0.1 The Great Dream 

Everything was bigger in America – and not just the trees, crops, and lush prairies. Hundreds of thousands of Norwegians were enticed by the many
great opportunities, and the liberal government which allowed people to do virtually as they pleased. America was a land of entrepreneurs – of dreamers.
However, this image of America as the place where everything was larger than life did not always reflect reality. This was captured by photographer Haakon
Bjornaas, the son of Norwegian American farmers. Bjørnaas used surrealism and humour in his photo montages, placing farmers alongside super-sized crops.

0.1 Photographer: Haakon Bjornaas. “Scene from a farm near Underwood, Minnesota”. Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, Moorhead, 1909.

1.1 “America for Dummies”  

In what general direction from Norway does America lie, and how far is it away? How do you get there? Had the country been ruined by a plague? Were the farms empty and ready for emigrants to move into? Were those who crossed the sea captured by pirates and sold into slavery? In Norway, the questions about America were many and the answers few.

To help inform his ignorant countrymen, many of whom were willing to emigrate, Ole Rynning, the son of a pastor and himself a schoolteacher who had emigrated in 1837, wrote a Q&A about America. Using simple questions like those above, Rynning gave Norwegian readers a quick introduction to life in America.

As a direct result of the publication of Rynning’s manual, two shiploads of migrants left Norway the following year. By that time, Rynning was already dead and the settlement where he had lived had collapsed. The area turned out to have been a swamp filled with malaria.

1.1 Ole Rynning: Sandfærdig Beretning om Amerika, til Oplysning og Nytte for Bonde og Menigmand. Christiania: Guldberg og Dzwonkowski, 1839 (1838).

1.2 The Letter Which Caused the Emigration  

In the first decade of Norwegian migration to the US, from 1825 to 1835, only a handful of people made the journey and settled in upstate New York. In 1835, one of these migrants returned to Norway, bringing with him various letters which quickly attracted attention and influenced many other Norwegians to emigrate.

Letters written by the emigrant Gjert Gregoriussen Hovland turned out to be especially influential. They were widely distributed in Norway and pushed many to emigrate. In his letters, Hovland writes about “a massive amount of land” in a place called “Ellenaaes” – Illinois.

The transcript shown here is one of Hovland’s letters. It had been sent to relatives in Kinsarvik, and the local priest forwarded this copy to the Norwegian authorities. The sudden and great wave of migration had become a case for concern.

1.2 Gjert Gregoriussen Hovland, letter to Torjuls Asbjeldsen Mæland, Ullensvang subsidiary parish,Kinsarvik parish, dated 22 April 1835. Transcript as attachment to report to the Ministry of Finance from parish priest Herzberg. Owner: The National Archives of Norway.

1.3–1.4 Who Owns the Land?

The United States of America was established in 1776, when several colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America declared independence and broke free from the British Empire. That became the start of a long period of overland westward conquest. Through wars and treaties and, not least, the removal of the North American Native populations, the US gradually turned into the 50 states we have today.

In Illinois, the warrior Black Hawk refused to give up his ancestral lands. He explained it thus:

“I considered, as myself and band had no agency in selling our country – and that as provision had been made in the treaty, for us all to remain on it as long as it belonged to the United States, that we could not be forced away. I refused, therefore, to quit my village. It was here, that I was born – and here lie the bones of many friends and relations. For this spot I felt a sacred reverence, and never could consent to leave it, without being forced therefrom.”

Black Hawk’s uprising was quelled in 1832. In this autobiography, which was dictated, translated, and published shortly thereafter, Black Hawk presented his own and other Native Americans’ perspectives on the colonisation of the Midwest.

The news about the Native Americans having been pacified in Illinois led directly to the establishment of the first Norwegian settlement in the interior. The settlement along the Fox River in Illinois would become the mother settlement for the great wave of immigrants who in Norway had heard the rumours of cheap land in the Midwest.

1.3 Black Hawk, Donald Jackson (ed.): Black Hawk. An Autobiography. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1990, printed by J. B. Patterson (ed.): Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk. Boston: Russell, Odiorne and Metcalf, 1834. 

1.4 Alfred M. Hoffy (ill.): Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiah (Black Hawk), printed in History of the Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney (ed.) and James Hall (author). F.W. Greenough, c. 1838. Owner: Library of Congress. 

1.5–1.7 Hero or Villain?

To the Native Americans, pioneers like Guri must have appeared as anything but the heroic figures that other settlers made them out to be. But in settler communities, the story of the brave Norwegian woman who dramatically escaped the Dakota Uprising quickly turned to legend. The story was popularised among Anglo-Americans and as well as among school children in Norway. The narrative was a good fit for the alreadypopular Western genre of literature which mythologised and glorified the colonisation of the Midwest. In these stories, the settlers were the victims and resistance heroes. Their brave fight against nature and violent indigenous people helped legitimate the great territorial conquest – they had, after all, fought for their country.

