Jottings News

The Commemorative Wall: Honoring Danish America. A conversation between Executive Director Jill Hennick and Dr. Linda Miller of Henderson, Nevada, sparked the idea for our Danish American Commemorative Wall. Dr. Miller asked Jill if the DAAL had any naming opportunities.

Teacher, college professor, pastor, editor and scholar Dr. John W. Nielsen established the DAAL in its current form in 1990 and infused it with his energy and a passion for Danish American history that carries through to today.

Dana College closed its doors nearly eleven years ago. For those of us with any connection to the college there was a tremendous feeling of loss—almost as if there had been a death in the family.

Master Of Arts Practicum + DAAL’s Primary Materials + The Internet = Online Exhibit. Researchers and scholars are always on the hunt for primary materials—original documents that contain first-hand information about a topic. This is exactly the type of information available at the DAAL…

On Friday, July 9, 2010, the staff and volunteers at the DAAL received the stunning news that we had exactly two and a half days to pack up all materials, books, equipment and furniture and get everything out of the Dana College library or risk having it locked in when the campus permanently closed. We had no choice but to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

It was the summer of 2010 when the DAAL was compelled to pack up and leave the lower level of the Dana College library. We took with us our complete inventory of books, documents and the rest…and our website, which we had introduced a couple of years previously.

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.