Olsen was a shop machinist in Laredo (Texas), Wilmington (Delaware), and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). He was also machinist on English ships and served in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Services during the Spanish-American War (1898). After 1900, he worked as an engineer with coastal trade steamship lines. He was also a member of the Socialist Party of America.
Scope and Content:
Correspondence, articles, reports, drawings, diaries, log-books, notebooks, clippings, and pamphlets of a Norwegian-born machinist and engineer. The correspondence deals with such topics as problems in engineering, sea disasters, strikes and labor problems, drought, farm crops, recreation, and religion.
In a letter dated September 29, 1890, Olsen describes his journey from Oslo to Laredo, Texas, via ship and rail. Most of the letters by Olsen are to his wife. The articles include biographies of members of Olsen's family and also treat Yukon gold rush experiences. One diary concerns his immigration journey to America.
]]>Osland was a trustee of the Century of Progress Exposition; member of the Norwegian-American World's Fair Auxiliary Committee; treasurer of NAHA for 25 years; director and also president of the Norwegian-American Hospital; and national treasurer of Norwegian Relief, Inc., during World War II.
Scope and Content:
Includes material on the various Chicago Norwegian organizations and institutions: Arne Garborg Klub, Den Norske Quartet Klub, Det Norske Nationalforbund, Den Norske Klub, Dovre Klub (politics), Sleipner Athletic Club, Norwegian Fish Club (businessmen's luncheon group), American Norwegian Chamber of Commerce, Norwegian Pioneers Club, Norwegian-American Athletic Association, Norwegian Literary Society, Norwegian People's Academy, Norwegian Players, Norwegian Singers' League, Norske Skiklub, Norwegian-American Hospital, Norwegian Old People's Home, and several non-church-affiliated institutions. Osland wrote frequently for the press about his civic interests, including articles on Chicago Norwegians. He promoted the compilation of his family genealogy, "Aasland-ætten," by Ola Aurenes (1947); and he wrote his own biography, "A Long Pull from Stavanger," published by NAHA in 1945.
The correspondence in this collection, about half of which is letters by Osland, deals with business enterprises, civic interests, philanthropy, and family. Topics discussed include city, state, and federal politics; banking and investments; Osland's work as organizer of American financial participation in the Norwegian America Line in 1911-1912; and the participation of Norway and Norwegian Americans in the Century of Progress Exposition. Correspondents other than those recorded in the inventory include: C. Martin Alsage, Knud Henderson, Halfdan Lee, R. B. Anderson, Thor Heyerdahl, Sigurd Maseng, John Benson, Knute Hill, Wilhelm Morgenstierne, E. Berentsen, John A. Hofstead, O. M. Norlie, C. F. Berg, Eivind Hognestad, H. P. G. Norstrand, B. E. Bergeson, Hjalmar Rued Holand, Oystein Øre, Olaf Bernts, Pres. Herbert Hoover, Jens A. Paasche, Einar Beyer, Andrew Hummeland, Thomas J. Pihlfeldt, Juul Dieserud, Henry O. Jaastad, Frederick Ring, E. N. Figved, Kristofer Janson, John W. Binding, George Flom, Carl Johnson, T. A. Siqueland, Nicolai A. Grevstad, Joseph M. Johnson, Oscar N. Solbert, Ernest Grundlach, S. Munch Kielland, Jno. J. Sonsteby, C. G. O. Hansen, Arnold S. Kirkeby, Vilhjalmur Stefanson, Harry Sundby - Hansen, Paul Knaplund, Henry A. Stibolt, Ludvig Hektoen, Egil E. Krogh, Carl Søyland Andreas Helland, Henning Larsen, O.A. Tingelstad F. J. Henderson, Victor Lawson, B. Wick.
]]>Kristian Prestgard was born on the Harelstad farm in Heidal, Oppland, Norway. His parents were Gudbrand Kristensen Harelstad (1829-1869) and Marit Prestgard (1841-1897). When his father, Kristian and Marit moved back to her family farm in Prestgard.
Prestgard attended the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago as a correspondent for Oplandenes Avis, a Norwegian newspaper. Instead of returning home to Norway, he started working in the Norwegian-American press. In 1897, he married Oline Musum (1873–1919) and took a position with a Norwegian language newspaper company in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
He was co-editor and editor of "Decorah-Posten" (1897-1946); co-editor and publisher of "Symra" (1905-1914); editor of Norske Kvad (1906); translator of "Fra Livet i Vestjylland" by Jakob Jakobsen (1894); author of "Nansenfaerden" (1896), Skrøneboka (1911), En Sommer i Norge (1928), "Streiftog, Stemninger og Skildringer" and "Fjords and Faces" (1937); and a founder of NAHA and a member of its board of editors (1925-1933).
Scope and Content:
Correspondence, manuscripts, and a scrapbook of a Norwegian-born journalist and author.
The letters by Prestgard and those by his correspondents deal largely with such subjects as the language controversy both in Norway and America, the tour of Norway by twelve American newspapermen in 1927, Knut Gjerset's unfinished dictionary of Norwegian-American biography, the writings of Ole E. Rølvaag, the Norwegian American Historical Association, the merging of "Minneapolis Tidende" and "Decorah-Posten" in 1935, genealogy, immigration history, and gladioli. He gained a reputation as a horticulturist by developing 30 new varieties of gladioli.
The Ola K. Stokkestad letters to Prestgard (1884-1897) are unique in that they treat not the economics of rural areas but cultural pursuits mainly in the city.
The Arne Odd Johnson letters (1934-1938) deal with editorial and publication problems connected with using the Prestgard-Ivar Kleiven correspondence as basic material in a history of the migration of Norwegians to America.
The John Heitmann letters (1928-1945) are primarily about the problems of translating, editing, and publishing "Fjords and Faces," the English version of "En Sommer i Norge."
Among the other correspondents are R. B. Anderson, Henry Armstrong, Mrs. L. M. Boomer, Th. Caspari, Borghild M. Dahl, Juul Dieserud, P. J. Eikeland, Johan Falkberget, Arne Garborg, C. J. Hambro, J. C. M. Hanson, Hjalmar R. Holand, Halvdan Koht, Hanna Astrup Larsen, Fridtjof Nansen, John Norstog, Julius Olson, Franklin Petersen, Ragnhild Prestgard, A. N. Rygg, Ludwig Saxe, Th. H. Svanoe, A. A. Veblen, and Henry A. Wallace.