1.5 Johan Hambro (ed.): “Rødhudene ved Norway Lake” in Nordmanns-Forbundets julehefte. Oslo, Grøndahl & Søn, 1962. 

1.6 Nordahl Rolfsen: Lesebok for folkeskolen. Byutgave IV. Kristiania: Jacob Dybwads forlag, 1922. (Two copies.)

1.7 W. Frey: Høvdingens Skat. Kristiania: Sophus Kriedts Forlag, 1890.

1.8 Violence on the Frontier

From Illinois, Norwegian immigrants continued moving further west. A treaty made between the government and several tribes in 1851 made Minnesota available for settlement. As compensation, the Dakota people would receive yearly payments and reservations, but the annuities never materialised. In 1862, the Dakotas rebelled.

Norwegian immigrant Guri Olsdatter Endresen Rosseland was at the front line. Together with her husband Lars, Guri had settled in Minnesota in 1857. In the letter which Guri later wrote home to Norway, she tells the story of how she witnessed her husband and two sons being shot. She, however, managed to escape together with some of her children. Guri also saved the lives of several other settlers. Read the letter translated into English on the next page.

1.8 Portrait of Guri Olsdatter Rosseland in Illustrated History of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota by Victor E. Lawson and J. Emil Nelson (eds.). Willmar: Pioneer Press, 1905.

1.10 The Midwest: Norwegian America

This map shows Norwegian settlements in America at the turn of the twentieth century, following approximately 75 years of huge waves of migration from Norway. Second only to Ireland, Norway was the country in Europe which experienced the highest level of emigration relative to its population. The Norwegian colonies made up a nearly continuous string of settlement upwards from Illinois to the northwestern part of the Midwest of the United States. In due time, the settlements also spread across the Canadian border. The main attraction prompting Norwegians to migrate was the cheap, accessible land. As a result, Norwegians became the most rurally oriented immigrant group within the whole of the United States.

1.10 Martin Ulvestad’s “Kart over De Forenede Stater” og “Norge i Amerika”, from Martin Ulvestad: Norge i Amerika med Kart. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Norge i Amerika Publishing, 1901. 

1.11 The Settlement of Minnesota and the
Dakota Uprising

This map shows the earliest White settlement in the area where the Dakota Uprising took place in 1862. The number of Scandinavian settlers is significant, as shown by the names on the map. Straight north of Solomon Lake was the home of Guri and Lars Endresen Rosseland. The settlers who were killed in the 1862 conflict are marked with crosses. After the uprising, the Dakota were outlawed in Minnesota and forced westwards to reservations within what is today the states of North and South Dakota.

1.11 Map section in Illustrated History of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota by Victor E. Lawson and J. Emil Nelson (eds.). Willmar: Pioneer Press, 1905.

1.12 Establishing the Dakota Reservation

This map shows the Great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux people included the Dakota. The reservation, which was established in 1868, was originally greater than what is shown on this map from 1882. The explanation for this is found in the American eagerness for gold.

In 1874, an expedition led by George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills, the western area of the reservation. The ensuing gold rush led to yet another war with Native Americans. Black Hills was conquered and separated from the reservation. Both Custer, the gold miners, and the settlers broke the earlier treaty, which forbade Whites from trespassing on the reservation.

1.12 General Land Office: “Territory of Dakota”. New York: Julius & Bien Co., 1882. Owner: David Rumsey Map Collection.

1.13 Partitioning the Dakota Reservation 

As this 1892 map shows, the Great Sioux Reservation was partitioned yet again when the territory of which it was part was split to make up the new states of North and South Dakota. This partitioning was made possible by the Dawes Act of 1887, which required that Native Americans were now to own land on an individual basis and not as tribes. Consequently, a certain size of land was offered to each household. The surplus was to be sold to settlers.

Driven by the Homestead Act of 1862, Norwegian immigrants made their way to the Dakotas, which in time became two of the most Norwegian states of the US. In 1900, 23 per cent of the population of North Dakota were Norwegians, as were 12 per cent of the population of South Dakota. Today, slightly under a third of the population of North Dakota claims to be primarily of Norwegian descent. 

1.13 Office of Indian Affairs, Thomas Jefferson Morgan: “Map showing Indian Reservations within the Limits of the United States” (section). Washington D.C.: 1892. Owner: Library of Congress.

1.14 Little “House” on the Prairie

The Act, which gave free land to everyone, including immigrants, stipulated that settlers had to “improve” their property and to demonstrate evidence thereof in order to be entitled to their claim. The idea had always been to encourage people to remain as independent farmers.

The idea of “improvement” was rather vague. Many claimants built houses that were little more than shanties, only to sell their property with profit after the required five-year period of settlement.

1.14 Foto: Ole Sigbjørnsen Leeland. “Oh gee, this is a Lonesome Town! Unexpected Visitor on the Claim”. Leeland Art Co., 1900–1910.

