Born in Sioux City Iowa in 1906 to Norwegian immigrants from Oppdal Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. When he was a young child, the family moved back to Oppdal for a few years but then returned to the United States. He attended Morningside College in Sioux City but transferred to St. Olaf College to study with Ole E. Rølvaag. He earned his B.A. in 1928 and immediately went on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Scandinavian Language Study in 1931.

In 1931 Haugen joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he stayed until 1962. He was made Victor S. Thomas Professor of Scandinavian and Linguistics at Harvard University in 1964 and stayed here until his retirement in 1975. Haugen served as president of the Linguistic Society of America, the American Dialect Society, and the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study. Haugen was also a member of the Board of Editors of the Norwegian American Historical Association.

Scope and Content: 
Correspondence, clippings, and articles in typescript and print. The collection includes O. E. Rølvaag's letters to Haugen.