Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Edgar B. Madsen. The Shoestring Letters: A Tribute To The Immigrant, Inger M. Olsen

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Edgar Madsen’s parents, Niels and Signe Madsen, left their home and family in Denmark in 1928 to seek their fortune in the United States. For three decades after their emigration, their only contact with their loved ones back home was through letters, which inspired the name of Edgar B. Madsen’s charming, thought-provoking book, The Shoestring Letters: A Tribute to the Immigrant. After being stored in a thatched roof attic for decades, the letters Niels and Signe sent to their loved ones in Jutland came to light when the family cleared out their grandfather’s house; they made their return journey …

Remembering Our Unsung Pioneer Ancestors, Jim Lewis

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My great-grandparents, Niels Jensen Norgaard (1848-1920) and Karen Sorensen Norgaard (1852-1949) immigrated to America in 1869 and 1871, respectively. They had both been raised in the Aalborg area of northern Jutland. Niels left his family and a comfortable home at the age of twenty to travel alone to a new, yet unknown, destination. His immediate objective was Harlan, Iowa, where relatives had a farm. It was twelve hundred miles across unfamiliar land between New York City and Harlan, Iowa. Niels was alone in a strange land, didn't know the language, and had little money to sustain himself. He traveled on …

Jacob A. Riis: The Ideal American Citizen, Flemming Just

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At his death in 1914, Jacob A. Riis was one of the US's best-known and most admired citizens, who had been able to effect more social change than most of his peers. President Theodore Roosevelt had earlier declared Riis to be "the most useful citizen of New York," and now called him "the ideal American citizen." In one of many obituaries of Riis we read:

Denmark gave him to us, and if we gave Denmark millions in return, we could not pay her for what Riis did for us and for what Riis inspired us to do. He landed in …

The Transformation Of Chris Madsen In 1875-76: From Troubled Young Man In Denmark To Mature Wild West Hero In America, Frans 0rsted Andersen

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In October 2018, I pub- lished a book about Chris Madsen with the title Et liv pa kanten. En biografisk fortcel- ling om Chris Madsen's utrolige liv (A life on the edge. A bi- ography about the incredible life of Chris Madsen). The second edition, which I cite in this article, was published in 2019. This book grew out of two separate projects: one aimed at publishing texts that can encourage boys and men to read more books (again), and another focused on Dan- ish emigration to the US in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

An Everyday Story, Thomasine Gyllembourg, Troy Wellington Smith

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Translator’s Note: For most readers outside of Denmark, the Danish Golden Age begins and ends with Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard. At the time, however, both Andersen and Kierkegaard were outsiders in respect to the dominant cultural circle, that of the actress Johanne Luise Heiberg, her husband Johan Ludvig Heiberg, and his mother Thomasine Gyllembourg. Gyllembourg, along with Steen Steensen Blicher and Bernhard Severin Ingemann, is credited with giving Denmark its first canonical prose fiction. Despite her importance to Danish Golden Age literature and the history of European women’s literature, Gyllembourg is virtually unknown outside of Denmark, except among …

Time Spiral, Finn Bille

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In the fortress-church of Bjernede on Sjælland, Denmark

A Girl In Two Worlds, Meryem Sert

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It is evening in Allerød. I am sitting here by the window, trying to write a little before I go to sleep. In front of me are two photos that were taken only a few months apart.

One photo is of an eight-year-old girl with bare feet, dressed in a long skirt and head scarf. She is standing in the middle of a flock of sheep in front of a low house built of clay and stone. The other photo shows the same girl, taken in front of a red, high-rise apartment with a lot of cars around. She is …

A Journey To Denmark In 1928, Anton Gravesen

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It is now just 3 months ago that I packed my valise and said goodbye to Askov to make a journey to Denmark. It was with some mixed feelings. Half my life I have lived here and my other half over there in the old country.

Danish Old People’S Homes, Max Henius

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At present, two Danish Old People’s Homes (beyond those discussed in the chapters on the two church synods) have been established in the United States—one in Brooklyn and one in Chicago, which is the oldest. On March 12, 1891, a small group of women gathered in Chicago and founded an organization with the goal of establishing a home for poor Danish women. Following ten years of dedicated work, they raised $15,000 and planned to begin the Home’s construction. An extra meeting was called, at which time it was voted to allow men to be members of the organization and as …

Excerpts From The Course Of My Life, Jens Hansen, Edward A. Hansen

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Jens and Maren Stine Rasmusdatter came from the small island of Mom, Denmark. On a larger map of Denmark, Mon is a scarcely discernible plot of separated land, with chalk cliffs on its eastern seaboard and sandy beaches on the other. Stege is its chief town, set by an inlet called Noret and surrounded by verdant fields and forests. It is an idyllic spot, with its own culture and legends. Residents love it. Present day tourists are charmed by it.

