page_title: St. Olaf College
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St. Olaf College / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Herman Amberg Preus
context_page_description: St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. The school was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and the Patron Saint Olaf II of Norway and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The college was visited by King Olav in 1987 and King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway in 2011.
  As of 2017, the college enrolled 3035 undergraduate students and 256 faculty. The campus, including its 325-acre natural lands, lies 2 miles west of the city of Northfield, Minnesota. Between 1995 and 2020, 154 St. Olaf graduates were named Fulbright Scholars and 35 received Goldwater Scholarships. Of the nation's 267 baccalaureate colleges, St. Olaf ranks 12th in the number of graduates who have gone on to earn doctorate degrees.
caption: Herman Amberg Preus, (1825–1894), a key figure in organizing the Norwegian Synod.
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