Jill Hennick

On October 1 and 2, 2019, board members from three major Danish American institutions toured each others’ facilities, and afterwards met to discuss how they could work together in the future to benefit all three institutions. The event was facilitated by the Danish American Heritage Society (DAHS).

The DAAL’s popular Danish Children Growing Up American traveling exhibit returns to the Dr. C.C. and Mabel Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) September 23 to November 1, 2019. “We are thrilled to again be working with the staff of Criss Library where it all began,” says DAAL Executive Director Jill Hennick.

An exciting development took place at the DAAL in 2013 with the establishment of a vital and popular college internship program. An increasing number of students are participating in the ever-expanding program.

When husband and wife, Board Member Dr. Timothy Jensen and Library Director Sharon Jensen, first began sorting and cataloging the DAAL’s massive Paul C. Nyholm collection, they jokingly dubbed it “The Nightmare on Nyholm Street.” But in reality, to the Jensens, and at the DAAL, this collection and others like it are a dream, not a nightmare.

Each year since Dana College closed its doors in June of 2010, the tenacious Dana College Alumni & Friends Association has organized and staged homecoming festivities the first weekend in October.

The Cherokee Nation paid a visit to the DAAL last month. On April 28, a delegation of alumni and family members from the Oaks Indian Mission, located in Oaks, Oklahoma, visited Blair, Nebraska.

A new archival collection, quite unlike anything that the DAAL has seen before, now graces its shelves. It consists of thirty-eight large three-ring binders covering five shelves. These volumes are a genealogist’s dream, tracing the identities, the histories, and the relationships of the Bondo family in Denmark and the USA from the 14 th century right up to the present.

Volunteers Make The Difference For The DAAL. Question: What do a 9-year-old elementary school girl from Georgia and a 92-year-old retired pastor and college professor from Nebraska have in common? Answer: Both have volunteered at the Danish American Archive and Library in 2017.

A compelling story of courage, industry, a little WWII intrigue, and finally, love came to the Danish American Archive and Library recently. It is just one of hundreds contained in our collections, but the story of Jens and Martha Jensen is told in such wonderful detail that it stands out from others by bringing history into reality.