Arts | Lectures | Seminars | Gatherings

Nordic Spirit Symposium

Scandinavians in the Old West

Nordic Spirit Symposium

Scandinavian immigrants and their descendants played big roles in the development of the West. This symposium looks into their contributions in areas ranging from civic engagement to the transport of lumber needed for cities such as Los Angeles. The public is invited to join in the spirit of a symposium, which blends music, dining and the free exchange of ideas to enhance the pleasure of learning.

Friday, 5:30 p.m.
Scandinavian Center, 26 Faculty St.
Reception

Reservations requested. Admission is $10.

Friday, 7 p.m.
Samuelson Chapel
Western on Arrival: Swedish Immigrants and the Myth of the West

The image of an exotic and violent North American West was readily available to Europeans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Swedes read translations of the Buffalo Bill dime novels and materials penned by Swedish emigrants. To the extent that Swedes came with a notion of the Wild West, we can say that they were Western on arrival, explains Jennifer Easton Attebery, chair of the English Department and director of the Folklore Program at Idaho State University.

Potboilers and Sentimental Romances: How the Danes Won the West
John Mark Nielsen, executive director of the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elkhorn, Iowa, gives a light-hearted overview of the immigrant novels of Kristian Ostergaard, written between 1890 and 1930. Who knew that Danes played such an important role in the Old West?

Admission is $20. Free for students and CLU faculty and staff.

Saturday, 9 a.m.
Samuelson Chapel
The “Scandinavian Navy”: Lumber Schooners of the Pacific West Coast

Olaf T. Engvig, maritime author and restorer of historic Norwegian boats and ships, discusses the critical role that hundreds of Scandinavian-operated Pacific Coast lumber schooners played in the development of the West. Though largely ignored in the literature, captains and sailors arguably made a more distinctly Scandinavian contribution to the development of the West than other Scandinavian immigrants did on the prairie.

Civically Active Scandinavians in the Northwest and their Legacy
With pictures and stories, Ryland Penta, a political science student of past Nordic Spirit presenter Christine Ingebritsen at the University of Washington, discusses the lasting legacy of civically active Scandinavians in Washington state, such as suffragists Helga and Clara Estby, Swedish Hospital founder Dr. Nils Johanson, Seattle mayor and San Clemente, Calif., founder Ole Hanson, and department store founder John Nordstrom.

Immigrant Logger Revolutionizes the Northwest Timber Industry
Mary Hekhuis, former director of public relations at CLU, tells how Finnish immigrant Oscar Wirkkala’s creativity and inventions revolutionized logging on the steep slopes of the Pacific Northwest.

Scandinavians in the Alaska Gold Rush: the Three Lucky Swedes
Gold found in Alaska in the late 19th century attracted prospectors from around the world, including Scandinavia. Ernst F. Tonsing, CLU professor emeritus of religion and Greek, recounts some astonishing adventures of the famous Three Lucky Swedes (one was Norwegian) and how they struck it rich, kept their wealth, founded the city of Nome and became benefactors to their home countries as well as San Francisco and Oakland.

Early Swedes in Kingsburg, Calif.
The Central California city of Kingsburg has 19th-century Swedish architecture in its downtown, lampposts adorned with Dala horses, and a water tower decorated like a Swedish coffee pot. Robert H. Peterson, a retired attorney and native of Kingsburg, tells the story of this city founded before the turn of the century by Swedish immigrants that has retained its character and traditions through changing times.

Who Knew That Edvard Grieg was the Rugged “Cowboy” Individualist from the West (Coast of Norway, that is)?
Dorothy Schechter, professor emerita of music at CLU, returns to entertain the audience with piano music and stories about composer Edvard Grieg.

The Baron of Mesa Verde: Gustaf Nordenskiöld's Role in the Early Archaeology of the American Southwest
A young Swedish scientist made Mesa Verde famous long before it became a national park. In 1891, Gustaf Nordenskiöld published the first scientific monograph on the ancient cliff dwellings. Seen as an outsider, he ignited American prejudice against foreigners, and severe local opposition resulted in his arrest, imprisonment and trial, and an international controversy. Judith Lähde Reynolds, a journalist, adjunct professor of art history at Fort Lewis College and co-author of a biography of Nordenskiöld, relates this fascinating story.

Individualizing Nature: the Art and Life of Birger Sandzén
Ron Michael, curator of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kan., discusses the Swedish-American artist Sandzén (1871-1954), who came from Västergötland province in 1894 to teach at Bethany College and develop as an artist. Through ability and determination, he became a distinguished painter and printmaker of Kansas, Rocky Mountain and Southwest landscapes, as well as an honored educator and arts proponent. This talk also touches on Sandzén's early years at the Cathedral School in Skara, Sweden, under Anders Zorn and Richard Berg in Stockholm, and in Paris.

Admission is $40. Free for students and CLU faculty and staff.

Saturday, 7 p.m.
Lundring Events Center
Dinner and Entertainment

Reservations required. Admission is $33.

For information and early registration fees, call Larry Ashim at 805-660-3096. The Nordic Spirit Symposium is sponsored by the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation and California Lutheran University, and is made possible by generous grants from the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and the Norway House Foundation in San Francisco.

Sponsored By
Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation and California Lutheran University

Contact

Larry Ashim
805-660-3096

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