Regional Sociology Commons^™

Wong Family: Nancy Wong (Elder), May Lin

Chinese American Stories

Nancy Wong was born in Ung Hong village, Toy San District, China, to a restaurant owner and housewife. Growing up, Nancy felt like a child who did not know much about the world. When Nancy was seven, her mother left Nancy and her younger brother to travel to the U.S. Nancy and her brother Donald, were left with their grandmother. At age nine, her grandmother sent her to school. When Nancy was 15, her mother returned to China with three sisters and four brothers for which Nancy was to care. This began her adulthood in her mind…

Stallworth Family: Kimberly Hamlett (Youth), Brett Kaufman

African American Stories

As a child of the ’60s, a person might think Kimberly Hamlett would show signs of her rebellious generation. However, those who know this warm, kindhearted and Christian woman would say differently. Kimberly, born in 1965, was the first child born to her large family. She is the oldest of seven children, four girls and three boys. She was born in Walnut Creek, but grew up in Stockton and continues to live here…

Wong Family: Violet Chan (Middle), Jacob Lethbridge

Chinese American Stories

There was hardly a time growing up when Violet Chan did not have responsibilities. As a child in China, she had a major role in obtaining food for her family and caring for her mother. Later, as a teenager, she had primary responsibility for taking care of her baby brothers. Despite the duties asked of her, Violet had an underlying passion for an education and she fixed her sights on that goal…

Wong Family: Sandra Won (Middle), Oksana Ivashchenko

Chinese American Stories

Growing up in a close-knit Chinese family, Sandra Won had a happy upbringing with parents who didn’t impose adult roles on her. They made sure that she had time to be a child, to play and to experience a wide variety of activities. Her entrance into adulthood was gradual and, in her mind, was marked by a variety of ordinary events in her life…

Canepa Family: Thomas Canepa (Youth), Lucy Buck

Italian American Stories

As the alarm sounds, a teenager wakes up from his slumber and begins his daily routine. It is Friday morning, so after school, he’ll be able to hang out with his friends. Unfortunately, the teen, Thomas Canepa, won't be able to stay out late. The next day is Saturday, and he has to work. When he was younger, Thomas relished the freedom of playing with his friends without having any family obligations. But at age 16, Thomas has a part time job at the family business, a car wash where he pumps gas and prints receipts for customers…

Podesta Family: Kathleen Salmon (Youth), Jessica D'Anza

Italian American Stories

Kathleen Salmon is that rare young American who thoroughly enjoys being rooted in family life. Now, 20 years old, she loves her Italian American family, its customs, teachings and celebrations. As an only child, Kathleen Salmon was the center of her parents attention. Raised on a farm in Linden, she was part of a loving, extended family. She came to value rural life—the natural surroundings and the integration of work and home. She has never rebelled against her background, but instead prided herself on the strengths and values that have framed her world…

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 Evangelical Movement In Ecuador, Steve Grosz

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

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.

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.

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

The Bridge

"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 …

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.

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 …

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 …