History Commons^™

Heritage, Johannes Knudsen

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The term "heritage" brings up associations of "heredity" and this again reminds us of genes and the genetic code. Heritage in this sense is terribly important. We are programmed by our genes. Our appearance and condition are pre-determined in many ways, ranging from the color of our eyes to the state of our health and the potential of our mind, and including negative as well as positive features. Genetic heritage can be a blessing and it can be a burden. It has the greatest significance for the individual, but is also an important corporate factor. Ethnic groups have genetic features …

The Limits Of Ethnicity, Irving Howe

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Americans have often defined themselves through an unwillingness to define themselves. In the work of our greatest writers, notably Melville and Whitman, the refusal to succumb to fixity of definition comes to seem a cultural signature.

In opposition there has arisen a native industry of America-definers who offer a maddening plenitude of answers. But people in a hurry with answers have usually not even heard the questions. And finally it all comes to the same thing: many answers equal no answer.

Some Thoughts On Acculturation, Otto G. Hoiberg

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Three years ago an important work entitled Flight to America - The Social Background of 300,000 Danish Emigrants was published by Kristian Hvidt(1), Head Librarian of the Danish Parliamentary Library in Copenhagen. Dr. Hvidt's painstaking demographic study of 58 handwritten volumes of data ralating to America-bound Danish emigrants between 1868 and 1914, together with computer analysis, revealed a wealth of interesting information relating to the age, sex, family status, occupation, motivation and other characteristics of the people concerned.

Do Your Homework!, Thorvald Hansen

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I once heard a young American ask a Danish visitor whether or not he was acquainted with the inquirer's uncle in Denmark. It quickly developed that the only thing which the young man knew about his uncle was his family name. Incredible as it may seem, such things happen and though to a lesser degree, they happen frequently when a search is made for overseas ancestors. Denmark is a relatively small country and the unspoken assumption is often made that everyone there knows everyone else and, therefore, one need only know the name and the fact that an ancestor came …

Elfrida Pedersen Collection, Clinton M. Hyde

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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.

Membership Form

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Please enroll me as a member of the Danish American Heritage Society.

Full Issue

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