Social and Behavioral Sciences 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 …

Remembering The Schleswig War Of 1864: A Turning Point In German And Danish National Identity, Julie K. Allen

The Bridge

Every country tells itself stories about its origins and the moments that define its history. Many of these stories are connected to wars, for example the tale of how George Washington and his troops crossed the frozen Delaware river to surprise the British and turn the tide of the Revolutionary War, or the way the American public rallied after the attack on Pearl Harbor to retool the American economy and support American troops in the fight against fascism. Not surprisingly, the stories we tell about our own country are most often ones about wars from which we emerge victorious, rather …

On Danish-American Cultural Identity, Signe Sloth

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In 1967 an article was published which kick-started a discussion that is still going on among sociologists today. The subject of the article is American civil religion and the writer is the American sociologist Robert Bellah who claims that every nation and every people has a religious self-understanding. He advocates an American civil religion that is separated from other denominations and established religious institutions, but just like them demands recognition and understanding. Bellah defines this Civil Religion as " ... A genuine apprehension of universal and transcendental religious reality as seen in or . . . as revealed through the …

Whose Memory Is It After All?, Inger M. Olsen

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The EU (European Union) constitution was issued May 2005 and its preamble states that the writers have "let themselves be inspired by Europe's cultural, religious and humanistic inheritance which is the foundation for the development of the universal values: the individual human being's inviolable and inalienable rights as well as freedom, equality and constitutional state"1 2 The preamble goes on to mention the painful experiences that Europe has undergone and the fact that Europe is once again united. The final note states that Europe "wishes to develop further the public life's democratic and open character and work for peace, justice …

The Danish Emigration Archives, Birgit Flemming Larsen

The Bridge

The Danish Emigration Archives was founded in 1932 as the DanAmerica Archives.

Max Henius, a native of Aalborg and an enterprising businessman in Chicago, was the immigrant behind the Archives. It might be seen as flexibility by Danish Americans and their descendants to place their own ethnic group's source materials at a distance to themselves. It did cause some discussions at that time.

The purpose of the Archives is to preserve the history of those Danes who left Denmark to settle in foreign countries. Through the years The Danish Emigration Archives has suffered under several changes due to World War …

The Archive And History: Reflection And Anticipation, Niel Johnson

The Bridge

Engraved on the front of the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, is this statement: This Library will belong to the people of the United States. My papers will be the property of the people and be accessible to them. And this is as it should be. The papers of the President are among the most valuable sources of material for history. They ought to be preserved and they ought to be used.

The Christmas Tree And The Two Churches, Johannes V. Knudsen

The Bridge

Part of the Danish American heritage is the fact that there were, unfortunately, some believe, two separate Danish American Lutheran Church groups. Because of theological differences (and perhaps personality conflicts, as well) between these two groups, they remained separate entities from their complex beginnings in the latter half of the nineteenth century until mergers took place with a number of other ethnic Lutheran church groups in the early 1960s, culminating in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988. The histories of and differences between the two synods, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Evangelical …

Introduction: Emigration From Vejle Amt

The Bridge

Picture postcard regions of Denmark like Vejle Amt, "with idyllic little towns, without any new factories and workshops, usually produced a great number of emigrants," according to the Danish historian of emigration, Kristian Hvidt. Vejle Amt was a verdant land of deep fjords, rolling wooded hills, and ancient villages, giving way to wide stretches of heath and bog in the west. It remained an idyllic, old-fashioned area throughout the period of emigration. People streamed to America because the population of Vejle Amt was growing but few new jobs were being created. They also left out of discontent over life in …

The Bridge Builders Of Luther Memorial, Wilber J. Williamson

The Bridge

The congregation of Luther Memorial Church in Des Moines, Iowa, celebrated its centennial anniversary in 1999, during which time there was a good deal of reflection concerning the historical roots and activities of the church during the preceding one hundred years. Much of the early history of the congregation was closely associated with Grand View College. During the first decades, the school provided worship facilities as well as the pastor services for the emerging congregation. With financial support from the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, a building was erected in 1917, which has served as the home for the congregation since …

Jens Christian Jensen And Family: The Story Of An American Pioneer From Denmark And His Family, Lois Eagleton

The Bridge

Family stories, by their very nature, never stop being a work in progress. My mother had kept her family tree for many years, as had her mother before her. When I decided to update what they had done and bring it into the electronic age, I really had no idea what I was getting into. My mother had attempted to keep everything organized over the years. It was organized, sort of, here and there, in drawers, in boxes, on shelves, in closets, stacked on tables, you name it. She had kept everything! Thank goodness she did, for I have found …

Marcus Lee Hansen's Approach To The History Of Scandinavian Immigration, J.R. Christianson

The Bridge

Marcus Lee Hansen (1892-1938) has been called "the first serious student of the history of American immigration," and he was a very good one, but that was long ago.2 His major scholarship appeared after his death at the age of forty-five in 1938. Few authors have written about American immigration with Marcus Lee Hansen's literary grace and historical brilliance, but huge amounts of ethnic and immigration history have been written since his day. Old history often goes stale and out of print. What about Marcus Lee Hansen? Is there anything in his view of immigration that still speaks to us …

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.

Call For Papers

The Bridge

Marcus Lee Hansen Immigration Conference. The University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Institute for Economic History, announces a conference on immigration in August, 1992, recognizing the centennial of Hansen's birth.