1.15 Revival on the Reservation 

In the 1890s, the Native American population had sunk to about 200,000, from several tens of millions before the arrival of the Europeans. This film shows the “Ghost Dance” which in the final decades of the nineteenth century spread as a millenarian revival across the Native American communities. The Dance was supposed to resurrect dead ancestors and endangered herds of bison as well as inaugurating peace among the Whites and the Natives.

The millenarian movement was misunderstood by the American authorities and interpreted as militaristic and violent, giving government officials a reason to break up the traditional bonds of leadership within Native American tribes. At the Sioux Reservation, chief Sitting Bull was killed in 1890, while nearly 300 men, women, and children were massacred by the nearby creek of Wounded Knee.

Several of those who had been dancing the Ghost Dance later took jobs in the Wild West show run by marksman and circus director Buffalo Bill. In the show, the Ghost Dance was demonstrated and used as entertainment, as shown in this film from 1894. The stories told by the dancers themselves were also recorded and now form an important contribution to our understanding of the peaceful nature of the Ghost Dance movement. They are also important for documenting the history of the Native Americans.

1.15 “Sioux Ghost Dance”, performed by dancers from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the studio of Thomas A. Edison in New Jersey, 1894. Owner: Library of Congress.

2.1–2.2 Nothing to Write Home About

In 1929, with promises of assistance to find work, the travelling salesman Ørnulf Gamborg left his family in Norway and went to America. Along with a few thousand other Norwegians, Gamborg’s pursuit of happiness did not lead him to North America, but to South America – to Argentina. The Great Depression that year made it even more difficult for someone who neither knew the language nor was accustomed to hard physical labour to make it there.

The situation was nothing to write home about. But Gamborg found much to write about nonetheless.

His preserved diary tells the story of an emigrant’s journey, of his frustration and homesickness for loved ones: “I am constantly thinking of Ingrid. Oh my, how I love and miss her. She is my everything on this earth. My life and light.”

After a little more than five years, Gamborg had to give up. “Goodbye, Buenos Aires”, he wrote, “we will likely never see each other again – thank God, because all you ever gave me was a bare existence.”

2.1 Ørnulf K. Gamborg: Diary, Oslo 1929–Buenos Aires 1934.
2.2 Unknown photographer: Image of Ørnulf K. Gamborg. 1929

2.3 On the Way to the Wild West 

The emigration, and specifically to Texas, helped Elise Tvede, a priest’s daughter, to find her way to enter the public sphere in Norway. Though few Norwegians ever went to Texas, a Norwegian newspaper editor, Johan Reinert Reiersen, had explored first-hand the various opportunities for Norwegian settlement in North America – and Texas, then an independent state, was his choice. In this manual, Pathfinder for Norwegian Emigrants to the United States of North America and Texas, Reiersen encouraged everyone to settle in this state.

Elise Tvede was among those who followed Reiersen to Texas. But before she left, she had already become Norway’s first female newspaper editor – in secret.

2.3 Johan Reinert Reiersen: Veiviser for Norske Emigranter til de Forenede nordamerikanske Stater og Texas. Christiania: P.T. Malling, 1845.

2.4 The Voice from the South

The publication The Lady with the Pen is a collection of translated letters written by Elise Tvede, who later became known by her married name, Wærenskjold.

Though Tvede had come to America to seek liberty, when she arrived in Texas, which had been an independent republic from 1836 to 1845, it had been admitted to the union as a slave state. In one of her letters, she writes: “I would rather have left Texas as a beggar than have my children fight for the preservation of slavery.”

Despite her opposition to slavery, we now know that Elise and her husband had hired slaves to help on the farm. Other Norwegians, we know, owned their own slaves.

2.4 C.A. Clausen (ed.): The Lady with the Pen, Elise Wærenskjold in Texas. Northfield, Minnesota: Norwegian American Historical Association, 1961. (Two copies.)

2.5 Norway’s First Female Editor

In Norway, the newsletter Norway and America: A Monthly Magazine printed several letters from Norwegian emigrants. Few were aware that in the years 1846–1847 this magazine was published by a woman. It was unheard of in Norway for women to even take part in public discourse – much less to lead it.

Elise Tvede hid her identity behind the signature E. Tvede. She had taken over the magazine after its creator, newspaper editor Johan Reinert Reiersen, when he emigrated to America. Her female identity was not disclosed until after Elise Tvede herself emigrated in 1847, sending letters back which were printed in the magazine under the heading “Letters from Madame E. Tvede”.

2.5 E. Tvede (ed.): Norge og Amerika: Et maanedligt Flyveblad, no. 4 1848.

2.6 Wild West in the South

Norway’s first female newspaper editor was also bigamous. In America, she had remarried, probably due to practical reasons, before her divorce in Norway was finalised.

