The Ottesen Museum is named after the Rev. J. A. Ottesen and his daughter Hannah. Pastor Ottesen was one of the founding fathers of of the Norwegian Synod. The Evangelical Lutheran Synod is the spiritual daughter of the Norwegian Synod. Hannah Ottesen willed several family heirlooms to the ELS. This Ottesen collection was the original core of the holdings of the Ottesen Museum. Since then, artifacts from other members and friends of the Synod have been added to contribute to the current collection.
The women of the Synod provided the impetus for establishing the Ottesen Museum. As the the Synod was preparing, at its 1941 annual meeting, to celebrate its 90th anniversary (1943), which would also mark the 25th year of the re-organized Synod (1918-1943), a group of women began to discuss the possibility of establishing the Ottesen Museum. Sixteen women met at Bethany Lutheran College on June 16, 1941, and determined to organize the museum. They elected the following officers: President, Mrs. Aasta Guldburg; Vice President, Mrs. Dorothy Theiste; Treasurer, Mrs. Anette Hanson; Secretary Mrs. Kloster. The women’s museum organization then appointed a working committee to prepare artifacts and arrange for display space on the college campus. The committee also solicited money from synodical Ladies Aid societies.
When the Synod’s Jubilee Convention opened at the Bethany Lutheran College on May 29, 1943, the Ottesen Museum was – according to the minutes – already “waiting for visitors”. This testifies to the hard work that the women’s committee had completed during the previous two years.
The Ottesen Museum did not, however, find a permanent home until sixty years later. Throughout the late twentieth century, it was moved from the attic at Bethany to various classrooms. Finally, it found a place that it could call its own. On Synod Sunday, June 15, 2003, a renovated house located at 4 Browns Court was dedicated as the permanent site for the Ottesen Museum.
What was recorded in the 1943 minutes may serve as an enduring invitation: “All visitors are welcome at the Ottesen Museum. There is much there to arouse interest in the history of our Synod and its people.”
