Local News

NU grad returns as BCHS curator

O’Neill prepares his first exhibit for museum

NEW ULM -- The new collections curator at the Brown County Historical Society did not start out planning to work in a museum when he began college in Northern Iowa.

Logan O’Neill, 24, came to the Brown County Museum in March with a double major in sociology and psychology from the University of Northern Iowa, three minors, including history, and a certificate in museum studies. 

His first full exhibit, marking the 125th anniversary of Hanska, opened this month.

“I did all that I could at the University of Northern Iowa to prepare me,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill was born in Fall River, Wisconsin, a town of about 1,800 people near Beaver Dam. 

His family moved to Spencer, Iowa, when he was 12, then to New Ulm in 2016 when his father, a longtime Menards general manager, was transferred. He graduated from New Ulm High School in 2020.

At Spencer Middle School, he was geography bee champion two years in a row. 

His social studies teacher, Dale Wagner, helped fuel an interest that began with the History Channel and stories from his grandparents, including his paternal grandfather who served as a Navy engineer in the 1950s and his maternal grandfather, whom the family calls “Opa.”

That interest first led him to sociology and psychology.

“I find the human mind is a fascinating topic, but it can get overwhelming,” O’Neill said. “I decided I just gotta get out of it. Do something that keeps my mind off of myself.”

He shifted to history. In summer 2024, he interned at the Grout Museum District in Waterloo, Iowa, a three-part complex that includes local industrial history, a community history gallery and the Sullivan Brothers Museum, dedicated to five brothers from Waterloo who died together when the USS Juneau was torpedoed in the Pacific during World War II.

That story, and the museum’s handling of it, stuck with him. His own historical passion is World War II, particularly the Pacific Theater.

O’Neill said he applied for the Brown County position like any other job. 

Staff were looking for someone flexible, personable and willing to do everything from collections care to working the front desk and troubleshooting HVAC issues.

As collections curator, O’Neill’s title covers both collections and exhibits. He brings objects in, monitors their condition, assists outside guest curators and creates his own exhibits.

“A lot that goes on behind the scenes,” he said. “Especially in smaller museums, you will be doing things that you’re not educated for.”

His first exhibit traces Hanska history from before 1901, when the town was platted, to the present in 25-year increments. 

The exhibit was proposed with help from the society’s archivist and research historian, Darla Gebhard, after the previous exhibit had been up for more than two years and the newly formed Hanska Historical Society announced its organization.

“I wanted to use this exhibit to get to know the Hanska Historical Society organization,” O’Neill said. “Reach out to their members, attend a couple of meetings, and see what they were doing.”

Putting together his first exhibit taught him about time management and deadlines, he said. The show opened about 11 days later than he originally planned, missing the lead-up to Hanska’s 125th celebration weekend on Aug. 21-23.

He went to the celebration anyway and found the community center basement packed within 15 minutes of opening, with vendors and events in the park.

Objects in the exhibit come roughly 60% from longtime Hanska collector Yvonne Blomquist whose name appears on many donations, plus loans from residents and Nora Church, and items from the Brown County Historical Society collection.

The centerpiece for O’Neill is the memoir and manual typewriter of Christian Ahlness, a Norwegian immigrant to the Hanska area. Ahlness wrote his recollections in English in the 1910s, with his last entry dated 1916. He died in the 1920s. The typewriter still holds a handwritten note identifying it as “Grandpa’s.”

“We have the original here on display,” O’Neill said.

He found no published record of the book online. Ahlness wrote it for friends and family, not for a publisher. The memoir is about 400 pages, bound in brown leather. The family later printed two editions, one with a blue cover and one green.

Another highlight is a mangle board dated 1871, donated by the Torgrimsson family. The all-wood Scandinavian ironing tool predates electricity. Users wrapped damp clothes around a roller and pressed the board back and forth over it.

“It started as a gift that husbands would give their wives the night before [the wedding] as a sign of prosperity,” O’Neill said. “The fancier and more ornate your mangle could be, it showed that you were a more successful individual.”

The oldest known mangle was found in Bergen, Norway, and is believed to date to about 1440, he said.

Other cases include a Linden Township voting box, a corn dryer, a century-old quilt made by the Lake Hanska Lutheran Ladies Aid with names and sayings in English and Norwegian, business ledgers from Hanska’s co-op creamery era, and items reflecting Hanska’s music tradition, including a rare-style cornet in its original case.

The final panel addresses recent decades, when Hanska, like many small towns, saw businesses close and its population age. O’Neill noted the loss of the farmers’ co-op grain elevator and the furniture store, and the town’s shift to a bedroom community for New Ulm and Madelia.

But he also points to a resurgence effort through the Hanska Historical Society, whose goal is to preserve local history.

“I would like people from Hanska to feel proud and feel seen by this exhibit,” O’Neill said. “For other people outside of Hanska, I hope they understand that Brown County is more than just New Ulm.”

For O’Neill, the job is also a chance to learn about a county he once thought he knew.

“There are dozens of communities in this county that deserve just as much recognition as New Ulm and deserve to have their story told,” he said.

His next project will build on the current show. The Hanska exhibit will evolve into a Christmas exhibit focused on Scandinavian and broader Nordic Christmas traditions, covering Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

A typical day, he said, starts with email and housekeeping, followed by research for the next exhibit or work in collections.

The Hanska 125th anniversary exhibit is now open at the Brown County Museum. 

A grand opening with Scandinavian treats such as rosettes and krumkake is scheduled for Saturday.