The Augustana Historical Society is a not-for-profit organization of professional scholars, amateur historians, and above all friends of Augustana College. We’re bound together by our desire to preserve and tell Augustana’s story and stories.

We tell Augustana stories in publications ranging from the scholarly work of distinguished professors such as Conrad Bergendoff, Jules Mauritzson and Fritiof Fryxell, to biographies of outstanding figures in our history, to histories of the college itself. We sponsor lectures and presentations on a variety of topics—most recently, on the Augustana Synod and on living history museums. We have restored historic areas on the Augustana campus and placed monuments, markers, and displays to commemorate these areas. Recent work by one of our members received an award of commendation from the Concordia Historical Society.

Our mission statement describes our purpose: to preserve the history of Augustana College, and its relation to the Lutheran Church and to Swedish-American immigration and culture. We do these things through publications, presentations, and the collection of written records and artifacts.

Since its founding in 1930, the Society has traced the stories of Swedish-Americans who settled in the Midwest, built the Augustana Synod, and organized, taught, and studied at Augustana College and Theological Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois. Like all histories, these stories often intermingle.

In the last decade or so, we have focused more attention on college history, as our upcoming publications indicate.

We have found the Augustana stories to be moving records of vision and courage. Many still remain untold. We’re dedicated to recovering and telling them, believing that the more we know of them, the more fully we can understand who we are and who we want to be.