Her new husband, Johan Wilhelm Wærenskjold, was murdered. The American couple had helped conceal a young white woman who had given birth to a child, the father being African American. The woman’s employer, Mr Dickson, wanted to exploit the precarious situation she found herself in: he wanted to kidnap the woman and marry her against her will. Elise and her husband put a stop to his plan. Dickson got revenge by stabbing Elise’s husband in the back at the post office.

“My dear husband is no more! He fell by the hand of a despicable assassin”, wrote Elise Wærenskjold in a letter sent to Norwegian newspapers. You can read an excerpt of the letter on the following page.

2.6 Letter from Elise Wærenskjold (née Tvede), Prairieville P.O., Kaufman County, Texas, 30 November 1866. Printed in Aftenbladet, 11 February 1867, Christiania.

2.7–2.8 Career in Quarantine

As with so many other women in history, we know very little about Elen Birgitte Marie Bjerknes, apart from her literary ambitions – which she attempted to realise in America.

The first time Marie went to America, she ended up teaching German. At the same time, she translated Edda by Snorri Sturluson to English but did not manage to get it published.

On her second journey to America, Marie found herself on the ship “Normannia”, which was put in quarantine when an epidemic of cholera broke out on board. Marie wrote a colourful description of this experience, which was printed as several letters in the homeland newspaper Verdens Gang. These were later published as a book, entitled The Cholera Prisoners on Normannia (1893), by her father.

That would be her only publication. It is said of Marie that she became mentally ill in America – due to overexertion – and that her mother had to bring her home to Norway. She died, 40 years old, in 1900.

2.7 Marie Bjerknes: From Unknown Times. Norwegian Mythes, vol. 1 and 2. Unpublished.

2.8 Marie Bjerknes: Kolerafangene paa Normannia. Kristiania: Jacob Dybwads Forlag, 1893.

2.9 From the New World to New Frontiers (Nylænde)

Agnes Wergeland enjoyed a brief, yet productive career as a medieval historian and author in the US. She also contributed to public discussions back in Norway. In Nylænde, a publication focused on women’s rights, Wergeland ruminated on the causes of the great emigration from Norway. As an academic, a woman, and an emigrant herself, she found a satisfactory explanation in the following: it was the “lack of liberty, the partisan attitude, the small-mindedness still prevalent in our culture, which have left their ugly imprints on our daily lives and in public discourse. No wonder people emigrate!”

2.9 Agnes Mathilde Wergeland: “Hvorfor folk udvandrer” in Nylænde. Kristiania: Minerva, 1906.

2.10 First Norwegian Female Professor

Agnes Mathilde Wergeland had dreamt of an academic career – unrealistic in nineteenth-century Norway. To achieve this goal, she travelled to Switzerland to study at university, and became the first Norwegian woman ever to earn a doctorate.

Back in Norway, she was unable to find suitable employment. On advice from feminist pioneer Aasta Hansteen, who at the time was living in America, Agnes Wergeland travelled to the United States in 1890. Following several temporary teaching positions, she travelled westward, where she secured a permanent role at the University of Wyoming – the first state to give women the vote. Her dream was a reality.

2.10 Letter from Agnes Mathilde Wergeland to Margrethe Vullum,
dated 7 June 1912.

2.12–2.14 Marcus Thrane vs. All and Sundry

In Norway, the first national labour organisation was founded in 1849. It was led by Marcus Thrane, a liberal freethinker and journalist, who dreamt of a better future for Norwegian workers.

The upper classes tried to quell the movement by charging Thrane with blasphemy. Thrane was later acquitted, but shortly thereafter he was tried and convicted for inciting a revolution. After years in prison and the death of his wife, Thrane took himself and his children to America, where there were no laws against criticising religion. Thrane’s humorous satire of the Norwegian American clergy, published as The Old Wisconsin Bible (1881), was partially inspired by the visit and lecture tour of the “unbeliever” Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in the Midwest earlier that year.

However, in America Thrane had grown sceptical about the merits of universal suffrage. During a later lecture tour in Norway, he attempted to speak about the disadvantages of democracy and portray American liberty as illusory. To this he was met with closed doors and closed minds: “I was denied the premises of the Workers’ Society”, he writes in the travel diary which is on display here.

2.12 Marcus Thrane: Den gamle Wisconsin-Bibelen.
Minneapolis: Waldm. Kriedt, 1908.

2.13 Marcus Thrane: «From Chicago to Norway
1882–1893» (travel journal).

2.14 Photographer unknown: Studio portrait of Marcus
Møller Thrane. Place and time unknown.

2.15 Bjørnson Critical of Religious Conservatism

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson had long idealised American ways when he at last, in 1880, crossed the sea. His lecture tour in the Midwest consisted of two talks, one on the advantages of republicanism and the other about modern biblical criticism.

