200 Years of Norwegians in America

The ship Restauration set sail for the United States from Stavanger, Norway, on July 4, 1825, with 52 Norwegians aboard. To commemorate this bicentennial anniversary, Vesterheim presents a special exhibition focusing on Norwegian immigration, by featuring important objects, photographs, themes, and stories from 200 years of Norwegians in U.S. Even small objects can tell larger stories. A simple, pressed glass goblet, for example, was used as a communion chalice in a Methodist church. Nels Johnson (Kaasa) converted to Methodism in Racine County, Wisconsin, in 1846, becoming one of the first if not the first Norwegian-born Methodists in the world. Fellow convert O. P. Peterson left the U.S. in 1853 to establish the first Methodist congregation in Norway. Freedom from a state church in Norway, having the choice to be any religion or no religion at all, was one of the factors that pulled some immigrants to the United States. Luther College students in Dr. Anna Peterson’s Scandinavian Immigration History course have chosen some of the objects for the exhibition. Working in teams, they selected an object to study in depth and then contributed text for the label. Each team has also created recordings to share the full story of the object and its place in Norwegian-American history. Listen to their podcast recordings here.