In the heart of Norwegian America

As you travel from east to west across the North American continent, you will find the past in the communities settled by Norwegian immigrants. In some places, it may only be a lonely white wooden church with a steeple or statue or memorial plaque, but in others, the descendants of the first Norwegian settlers have built living cultural centers and museums to remember and honor those who came before them.

In the heart of Norwegian America is Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, in Decorah, Iowa.

In 1877, Norwegian Americans began collecting and preserving objects at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, documenting their chapter of the immigrant story, making them pioneers in preserving cultural diversity in North America. This planted the seed for Vesterheim’s world-class collection of 33,000 artifacts and a Heritage Park of 12 historic buildings. These treasures tell the story of the Norwegians who came to America during the great wave of immigration in the 19th century and later.

At Vesterheim, you can enjoy permanent, rotating, and touring exhibits that immerse you in the history of Norwegian life in the New World. Much of the collection is also available online. It’s like stepping into the world of yesterday, with beautiful carved furniture, rosemaling, woven tapestries, clothing, pottery and dishes, cooking utensils, and other household tools — everything that related to the everyday life of Norwegians.

Vesterheim is also a living institution with its cultural programs and famous Folk Art School, founded in 1967. There are classes in fiber arts, painting, woodworking, metal working, food traditions, language, and much more, both on site and online.

Between 2018 and 2023, Vesterheim underwent a major redesign of its Heritage Park and added a dynamic new entry point with the new Commons Building, designed by Snøhetta, the renowned international architectural firm with its roots in Norway. With its soaring wood canopy, the Commons welcomes visitors from all over the world and is a beautiful space for meetings, lectures, and other events.

The Restauration Plaza separates the Commons from the older main museum building. Visitors can stand in awe within the plaza’s dimensions, which are the same as those of the deck of the sloop Restauration, which carried 53 immigrants to New York from Stavanger in 1825.

Not to be missed are the murals created in 1999 by the famous Norwegian rosemaler and folk artist Sigmund Aarseth and local rosemaler Sallie DeReus in the Vesterheim Gathering Room. A burst of color and pure joy, these murals were inspired by the primstav, a calendar stick widely used in Norway during the Middle Ages.

Down the road from Vesterheim in Spring Grove, Minnesota, the first Norwegian settlement in the state of Minnesota, is the Giants of the Earth Heritage Center. Founded in 2009, this nonprofit historical society was named for the great Norwegian-American author Ole Rølvaag, who wrote the epic novel Giants in the Earth about the lives of Norwegian immigrants on the prairie. It is a center for genealogy, language, and cultural programs, mini-museum, and community gathering place. Up the road, you will be able to admire a statue of “Han Ola og han Per,” the famous comic-strip characters featured for many years in Decorahposten.

Sigmund Aarseth and Sallie DeReus also visited Spring Grove and were commissioned to paint the five colorful folk-art murals in the Larsen-Tomlinson Immigrant Hall at Giants of the Earth. These magnificent works of art tell the story of the Norwegian immigration and the settlement of Spring Grove, a lasting testimonial to the great Norwegian heritage in the Midwest.