NAHA is pleased to announce that we have received a generous grant for $297,453 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The funds awarded by the NEH Humanities Collections and References Resources program will be used to preserve, digitize, and make accessible five collections that document the relief efforts of Norwegian-Americans for occupied Norway during World War II.
The Collections to be Digitized Include:
American Relief for Norway, Inc. Papers
American Relief for Norway (ARFN) was a group founded to relieve distress among the people of Norway.
Camp Little Norway Association Papers
Established in 1941 after a group of American citizens of Norwegian descent from Minneapolis visited Camp Little Norway, a training base for the Royal Norwegian Air Force in Toronto. The group was convinced that there was a cause that deserved their attention: Helping friends and family who were fighting for Norway. The first official meeting of Camp Little Norway Association was September 23, 1941, and the organization was incorporated under the laws of the State of Minnesota.
Campbell Norsgaard Collection
Norsgaard was the official photographer for the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) and its training facilities in Canada from nearly the beginning of World War II until its end. During this period, he photographed the servicemen and their airplanes, the Royal Family, various training facilities, and many official and unofficial activities. Thousands of photographs, along with more than a dozen films, feature soldiers as well as the Norwegian Royal Family. The collection visually documents Norwegian and Norwegian-Americans war efforts.
Hermana Rye Haugan Papers
Haugan was one of the most active women to lead the relief effort for Norway during and after World War II. Haugen was the Secretary of the Chicago Working Center for Norway, a group that supplied hand-sewn and knitted clothes for those in Norway.
Jacob Stefferud Papers
Stefferud helped the effort by working through the Camp Little Norway Association. A Norwegian-born Minneapolis resident, Stefferud was chief clerk for the Norwegian American Line in its New York and Minneapolis offices. He was an acting Consul for Norway, and a commissioner for Nordmanns-Forbundet (or Federation of Norwegians) – a non-profit founded in 1907 with the purpose of uniting friends of Norway throughout the world.
As we embark on this exciting work in the coming months, we will be sharing updates here. We invite you to follow along via social media to keep up with news of this project.
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this archival work do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.