Scandinavians Everywhere”: Scandinavia Magazine, 1924

“Devoted to the interests of the Scandinavians everywhere”: Scandinavia Magazine, 1924 JOY K. LINTELMAN he 12 December 1923 issue of the Swedish-American news paper Svenska Amerikanska Posten included an attractive boxed Tnotice announcing “a new magazine in the English language devoted to the interests of the Scandinavians everywhere.”1 Readers could receive a free copy of this new magazine, entitled Scandinavia: A Monthly Magazine (hereafter referred to as Scandinavia), by sending in a coupon from the notice to the magazine’s publisher. Scandinavia was not the first attempt at an English-language serial publication for Nordic- American readers. In 1889, Minnesota Swedish American Hans Mattson and his Norwegian son-in-law Luth Jaeger established an English-language newspaper for Scandinavian-Americans called The North that survived for four years.2 Subsequently, in 1913, the New York-based American Scandinavian Foundation established the American Scandinavian Re- view, a pan-Scandinavian English language magazine still in publication—though now known as Scandinavian Review.3 Produced in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Scandinavia magazine was the brainchild of Norwegian-American and long-time Normanden newspaperman P. O. Thorson, who served as its publisher. Danish- American Georg Strandvold, who later became an important Decorah Posten writer, edited the magazine. Printed on Thorson’s Normanden press in Grand Forks, Scandinavia existed from January through June JOY LINTELMAN is a regular contributor to the Quarterly. A scholar of American immigration history, and particularly Swedish immigration, she teaches at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, where she is also currently chair of the history department.Among her many publications is I Got to America: Swedish-American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson (2009). 240 Notice and coupon from the 12 December 1923 issue of Svenska Amerikanska Posten (p. 10) 1924. As each issue’s cover reminded readers, the magazine was “devoted to the interests of Scandinavians everywhere.” Strandvold, Scandinavia’s editor, elaborated in the magazine’s first issue just how and why the publication would advance the interests of Scandinavians. In a section he entitled “What We Aim To Do,” he explained that “here and there in American literature and in the daily and periodical press erroneous statements appear concerning Scandina- vian conditions and Scandinavians in the United States.” Though he noted that this misinformation was usually unintentional and due to 241 ignorance, he still believed this was “not quite fair to people of Scandina- vian birth or descent.” Scandinavia magazine sought to redress this unfor- tunate situation. Strandvold described how “in issue after issue Scandinavia will attempt to disseminate correct and fair information pertaining to Scandinavians wherever they may be found.”4 He laid out several central areas of emphasis for the publication: Scandinavia will tell the English-speaking world of the achievements of people from the northern countries, and their descendants; it will contain biographies of eminently successful Scandinavians in the United States and elsewhere; it will publish the history of a number of Scandinavian settlements on the American continent; it will contain travel letters and sketches written by both Americans and Scandinavians, and will also publish articles dealing with various Scandinavian institutions and organizations in the United States. It will, above all, be an American magazine devoted to the idea that the best Americanism is that which is the most broad-minded— in other words, identical with the spirit which purifies and sus- tains the cultural life of the entire present-day world.5 Scandinavia included several examples of all of the types of articles Strandvold outlined. Careful analysis of the contents of the magazine’s six issues reveals three central themes: home-making myths, education, and reactions to contemporary issues affecting Scandina- vians in 1920s America. HOME-MAKING MYTHS Like a significant portion of immigrant-American writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some of the articles included in Scandinavia contained what Orm Øverland has termed “home-making myths.” These were efforts by immigrant group lead- ers to create stories conveying an immigrant group’s legitimacy as members of a society dominated by Anglo-Americans while at the same time communicating the value of that group’s ethnic heritage. He emphasized three types of myths: “myths of foundation (‘we were 242 here first or at least as early as you were’),” “myths of blood sacrifice (‘we fought and gave our lives for our chosen homeland’),” and “myths of ideological gifts (‘the ideas we brought with us are Ameri- can ideas’).”6 Øverland also described a fourth category of home- making myth upon which he did not elaborate but which included “stories of contributions to America by what we may call ethnic heroes . inventors, politicians, businesspeople, and