2 3 4 6 11 New Biennial Future Norwegian- Vault Platform, New Member Event Archivists Learn American Project Directions October 24 at NAHA Suffragists Update THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION | FALL 2020 VOLUME 177 2019 ANNUAL REPORT NORWEGIAN- INSIDE AMERICAN SUFFRAGISTS HELP WIN THE VOTE NEW PLATFORM, BIENNIAL MEMBER EVENT ARCHIVES NEW DIRECTIONS GOES ONLINE REMAIN The NAHA biennial member event will be held virtually this year, CLOSED DUE Saturday, October 24, at 10:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time. Erika Jackson, t was good to have so many NAHA members and friends at our virtual program associate professor of history at Colorado Mesa University, will be the TO COVID-19 “New Directions in Migration Research” on May 14. We were fortunate to have featured speaker, on “Becoming White: The Case of Scandinavians in The St. Olaf College campus I emigration scholar Terje Mikael Hasle Joranger, director of the Norwegian Emigrant Chicago.” Following the presentation, NAHA will conduct its member will remain closed to the Museum, as guest speaker. Joranger has done extensive work on the business meeting. public this fall, including the migration of Norwegians to America, some of it as a NAHA research Rølvaag Memorial Library, associate. He is a co-editor of Nordic Whiteness and Migration to the USA: which is home to NAHA. While on the A Historical Exploration of Identity (Routledge, 2020). Erika Jackson we are not able to schedule cover I would like to call out two aspects of the event that reflect several of appointments for researchers the association’s new strategic goals. RACE WAS to physically view archive Elsa Ueland The online platform enabled us to extend our reach, connecting makes her pitch SOCIALLY materials, we will work with with our members and others throughout North America and as a Minnesota our members and patrons organizer for the beyond. Today, individuals with Norwegian-American backgrounds CONSTRUCTED to provide access to digital Congressional are scattered across the United States and Canada, many without strong OVER OUR materials whenever possible. Union for connections to historic immigrant communities like those in New York, Inquiries can be sent to naha- Woman Suffrage, NATION'S the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest. Moreover, NAHA strives to make [email protected]. later known as our collections and publications available to a wide audience of scholars HISTORY.” the National We are grateful to all who have and historians. Virtual events like this program, along with improving Woman's Party, — ERIKA JACKSON donated archival material since circa 1915 in the online catalog of our archives, digitizing selected parts of our collections, and placing the Covid-19 disruptions began Minneapolis. Norwegian-American Studies in the JSTOR digital library, will help maintain NAHA as the in mid-March. While the NAHA national center envisioned by our founders in 1925. staff has been working from Joranger’s lecture highlighted some of the emerging research topics that will home, materials are still being continue to enrich and deepen our understanding of the Norwegian-American delivered to the NAHA archives experience. Migration studies focusing on such topics as gender, childhood, whiteness, and securely stored there. We transnationalism, and encounters with indigenous peoples can provide new perspectives and will acknowledge donations context on Norwegian Americans and their relationships with others. New questions and Jackson teaches courses on immigration, race and resume our practice of innovative approaches to research are fundamental to NAHA’s longstanding commitment to and ethnicity, and other aspects of modern U.S. highlighting new collections sound scholarship and a solid interpretation of Norwegian America. history. She is the author of Scandinavians in in the “New to the Archives” Special thanks go to NAHA Executive Director Amy Boxrud, who nimbly transformed Chicago: The Origins of White Privilege in Modern department of Currents as soon an “in-person” event to an online format in response to the pandemic, and to NAHA board America (University of Illinois Press, 2019), which as we are able to work on site member Daron Olson, who moderated the program from his post at Indiana University East. explores whiteness and ethnicity in the late 19th from our offices again. A video of the event is available on YouTube at youtu.be/wxVKqECQsLk. and early 20th centuries. While working remotely, We hope you can join us when we gather virtually for our NAHA biennial member event The biennial member meeting is an opportunity for members to our staff still has been able to on October 24. hear updates from NAHA leadership about the organization, its tackle several archival projects financial health, and its progress toward goals in the strategic plan. that are included in our The association also will elect new board members and recognize strategic plan, such as updating those who are completing their board service. archival policies and moving Dennis Gimmestad, President Watch for more information and registration instructions to be information into a new content Cover image: Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Manuscript Division, Library Party, Woman’s of the National the Records from Photographs of Protest: image: Women Cover posted on the NAHA website (naha.stolaf.edu) by October 1. management system. 