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Browse Items (3004 total)
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Bernt J. Muus papers, 1855-1990
Biography/History:
Bernt Julius Muus was a Norwegian-American Lutheran minister and church leader. He helped found St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. Born in Snåsa, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway on March 15, 1932. He was the grandson of the priest Jens Rynning and the nephew of the emigrant author Ole Rynning. After graduating from the Latin school of Trondheim in 1849, he entered the University of Christiania to study theology and completed his theological training in 1854. In 159, Muus immigrated to the United States.
Muus was the first pastor of Holden Lutheran Church in Kenyon, Minnesota. Muus also founded St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minnesota, Fox Lake Lutheran Church in Rice County, Minnesota and many other churches in southern Minnesota. Muus was also the bishop of the Minnesota District of the Norwegian Synod, took part in theological disputes, and urged the church to do more in the field of education. In 1874, Muus, along with a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, founded St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1898, due to Muus’ uncompromising nature and stubbornness, he was expelled from the church for failure to conform to doctrine.
Muus married Oline Pind in 1859. They had three children, Nils, Jens Ingebrigt Rynning, and Paul Johan Elster. After a lengthy and highly publicised legal battle, Pind was granted a limited divorce on January 20, 1883. Divorce in the Norwegian-Lutheran community was rare at this time.
Scope and Content:
Articles, clippings, correspondence, lectures, sermons, court documents, family histories, and notes of a Norwegian-born clergyman and the founder of St. Olaf College. The file includes some Oline Muus letters and papers and the papers of Ole Willem Kluver, a great-grandson of B. J. Muus.
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Chorus, Solo, Song, and Hymn music collection
Continuation file for vocal music, mostly religious, mainly by Norwegian-American and Norwegian composers. -
Lars Nielssen Nesseim (Nesheim) papers, 1838-1961
Biography/History:
Lars Nielsen Nesheim, a farmer in Øvre Lemme in Voss, Norway, was responsible for copying all of these letters. A man by the name of Ivar Davidson Hustvedt (who donated one copy to NAHA) knew the man personally, and described Nesheim as a self-taught man, and as an "original.” Hustvedt said Nesheim had "bookshelves that reach from the floor up to the ceiling filling two walls" and “he spared no effort, often traveling great distances in order to get hold of these letters, as a loan or by other means, so he could copy them. He bound these copies into books” These letters were sent from America, and often helped convince or deter a person from emigrating. All of them are carefully copied in gothic script using different colors of ink.Scope and Content:
The Lars Nielseen Nesseim papers consist of two volumes of copied immigrant letters. One volume was donated by Ivar Davidson Hustvedt, and the other by Rev. Sven Tverberg. The two volumes of America letters were written during the 1840s to friends and relatives in Voss and copied into books by Nesseim. Sophie Boe made typed transcriptions and translations of the Tverberg volume. Among the letters are some by Elling Eielsen, Sjur Jørgensen Haaeim, and John Haldorsen Quileqval, uncle of Knut Nelson.Correspondence between Sophie Boe, O.E. Rølvaag, and Theordore Blegen about the Tverberg volume, and between Blegen and the Chicago Historical Society (now Chicago History Museum) about the Ekse volume. Note, the volume donated by Ida S. Ekse to the Chicago Historical Society may be the Lars Davidsen Reque volume. Two other volumes are at the Voss Folk Museum.
Volume 1 and volume 2 of the copied immigrant letters is available online. -
Rasmus J. Meland papers, 1903-1959
Correspondence, clippings, articles, reports, and notes of a Lutheran clergyman. Much of the material concerns the activities of Nordfjordlag and related enterprises. He made early attempts to found a Norwegian-American archives. Included is a collection of anecdotes submitted to Meland by clergymen for "Pioner presters saga," a publication never realized. Among these anecdotes are reminiscences (7 typescript pages) by Mary Nelsen Wee (Mrs. M. O.) under the title "Church Union." Meland was the author of John J. Meland and Marie Brekke Genealogy (1959), co-author of "Norske settlementer og menigheter i Sherbourne, Benton og Mille Lacs Counties, Minnesota" (1903), and editor of several Nordfjordlag annuals.