all manner of successful immigrants, mainly men.” While Scandinavia magazine contained only a few instances of foundation and blood sacrifice myths, it included numerous examples of ideological gifts and ethnic heroes, with the latter two themes often merged within the same article.7 For example, in a piece in the magazine’s first issue titled “Muskego, the Most Historic Norwegian Colony,” the writer compared the Muskego settlement to America’s earliest settlers, describing the colony’s story as “one of hardship and trial, of heroic faith and of a fine devotion to high ideals which recalls in many of its phases that of the pilgrims of Plymouth. It is a story of which all of Norse blood or descent may well be proud.”8 The second issue of Scandinavia included two Swedish poems from the nineteenth century, one honor- ing George Washington and the other Abraham Lincoln, translated to English.9 To make sure readers understood the significance of the poems, later in the issue editor Strandvold explained that they bore “eloquent testimony to the fact that the two greatest names in Ameri- can history have writ themselves in the hearts of the people of the northern countries.” The poems were by Swedes, but Strandvold was careful to avoid emphasizing any one of the Scandinavian nations over the other. He continued by asserting that references to Ameri- can heroes could be found in the literature of Norway, Iceland, and Denmark, as well, and that “the peoples of the northern countries have at all times embraced American life and ideals with intense interest.” Strandvold continued, “When Scandinavians come to this country they are generally in possession of some knowledge of the history of the United States . and with that essence of love of country which is inherited from many preceding generations by every man and woman of Scandinavian birth.”10 Most ethnic hero articles in Scandinavia magazine highlighted the success of Nordic-Americans in terms of wealth, fame, or status in 243 their chosen field. The writers of these articles typically made clear the ways in which the achievements of Scandinavian-Americans contributed to America, but also allotted credit for their success in part to their Scandinavian heritage. For example, an article about a Swedish-Ameri- can oilman and nursery owner named Peter Swenson emphasized his business acumen, his wealth, and his philanthropic contributions to Ameri- can higher education, and explained how “in Peter Swenson . we have another exemplification of the beneficent influence of the Norse blood.”11 Similarly, in an article about a high-ranking employee of Henry Ford named Charles Sørensen, the author noted that “he is a Dane—now a good American, it is true, but nevertheless a native of Denmark. Were the necessary equipment at hand it might be possible to point out among some of the reasons for Mr. Sørensen’s success that char- acteristic strength and unyielding perseverance that became his heritage as left by his Danish forefathers.”12 Each of Scandinavia’s six issues contained several examples of Nordic-American success and contribution stories. They covered Scandinavian Americans in many different areas of American society, including such wide-ranging topics as “Norwegians in Public and Political Life . ,” the Danish-American “father of pasteurization,” the Jacob Riis settlement house in New York City, and Scandina- vian-American film stars.13 Scandinavia magazine worked to advance the interests of Scandinavians in part through articulating and communicating homemaking myths to its readers. EDUCATION In addition to the home-making myths represented in many of the articles in Scandinavia, some of the magazine’s content can also be understood as directly aimed at providing factual and scholarly information, to educate non-Nordic readers about Scandinavia and Scandinavian Americans, and to inform Scandinavian immigrants and their descendants about their own history and culture.14 A piece in Scandinavia by its editor entitled “Scandinavia Misin- terpreted” included examples of the types of misperceptions it was hoped the magazine could address. The article described a popular American weekly magazine (unnamed) that had published a piece 244 about “Swedish Punch” including what Strandvold deemed “unwar- ranted exaggerations.” He quoted the article, which described Swed- ish drinking behavior as wild and violent, as follows: Whenever, in the old days, a Swede gave a dinner party, an extra detail of police was stationed outside the building in which the dinner took place in order to take care of the riot that was bound to ensue as soon as the guests became suffi- ciently pickled. Whenever a married man went to a stag party, his wife and family always bade him a fond and tearful farewell for the danger that one ran in going to any place in Sweden where liquor was served freely, was only comparable to the danger one runs in going to a big-league war. Though he acknowledged that the writer was talking about some unspecified “old days,” Strandvold noted that “the otherwise unin- formed reader will .

Load more