History Commons^™

Tycho Brahe: Science And Life In The Danish Renaissance, John Robert Christianson

The Bridge

Today, we are constantly using data; some even say that we live in an Age of Data. Most of us hardly realize that a Danish astronomer set the whole process in motion more than four hundred years ago. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) changed the world with his innovative approach to astronomy and observational data. My interest in him started with a college term paper and eventually led to writing and editing books and articles about his life and work in Renaissance Denmark. This research led me to develop new interpretations of his revolutionary approach to understanding the heavens and the natural …

From The Translator’S Desk, Michael Goldman

The Bridge

On the Saturday morning of the fortieth anniversary conference of the Danish American heritage Society, translator Michael Goldman gave a talk in which he interspersed readings from his translations of five accomplished Danish authors with his personal recollections and anecdotes. The texts he read included the first major publication of Benny Andersen’s poetry in english translation; the first english translations of Cecil Bødker’s adult novels Stories about Tacit and The Water Farm; the first ever book publication in english of Knud Sørensen’s Farming Dreams, a selection of poetry about the decline of family farms in the latter half of the …

My Grandfather: Soren Lorentz Lassen, Karen Lassen

The Bridge

Fifty-five years aft er my grandfather’s death in 1934, my two brothers and I gathered at his gravesite in Sault Ste. Marie near the Great Lakes. For the fi rst time, Soren Lassen was being honored by a family that he never knew. Although he had died long ago, his gravestone had only recently been put in place. I pulled the scissors I had brought out of my purse and carefully cut back the crabgrass that was already creeping across the new stone. Stepping back, I read it aloud:

Svend Lawrence

(Soren Lassen)

1864-1934

The Reception Of Danish Science Fiction In The United States, Kristine J. Anderson

The Bridge

Science fiction is a distinctly American genre. Although scholars have traced its origins back as far as the Latin writer Lucian of Samosata,1 it was Hugo Gernsback, a publisher of pulp magazines in the United States, who first gave the genre its name in the June 1929 issue of Wonder Stories. Gernsback had been serializing the scientific romances of such writers as Jules Verne and HG. Wells, emphasizing their treatment of technology and putting them forth as models for other budding writers to imitate. The magazines that Gernsback initiated became very popular, spawning more from other publishers. Groups of aficionados …

Karin Michaelis: Famous Danish Novelist And Humanitarian Rebel With A Cause, Merete Von Eyben

The Bridge

Consider the following question: Which Danish author was not only one of the most famous European authors in the early part of the twentieth century, but also one of the most widely read female ones; had all of her books translated into German and some of them into as many as 30 other languages; wrote the most notorious bestseller of that period; celebrated her 60th birthday at a banquet hosted by Austrian PEN in Vienna where she was awarded both an Austrian and a Czechoslovakian medal and honored by the German language papers as Europe's Conscience; had her books banned …

Christian Petersen: From Denmark To The New Deal To Campus Sculptor, Lea Rosson Delong

The Bridge

Christian Petersen (1885-1961) was a Danish-American sculptor (Figure 1) whose accomplishment and importance in the history of American art is being increasingly understood and recognized.1 The first goal in this presentation is to present a small portion of his work and to discuss why his reputation is growing and, at the same time, weave in aspects of his Danish background.

Danish Poets Today

The Bridge

The Danish poet, playwright and novelist Pia Tafdrup read from her work Queen's Gate and presented some of her other poems at the session Danish Poets Today With the author's permission we are able to present one of the poems from Queen's Gate.

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 …

Memories From Childhood And Early Youth, Andrea Blichfeldt Smith, Alma K. Stark, Translator, Peter D. Thomsen

The Bridge

The story which follows was translated from the Danish language shortly after it was written around 1937. The original manuscript, written in longhand on scraps of brown-bag paper, no longer exists. On the typewritten copy of my cousin's translation, however, she writes: "Mother wrote this at my request." Today, at age 95, Alma Stark lives at 14801 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, California. She corresponds regularly with me and has been very helpful in my quest for genealogical information.

He Sowed So That Others Could Reap: Niels Ebbesen Hansen 1866 -1950, J. Christian Bay

The Bridge

January 4 punctuates two events. On that date in 1851 type-setting began for the printing of a new novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. On the same date in 1866 a boy was born on a farm near Ribe, Denmark, who in baptism in the cathedral was named Niels Ebbesen Hansen. The baptismal vessel used had passed from one generation to the next for over 200 years and had the ring of old Danish silver.