From this fabled island, Jens Hansen made his first journey to America. He remembers it as happening in the winter …

Denmark's Forgotten Film Star: Karl Dane, Laura Petersen Balogh

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"Slim of 'Big Parade' Dead Amid Poverty," "Riches to Rags," and "Actor Who Once Made $1500 a Week Saved From Pauper's Grave." These were some of the headlines that appeared in American newspapers in April 1934 after the suicide of Copenhagen-born silent film star Karl Dane.

The Practical And The Sentimental: The Artifact Collection Of The Danish Immigrant Museum, Angela Stanford

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Many of the things immigrants brought from Denmark were of practical value to them as travelers building new lives across the ocean. Trunks, blankets, tools, and clothes were obvious choices for anyone moving from one place to another. Photographs, knickknacks, toys, and other like items may not have been as practical, but held sentimental value by reminding them of the homes, families, and friends they were leaving behind.

Karen Blixen: The Quintessential Dane, Linda G. Donelson

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The year 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen and the 150th anniversary of the death of Soren Kierkegaard. It also is the 120th anniversary of Karen Blixen' s birth in 1885, and it is appropriate to talk about her at this conference. For the millions of Americans who have seen the movie Out of Africa, she may be the most famous Dane of all. We often imagine Karen Blixen as personified by Meryl Streep in the movie. But if you have read the book Out of Africa, you may rather think of Karen Blixen …

Grundtvig' S Relevance Today: The Current Debate, Henrik Wiegh Poulsen

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Hardly any individual has meant more to Denmark and the Danes than Grundtvig. But lately he has suffered a fall from grace in public opinion. Why is this and what does it mean to Grundtvig and to Danish society?

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 …

Matie's Dagbog [Matie' S Diary], Matie Eliva Petersen-Larsen

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Matie begins her diary, "I think I will begin a diary of this my most exciting year, so I will not forget a small thing. But for now I must hurry to my stateroom and pack my luggage." That was September 7, 1900, on a ship headed for Cuxhaven, Germany, her ultimate destination being the island of Als, Denmark, where her father's relatives lived. Matie had been given this year-long trip as a gift from her parents for helping to raise her eight brothers and sisters, younger than she, and for teaching them to read and write English, as Danish …

Three Tales Of Two Towns: How Fano Entered The Golden Age Of Sail, Anne Ipsen

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Fano is a magical island off the west coast of Denmark, justly famous for its endless white beach along the North Sea. Towering dunes, whose slopes are covered in lyme grass, ring the center of the island where the heath is home to an abundance of creatures and plants. The colors of the sky and water, the heather and grass change in rhythm with the seasons. The solid houses of the two towns, Nordby to the north and Sonderho at the southern tip, bear witness to the wealth brought home from the seven seas by generations of seamen sailing their …

Grundtivigianism In America, Yesterday And Today, Thorvald Hansen

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It has been said, "In Denmark, everyone is a Grundtvigian whether he knows it or not." This certainly is not the case in America. Indeed, there are very few Grundtvigians in this country, and the prospects for increasing that number are very slight. This is not because the followers of Grundtvig have been "hiding their light under a bushel," but because the vast majority has not accepted it as light.

Gunnar Johansen: The Gentlemanly Dane, Solon Pierce

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It is about three score and five years ago now since a certain Dane came to Dane County, Wisconsin-a decisive step, he later recounted on many occasions, "that I have never regretted." To this native Midwestern observer, it was a perfect fit. There was something homespun and authentic in the nature of the man -a sense that he was cut from the same cloth.

