Luther Seminary, located in St. Paul, Minnesota is the largest seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  Given this it is heir to the rich history of Scandinavian and German Lutheranism in the Upper Midwest and its programs in the international community. The Luther Seminary Archives holds the papers of ELCA Region 3 since 1988 and the records of many of the precursor church bodies leading to the current seminary community.

Records date from 1843 to the present and cover church communities in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, with additional material from Wisconsin and Iowa. Records on these church bodies is voluminous, running to 15,000 linear feet of records. The collection focuses on the Norwegian tradition in Lutheranism, but touches on other Scandinavian and German groups as well. Many of its materials are in the various language groups involved in church history in the Upper Midwest.

The current shape of the collection has been formed by the contributions of historical materials from numerous congregations and individuals. Continuing documentation is solicited and will be greatly appreciated.

Opdal Norwegian Lutheran Church, Sacred Heart, MNAmong the precursors to the present church were the Norwegian Synod, the Lutheran Free Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and a number of smaller church bodies, including the Eilesen Synod, the Hauge Synod, the United Norwegian Church, and the Norwegian-Danish Conference. Sizable documentation also exists for inter-Lutheran cooperation and for numerous prominent individuals, whose personal papers are also deposited in the Archives.

The outlines found in the "About the Collections" section of this site provide descriptions of our holdings pertaining to the church bodies, congregations and personalities  mentioned above.