A Danish Socialist In Capitalist Chicago, George R. Nielsen

The Bridge

The vast majority of the 200,000 Danes who migrated to America in the 19th century came as ordinary, anonymous people looking for work and willing to live within the American system. Louis Pio, on the other hand, was wellknown in Denmark, especially to the Copenhagen police and businessmen, and came to America with a mission to reform society in both Europe and America. In America, however, Pio never gained the status that he had held in Denmark and his attempts at social reform were unsuccessful. Yet, in spite of Pia's lackluster life in the United States, scholars, for good reason, …

Recollections Of Two Immigrant Sisters, James D. Iversen

The Bridge

My father's family were among those thousands of Danes who made their decision to emigrate to America in the last decade of the nineteenth century. On March 28, 1893, Peter Iversen and wife Kirstine and children Christine, 12 years, Karen, 10, Katherine, 8, Marie, 6, Mikkel, 5 and Laura, not quite 3 years old, sailed from Copenhagen on the "Thingvalla." The came first to Sioux CIty, Iowa, where Kirstine's brother Graves Mikkelsen had settled earlier. Times were not prosperous in 1893 in Sioux City, however so the family soon moved to a homestead site in Buffalo County, South Dakota, about …

Danish Immigrant Archival Listing, Arnold Bodtker, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

The Danish Immigrant Archival Listing (DIAL) is a reference book, and guide, which will enable scholars, researchers and others to know something of the existence and whereabouts of source material related to the Danish immigrant in America. This 300 page hard-cover book is a comprehensive listing of books, periodicals, manuscripts, pamphlets, letters, documents, scrapbooks, pictures, and similar items.

Devastation In Tyler, Jens B. Johansen, Thorvald Hansen, Translator

The Bridge

During the evening of August 21, 1918, the community of Tyler, Minnesota, was struck by a severe tornado. Many people were killed, many more injured, and the damage to property was tremendous. The letter, written in Danish, which follows is a first-hand account of what that thriving community looked like after the storm. In some places this account is gruesome, in other places it is subtly humorous, and in all places it is a graphic presentation of the havoc that can be wreaked in a few moments.

Peter Larson -- Danish Immigrant Entrepreneur, Henry Jorgensen

The Bridge

Eighty years ago, on July 13, 1907, Helena residents picked up their newspaper, the Helena Independent and read these front-page headlines:

"PETER LARSON DIES AT HIS HOME IN HELENA."

"A CALAMITY TO THE WHOLE NORTHWEST."

"The Man Who at the Age of Twenty Was Still a Danish Peasant is Remembered by Thousands for His Benefactions" . . ."Contractor and Master Business Man."

Karl Jensen's Diary

The Bridge

Karl Jensen wrote the following diary in Danish during his journey to America in 1903. He was born in Lynga in Jutland in 1873, and from 1903 until his death in 1948 he was a chicken-farmer in Enumclaw, Washington. In the diary he take considerable pride in the fact that during the entire voyage he did not suffer from seasickness. The reason for this is that as a young man he served as a seamannon merchant ships in the Mediterranean and Pacific. On one voyage his ship entered Puget Sound. This fact and the presence of a substantial Danish colony …

The Travels Abroad Of H. C. Andersen, Don Mowatt

The Bridge

A complete appreciation of Hans Christian Andersen has always been limited to Danish-speaking readers because so much of his private life is most clearly revealed in his letters, diaries, and travel books which remain largely untranslated into English. There is a handful of exceptions, the majority of which are mid-nineteenth century translations from England.

Table Talk, L. C. Laursen

The Bridge

Table Talk was prepared for the wedding of Margaret Hansen and Harvey Phillip of Enumclaw, Washington, at which L. C. Laursen was to have officiated. Laursen's sudden illness, an illness from which he did not recover, precluded him from delivering the talk. Table Talk comes from a Notebook Laursen presented to Margaret and Harvey Phillip, which was shown to Ruth and Ove Nielsen. They thought it deserved a wider readership and received permission from Betty Miller, daughter of L. C. Laursen, and Mr. and Mrs. Phillip to submit it for publication in The Bridge.

The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Fence .... About The Early Life Of Peter Lassen, Rene Weybye Lassen

The Bridge

Years ago, when I was a young boy, I remember my grandmother was telling about her grand-uncle. His name was Peter and he went to America many years before she was born. Just being a schoolboy at that time, I didn't pay much attention to what she was talking about. For me it was just the talk of old people, about their old folks, who were not alive any more. That couldn't really fascinate a twelve year old boy. Today I know I should have been listening with much more interest. One thing is for sure, however; I remember she …

Book Review, Ejnar Farstrup

The Bridge

This well-written and fully documented description of the merging of four Lutheran church bodies springing from German, Swedish, Finnish and Danish ethnic backgrounds is not "popular reading." It is however a description, much needed, of a process in which the heritage of each group is recognized and accepted for what it is in its own right, but also with a keen awareness of the subtle changes wrought by the impact of living in an environment vastly different from the conditions previously known to the original immigrants.

Danes And Danish On The Great Plains: Some Sociolinguistic Aspects, Donald K. Watkins

The Bridge

The number of Scandinavians in the upper Midwest in 1850 was insignificant compared to the tens of thousands who arrived annually after the Civil War; but the early settlements, primarily in northern Illinois and eastern Wisconsin, typically served as way stations for the Scandinavians who came later, staying near the Great Lakes for shorter or longer periods of time before moving westward where more favorable conditions beckoned. It is in this connection one finds the nominal beginnings of a Danish presence in the prairie states, the region of the country most favored by the somewhat more than three hundred thousand …

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 .