Though Bjørnson enjoyed wide popularity for his political reflections, he sparked controversy with his critique of Christianity. He seemed nonplussed about just how entrenched the religious conservatism was among Norwegian emigrants. Perhaps it was easy for a freethinker to overlook the extent to which the church and religion worked as an adhesive in immigrant communities?

2.15 Warren’s Portraits: Portrait of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Boston, 1880.

2.17 Church on the Prairie

One of the first things the initial Norwegian settlers did in the Midwest was to build churches. Priests who had been educated in the homeland followed closely. To the immigrants, the seemingly endless, available areas of land appeared as a “promised land”. To conquer this land also meant conquering it for the Lord.

For generations, the church was the most important institution for Norwegian immigrants in America. In 1909, there were as many as 2190 Norwegian Lutheran churches in place, almost twice the number of churches back in Norway. Though many of them are still standing, at least one has been transplanted back to Norwegian soil – you can see it at the Norwegian Emigrant Museum in Stange, Hedmark.

2.17 A selection of postcards with photo of Norwegian church
buildings in the United States, from the Norwegian
American collection at the National Library of Norway.

4.1 Boasting through Photos

For those who mastered the technology, photography quickly became a moneymaker. While the earliest emigrants had no other option but to use the little schooling they had to jot down a few fumbling phrases on a piece of paper, now they could pay to send not just letters but also photos of themselves and what they had accomplished in their new homeland.

Outdoor photography allowed for better lighting conditions. Often, furniture and other prized possessions were carried outside and placed in front of an equally impressive dwelling, where a travelling photographer would capture the moment.

Photographs also helped to create family memories, important in a society where it was not uncommon to move frequently and where family members could be spread across vast distances.

4.1 Photographs of emigrant family Dyrstad taken e.g. by J.
Berg’s Photographic Studio and P. Petersen Johnson Portrait
& Landscape Photographer. Place and year unknown.

4.2–4.5 The Sound of Longing

It was Thomas Edison who invented the phonograph, a portable recorder etching sound waves into a wax roll.

In 1897, the Brooklyn newspaper Nordisk Tidende reported how a “resourceful Norwegian” had the “innovative idea of travelling among a great number of emigrant families with a phonograph.”

The business model worked as follows: “every family member recorded some words of greetings to relatives at home.” Then the man received one dollar from each, travelled back to Norway around Christmas, and delivered “the dear, familiar voices to those at home.”

And now, the newspaper added, he has “yet again collected a great set of phonograph rolls with Norwegian voices from home, with which he intends to return to America. Then he will play them in the Norwegian homes over here.”

4.2 Unrecorded phonograph sylinder, from the National Library of Norway’s collection / Robert Rafn: «Julehilsen fra hjemmet i Porsgrunn», packaging for unpublished phonograph recording, 1903 / Robert Rafn: «Paa solen jeg ser», packaging for unpublished phonograph recording, 1901. 

4.3 Robert Rafn (1878–1964) was one of those Norwegian emigrants who employed new technology to record and send messages back home. Rafn had worked for Thomas Edison himself and was familiar with the equipment. In this recording he is sending a Christmas greeting back home to his mother in Norway: “Now I shall sit down somewhere cozy and imagine myself back home again”.

4.4 Hanne Anette Rafn, the mother, is sending a greeting in return along with the rest of the family, expressing gratitude for the Christmas greeting. They are saying they miss their “big, tall, little boy.” 

4.5 Adolf Østbye is known as Norway’s first gramophone star. He published collections of songs, skits, and, as in this recording, “Ball in Hallingdal”, sounds to imitate party vibes, which was intended to put people in the right mood. Almost like going to a party back home!

4.6–4.9 The Emigrant Waltz

Already by the eighteenth century, before the great migration, cheaply printed lyrics, so-called “broadside ballads” or “penny tunes” (skillingsviser), were well known in Norway. “Emigrant songs” quickly became part of this genre, and could be sung to already familiar melodies. From the middle of the nineteenth century, sheet music became more widespread, making unfamiliar tunes accessible as well.

Existential and emotional lyrics which thematised separation, longing, and nostalgia resonated well with the Norwegian populace, who were all well-trained singers through church attendance. Such penny tunes could really turn a penny.

4.6 Allan Johansson (music) and Alf Rød (lyrics): “Festmarsj: Den Norske Amerikalinje tilegnet”. Oslo: Norsk Musikforlag, 1937. 

4.7 Oscar Borg (music): “Norge-Amerika: Festmarsch”. Kristiania: Høydahl Ohmes Forlag, 1913. 

4.8 Christian Danning (music) and Anton Sannes (lyrics): “Kan du glemme gamle Norge?”. Kristiania: Haakon Zapffe, 1910. 

4.9 Helge Lindberg (music, pseudonym “W. Berner”), Gösta Stevens (lyrics) and Steinar Jøraandstad (translator): “Emigrantvalsen”. Oslo: Hjemmenes Notecentral, 1929.

