America Letter The Danish Immigrant Museum ® AN INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL CENTER Spring 2011 • Vol. xxiV, No. 1 2212 WASHiNGToN STREET • ELK HoRN, ioWA 51531 • 712-764-7001 • www.danishmuseum.org Across Oceans, Across Time, Across Generations: The Dierssens Director’s Corner America Letter Published three times annually by On a wintery January night, I met our new The Danish Immigrant Museum 2212 Washington Street Scan|Design interns at Eppley Airfi eld in Omaha. Elk Horn, iowa 51531 Jule Andersen, Maria Bjørg Rasmussen and 712-764-7001 800-759-9192 FAx 712-764-7002 Sara Sjölin arrived directly from Copenhagen to a Eva Nielsen, editor www.danishmuseum.org blizzard on the Great Plains. Blowing and drifting email: [email protected] snow made roads impassable and led many Board of Directors schools and companies, including The Danish President – Harriet Albertsen Spanel, bellingham, WA Immigrant Museum, to close for several days. Vice President – Mark Nussle, Palos Park, iL Secretary – Dennis Andersen, Atlanta, GA For two days, they stayed with Dawn and me at our home in Treasurer – Clark Mathisen, omaha, NE Blair before we could drive to Elk Horn. On the afternoon of Jon borgman, Harlan, iA Lone Christensen, brown Deer, Wi the second day, we were able to drive to Omaha and visit the Ane-Grethe Delaney, Wayzata, MN / Durham Western Heritage Museum. Here, I oriented them to the university Park, FL rich history of Danes in Omaha – where Den Danske Pioneer and Mark Frederiksen, Falcon, Co Kurt Hansen, Rosemount, MN the Danish Brotherhood in America were founded. According to Kristi Johnson, bethesda, MD the 2000 U.S. census there are more Americans claiming Danish Kenneth Larsen, Calistoga, CA / Harlan, iA Steven Lund, yuma, AZ ancestry in Omaha than in any other American city. Cynthia McKeen, St. Paul, MN Carol Jensen Mills, Dubuque, iA By the time their stay ended, they had discovered that (as one of Kay Esbeck North, Ames, iA them said to my colleagues at the museum) “John Mark knows a benedikte Ehlers olesen, Eugene, oR / lot about Danish immigration and he can really talk!” It’s easy to do bryup, Denmark Marian “Mittie” ostergaard, Mission when one has an intellectually curious audience. Viejo, CA Henrik Fogh Rasmussen, Springfi eld, iL The Scan|Design Intern Exchange Program at The Danish Consul Lynette Skow Rasmussen, Immigrant Museum, funded by the Scan|Design Foundation by Johnston, iA Flemming “Eric” Smitsdorff, Racine, Wi Inger and Jens Bruun of Seattle, Washington, has been invaluable Mark Strandskov, Mt. Pleasant, Mi to our museum. So, too, are the interns that we have from Janet M. Thuesen, Sausalito, CA American museum studies programs who are supported through Ex-Offi cio Marc Petersen, omaha, NE your contributions and museum membership. To date we have Kai Nyby, LaPorte, iN hosted sixteen Danish and six American graduate student interns. Vern Hunter, Fargo, ND Nils Jensen, Portland, oR The excitement these young people bring, their experiences prior Dennis Larson, Decorah, iA to arriving, and their willingness to learn and innovate regularly inspires the staff. And they help us get a lot of work done too! Staff Executive Director: Many immigrant and ethnic organizations and institutions are Dr. John Mark Nielsen, concerned about declining membership. I often hear individuals [email protected] lament that young people, specifi cally, are not interested in their General Information, Group Tours, Volunteering Opportunities: heritage. The challenge for all of us is to engage young people; Terri Johnson, The Danish Immigrant Museum’s internship program is one way [email protected] we are doing this. Development Director: bruce bro, [email protected] We’ve been fortunate to host interns and have been successful, Wall of Honor, Donations, I believe, because we embrace them as colleagues and are Memorial Gifts & Memberships: genuinely grateful for their contributions. We know too that Debra Christensen Larsen, we are creating a network of individuals who value the story [email protected] of relations between Denmark and the United States. These Bookkeeping & Financial Inquiries: Jennifer Winters, interns are an investment in our future. [email protected] I am grateful for the investment you make through your Exhibit Questions: Tova brandt, membership in The Danish Immigrant Museum. Please know [email protected] Artifact Donations & Museum Loans: that your support is contributing to the development of these Angela Stanford, young people who are our future. [email protected] John Mark Nielsen Museum Shop: Joni Soe-butts, [email protected] Executive Director Donation of Books & Library COVER PHOTO: Tove Dierssen pictured with the “Danish Questions: Michele McNabb, [email protected] Delights,” including her four daughters, in 1973. First row Genealogical & Translation Inquiries: from left: Heidi