| |
WHAT IS AN ARCHIVE?
Visitors to the Danish Immigrant Archive and Library (DAAL)
often ask whether it is a museum. Some ask whether the
DAAL is the same as the Danish Immigrant Museum (DIM).
To respond to questions such as these, here are some
. .
[more]MISSION
Our main goal is to collect, preserve and make
available to the public letters, financial records,
books, periodicals, diaries, memoirs deeds, recordings
photographs and films, among other things, of Danish Americans
from the time of the earliest immigrants from Denmark
to the present day. Our collections include not only
those of institutions and widely recognized
individuals, but also those of the vast majority of
the population who are the real determiners of belief,
culture and history--housewives, laborers, farmers and
business people as well as pastors, professors,
engineers and artists to mention a few.
We are the official
repository for the Danish Brotherhood of America, the
Danish Sisterhood of America, the Danish American
Heritage Society and the American Society of Danish
Engineers. We have the most complete collection of Den
Danske Pioneer, the oldest Danish language
newspaper in existence.
HISTORY
The Danish American Archive and Library has
antecedents in the earlier archives of the United
Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church and of Dana
College--each of which essentially was institutional.
Since 1986 a new archive has emerged with its emphasis
being ethnic, rather than institutional. First named
The Danish Immigrant Archive, the focus of The Archive
today has grown to include not only the experiences
and significant contributions to American society and
culture of those brave pioneers, but also their
descendents and others of Danish descent who have
chosen to come to the United States to make their
home.
|
|
