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Notes On Recent Publications, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Ruckert Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection. Vol. 1: Meissen Porcelain and 'Hausmalerai'. Washington, D.C.: Smithonian Istitution Press, 1979. 607 pp., 400 ills.

Fritz Marti, editor and translator, The Unconditional in Human Knowledge. Four Early Essays (1794-1796) of F.W.J. Schelling. Lweisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1980. 271 pp.

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Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Front Matter

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Letter From The President, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The Annual Meeting of the Swiss American Historical Society will be held this year on Saturday, October 25, 1980, at the Kiva Auditorium of Temple University, located at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Columbia Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Professor Samuel Lauchli, a faculty member of Temple University's Departrrent of Religion and Honorary Consul for Switzerland, and Mrs. Theodore J. Finckh who has played a decisive role in the affairs of the SAHS for many years, will make the necessary arrangements. Their generous and indispensable help is gratefully acknowledged.

Urs Schwarz, The Eye Of The Hurricane: Switzerland In World War Two, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

"Switzerland in World War II" has become a favorite object of investigation and subject of treatment by Swiss journalists, publicists, political scientists and historians. The flood of articles and monographs on every conceivable aspect of that topic has become so overwhelming as to make it almost impossible for one person to keep track of it, let alone read and digest it. And yet, according to Urs Schwarz, ther is a gap in this outpouring of hsitorical literature: There are no English language accounts on the role of neutral Switzerland in World War II. His Book The eye of the Hurricane …

Jacob Burckhardt, The Historian, As Analyst Of His Age, Walter L. Mullen

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Often the historian is faced with the question of how the study of the past relates to the present. Even when Leopold von Ranke's admonition is followed, and we try to tell history "as it essentially was" and eliminate subjectivity, purely personal opinions are difficult to keep out of formal academic work. Even when objectivity is attempted, the historian will have personal convictions about the object of his study in relation to his own existence.

Address To Swiss Living Abroad By The President Of The Swiss Confederation, Georges-Andre Chevallaz

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This 1st of August anniversary - commemorating the joint alliance sworn in the year 1921 by the three founding cantons of Switzerland, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden --affords the President of the Swiss Confederation the welcome opportunity of addressing Swiss citizens abroad and also many foreign friends of Switzerland.

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Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Tracing Your Swiss Roots. By Maralyn A. Wellauer., Sandra H. Luebking

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

These three works offer a pleasantly optimistic view of Swiss research. The disadvantages of not one, but four, national languages, (German, French, Italian , and Romansh), and a lack of federal census schedules or military pension files are more than offset by the availability of records relatively untouched by war, political instability, or extensive civil boundary changes. Particularly reassuring is Mr. Nielson's observation that, with few exceptions, one can trace his lineage in Switzerland to about the time of the Reformation. However, success is not synonymous with simplicity. All three authors stress the inability of one publica tion to deal …

Purrysburg, An Archaeological Survey, Larry Lepionka

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

An archaeological reconnaissance of the colonial site of Purrysburg, on the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, has been conducted intermittently through the year 1979, with the goal of locating structural or other artifactual remains of the original Swiss settlement established here in 1733. Work was restricted to a surface search with only limited subsurface testing. Brick outcroppings occurred at various locations but their date could not be ascertained without extensive excavation. Artifact scatters including datable ceramics were common and suggest a peak in occupation between 1790 and 1820, well after the initial Swiss settlement. Early and middle 18th …

Swiss Food And Foodways In Early Pennsylvania, William Woys Weaver

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

When the immigrants from Basel composed this song about corning to Pennsylvania in 1803, I do not think they realized --in spite of their enthusiasrn--what a very strange mixture of things they would find there a century and a half ago. Certainly, this was a major area of Swiss settlernent and in spite of the pressures of acculturation, there were many foods that the 1803 settlers would recognize from their homeland.

Karl Luond, Schweizer In Amerika., Bruno Gujer

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

As a Swiss in America one is particularly sensitive about what is written in Switzerland about America and Swiss immigrants here. Karl Luond's Schweizer in Amerika is a welcome though flawed introduction to thegreat saga of Swiss immigration to this country. Welcome, because Luond covers the most important names and places, and gives insight into the great diversity among the men and women who attempted a new beginning across the Atlantic. One marvels at the achievement of a Gallatin, Ammann or Zwick, at the wealth of a Guggenheim or Frick, at the hardships of the pioneer settlers.

