Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Finding Sanctuary: How Danish American Churches Helped Immigrants Navigate Life In Uncharted Waters, Krister Strandskov, Russell Lackey

The Bridge

The summer before graduating from Grand View University, I set out on a journey throughout the Midwest and California to photograph Danish American churches.1 My purpose in visiting these churches was to discover what stories their architecture told. I wondered what tied them together as well as what made each unique. I also hoped to learn more about my own Danish American heritage by visiting the very places many of my relatives worshiped and even pastored. Here is what I learned.

A Norwegian In The Pew Of Budolfi Cathedral In Aalborg: The Annunciation Of The Virgin Mary, 1996, Oyvind T. Gulliksen

The Bridge

As an alien soul from the Norwegian church, I sought refuge in Aalborg cathedral on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary ("Marire bebudelses

The Psychology Of A Mermaid: Understanding The Danish Psyche, Karen Lassen

The Bridge

"Way out in the ocean, the water is as blue as the petals of

the most beautiful cornflower and as clear as the cleanest

glass, but it is very deep, deeper than an anchor cable can

reach; many church steeples would have to be placed one on

top of the other in order to stretch from the bottom up to the

surface of the water. Down there live the Merpeople."

The First Fifty Years: Glimpses From The Dagmar Community

The Bridge

"Nothing can stay alive in this country but Danes and Russian thistles." So spoke a discouraged rancher in the early days. This is the story mostly of those Danes but also of the other extractions who for the past half century have carved out a saga of fortitude and resourcefulness in what is now generally known as the Dagmar community. Since the establishment of a church was the main purpose in the first plans for settlement and since the church soon did become the center of community life, this account is told in the broad outline of the history of …

Danes Came To Central Wharton County In 1894 Bringing Church, Language, Culture, John L. Davis

The Bridge

The grass reached to the bottoms of the wagons when the first group of Danes came to central Wharton County, Texas, in 1894. Land had been bought by J. C. Evers, an agent for the Danish Folk Society, to be resold to immigrants. The Dansk Folkesamfund was interested in founding an agricultural settlement in which the Danish culture and language, and the Lutheran church, might be preserved. Like many people who came to Texas, the settlers were looking for a new place to live - a place they could farm and raise their children .