4.10 The Homeland in 3D

The “stereoscope” was a shrewd invention which, based on the ability of human beings to perceive depth, creates a three-dimensional effect.

The technology was as cheap as it was ingenious. Stereography allowed people not just to view pictures of the old country, but in an almost magical way led them to experience really “being” back home.

This box contains a set of photographs of various places in Norway. The images were marketed to a Norwegian American audience and became a popular product to have ready for moments when the longing for fjords, mountains, and milkmaids dressed in traditional costumes was hard to suppress.

4.10 Underwood & Underwood: Set of stereography,
maps, books and stereoscope. 1900–1907.

4.11 Greetings from the Far West

More than the means by which they kept in touch, it was always the contact itself that mattered most to the emigrants and those back home. The many “America letters” which poured across the Atlantic were in time supplemented and partially supplanted by new forms of communication technology, like postcards, telegrams, and later also the telephone. Postcards were a popular and effective way of maintaining contact.

Ole Sigbjørnsen Liland likely had no experience with photography when he emigrated from Sirdal in 1870. And yet, he was to become a renowned photographer in America, depicting life on the prairie in the Dakotas. He established the studio Leeland Art Co., making good money through his famous postcards and by producing stereographies.

4.11 Photo: Ole Sigbjørnsen Leeland: “How I got my start”, “Greetings from the Far West”, “Diversified farming on the claim, Corn, wheat oats, flax alfalfa and sheep”, “A Western SD. Claim Holder” Leeland Art Co., 1900–1910

4.12–4.15 Ambient music

4.12 Steinar Jøraandstad: “Emigrantvalsen”. Brunswick, 1929. 

4.13 Jac. Rynning: “Kan du glemme gamle Norge”. Norge: Brunswick, 1928. 

4.14 Zetterstrøm & Kristoffersen: “Emigrantene”. Norge: His Master’s Voice, 1931. 

4.15 Jens Book-Jenssen: “Præriens sang” from Jens Book-Jenssen. Vol 2. Normann Records, 1934–1935.

5.1 A Tiny Boat

2025 marks the bicentennial of the arrival of “Restauration”, carrying the first Norwegian emigrants, in New York on 9 October 1825. The boat had sailed from Stavanger in early July and arrived in America 98 days later. Its length in number of feet was about equal to the number of passengers on board. And yet another was born during the voyage! Since then, this vessel has come to symbolise the very beginning of the emigration wave. This postal stamp was issued to commemorate the centennial back in 1925.

5.1 «Norse-American Centennial», stamp with illustration of “Restauration” issued for the centennial of the Norwegian migration to America. Issuer: United States Postage, 1925.

5.2–5.5 Direct Connection

From 1913, the “Norwegian America Line” offered passengers a direct route onboard Norwegian ships from Norway to America. Half of the funding of the company came from Norwegian Americans, while the Norwegian government also contributed, in order to increase contact between Norwegians on either side of the Atlantic and simply to improve travel opportunities.

The “Norwegian America Line” was in operation until 1995, in the final years dealing exclusively with cruise and cargo. But already from the beginning, the level of comfort onboard was vastly better than what sailing ships could offer.

5.2 “Norska Amerikalinjen”. Kristiania: Centraltrykkeriet, 1916.

5.3 “Den Norske Amerikalinje”. Kristiania: Kirste & Sieberth Bok- og kunsttrykkeri, ca. 1914–1915.

5.4 “Passenger fares”, no. 6. The “Norwegian America Line”, 1929.

5.5 «Passasjerliste», The “Norwegian America Line”. Oslo: Wittgenstein & Jensen A.S. 1932

5.6–5.8 Dragged Down

Arne Fahlstrøm was a young and promising actor who intended to study the new art of cinematography in the United States. He was among the 31 Norwegian passengers on the Titanic in 1912. Only ten of them survived. Arne was not among those ten.

Arne was both well-known and admired. The news of his death was discussed widely. In the broadside ballad detailing the sinking of the Titanic, it was said that “several Norwegians went down and under. By the maelstrom of the sea they were dragged down. The young Arne Fahlstrøm, too, went under the waves.”

Unlike the Titanic, which we know received more than its fifteen minutes of fame, Arne Fahlstrøm never made it onto the stage.

5.6 “Den store skibsulykke” in Hjemmet (ed. Valborg Andersen) no. 18, 5 May 1912.

5.7 “Hvide Stjerne Linien til New York, Boston og Canada”. Christiania: Ferd J. Elster, 1910.

5.8 Tristian: “En Sang om Kjæmpeskibet ‘Titanic’s Undergang paa Atlanterhavet”. Kristiania, Helge Schultz’s Trykkeri, 1912.

5.9 “The America Boat”

The newly established shipping company, Den norske Amerikalinje (“The Norwegian America Line”) had two sister ships, including Norway’s largest ship, the steamship “Kristianiafjord”.

