The Norwegian-American Historical
Association
by D. G. Ristad (Volume I: Page 147)
The Norwegian people are a race whose vitality has been maintained
undiminished through many centuries. One of the evidences of this native
vitality is the surplus of energy which this people has thrown off in the form
of emigrants to other lands. Where these emigrants have come to settle they have
added new energies to the native stock of the races of which they have become a
part. The drain upon the home population has continued with more or less
intensity during Norway's entire history. There have been periods when the
national vitality was lowered by various causes, -- war, pestilence, and famine,
for example,-- but the recuperative energies of the people have asserted
themselves, and usually after such periods the nation has soon had a surplus of
population.
During the last hundred years, while more than a half million persons
emigrated from Norway to the United States and Canada, and many thousands of
Norwegians were in foreign service, the population in Norway increased rapidly
and the physical health of the people maintained itself at a high standard. In
the arts and sciences, also, in industry, commerce, politics, and education the
people of the northern kingdom have shown a vitality that places them among the
energetic peoples of the world today. While making history both in their own
country and abroad, they have not neglected to take stock of their past and to
interpret their record as a race and as a nation.
All this has tended to produce a marked racial consciousness among the people
of Norway and their sons and daughters who have become citizens of other lands.
Yet the
Norwegian people have shown, from ancient days to the present, a
talent for adapting themselves to new conditions and new environments. Trained
in democracy and. freedom, they have been able to adjust themselves easily to
the political, social, and industrial institutions of peoples whose conditions
have been similar to their own. The transition to the American and Canadian
environment has therefore been particularly smooth, for ideals, traditions, and
aspirations have created an atmosphere genuinely homelike, while at the same
time the immigrants from Norway have found a profitable outlet for their
physical and intellectual energies. The removal from the Old to the New World
was an act that may have been felt for a time as a shock, but it does not appear
to have diminished the vigor of the people; rather it increased the vitality of
their growth in the new soil. While adjusting themselves to the new environment,
they have taken seriously their responsibility in the forming of the type of
American racial individuality which is being produced out of composite elements;
conscious of their backgrounds and origins, they have desired to give to the new
nation the best elements in their nature and their cultural experience. Thus
they have recognized an obligation both to the past and to their posterity.
From. time to time Americans of Norwegian birth or descent have considered
among themselves the desirability of establishing an historical agency which
might collect and preserve records and objects that throw light upon the
activities and backgrounds of this element in the American population. They have
discussed the problem of setting up and maintaining a museum, and a collection
of manuscript and library materials, and they have wished to promote historical
research within this special field. Much work in this sphere has indeed been
done by individuals, denominational schools, and provincial and other societies,
and a large amount of more or less cohesive material has been collected. But it
was not until the Norse-American Centennial celebration in June, 1925, that a
plan for an historical organization of national scope took definite shape.
The idea of such a society was discussed earnestly as early as 1907 by the
members of the Symra Society of Decorah, Iowa. in connection with the
publication of the historical and literary periodical Symra, which had
been founded two years earlier by Johannes Wist and others. It is not unlikely
that in other parts of the country the need of an organization was also taken
under consideration. In the fall of 1913 Mr. Totstein Jahr of Washington, D. C.,
on a lecture tour through the Northwest presented cogent reasons for the
organization of an historical society, and also brought the matter to public
attention through the press, but without tangible results.
A suggestion that a Norwegian-American historical society should be organized
in connection with the centennial celebration was made public in the summer of
1924 by Mr. Carl L. Tellefsen of ,Washington, D. C., and considerable discussion
of the matter appeared in the press. On October 21, 1924, Professor Gisle Bothne
of the University of Minnesota and a number of other interested persons issued a
joint call for a meeting to be held during the centennial celebration for the
purpose of ascertaining the degree of interest that existed in favor of the
organization of an historical society. In preparation for this meeting the
subject was given considerable publicity and in the spring of 1925 a draft
constitution was published in the Norwegian-American newspapers. The stress of
affairs at the centennial celebration crowded out the proposed organization
meeting, but a number of enthusiasts, who desired to take advantage of the
foundations that had already been prepared, met in Decorah late in July, 1925,
and concluded to make an effort to bring the society into existence. Fourteen
men, at the outset, contributed each the sum of ten dollars, and Dr. Knut
Gjerset, professor of history at Luther College, proceeded to reconnoiter the
field. During the summer and fall he made a personal canvass, assisted by
Mr. Kristian Prestgard of Decorah and Professor O. E. RČlvaag of St. Olaf
College, with the result that by October 1, 1925, more than a hundred persons
had promised to become members of the projected association.
A call to meet at St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minnesota, on October 6,
1925, met with a splendid response, and the Norwegian-American Historical
Association was duly organized, temporary officers were elected, and a tentative
constitution was adopted. The organization was completed, a charter adopted, and
the association incorporated under the laws of the state of Minnesota at a
meeting held in St. Paul on February 3, 1926. The growth in the membership of
the association is evidenced by the membership list printed in the present
volume.
The future activity and usefulness of the association will depend upon
adequate funds, a systematic collection of records, and the cooperation of
historical scholars -- all backed by the active and general interest and support
of the people at large.
The first step in the program is illustrated by the present volume of Studies
and Records. As soon as the necessary funds permit, a quarterly magazine
will be published; and it is the hope of the association that it will be in a
position to bring before the public from time to time monographs dealing
exhaustively with different subjects, to be written by competent scholars in the
particular fields.
A volume, or several volumes, of translated "America letters"
and pamphlets and books written by Norwegian immigrants and travelers in America
.will probably be brought out by the association, and it is also expected that
the preparation of a series of bibliographies in the field of
Norwegian-Americana will be undertaken.
The association will lend its efforts to the gathering of source material and
will encourage its adequate care and preservation in designated repositories. It
particularly wishes to secure diaries, account books, church records, letters,
proceedings
of societies, and other materials that throw light on the
life, character, and achievements of the Norwegian people in America. The
association will also help to maintain and to develop the Norwegian-American
Historical Museum at Luther College, Decorah, by assisting in its collection of
objects of home industry and .art in its special field.
The Norwegian-American Historical Association desires to cooperate with all
organizations that touch, in their activities, the broad field that the
association seeks to cultivate -- the Norwegian element both in its relations to
its racial source and its special historical and cultural backgrounds and in its
relations to the history and culture of the American people, of which it has
gradually been becoming an integrant part.
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