Preparation and packing of communion wafers, Communion Wafer Department, Immanuel Deaconess Institute
Description
Black and white photograph taken in the Communion Wafer Department at the Immanuel Deaconess Institute in Omaha, Nebraska. Sister Elizabeth Olson (Olsen), the department's head, centers a sheet of dough in the baker, an appliance specially designed for the production of communion wafers. Meanwhile, another deaconess packs the finished wafers, by hand, a hundred to a roll and one-thousand in a box, for use throughout the Augustana Lutheran Church system. Both sisters are wearing the typical deaconess cap.
Original format: black and white photograph, 4 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches.
Historical Notes
According to an undated article in "The Deaconess Banner" the newsletter of the Immanuel Deaconess Institute, the Communion Wafer Department was started in 1932 and, in its heyday, turned out more than two million wafers each year, about 14,000 every day. The wafers were used throughout the Augustana Lutheran Church system and were sold in bookstores in several cities. The department was staffed by four retired deaconesses--Sister Elizabeth Olson, Sister Marie Anderson, Sister Anna Lackie, and Sister Anna Johnson--and two residents of the Immanuel Home for the Aged--Mrs. Anna Lindberg and Mrs. Anna Lindell.
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