Dr. Nielsen describe the work of the Danish Immigrant Archive, as it was then called, at a reunion of the old Danish Lutheran synod (UELC) in 1990, Dody Johnson of Iowa City, Iowa, decided she wanted to be a part of it and approached Dr. Nielsen with the idea of organizing a volunteer week to include others from around the country who thought it would be fun to help preserve the history of the Danish American experience and Dana College. “John told me to go ahead with it, but that he didn’t want to have anything to do with it,” laughed Johnson. “He said managing volunteers would be like trying to sweep chicken feathers in a tornado.”

Undaunted, Johnson organized the first Volunteer Week for the spring of 1991. Since that first week, an average of 30 to 35 volunteers has descended on the DAAL for a week in the spring and a week in the fall to help advance the DAALís mission. For about the first ten years, Dana College helped with the effort by providing the volunteers with free housing and discounted meals. However, that practice gradually diminished and ceased altogether in the early 2000’s, so now the volunteers pay not only their travel expenses to Blair, but also their room and board while they are here. Over the years these volunteers also have donated a significant amount of money to the Archive as well.

Most of the earliest volunteers were members of the UELC synod of the Lutheran Church. However, several very loyal members, including Ruth Herman Nielsen and Roland Jensen were AELC members and Dana College alumni or had connections to Grand View University in Des Moines. Jody Sorensen of Richardson, Texas, and Johnson are among the first and most constant volunteers, and both have passed the spirit of volunteerism to their descendants. Johnson’s son serves on the DAAL board of directors and her daughter has attended volunteer week for the past several years. Sorensen has brought in not only her children but also her grandchildren and even a great-granddaughter! Other volunteers with children or grandchildren who have made contributions to the archive are Marge and Don Wahlgren of Gowrie, Iowa, Ruth Rasmussen of Omaha, Nebraska, and John W. and Elizabeth Nielsen of Blair. This is a trend the DAAL would like to see continue as the core group of volunteers ages.

Since the majority of volunteers are in their 70’s and 80’s, it is essential for the DAAL to attract a younger generation of workers, both locally and around the country. The DAAL welcomes anyone who has an interest in history, and being of Danish extraction is not required. Currently Arvin Hernes, the person who does most of the in-house translation, is Norwegian, and many of the most faithful volunteers, such as Bee Krantz, who was still working up to a week before she died at age 92, and Dorothy Wright and Sandra Wigdahl of Blair have no Danish blood whatsoever. To find out more about the DAAL and how to volunteer, go to www.danishamericanarchive.com or call 402-426-7910.

The Danish American Archive and Library is an independent 501 (C)(3) organization located in Blair, Nebraska. The DAAL collects, preserves, interprets and makes available to the public materials documenting the lives of Danish immigrants and their descendants. Learn more at www.danishamericanarchive.com.