Special Collections

This collection includes a set of interviews with Danish Americans associated with Grundtvigian organizations and events in the United States. The interviewer was Henrik Bredmose Simonsen, a Danish historian, who has worked with Danish American church history since the 1980s. His research resulted in the book: Kampen om danskheden: tro og nationalitet i de danske kirkesamfund i Amerika (The Struggle for Danishness: Faith and Nationality in the Danish Church Communities in America), published by the University of Aarhus in 1990. The interviews would appeal to those with an interest in the lives of immigrants in rural communities in the American Midwest during the 20th century. Of course, they will be more interesting to people with a Danish background, especially to those connected to, or curious about, the so-called Grundtvigians and their institutions and traditions in the United States. The interviews were made during August and September of 2010 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. (See enclosed list of participants and places). The interviews were made in connection with Simonsen’s research for an exhibition at Museum Skanderborg. The exhibition was entitled Grundtvig på prærien – danske indvandrermiljøer i USA (Grundtvig on the Prairie – Danish Immigrant Communities in the USA). It opened in May of 2013 at Museum Skanderborg and was later exhibited at five other museums in Denmark. An American version of the exhibition was made in collaboration with the Danish Immigrant Museum (now Museum of Danish America) in Elk Horn, Iowa. It opened in 2015 with the title Happy Danes on the Plains. The original recordings of the interviews are held by Dr. Simonsen. He has generously provided digitized versions to the Danish American Archive & Library with the intent of making these voices readily available to anyone with an interest in the subject. The transcripts of the interviews were machine-generated at the DAAL. They have not yet been fully reviewed and corrected. The transcripts do contain a significant number of errors. It is recommended that users compare the audio interview with the transcript when using the material for research. Users may find it convenient to use a subtitle editing tool such as ELAN to facilitate this review.