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Browse Items (3004 total)
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Ludwig Motzfeldt clippings, 1908-1934
Clippings providing information about Motzfeldt who emigrated to Chicago about 1872. He established a trading post in Forest County, Wisconsin, and married a Chippewa woman. Included is a 3-page biographical statement about Ketil Johnsen Melstad Motzfeldt (1908). Motzfeldt died while living at Odanah, on the Bad River Indian reservation, Langlade Co., Wis. In one clipping, D.G. Ristad tells of the family in Norway. -
Peter Andreas Munch papers, 1855-1985
Records pertaining to the Norwegian-American interests of a sociologist who was born at Nes, Hedmark, and who received his early education in Norway. After graduate study at the Universities of Oslo, Oxford, Halle-Wittenberg and Chicago he received his first Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Oslo. He came to live in the United States in 1948, starting as a Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin. He taught at St. Olaf College, 1949-1951, at the University of North Dakota, 1951-1957, and at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1957-1977.
He was also a lecturer and visiting professor at several other American and Scandinavian Universities, and served on the Editorial Board of the Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1961-1984. In 1939 he wad been part of a Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic. The experience led to his becoming an expert on the island about which he published numerous articles and books, the most famous being "Crisis in Utopia" (1971). In 1970 he and his wife, Helene Munch, published "The Strange American Way," which was based on their traditions of the letters of Caja Munch, his grandmother, and on excerpts from the autobiography of the Rev. J. St. Munch, who served parishes in Wiota, Wisconsin, and in the surrounding area, 1855-1859. P.A. Munch's essay, "Social Class and Acculturation," is part of the book. After Munch's retirement from Southern Illinois University in 1977 he was elected a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science for his contributions to Sociology.
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Christian J. Muri biography, circa 1939
An autobiographical sketch of a Montana rancher. Born on the Muri farm, Innvik, Nordfjord, he emigrated 1893 to North Dakota, moved next year to Montana, settling near Harlow (Wheatland Co.) -
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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Helmer R. Myklebust papers, 1947-1968
Biographical data and articles by a Norwegian-American teacher at Northwestern University who was Director of the Institute for Language Disorders. His work with handicapped children earned him a national reputation. The institute he directed was a training center for teachers in the fields of deafness and language disorders. -
Ole A. Myrvik history, 1933, 1949
Family and church histories prepared by Myrvik, a farmer born in North Dakota of Norwegian parents. The family history gives an account of the 1869 journey from Hemnes, Nordland, by way of Bergen & Montreal to Minnesota, eventually to Cabalier Co., North Dakota. Includes comments on travel by covered wagon, land sharks, snowstorms, diseases, schools, and prices of commodities and crops. The history of Stefanus (St. Stephen) Lutheran Church, Milton, North Dakota (1883-1933), includes the names of the founders and ministers and a history of the auxiliary societies. -
Gerhard B. Naeseth papers, 1844-1993
Two reels of microfilm of passenger lists of vessels arriving at New York, June 19-August 31, 1844, and June 2-July 15, 1845, together with a typewritten transcript of the Norwegian portions of these films compiled by Naeseth. The roster of over 1,000 names also includes the names of ships, sailing dates, and the ages and occupations of the immigrants. Reprints from "Norsk Slektshistorisk Tidsskrift" of "Nordmenn i De Forenede Stater," and from "The Norseman," and "In Search of the Past," a description of Vesterheim Genealogical Center. -
Henriette Christiane Koren Naeseth papers, circa 1946-circa 1979
Naeseth was the daughter of C.A. Naeseth, longtime Luther College professor, and his wife, a daughter of U.V. Koren. She graduated from Grinnell college and received graduate degrees from the Universities of Minnesota and Chicago. After teaching at several colleges, she joined the Augustana college faculty in 1934 and taught until her retirement in 1968. "She became one of the very distinguished members of the Augustana faculty, rising to become chair of the humanities division…for 23 years." Luther College granted her an honorary degree in 1961, She received the St. Olav medal in 1970.
Her principal scholarly work was The Swedish theatre of Chicago, 1868-1950 (Augustana Historical society, 1951). She translated Sigrid Undset's Return to the future (1942) and contributed several articles to NAHA's Studies and Records. These papers consist of Naeseth's writings on Marcus Thrane. She became interested in writing a critical study of his life and works as early as 1952 when she submitted a translation of the section of Ernst Skarted's Vagabond och redactor (1914) on Thrane. Blegen encouraged her to broaden her study and make use of the extensive manuscripts which had been given to the University of Oslo library. Blegen recommended that Bjork "continue the correspondence with her…She will do a no. 1 job if and when she carries through her plans." Her correspondence with Bjork ends sadly with a letter (March 29, 1979) from an Augustana colleague informing Bjork that her "physical and mental condition is rapidly deterioration" and offering to send him the "masses of Thrane material…a complete and horrifying chaos." Bjork comments that "Quite some time ago, Henriette sent me preliminary translations of Thranes's plays and a good part of her interpretive writing about the man. I got nowhere trying to edit some of the latter; she rejected out of hand what I had done." NAHA in 1987 published Terje Leiren's Marcus Thrane, A Norwegian radical in America. While Naeseth's material was made available to Leiren, he does not refer to it.
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Anders Pedersen Naess commonplace book, undated
Manuscript copy of a book which appears to be an anthology of poems or hymns. The author's name was written into the book by O. M. Norlie and no further information on the author is available. Bound in pigskin. -
Bernhard Nalsund papers, 1974
Typescript of a history of Butli, the farm and the relationship, entitled: "Butli, Gorden og slekten."