2 Currents, Fall 2020 naha.stolaf.edu 3 NORWAY’S 20TH CENTURY INTERNS PREP AHA has been fortunate to have three interns working with us this summer, CENSUS helping with a variety of projects drawn from the association’s strategic plan and RECORDS FOR CAREERS N mission. All three women are preparing for archival or library science careers. IN ARCHIVES Their experience with NAHA has been altered by the virus pandemic and BY DALE HOVLAND requirements to work remotely, but “the field of archives is increasingly digital,” intern Julia Walter notes. “So even though I am unable to work with the physical collections he United States is holding its right now, I am still gaining valuable experience with metadata and cataloging, in decennial census this year, though addition to learning about archival standards and expectations.” T it’s been disrupted by public health concerns. Enumerators have been ALYSSA JULIA ERIN knocking on doors in August to reach MOORE, ’21 WALTER, ’21 MAGOON, ’21 people who have not already responded to ARCHIVAL CATALOGING PUBLIC census requests online or by mail. PRESERVATION AND USER HISTORY Norway also has conducted a census INTERN EXPERIENCE INTERN in every decade since the 1890s, but (UX) INTERN many records from the 1900s are not yet accessible. In Norway, 100 years must pass before individual census records are made public. Records from Norway’s MAJORS: History and English, MAJORS: Classics and religion, with MAJORS: History and women's 1920 census will become available on with a concentration on women's a concentration on linguistic studies and gender studies December 1, 2020. In the United States, The 1900 census gave only yes/no (ja/nei) answers to "Agricultural and gender studies census records are publicly available after questions" about a farm’s holdings, not quantitative answers as had been My duties mainly consist of doing My focus has been administrative and 72 years. Individual records from the 1950 collected earlier. At the Løken farm, there was grain and/or potatoes (korn/ As a NAHA summer intern, I am quality reviews on database entries archival tasks that will increase digital U.S. census will be available in 2022. potet) and cattle (kreatur), but no poultry (fjærkre) or beehives (bikubar). There helping to develop a preservation that have been moved from the old outreach and connection at NAHA. In the Summer 2020 issue of Currents, was a kitchen garden (kjøkkenhagen), but no orchard (frukthagen). plan for the physical and digital NAHA content management system, I am making a promotional video we highlighted the kinds of information collections at NAHA. My job Leif, to the new one, Omeka. I also about the association’s services that can be found in Norway’s 19th entails reading about archival make new entries for records that and creating digital teaching tools, century census records, going back to standards, researching notable have not been moved already. I ensure like timelines and interactive maps. 1801. Here, we do the same for the 20th also included, but with less detail than showed 2,392,782 people living preservation plans, and looking for that the metadata (which is basically These will be available on the NAHA century records that are publicly available in earlier censuses (see above). in Norway. Today, the country has ways to implement these methods information about information) is website soon. so far. They can be accessed digitally for A technology footnote: Punch cards 5.3 million people. and preserve NAHA’s collections correct for each entry, including its I am interested in a career in no cost at digitalarkivet.no/en/content/ and machines for tabulation were used in An interesting feature of the 1910 census for scholars. dates, creator, description, and more. archives. I have experience working censuses. Paid subscribers to ancestry.com this census. The system was an innovation is that additional data were collected I look forward to continuing In addition, I am completing in the St. Olaf archives, but I wanted can also access the records there. developed by Herman Hollerith for use in about Norwegians who had moved back my education through graduate research about archival standards to intern with a nonprofit historical the 1890 U.S. census. Unfortunately, most to Norway from the Americas. Their school, likely in the field of either concerning privacy and how to organization to learn about the 1900 of those valuable 1890 U.S.