Interested in Working with the Folk Dräkt Collection?

Gammelgården received a Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant (aka a Legacy Grant) to inventory, photograph, rehouse, and store appropriately the folk dräkt (folk outfits and accessories) that were hung on wire hangers, stored in non-archival boxes, and/or were unpackaged.

We had anticipated that approximately 250 folk dräkt items (clothing and accessories used to create complete folk outfits) were stored in this manner.

  

Since January 2026, staff, volunteers, interns, and the Northern Bedrock crew have been working on accessioning each item and marking each item with its accession number. We made great strides last week with the assistance of the Northern Bedrock crew, which sewed or marked hundreds of items with their accession numbers.

Currently, we have 320 items labeled and photographed (including uploading them to CollectiveAccess, the collections management system we use).

However, there are at least 300 items that the Northern Bedrock crew has marked with accession numbers that still need to be photographed (one image for staff viewing only and the other image for public viewing). In some cases, clothing and accessories need to be photographed multiple times for public viewing to show both sides or a different angle of an item.

Once each item is photographed, it needs to be cleaned (vacuumed, brushed, or wiped with dry sponges), wrapped using archival-quality supplies, and then packaged in archival-quality boxes. The boxes are then placed on the new shelves purchased through grant funds.

We are looking for volunteers to clean and package folk dräkt clothing and accessories during August. Ideally, we would like to complete the project by August 14th. However, it may extend into September due to the unexpected volume of items in the collection (almost triple what we anticipated).

We would welcome help to ensure the items receive the care they deserve and to meet the grant deadline for project completion and final reporting. Sign up on SignUpGenius to be a part of this important project.