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Dana history professor, Iain
Anderson is once again having eight of his students
utilize The Danish American Archive and Library for
their research projects. With subjects such as Danish
assimilation as revealed in Danish Brotherhood records,
the Americanization of the Knud Sorensen family, Danish
resistance in WW II, and changing attitudes of Danish
Americans in the Spanish-American and Filipino-American
wars, the students have the rare opportunity to gather
research from the primary materials detailing the lives
of Danes in America that The Archive offers. The
students began their research in February, and their
complete projects are due in mid May.
Bendt Jensen from Denmark
has spent most of March and April at The Archive doing
research for a travel guide that he intends to publish
on his return to Denmark. Jensen is tracking the
movements of immigrants from Northern Denmark as they
moved throughout Canada and the United States and
sometimes back to Denmark. Once he has mapped the
various routes they took, he plans to create a guidebook
for those who wish to retrace the routes of the original
immigrants.
Progress has been made in
organizing The Archive’s music collection. Tim
Jensen and Sandra Wigdahl are sorting more than 600
records of various sizes—33 1/3, 78 and 45—into broad
categories, such as classical, light classical, pop,
folk, Christmas and religious. Most of the collection
was recorded in Denmark or for the Danish market, and
almost all the labels are in Danish. When the records
are sorted, they will be placed in acid-free sleeves,
properly stored and cataloged to make them more
accessible to the public.
Volunteer Week takes place
the week of April 18. We are expecting approximately
20 volunteers from throughout the country to help with
the monumental job of sorting, indexing and cataloging
materials as well as entering them into computer files.
The Archive would not be able to continue without the
generous help of these volunteers and we are very
grateful to them.
Two large collections have been
moved to a recently refurbished and furnished room
located next to the new music room. The Walker-Johnson
collection contains 165 boxes of written materials
reflecting the everyday lives of the Henry and Mary
Johnson family, their ancestors and descendants spanning
the time from the late 1800’s to as recent as 2006. The
Borge Christensen collection includes 137 boxes of
personal and professional documents, plus an inventory
of professional materials that have been deposited in
the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of
Minnesota. The collection also includes more than 250
books, binders and journals. This new room not only
makes access to these significant collections easier,
but also frees up badly needed space in the main
archive.
For the second consecutive year,
Marianne Paasch, a graduate student from Aalborg,
Denmark, is utilizing the resources of the DAAL
while working toward her master’s degree from Aalborg
University. Her final thesis, which is due in September,
will analyze and document the schism of 1894 in the
Danish Lutheran Church. Marianne also spent six months
as an intern at the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn,
Iowa, in 2008. Upon completion of her master’s degree,
Marianne hopes to work in a museum or archive either in
the United States or Denmark. She plans to continue her
research and writing as well. |
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