Norwegian-American Historical Association

Membership: naha's primary membership activities include hosting educational events and tours. We also produces a quarterly print newsletter to inform and educate members about our collections and topics related to Norwegian-American immigration history. In 2023, we held four events, two of which were available virtually. In may, an online talk called "putting the 'story' in family history" featured author, historian, and writing instructor dr. rachel hanel, associate professor at Minnesota state university, mankato. In july, naha partnered with Minnesota Historical society press, ramsey county Historical society and norway house to launch the newest publication of historian, author, and former naha editor odd s. lovoll's book, colonel hans christian heg and the norwegian american experience. This free event was open to the public. In october, author barbara sjoholm gave a talk that was recorded and streamed online. In it, she discussed the national museums in the nordic countries with significant collections of smi material culture. Her talk included the smi museums in norway, sweden, and finland that have been established over the past fifty years and their role in the renaissance of indigenous smi music, handicraft, and language restoration. The event was co-hosted by the st. olaf norwegian department. Our final event for the year featured dr. kristin anderson, professor of art at augsburg university, who guided a tour exploring the life and work of immigrant sculptor jacob fjelde. Stops included augsburg university's lindell library, minneapolis central library, loring park, hennepin history museum, lakewood cemetery, and minnehaha park.

Publication: in the fall of 2023, naha released volume 41 of our scholarly journal, Norwegian-American studies, published in cooperation with the university of Minnesota press. The journal is dedicated to showcasing the best work in the field of Norwegian-American studies, including the related disciplines of history, literature, religion, art, and cultural studies. In addition to several peer-reviewed articles, the journal includes photographic features, book reviews, works-in-progress, and updates on teaching, learning, and researching in the field of Norwegian-American studies. In addition to our print edition, free digital access to the journal and all past issues are available to naha members on project muse digital library. As a benefit of membership, naha also distributed colonel hans christian heg and the norwegian american experience (mnhs 2023) by odd s. lovoll.

Archives: naha continues to actively collect and preserve materials related to the Norwegian-American experience. In 2023, we hosted visiting researchers from the united states, canada, norway, and finland to our reading room, worked with student interns and classes at st. olaf college, digitized selected primary source materials, and welcomed new donations to our collections. During the year, 55 donations were added to our archives. We completed a significant project to digitize significant portions of the 1925 norse- american centennial collection - made possible by the people of Minnesota through a nearly 87,000 grant funded by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund. We also received two small grants: one from the state of Minnesota for creating digital exhibits on norwegians in Minnesota; and the other from the sons of norway foundation to digitize a collection of 16mm film shot by campbell norsgaard, the official photographer of the royal norwegian air force during world war ii.

Fellowships, awards, and internships: in 2023, naha awarded two new fellowships. The naha archives fellowship will encourage research using the naha collections. The naha publications fellowship will stimulate scholarship in the field of Norwegian-American studies that results in a manuscript. The first application deadline for our fellowships was october 1, 2023, and we made our first awards for research to be conducted in 2024. Naha awarded helen white of st. olaf college our odd s. lovoll award in Norwegian-American studies. The award recognizes originality, excellence, and creativity in undergraduate research and writing. Helen's winning essay, "dialectal development and comparison: norwegian dialects in the u.s. and norway," will appear in vol. 42 of Norwegian-American studies. Each year, naha offers internships for students to pursue their interests and gain practical experience in archives, public history, and nonprofit management. An intern over the summer of 2023 helped to process, catalog, and create promotional materials for the bygdelag papers housed in our archives.