History

The corporate name Oleana Colony was used to honor the name of one of the first settlements that Ole Bull established in the 1850′s. Ole had purchased 11,200 acres to create a settlement for farmers from Norway. Little did he know that the mountainous and heavily forested land was unsuitable for farming. Many of the settlers left at the end of the first year, moving west with the lumber industry.

72 years after the death of Ole Bull, Dr. Inez Bull established the Ole Bull Music Festival in the same area. Hosted for several years at the Galeton High School, it showcased musically talented students, giving them the opportunity to perform before an audience, and then an audience at one of concert halls associated with Avery Fisher Concert Hall in New York City.

Ten years after the commencement of the music festival in 1962, Dr. Bull and her mother Aurora S. Bull began building the present museum on land adjacent to Carter Camp, Pennsylvania. The museum consists of a group of small buildings, each celebrating different facets of Norwegian life, including a Mother Goose building that honors Aurora Bull’s many years on the radio in New York City as the voice of “Mother Goose.”

Each year, the two women would travel together to Pennsylvania and open the museum for the summer season to promote the Norwegian culture. The women were known for serving cookies and lemonade to each visitor. After Aurora’s death in 1976, Dr. Bull continued alone manning the museum each summer. A fall in 2009 cut the season short.