Marcus Lee Hansen Returns To His Roots, John Robert Christianson

The Bridge

Marcus Lee Hansen (1892-1938) was the founder of modern immigration history. He established new frameworks in time and space for the study of the peopling of North America.

Enok Mortensen As Archivist, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

One cannot say with any degree of finality why Enok Mortensen became the historian and archivist of the Danish, later the American Evangelical Lutheran Church. This much, however, is obvious--he was interested in it. Only a genuine interest could have caused him to work diligently at it for a long period of time and to write the history of the church with which he had become intimately familiar. The records do not indicate that he received any monetary reward for his efforts, nor that he sought any. He hoped that others would share his interest and do whatever was in …

Reflections On Denmark As It Was, And Emigration To America, Arlow W. Andersen

The Bridge

In the late medieval and modern periods the histories of Denmark and Norway paralleled each other. During much of that interval the Union of Kalmar (1397-1523), which included also a dynastic tie with Sweden, practically insured common political, economic, and religious development. On the threshold of the modern age Sweden broke away from the Union (1523), but Norway was obliged to remain under Danish rule until 1814.

Niels Sorensen Lawdahl

The Bridge

The brief autobiography of Niels S0rensen Lawdahl is dated January, 1925, the day following his 61st birthday. It was written in the last days of his life, a little each day, as his health permitted after he became ill. He died March 4, 1925, in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Partridge, Martin A. Hansen, Inga Wiehl, Translator

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"Martin A. Hansen is considered one of the best and most influential Danish writers of the century. Despite his premature death in 1955 at the age of forty-six, he left a rich artistic legacy of novels, short stories, and travel descriptions as well as essays and books dealing with historical, cultural and philosophical themes.

'The Partridge' ('Agerhonen') is the title story of a collection of twelve short stories, all of which emphasize artistic expression as self-revelation. It is the means whereby the artist transforms the world and makes it new. The twelve stories are divided into three parts, childhood, adolescence …

Reminiscences From A Long Life, Ane Helena Paulsen

The Bridge

My maiden name was Ane Helene Nielsen and I was born in Yestergaard, Lendum Sogn close to Frederickshavn on January 22, 1866. My father's name was Ole Christian Nielsen, Kirkerod, Skaerum Sogn. He died early of tuberculosis. I can scarcely remember him. My mother's name was Mariane Jensen. She was the daughter of Jens Nielsen, Sondergaard, Lendum Sogn, and his wife Johanne Marie Larsdatter of Vang, S4,ndergaard, Tirslev Sogn.

Hands Across The Sea: Soren Qvist In Danish And American Literature, 1625-1947, Otto M. Sorensen

The Bridge

Anno 1632. Severinus Jani Qvist, pastor in Weilbye and Homme in Aarhus Bishopric, was innocently beheaded and his innocence afterwards established, and this transpired in such a way that the footprints of divine providence, as the precious stones of history, can clearly be perceived.

Book Review, Peter L. Petersen

The Bridge

Located in downtown San Antonio, the Institute of Texan Cultures is a publicly-financed research and information center focusing on the diverse cultural heritage of Texas. More than a million visitors annually crowd its large exhibition hall - originally built as a part of HemisFair '68 - to view on-going displays and presentations on more than two dozen national, cultural, and racial groups who have contributed to Texas history. In addition to the exhibits, the Institute has an extensive publication program. The Danish Texans is the nineteenth work in its ethnic series on The Texians and The Texans. Written by John …

"Heinrich Tonnies", Egon P. Bodtker

The Bridge

Heinrich Tonnies has been known to Danish archivists and photo-historians primarily for his topographical views of Aalborg. His pictures made Aalborg the second most photographed city in Denmark in the 19th century. Alexander Alland has ensured Tonnies a place among recorders of social history by the exhibit in Aalborg he arranged in 1975. For this redirection of our attention we in D.A.H.S. and others are indeed thankful.

Looking Back And Looking Forward, Enok Mortensen

The Bridge

If the newly formed Danish-American Heritage Society is to accomplish what it so boldly visualizes it must focus on two primary aims.

It must somehow convince, it not thousands, then at least a substantial number of Danish-Americans of the importance of its stated purposes, so that the Society can be adequately supported and become a vital force. Secondly, it must solve the difficult problem not only of collecting archivalia, but of maintaining central depositories, museums, or at least some kind of cultural service center. Swedish-Americans have their fine institute at Minneapolis, Norwegians their St. Olaf's and Decorah, and Finnish-Americans have …

Elfrida Pedersen Collection, Clinton M. Hyde

The Bridge

Elfrida Jensen, born September 13, 1886, in Horsens, Denmark, came to Seattle with her parents ca. 1904. Within a short time she had a role in a Danish play presented by the Danish Young Peoples Society "Dagmar". Her association with this Danish Dramatic Club (later called Harmonien) lasted a lifetime. Besides playing the lead roles in many Danish plays, "Frida", as she became called, wrote and adapted scripts, wrote songs and poems in Danish and English for the stage in Washington Hall in Seattle and for parties and wedding anniversaries.

Dark Nights And Long Days: Myths Of The North, Erik S. Hansen

The Bridge

The following is a "retelling" of the major tales of Norse mythology. It seemed that a periodical of a society devoted to heritage might well pay homage to the deepest roots of our history, to the beginnings of it al/, to the earliest records of our forefathers and foremothers, who first grappled with who they were and where they came from . The author notes that "people need to be reminded that the Norse gods were not just a bunch of unruly pagans -- they were GODS in their own day, and not only that, they were a lot like …