Dierssen,Tina Poulsen, Christina Diers- [email protected] sen, unidentifi ed, Mette Pedersen; Second row from left: FHGC Data Entry: Wanda Sornson, Rikke Dierssen Morice, Ann Kinneberg, Annette Diers- [email protected] sen Jagger, John Bruun-Andersen, Kirsten Pedersen, Custodian: Tim Fredericksen 2 • America Letter Lisa Jensen. “Across Oceans, Across Time, Across Weekend Staff: Beth Rasmussen Generations: The Dierssens” begins on page 4. Rodger Rasmussen Welcome Scan|Design Interns Julie Andersen In the middle of a blizzard I started my For the last two years I have been working internship at The Danish Immigrant as an educator and guide at the Viking Museum. Working at the museum is a Ship Museum in Roskilde. There I had the good opportunity for me to experience an opportunity to learn the practical aspects American museum from the inside, learn of communicating history to children as more about the Danes who immigrated well as to adults from all over the world. to the U.S. and fi nally to experience During my internship at The Danish American culture and history. Immigrant Museum I will sort artifacts from While I am an intern in Elk Horn, Iowa, the Lauritz Melchoir collection and create I am taking a break from my studies in a detailed inventory of the materials. Copenhagen. Since 2008 I have studied Furthermore, I will work two days a week history at the university, and have written at the Family History and Genealogy my fi nal on the political situation in Center where I will be translating Danish Denmark in the beginning of the (Danish) and German letters and documents in Middle Ages. At the same time I took Gothic script for patrons and staff, writing museology classes. I have always thought a section about the Danish Baptists in that history and, in particular, Danish the U.S. for the webpage and helping to history was interesting. Thus it was not search for pictures of immigrants wearing diffi cult to decide what I should study or to bonnets, hats, and caps for a photo know where I would like to work one day: exhibition for this summer’s Tivoli Fest. in a museum! Julie Andersen at work at the museum’s Family History and Genealogy Center Bjoerg Rasmussen I joined The Danish Immigrant Museum the middle of an Midwest snowstorm, so Ministry of Culture where I was affi liated on February 1, 2011 as one of the new we started our internship with a little mini with the international affairs in culture. Danish interns. Or not exactly; I arrived vacation at John Mark and Dawn Nielsen’s It was interesting getting an inside view with the other two interns from Denmark in home in Blair, Nebraska and arrived in to policy making about cultural affairs in Elk Horn on the following Denmark. But, I must say, I love working Thursday. at museums and hope to make it my About me: I have a BA future living. in art history with social At The Danish Immigrant Museum I will and political science as mostly work with Tova Brandt in curatorial subsidiary subjects from planning and changing exhibitions. I Aarhus University and I am already engaged in working on the am now about to fi nish next exhibition, Church Basements and my MA in art history at the Children’s Homes. University of Copenhagen. As an intern at The Danish Immigrant It is my plan to write my Museum I hope to learn about the thesis when I get back to operations of American museums while Copenhagen in August. gaining hands-on experience in exhibition Since 2006, I have worked and collection work. I am already learning as a docent at ARKEN a lot, so I really do look forward to the Museum of Modern Art rest of my time as an intern at The outside Copenhagen and Danish Immigrant Museum. I am quite at The National Gallery certain my internship here in Elk Horn will of Art in Denmark. I also make a great addition to my MA and my had a job as a student professional as well as private experience assistant in The Danish in general. Bjoerg with one of her favorite museum pieces , a Danish landscape painting from the 19th century. Across Oceans, Across Time, Across Generations: The Dierssens by Eva Nielsen Tove and Gunther Dierssen moved to White Bear Lake, Minnesota as young Danish immigrants in 1963. Seeking connection with other Danes, they and their daughters would make the drive into Minneapolis to attend the Danish Christmas service at St. Peder’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, an institution founded by an earlier generation of Danish immigrants. Today, the Dierssens still drive to Minneapolis to connect with Danes. Now, however, they have another place to gather: the Danish American Center. Tucked in the trees beside the parkway that runs along the west side of the Mississippi River, the Danish American Center is an amalgamation of new and old. Or, put differently, it represents a new chapter in the evolving history of the Danish-American community in the Twin Cities.