CARA Member News, August 20, 2015

Anna-Kajsa Anderson, Director of Archives and Special Collections
at North Park University

Congratulations to CARA Steering Committee member Anna-Kajsa Anderson on being named Director of Archives and Special Collections at North Park University, where she has served as Interim Director of Archives and Special Collections since 2012.

In further good news, Kajsa was recently awarded a grant from the Swedish Council of America for the conservation and digitization of the records of St. Ansgarius Episcopal Church. 

St. Ansgarius Church was the first Swedish congregation in Chicago, an Episcopal church established in 1849 in what is now the River North neighborhood. Its records from the years 1849-1896 are held by the archives in North Park University’s Brandel Library as part of the Swedish-American Archives of Greater Chicago. These records are significant to both the city of Chicago and Scandinavian American history for the role the church played in the fledgling immigrant community and because of their survival of the great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The fragile records are currently restricted from public use until they receive conservation treatment covered in part by the grant. For more information on this project, please see the North Park University website.