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The Bridge

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Bleeding Feet, Humble Hearts: Danish Mormon Migration 1850-1860, Jens Patrick Wilde

The Bridge

The early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a chronicle of several migrations. The Mormon migration most familiar to Americans began in New York state, from where Joseph Smith, prophet-founder of the church, moved with his followers in search of a place where they might build a community, a holy land. The way stations on the journey from New York to Salt Lake City, now the headquarters of the church, were Kirtland, Ohio; Independence and Far West, Missouri; and Nauvoo, Illinois. These attempts to found religious communities had their origin in Mormon doctrine, which implied …

Sketches From Our Family Life In The Early Nineties, Dagmar, The Eldest Of The Flock

The Bridge

In the late Fall of 1890, Father went to the United States to get a job and to make a new home for us all. From Brooklyn the Reverend Anderson helped to send him on his way west, since he had been a farmer. At Chicago the Reverend Nielsen sent him to the Danish School and settlement at Elk Horn, Iowa, where he studied a little English and hired out on a farm, there to learn more English by practical experience.

Immigrating To America, Andrew Christensen

The Bridge

To get the proper backdrop for this article, let me quote a few statements from the introduction of an outstanding book on immigration to America, sponsored by the Rebild Society and written by Kristian Hvidt, the Chief Librarian of the Danish Parlimentary Library:

"In the course of the fifty years preceeding the outbreak of World War I in 1914, well over 300,000 Danes left their homeland to become immigrants; ninety percent of them settled in the U.S.A. The illuminating facts stated in human terms show that our grand and great-grandparents saw every tenth one of their countrymen leave their land …

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 …

The Acculturation Of The Danish Immigrant, Enok Mortensen

The Bridge

In the very first issue of The Bridge Dr. Otto Hoiberg had a perceptive article on the subject of acculturation. He suggested that a logical concern of the fledgling Danish-American Heritage Society might be to examine this process. I was particularly interested in his challenge because I have observed this process in myself and others for some sixty years, and for most of my adult life I have attempted to describe and to interpret this in lectures and in my books - not least in my stories and novels.

Table Of Contents

The Bridge

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Front Cover

The Bridge

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Dansk Folkeblad, Nancy Ruth Bartlett

The Bridge

In the fall of 1895 an ambitious Danish-American businessman named George Johnson took over the editorship of a Danish language newspaper being published in the town of Greenville, Michigan . (It is not known how long the previous editor, C.N. Miller, had been running the paper) . George Johnson stated in his first editorial (26 September, 1895) that it was his intention to fulfill the need for a Danish paper in the state of Michigan. In his paper Danish language readers were to be supplied with local, national, and foreign news, advertisements, and a means for Danish-Americans to voice their …

The World Of Robert Storm Petersen, Allen E. Hye

The Bridge

Thirty years after his death in March, 1949, Robert Storm Petersen is still regarded as Denmark's greatest humorist; in fact, he is enjoying an astonishing revival in Scandinavian popular culture. T-shirts, advertising campaigns, key chains - all bear his likeness or that of his loveable cartoon characters. Even a museum has been established (Pile Alle 2, 2000 Copenhagen F) to promote his memory and humor. Since its founding in the fall of 1977, the museum, under the direction of Jens Bing, has been sorting and cataloging books, paintings, memorabilia, including the humorist's extensive pipe collection, and the some 60,000 drawings …

Notes On The Early Mormon Mission In Denmark, Donald K. Watkins

The Bridge

Jens Patrick Wilde's article in this issue of The Bridge vividly describes the hardships, grief and sometimes disaster that accompanied the Mormons during their famous trek across the Great Plains to Utah in the 1850s. Less well known is the role of the Northern European immigrant in this difficult passage to the Great Basin. Scandinavian immigrant participation in the growth of Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was especially great in the period 1850-1890, and in the decade before the Civil War Mormons made up the largest identifiable segment, 19%, of the some 10,000 Danes in …

Full Issue

The Bridge

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Table Of Contents

The Bridge

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Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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The Educational Philosophy Of N.F.S. Grundtvig A Century Of Influence: A Case Study Of A Lutheran Congregation, Omaha, Nebraska, Ruth Thorup Herman

The Bridge

When the editor of The Bridge asked if I would write my reaction to my dissertation, I did a great deal of thinking. How would I write about my feelings which covered the four years during which I did the research and writing of this paper? I concluded that a historical review would give me the best opportunity to present my reaction to my research. Then, when he asked me to review my own study since it related my experiences, I concluded that both could be incorporated in one effort if I were permitted to make personal references.