To Denmark And Back An Excerpt From The Unpublished Memoirs Of John M. Jensen, Frederik V. Jensen, Peter L. Petersen

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The "most influential individual in the United Evangelical Lutheran Church's final twenty-five years" is how synod President William Larsen once described John M. Jensen1, longtime editor of The Ansgar Lutheran, the church's English language periodical. Jensen served the UELC as pastor, translator, historian, and representative, but it was through the pages of The Ansgar Lutheran that he had his greatest impact. Week after week for nearly twenty-five years, he wrote about spiritual matters, church policies and politics, questions of social justice, and events throughout the world, all the while serving full time as a church pastor. During World War II …

Introduction: Emigration From Vejle Amt

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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 …

From Vejle Amt To Iowa In 1868: An Immigrant's Christmas Letter, Christian Poul Christensen

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Discontent was rife in nineteenth-century Denmark, to be sure, but why would a prosperous, locally prominent individual like Christian Poul Christiansen choose to take his wife and family and leave their native land forever? Economic necessity did not drive them out into the wide world. "It was asserted that Christiansen brought along from Denmark around $20,000," wrote Rasmus Jurgens in Danske i Amerika in 1908.1 "This family is very wealthy. Through their influence, Randall Station was established, three miles north of Story City, in Hamilton County, [Iowa]. They built a store here and ran a general store, later a lumber …

A Trip To Denmark In 1906, Lois Eagleton

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In the spring of 1906, Niels Pedersen and his wife Minnie Oensen) traveled to Denmark to visit relatives and friends and to see the homeland. Niels had left Denmark to go to America, apparently to avoid having to join the King's army. There he met and married Maren Jensen (who preferred to be called "Minnie").

Restless Fanatic:Mogens Abraham Sommer, 1829-1901, Thorvald Hansen

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This account of the life and activities of a Danish religious fanatic who played a significant role in emigration has been prepared on the basis of materials available in this country. Further items are available in Denmark, but on the basis of what is known to be available, it is doubtful that this would make any appreciable difference. To my knowledge, this is the only English language story of his life.

A Danish Olympian In Los Angeles: Recollections From The Life Of Sigrid Lassen, 1900-1991, Karen Lassen

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I was born Sigrid Nielsen in Denmark at the tum of the century, November of 1900, in the little town of Roskilde. At that time, Roskilde was a thriving commercial town about two hours south of Copenhagen. My family lived in a large house in the center of town on the edge of the square surrounding the big cathedral. This church has special importance because it is the place all the Danish kings and queens are buried. From my bedroom window I could look out and see its tall, twin copper-covered spires . I can still remember walking across the …

Emigration From Denmark To America: Diary Of Marius Larsen, Marius Larsen

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The hour of departure falls on this day, a busy one for me. I have made good use of Christen Knudsen, my travel companion, in tieing up and transporting my baggage. "Cimbria" got under way at precisely eight o'clock, a large crowd on the dock waving farewell. Many of them were our friends and relatives. My parents came on board with us and there said their sad goodbyes. It hurts me to leave them; I hope for their sake, and for ours, that our future will develop in such a way as to make them happy that we left. We …

Pioneer Life In The Big Dane Settlement, August Rasmussen

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My experience in pioneer life commenced in 1856, after a long and stormy voyage from Denmark to America in that year. I shall, by the kind assistance of the Independent, give a little of my pioneer life and settlement during forty-five years. My thoughts are running back to the first Christmas I celebrated here in America, in 1856. It was a merry one, as you will see farther on. My wife and I were then both young, about twenty-seven years each.

The Significance Of The Private Letter In Immigration History, Niels Peter Stilling

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The title of this paper is two-sided. The private letter is an important source for understanding the psychological and human aspects of immigration. It is also important to note that until recently historians have shown much too little interest in the documents from the immigrants themselves. My hypothesis, which I intend to discuss here, is that the private letter was the most important stimulating pull-factor in immigration history. In certain periods a call for USA was put forward in most letter series. Praising various aspects of American life, private letters were written to draw relatives or friends across the Atlantic. …

Memories And Autobiography Of Jens Lind, Jens Lind

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I don't know if I can write anything that will read any different from thousands of other immigrants that came to make their home in the U.S.A.

The reason I came was mostly because of economic conditions. Another was adventure and restlessness which many young people suffer from in our days, too.

I was born close to the east coast in Jutland, Denmark, September 30, 1892. We were eight in the family: our parents, three brothers and three sisters and, of course, poor as church mice, like thousands of others.

The Rescue Of The Danish Jews: Moral Courage Under Stress, Leo Goldberger, Editor, Gerald Rasmussen, Reviewer

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We enthusiastically recommend a new book about the rescue of the Danish Jews during the Second World War. In fact, that is the name of the book: Rescue of the Danish Jews: Moral Courage under Stress. It was edited by Leo Goldberger and published by the New York University Press in 1987.

Several books have been written about this event, but they are not well known. These include monographs, first hand accounts and at least one historical novel.