Includes:- Book "Norske Settlementer of Menigheder i Sherburne, Benton, og Mille Lacs Countier, Minnesota" (1903)
- Manuscript material for "Fra Pioner Presternes Saga" (27 July 1928-25 June 1932)
- Correspondence and reports (8 December 1896-20 October 1923)
- Correspondence and reports (12 April 1924-1 March 1957).
- Correspondence regarding a Norwegian-American Archive (11 May 1912-5 May 1914)
- Correspondence with O. M. Norlie (1922-1958)
- Clippings (1902-1948, n.d.).
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Luther College papers, circa 1861-1936
Bulletins, catalogs, reports, clippings, programs, brochures, and directories of a Decorah, Iowa, men's college, founded in 1861 and made co-educational in 1936. -
Nicolay Andreas Grevstad papers, 1892-1925
Correspondence, articles, reports, and clippings of a Norwegian-born journalist, diplomat, and financier. Grevstad was a practicing attorney and editor of Dagbladet (Oslo) before emigrating in 1883. In America he was editor of Nordvesten (St. Paul); leading editorial writer for Minneapolis Daily Tribune; editor of Skandinaven (Chicago) (1892-1911); United States minister to Uruguay and Paraguay (1911-1915); publicity director of Minnesota Safety Commission; chief of the foreign language press publicity service for the Republican National Committee (1919-1925); agent of a Chicago bank syndicate for Uruguay; and editor of Skandinaven (1930-1940). Articles by Grevstad on courts of conciliation in Norway and in America appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (September, 1891 and November, 1893).
The correspondence includes dispatches to the United States Department of State and letters concerning American interests in Uruguay and Paraguay, national political problems, Norwegian settlement, and investment opportunities. Among the correspondents are William Jennings Bryan, Gilbert N. Haugen, Nils P. Haugen, E. H. Hobe, Hanna Astrup Larsen, Medill McCormick, Knute Nelson, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, and William Howard Taft. Primary election reform, patriotism of the Scandinavian press and church, the wheat farmer during World War I, Non-Partisan League, and women's suffrage are some of the topics discussed in the articles, press releases, and letters. -
Leif Erikson papers, 1931-1952
Correspondence, pamphlets, programs, clippings, minutes, financial reports, and scrapbooks concerned with promoting Leif Erikson as the discoverer of America. Among the papers are those of the Minnesota Leif Erikson Monument Association, incorporated 1931 and dissolved in 1952, after erecting a Bronze statue at the state capitol grounds in St. Paul (October 9, 1949). The official statement by the President of the United States designating October 9 as Leif Erikson Day in recognition of the fact that Leif Erikson discovered the American continent. Proclamations for Ethnic American Day, 1986, and for National Immigrants Day, 1987, are included. Copy of a plan to create a monument to Leif Erikson: "A Proposal to the Norwegian People and Their Fellow Citizens of Chicago" by Arnold A. Tweten & Associates, Public Relations.
Includes Leif Erikson Day 2022 proclamation by President Biden. -
Eivind Klaveness papers, 1902-1947
A scrapbook, 10 volumes of correspondence (2,408 letters), 9 notebooks, and 43 pamphlets and addresses of a Norwegian-born physician, writer, and lecturer. Klaveness practiced in Brookings and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. He held many offices: president of Vestfoldlag, of the Minnesota Leif Eriksen Monument Association, of Scandinavian Republican State League of South Dakota, and was medical director of Sons of Norway and of the Surety Fund Life Company. He founded the Klaveness Corporation (investment bankers representing Klaveness Bank in Oslo); wrote two books, The Enchanted Islands (1939) and Norske læger i Amerika 1840-1942 (1943). He was a frequent radio and after dinner speaker; and was an equally frequent contributor of articles on medicine and politics to newspapers and journals. His correspondence with Richard Olsen Richards of the Richards Trust Company of Huron, South Dakota (3 volumes), reflects the story of that state's politics during the first three decades of the 20th century.
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Agnes M. Kittelsby papers, 1891-1940
Correspondence, a scrapbook, a biography and biographical notes and a diary of an Iowa-born teacher. Miss Kittelsby taught at St. Ansgar Seminary, Waldorf College, Augustana College, St. Olaf College, and Unity School, Honan, China. Much of the material deals with life at the schools she served. She also spelled her surname Kittelsby.