Letter From The President, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Permit me to bring two items to your attention. First, in accordance with the decision taken at the last annual meeting, the SAHS has purchased for distribution 250 copies of Gayle Thornbrough, ed., The Correspondence of John Badollet and Albert Gallatin 1804 - 1836, published by the Indiana Historical Society in 1963. A complimentary copy will be sent to each member in early June with the hope that you will enjoy the work. (Please notify me in case a copy does not reach you in due time.)

Robert H. Billigmeier, A Crisis In Swiss Pluralism, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The author, Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, presents a study that is clearly a labor of love, an analytical tour de force, and a toughminded professional diagnosis. It is devoted to the Swiss segment of the once large community of Romansh speakers who resided in the Alpine regions between Italy and Northern Europe. The remnant occupies today a similar position as the Basques in Spain and France, the Flemish in Belgium, or the Lapps in the northern borderlands who are also encircled by more numerous and powerful linguistic groups. Professor Billigmeier views the Romansh, …

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Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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125 Years Gloor Family In The United States, Richard D. Gloor

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Enclosed is a copy of a narrative dated 14 July 75 about my GLOOR family. I have pieced it together by research and travel to Tell City Ind. Casper GLOOR, the immigrant from Switzerland, was a member of the Swiss Colonization Society. He journeyed from Cincinnati down the Ohio River and helped found Tell City Ind.

To Our Readers, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

1. Enclosed with this Newsletter, SAHS members will receive a copy of the long awaited Swiss Genealogical Research: An Introductory Guide by Paul Anthon Nielson. Additional copies may be purchased a a reduced membership price of $3.25 from our president Dr. Leo Schelbert, 2523 Asbury Avenue, Evanston, Illinois 60201; or at the regular price of $4.95 from the publisher, The Donning Co., 5041 Admiral Wright Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. The officers of the SAHS hope that you enjoy this gift and recognize it as one of the ways in which they try to make membership in the society worthwhile …

Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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Georg Strandvold: A Progress In Journalism, Olga Strandvold Opfell

The Bridge

A bronze plaque that honors Georg Strandvold's memory hangs in Rebild's Blokhus, succinctly summing up the influence he had in his time on thousands of Danish Americans: Skirbent og redaktor i i Amerika i 57 ar. Trofast talsmand for Danmark.

That long career was also versatile. During those 57 years Georg Strandvold wrote for the best known Danish newspapers in the U.S. - Norden, Nordlyset, Den Danske Pioneer, Ugebladet, Dannevirke, Bien - and worked on two American dailies, the Racine Journal and the Grand Forks Herald. For 31 years he also sat on the editorial staff of Decorah-Posten, the largest …

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.

The Remigrants, Edward F. Sundberg, Gerda Sundberg

The Bridge

"Why did you emigrate to the United States?" Gerda asked.

Mr. R. let a smile play with his lips. " It was an accident," he said.

"Tell us about it," she encouraged.

He told the story of his emigration. Gerda and I listened. Our recording machine captured his words on a cassette tape.

"Now tell us about moving back to Denmark."

Gerda and I were interviewing in Denmark as a part of the research project, RIBBONS OF MEMORIES, an American-Scandinavian Ethnic Heritage Oral History Program.

Principles And Polemics A Chapter In The History Of Grand View College, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Early in 1894 the Danish Lutheran Church in America was divided by a schism . At that time the Synod lost a substantial number of pastors and congregations while some other congregations, and even families, were divided by the split in the Church. That traumatic event did have one beneficial side effect, however. The conventions for the Church became much more peaceable and, for the next few years, the Church was unified and could work with undivided attention to perform the tasks at hand.

The Feilberg Letters: A Danish Family's Reflections On Canadian Prairie Life (Ii), Jorgen Dahlie

The Bridge

Readers of the previous issue of The Bridge (no. 3, 1979) will have made the acquaintance of the Ditlev and Julie Feilberg family. Their arrival in Saskatchewan some seventy years ago and their subsequent experiences in Canada have been documented in a series of letters sent to relatives in Denmark. In eloquent, often poignant language, the letters tell an absorbing story of the immigrant's hopeful expectations - and of the often harsh reality - in a new land.

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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.

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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