Though it could handle German mine fields and submarines during World War I, it was wrecked in 1917 on its way home – just outside Newfoundland – after having run aground in thick fog.

“Kristianiafjord” ran aground a few hundred kilometres north of where the “Titanic” had hit an iceberg in 1912. On board “Kristianiafjord” were 1147 people – about a third of the “Titanic” – and all were rescued by the ship’s own lifeboats.

5.9 Hans Berge: D/S Kristianiafjord. Norway: Fram film, 1913–1927. Abridged version.

6.1 Reindeer to the Rescue

With the discovery of gold in the 1890s in Klondike came a rush of fortune hunters to Alaska. The gold miners were poorly equipped for the cold climate and did not have a stable food supply. Government officials feared impending starvation and raised the alarm. An ingenious plan was devised.

In the winter of 1898, a grand rescue operation was launched. The ship “Manitoba” set sail from Alta, Norway, carrying 539 domesticated reindeer and 113 Kven, Samí, and other Norwegian herdsmen. However, when the expedition finally arrived, the predicted starvation disaster had not occurred. Instead, more than 400 reindeer had starved to death along the way, and the herdsmen were nowhere to be seen. One of them, the young Jafet Lindeberg, had other plans right from the beginning than altruistic humanitarian aid. Lindeberg had joined the expedition to find gold for himself.

6.1  Photographer unknown: “Starting for the Gold Fields on Norway sleds”. Keystone View Company: Alaska Haines, year unknown.

6.2 A gold miner’s tale

In this audio clip, you hear Jafet Lindeberg talk about his road to riches in Alaska. The recording was made in San Francisco in 1960, where Lindeberg was interviewed by author and activist Henry Carlisle.

6.2 Jafet Lindeberg – An Interview by Henry Carlisle. The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, 1964. (Selected clips.)

6.3–6.4 The King of Alaska

When the expedition carrying domesticated reindeer to Klondike failed, Jafet Lindeberg seized the opportunity for personal gain. He did not go to Klondike, where gold had already been found, but northwest, to the Seward Peninsula. By Anvil Creek, at the place later to be known as the town of Nome, he found gold. A lot of gold. To be the first to discover gold somewhere was the dream of every gold miner there was.

Lindeberg’s discovery led to another gold rush. Disappointed miners from Klondike arrived en masse, but by then Lindeberg had already secured the mining rights for himself. Together with two Swedes, Lindeberg founded the town of Nome and established the “Pioneer Mining Company”, which after 23 years of operation, had earned a total of 24 million dollars. The mining company’s letterhead is seen on the correspondence between Lindeberg and the brothers Roald and Leon Amundsen. The latter two were making plans for Arctic expeditions from Nome to the North Pole.

6.3 Elisabeth Meyer: “Jafet Lindeberg – Virkelighetens Askeladd”, in “Magasinet for Alle” no. 3, 16 January 1963, Oslo.

6.4 «Letter from Jafet Lindeberg to Roald Amundsen», dated 30 May 1914, Seattle Washington /
«Letter from Jafet Lindeberg to Leon Amundsen», dated 1 September 1920, Nome Alaska /
«Letter from Roald Amundsen to Jafet Lindeberg», dated 31 July 1920, Nome Alaska.

6.5 From Kvænangen to Duckburg

Was it a young man from Kvænangen in Troms the cartoonist Don Rosa had in mind when he wrote the celebrated story of how Scrooge McDuck became the richest duck in the history of comics?

Scrooge McDuck had emerged from the gold rush in Alaska as one of the great winners, and in the Donald Duck comic books he is known as the “King of Klondike”. In reality, it was Jafet Lindeberg, nicknamed the “King of Alaska”, who in 1898, together with two Swedes in Anvil Creek, made one of the biggest gold discoveries in the history of the United States. Just like Scrooge McDuck, the three Scandinavians chose to look for gold off the beaten track. There they found plenty of gold in the sand, from grains to huge nuggets. Like Scrooge McDuck, Lindeberg was nearly outwitted, but ended up becoming a millionaire and one of the richest people of America.

6.5  Don Rosa: “Skrue McDucks liv og levnet”, Disney Enterprises, Inc. Oslo: Egmont Printing Service AS, 2016.

6.6 The Gold Nugget

One of the big winners of the Gold Rush in Alaska was Jafet Lindeberg from Kvænangen, Troms, Norway.

Having struck gold in Alaska, Lindeberg became a millionaire overnight. This nugget here is a copy of one of Lindeberg’s original discoveries, earning him the nickname “the king of Alaska”. The original nugget can be viewed in the permanent geological exhibition at the Arctic University Museum of Norway.

6.6  Replica of Jafet Lindeberg’s gold nugget. Owner: The Arctic University Museum of Norway, TSG

6.7–6.10 No Gold Medal for the Postman

Jon Torsteinson Rue, known in America as “Snowshoe Thompson”, emigrated as a 10-year- old together with the first party of emigrants from Tinn, Telemark, Norway in 1837.