Jonas Bronck Most Famous Among The First Danes In New York, Ebba Tang Frandsen

The Bridge

Information for this article is excerpted from Carlo Christensen's book, De Forste Danske i New York, Nyt Nordisk Forlag - Arnold Busch - Kj!6benhavn, 1953. Carlo Christensen was for many years Cultural Attache with the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C., a position in which he served with great distinction. Carlo Christensen states in the Forward that the book is the result of research carried on for 20 years in his spare time, and that there is still much material to be researched.

Editorial Introduction, Gerald Rasmussen

The Bridge

Most Danish immigrants to the United States of America headed for the northern tier of the Middle Western states. The majority stayed there. The autobiographical pieces that follow present the accounts of three Danish immigrants to the Middle West. Each one is personal and subjective. Each of the writers came from different provinces in Denmark, and from different environments within those provinces. Readers will note that the three accounts represent three eras - the 1890's, the 1920's and late 1940's. Curious readers will perhaps explore whether the differences in chronological time of the uprooting, as well as the different backgrounds, …

Thirty Years Of Emigrating, Lis Jorgensen

The Bridge

Contemporary emigration is both like and unlike the earlier emigration of Scandinavia.

The emigrants came to North America in the nineteenth century largely because of overpopulation in their own countries creating famine or purely for economic reasons. In North America they could obtain free or cheap land and thus make a better living for their families. According to early accounts, however, they often suffered even greater hardships here than at home. One question that seemed to bother the Danish settlers was whether they had done the right thing in leaving the old country. They wondered if in their struggle for …

Full Issue

The Bridge

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American Irish Newsletter - November 1979, American Ireland Education Foundation - Pec

American Irish Newsletter

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American Irish Newsletter - August 1979, American Ireland Education Foundation - Pec

American Irish Newsletter

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Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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Carl Hansen, Prairie Iconoclast, Donald K. Watkins

The Bridge

In 1906 Ivar Kirkegaard, editor of the magazine Norden in Racine , Wisconsin, asked the writer Carl Hansen for personal information that might be included in a biographical sketch in the journal. Carl Hansen of Tyler, Minnesota, was forty-six at the time, and by his own count the author of some seventy sketches and short stories. In reply to Kirkegaard, Hansen revealed that in his student days in Copenhagen he has been caught up in the intellectual ferment of "the Modern Breakthrough," the assertive embrace by Scandinavian intellectuals of socially critical realism. "Det moderne gennembrud" had no single philosophical doctrine …

A Comparative Study Of Sophus Keith Winther And Carl Hansen, Rudolf J. Jensen

The Bridge

This short poem written by Carl Hansen expresses the essential conflicts of the Danish emigrant in the United States. In their relentless struggle to survive on the plains of the American midwest, two concerns dominated the consciousness of the emigrant. One was the continuous sense of doubt about the wisdom leaving the old country and the other was the necessarily unanswered question of whether the privations of their present life would be rewarded by the success of the following generations. The dreams and hopes of most Danish-American emigrants were in fact not fulfilled in accordance with their expectations. Neither the …

Front Cover

The Bridge

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Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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Table Of Contents

The Bridge

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Danes Worldwide Archives Contains Treasures Of Immigrant Life, Marion Marzolf

The Bridge

A typical four-room apartment in an average Danish neighborhood in Aalborg, Denmark, houses an extraordinary treasure for those interested in their Danish roots. It looks like an ordinary apartment from the outisde, but once the door is opened by Curator Inger Bladt, it is clear that housed here are the living memories of many of the 300,000 Danes who left their homeland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to seek work, land, fortune and fate in foreign countries, mainly the U.S.

Questioning Our Danish Heritage: The Evolution Of An Ethnic Identity, Otto N. Larsen

The Bridge

Here we are over one-hundred persons ranging in age from 9 to 90 gathered for the first Pacific Northwest Danish Cultural Conference. Given the title of my remarks, I had better start with a question: why are we here?

The general answer must be that we are here to re-kindle the experience of our heritage, to learn more about it, and to enjoy our common bond. It is often said that whenever Danes get together they have a good time, even if they are melancholy about it.

The Fixed Frame And The Live Show, Johannes Knudsen

The Bridge

Television has developed a trick of ending a story or a sequence by showing a fixed picture of the final frame, giving a rather vivid expression to the immediate or concluding situation. Sometimes this picture is amusing, even ludicrous, evoking a smile; sometimes a tear lingers on.