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Sylvia Pio, A Danish-American Livewire, Kristian Hvidt, J. R. Christianson, Editor And Translator

The Bridge

This is the story of an unusual Danish-American woman, Sylvia Pio, who was born 1876 in Copenhagen, grew up in Chicago, and died 1932 in Hellerup, a suburb of her native city.

Her childhood in Chicago had a complicated background. Sylvia was the daughter of a famous figure in Danish political history, Louis Pio, who founded the Danish Socialist Party in Copenhagen in 1871. After serving in the army during the Schleswig-Holstein war of 1864, he had entered the Copenhagen postal service, where he is said to have constructed the first red Danish mailbox of the type still in use.