Museum of Danish America
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| Established | 1983 |
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| Location | Elk Horn, Iowa |
| Type | History Museum |
| Website | Official website |
Coordinates: 41°35′36″N 95°4′8″W / 41.59333°N 95.06889°W
The Museum of Danish America (formerly the Danish Immigrant Museum) is a national museum located in Elk Horn, Iowa. Its mission is to "celebrate Danish roots and American dreams."
In 1979, two professors from Dana College proposed to the Dana College Board of Regents that a museum dedicated to the preservation of Danish immigrant heritage should be created. This proposal was met with approval, and a year later the Danish American Heritage Society (DAHS) was asked to form an exploratory committee. In 1983, the exploratory committee chose to locate the museum in the Danish Villages of Elk Horn and Kimballton, Iowa. The board was officially incorporated in May and in July the Elk Horn Lutheran Church donated 20 acres for the museum site. The museum began accepting donations to its collection and operated out of a building on Elk Horn's main street for several years. The groundbreaking ceremony for the museum's current building occurred in 1988, but the museum building did not open to the public until June 1994.
The museum changed its name from the Danish Immigrant Museum to the Museum of Danish America at its annual meeting on October 11, 2013.
Today, museum's permanent collection consists of over 35,000 artifacts.
On 22 September 2010, the Danish Villages of Elk Horn and Kimballton, Iowa were selected to join the Iowa Great Places Program. Included in the Elk Horn-Kimballton Great Places proposal was the development of the Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park on the museum's grounds. Wayne Alwill, a farmer in Manning, Iowa, left the museum $1.3 million when he died in 2008.
The park emulates and celebrates "the philosophy and artistic vision" of Jens Jensen (landscape architect). The park is designed by Jens Jensen's great-great grandson, also named Jens Jensen, and Bill Tishler, a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Jensen scholar. The park incorporates native plants and includes two council rings, a trademark of Jensen landscapes.
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