It's enough To Make You Want to....

This unruly winter would make anyone scream,

but this unhappy scene is well-known for other reasons.Last year was a big news year for Edvard Munch: “The Scream” sold at an auction for a world-record-breaking $119.9 million to an American buyer.

Edvard Munch, the artist of this piece was born in Løten, Norway in 1863, the son of a priest and his young wife.
 
 When Edvard was five, his mother died of tuberculosis. He received very little schooling, being ill much of the winters and not allowed to go to school. His family entertainment was of his father’s tales of ghost stories and readings of Edgar Allen Poe stories. Later, Edvard was quoted as saying “ I inherited two of mankind’s most frightful enemies- The heritage of consumption and insanity”. When asked about the reason for the painting of “The Scream”, he said “For many years, I was almost mad. Nature was screaming in my blood”.

         2013 is shaping up to be an even bigger year for the Norwegian artist as a range of events and the most comprehensive exhibitions of his work ever assembled will be held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Munch’s birth on December 12.In honor of Munch’s 150th birthday, “Visit Norway” has created a crowd-sourced video tourism campaign, which encourages people from around the world to submit their own scream videos to create the world’s longest scream. Participants not only have a shot at winning a trip to Norway, there are also weekly prizes from Dale of Norway, Norrøna, and Moods of Norway. Currently 29 minutes long, the scream video has more than tripled in length in just two weeks.

 
 
Munch died at the age of 80 in solitude at his nearly self-sufficient estate in Oslo, Norway and didn’t journey to America, however knowledge of his works and his life was appreciated by American  Fine Art collectors and scholars. The Museum of Fine Arts in New York City is currently making the famous art piece available for public viewing until April 29th.

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While Edvard Munch didn’t journey to the  New Country, many of his countrymen did . Beginning around 1825, more than 800,000 people left their home country of Norway . One third of the country’s population left for North America in the next 100 years.

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A Sons of Norway lodge in St. Paul is presenting a series describing this Norwegian Immigration to the Midwest. It is open to the public in St. Paul, Minnesota until  the project closes June 20th of this year.

While in the area, stop in and enjoy another outstanding attraction of Immigration History.
 Visit a home that evolved into a museum.
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          Swedish immigrants became interested in the New Country at approximately this same period. One of these Swedes was  Sven Johan Olofsson, who was born in  Småland, Sweden. His family were farmers, but following a series of bad harvests, decided to immigrate to the United States in 1868 when Sven was eight years old. About 10 years later, he headed to Minneapolis, where he worked as a typesetter at several Swedish-language newspapers. Soon after arriving in the city he met another Swedish immigrant, Christina Nilsson. The couple married in 1883. His American name became Swan J. Turnblad and, in time, the owner and publisher of  a Swedish language newspaper published in Minneapolis, Minnesota known as the popular Svenska Amerikanska Posten. He became a very rich man.

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In 1903, Turnblad commissioned the building of a mansion on Park Avenue in Minneapolis. Turnblad had a architectural firm design a 30-room mansion for him, his wife, and their daughter located at 2600 Park Avenue in Minneapolis.The mansion was a fine example of early 20th century “chateauesque” architecture.

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     Visitors enter into a majestic two-story grand hall viewing carved stone and woodwork, sculpted ceilings. An entire day can be spent touring eleven rooms with  floor-to-ceiling kakelugnar (Swedish porcelain tile stoves). Recently rennovated,  the mansion is now a blend of period rooms and exhibit galleries. View many displays of the  immigrant's  life.

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A diorama of typical immigrant days

After the death of his wife, Swan and his daughter moved across the street, donating the mansion to the Swedish American community in 1929. It became known as the American Swedish Institute, now consists of 33 rooms  filled with programs and exhibits of Swedish life and culture.

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Newly arriving Swedish immigrants to the area naturally congregated with earlier immigrants as they became acclimated to the new life. One settlement became known as "Swede Hollow". Although one of the oldest settlements in the city, it was also arguably the poorest as each wave of immigrants settled in the valley. Arriving in the 1850s, they gave their new home the name "Svenska Dalen,"  an area described later as  a true slum. People and industries occupying the surrounding "upper" neighborhoods used “The Hollow” for an impromptu dump, where the inhabitants down below routinely scavenged for clothing, metals, and building supplies. Swede Hollow was never electrified, and plumbing conditions were extremely primitive. 