Some years later, in 1848, as gold was discovered in California, Jon set out for the west. We do not know whether he ever found gold, but Jon quickly discovered that his skiing skills from Telemark could come in handy for carrying bags of post to the remote mining towns in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And so, for 20 years he skied back and forth – a cumbersome trip requiring two or three days each direction. Working rights as well as conditions in pioneer communities were not ideal, and Jon struggled to be compensated for his work. At long last, he travelled all the way to Washington to ask the Congress for compensation. He failed – and was never paid.

In the end, it was the skis on his feet, not his mining for gold, which made Snowshoe Thompson a legend in America. His legacy lives on as “Snowshoe Duckson” in the Donald Duck comics. Thompson may never have found gold, but as an alpinist he went for silver: it was allegedly Thompson, as a postman, who carried the first samples of silver from Comstock Lode, the greatest silver ore in US history.

6.7 Adrien Stoutenburg and Laura Nelson Baker (Johannes Farestveit, transl.): Snøsko-Thompson. Oslo: Norsk barneblads forlag, 1962.

6.8 Arild Midthun: “Et ekte forbilde” in Walt Disney’s Hall of Fame. De store serieskaperne. Oslo: Egmont Serieforlaget AS, 2010.

6.9 “Adventure Snowshoe Thompson – Mail Man”, collection card no. 70. USA: Gum Products Inc., 1956.

6.10 “Death of Snowshoe Thompson” in Carson Daily Appeal. 18 May 1876, Carson City Nevada.

6.11 No Gold Medal for the Postman

Due to Snowshoe Thompson’s numerous and perilous ski trips across the Sierra Nevada mountains to deliver mail, the Norwegian American is credited with introducing skiing to California. Both in the USA and in Norway, statues of Thompson have been erected and through films, songs and other cultural expressions the myths about him have lived on. Here you can hear Johnny Horton telling the story of the skiing pioneer in a descriptive and catchy country-style tune.

6.11 Johnny Horton: “Snow-Shoe Thompson” on Johnny Horton Makes History (Action Tales of Battles, Heroes, and Epic Events. USA: Columbia, 1960.

7.1 Lapskaus Boulevard

When the stock market on Wall Street crashed in 1929, more than 60,000 Norwegians lived in New York. The decline in international shipping during the 1920s had already left many Norwegian sailors unemployed. In Brooklyn, New York, on top of a rubbish lot, some of them built simple dwellings for themselves. The “Desert of Shur” housed several hundred people – many of them Norwegians.

But not all Norwegians in the city faced a life of destitution. The Norwegian colony in Brooklyn was a city unto itself, with shops, associations, restaurants, and various celebrations of Norwegian identity – with all possible variations of failures and success that accompanied the lives of immigrants in the US. Along “Lapskaus Boulevard”, or Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn, Norwegians were fully at home.

In these video recordings from 1931, you will get a glimpse of life in the Norwegian district.

7.1 Michael Leirvik: “Glimt fra New York og den norske koloni”. Norway: 1931. Selected clips.

7.2 News in Norwegian

“Eight Norwegian sailors died from drinking methanol in Brooklyn”, “Mass murder. Unfortunately a Norwegian woman is the perpetrator”, “Norwegian killed during subway construction”.

This – and much more – could be read in the sensational Norwegian American newspaper Nordisk Tidende, one of several newspapers published in Brooklyn.

Nordisk Tidende, the metropolitan newspaper of the East Coast, carried more than just miserable news. Together, the various advertisements and news stories present an image of a rich and thriving Norwegian immigrant community in the city – of life in America, for better and worse, described, significantly, in Norwegian.

Here, and in the collections of the National Library, you can explore these Norwegian American newspapers and how dreams of America turned into reality – or nightmares – for Norwegian emigrants.

7.2 Clips from the period 1894–1931 from the Norwegian American newspapers Nordisk Tidende and Norgesposten, both published in New York.

7.3 A Travelogue in Verse

In 1904, the Norwegian poet Herman Wildenvey survived the sinking of the transatlantic steamer D/S Norge, an accident which caused 635 deaths.

In the 1930s, Wildenvey was again back in America. In New York, journalist Carl Søyland of Nordisk Tidende took him to Norwegians living in the slum colony, the “Desert of Shur”, to show him how life in America really was. The result of this visit was a long poem in the collection Mirror of the Stars (1935), in which Wildenvey reflects on the nature of the American dream:

“They set out, for whatever reason

I would never ask.

They travelled disappointed and deceived

and indifferent wherever they came.

But some had great dreams

and strong ambitions when they went

they nourished the pumping heart’s red stream

with the song of the expansive earth.”

7.3 Herman Wildenvey: “Bay Ridge” in Stjernenes speil. Nye dikt,
a selection of verses from the poem, recited for this exhibition
by Preben Olram. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1935.