During fall semester 2024, Luther College students in Dr. Anna Peterson’s Scandinavian Immigration History course collaborated with Vesterheim’s Chief Curator, Laurann Gilbertson, to choose some of the objects for the 200 Years of Norwegians in America exhibition. Working in teams, the students selected objects to study in depth and then contributed text for the corresponding exhibit labels. Each team also created recordings to share the full story of the objects and their place in Norwegian-American history.

If you experience difficulty hearing the audio recordings, we encourage you to click on the “CC” icon in the YouTube viewing window to activate closed-captioning.

Learn more about the Civil War through a wooden carved chain with students Tanner Peters and Natalie Smith and their guest Dr. Mark Guerci. The wooden chain was carved by Ole Rood in camp in 1862. Rood was born in 1842 in Dokka, Oppland, Norway. He came with his family in 1851 to Wiota, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. He served as a Private in Company E, 31st Wisconsin Regiment. He died at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri in January 1865.

Learn more about living traditions through a lefse stick with students Lily Nuland and Hannah Tepley and their guest Gary Legwold. Berthel Kvavik, a skilled carpenter, crafted this lefse turning stick (lefsefløy) as a special gift for wife Ruth and their home in Brooklyn, New York. The stick played an essential role in making the traditional Norwegian flatbread, typically topped with butter and sugar.

Learn more about the Norwegian American Line through a deck of cards with students Lauren Conner-Dieter and Jose Eliano Da Silva and their guest Dr. Marv Slind. Founded in 1910, the Norwegian American Line (NAL), was the first transatlantic passenger, mail, and cargo carrier that operated between the ports of New York City and Oslo. NAL made travel easy for Norwegians immigrating to the United States and both Norwegians and Americans traveling to visit friends or relatives. The backs of the playing cards show a drawing of a steam-powered ocean liner that NAL developed. Cards like these could provide shipboard entertainment and be saved as souvenirs.

Learn more about returned immigrants through a drawing of a farm with students Libby Bygd and Isaac Roberts and their guest Pat Downs. The drawing, Homestead of Elling Klauson in Norman County, Minnesota, is a pencil and crayong drawing of a homestead in Minnesota created by immigrant Knud Wefald (1869-1935) in 1888. He sketched his cousin’s farm where he worked as a farm hand for three years after immigrating.

Learn more about secret societies through a Masonic apron with students Thea Bentley, Wyatt Murphy, and Brock Ohlensehlen and their guests Tim Felton and Scott Nading. The Masonic apron was owned by Gustav Beutlich, originally from Stavanger, Norway. He became a Mason while living in Scotland in 1869 and continued as a Mason in Tacoma, Washington. Membership helped Beutlich build connections in the community for his work as a realtor and owner of the newspaper, Tacoma Tidende.

Learn more about the Vikings through a model Viking ship with students Jay Fjelstul and Sheridan Wilson and their guest Dr. Maren Johnson. The model Viking ship was built by Olaf Aalbu Sr. in 1925 to mark the centennial of Norwegian immigration to America. Olaf Aalbu Jr. remembered that his father used wood strips from shipping crates and soaked them in the bathtub so they could be bent to form the hull. Creating model ships was one of the ways that Norwegian Americans have kept the Viking story alive.

Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the first organized emigration of Norwegians to the United States with Vesterheim in 2025! The single-masted sloop, Restauration, left Stavanger on July 4, 1825, with 52 people on board and landed in New York Harbor on October 9, 1825.

Vesterheim joins Crossings, a group of Norwegian-American organizations, to commemorate this anniversary with programming inspired by the strong connections between the people of Norway and the United States. Whether you have Norwegian roots or an interest in Scandinavian traditions, we invite you to join Vesterheim’s special programs, exhibitions, and classes to share the history and traditions of Norwegian Americans.