The residences were constructed almost entirely out of  scrapped building materials, and the entire area had only one meandering dirt road. Not exactly a great place to live, but one with a roof over  immigrant’s heads as they struggled to improve themselves in the new strange-language land.  The name remained long after the original settlers had moved on. 
In the 1950s, the area underwent renovations, becoming a scenic area known as

Swede Hollow Park

So, if the errratic weather patterns are causing you to scream, and you can’t get to New York, try a short two day drive to enjoy a tour and learn a bit more of your Scandinavian roots ,
                                       a few miles away.

He Did What??

Have you heard the one about Ole..?

                                    
When you hear that introduction, you know that Ole is going to be the brunt of the next Dumb Norwegian joke, but there are some “Oles” that are not funny, and these “Oles" are worth mentioning.

Have you heard of Ole Roemer? “Well, Ole was out looking at the stars when he noticed..” No joke here! In 1644, Ole was born in the town of Arhus, Denmark, becoming an university professor in astronomy. One of his interests was the observance of the moons of Jupiter. In time, he noted a peculiar time difference in the eclipses as they revolved. Measuring the distances related to the earth, he created the measurement that resulted in the calculation of the speed of light. Distance from earth to all planets are measured by Ole's discovery.

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Everyone has had an experience with a favorite construction toy created by another “Ole". Ole Kirk Christiansen, another Dane, born in Billund, Denmark became a master carpenter. In 1932, he was making some toys for his son who enjoyed playing with the left-over pieces of wood. His son began building  little creations, giving Ole the idea of making wooden blocks for the boy. Soon, these blocks became Ole’s most successful product. In 1934, Ole gave the new project the name formed from the Danish words “ Leg godt” meaning “play well”..The new product became known to us as “LEGOS”.  

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Another Ole wanted to get some ice cream for his lady-friend and rowed across the lake to the ice-cream parlor. The day was very warm and by the time he returned, the  ice-cream was melted. Again, no joke, it really happened.This Ole was born in Norway and immigrated to the US with his farmer parents. Not interested in farming, Ole became an expert in motors, working with a manufacturing company of farming equipment. After many attempts, we know the famous outboard Evinrude motor that is famous today.

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There are many Scandinavian inventors. Some are rarely mentioned, but very important to our society. It would be difficult to understand how we could possibly exist without the work of Rasmus Mailing Hansen. Every American child, youth, and adult  with their thumbs working a keyboard is using a variation of the “Hansen Writing -Ball Letter” machine. It would be very interesting to see users working this key layout!

  

Rasmus was born in Denmark in 1835. The Hansen Writing Ball was invented in 1868 by the Reverend and principal of the Royal Institute for the deaf-mutes in Copenhagen. The writing ball was first patented and entered production in 1870, and was the first commercially produced typewriter. (No QWERTY keyboard, yet!) Rasmus was a priest, inventor, and a scientist. 

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Four Finnish students were working on a “Master Project’ called “Erwise” at Helsinki University. Erwise was a pioneering data management system, and the first commonly available as a graphical user interface, language well-known to computer progammers today  . 

Programming language used for the WWWeb

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How could we exist without it?!The development of Erwise halted after the students graduated and went on to other projects. Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist  traveled to Finland to encourage the group to continue the project, becoming the creator of the World Wide Web released in April 1992. Although a Brit became the creator, the project began in Finland.

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 Even at the movies, we are asked to "turn off our phones". Today, everyone seems to have an electronic device in their hand or in their pocket. Eric Magnus Tigerstedt (August 4, 1887 – April 20, 1925) was one of the most significant inventors in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1917, he filed a patent for what he described as a "pocket-size, folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone". Sound familiar?

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When a new revolutionary "fastening device" was introduced , the public was skeptical.

"Why ditch buttons, hooks, and clasps", they asked? "Do clothes really need newfangled technology?"

Gideon Sundback was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, born in April 24, 1880, Jönköping Municipality, and became known due to his work in the development of the zipper. Several primitive zippers existed before 1914, but they were awful. Early designs jammed and pulled apart easily. They involved sharp hooks looping together, instead of Sundback's method of tight and secure metal fasteners. Sundback gets credit for inventing the zipper, because he created the first practical and reliable design. When the "Hookless No. 2" debuted in 1914, people didn't care. It was a quick-fastening device. Most still work!

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There are many other Scandinavian inventions, too numerous to mention at this time!

Everyone recognizes the name Hans Christian Anderson,  Albert Nobel, and several others who have added some much to our  lives. The name of Borge Rosenbaum, the Clown Prince of Denmark has given everyone laughter and joy whenever he is seen or heard. Better known as Victor Borge, everyone enjoys his musical expertise and his well-known invention of “Phonetic Punctuation” as he reads using the commas, periods and grammatical marks with vocal emphasis.                                                           

Victor Borge

                                 We have been blessed with our Scandinavian heritage.

No joke!