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History of Norway Times
From Seaboard Tabloid to Cultural Treasure
By JUDITH GABRIEL VINJE
Norway Times is as much an heirloom as your grandparent's faded old photographs,
yet it is as cutting-edge modern and as tuned-in to the 21st century as the
Internet, which it is now joining with an online edition.
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COLORFUL BEGINNINGS
Nordisk Tidende was established in 1891 by Emil Nielsen, a printer from Horten,
Norway.
It was noted that when Nielsen stepped off the boat in New York in1887, he
was wearing a white hat on his head and a parrot on his shoulder.
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BROOKLYN 'KOLONI'
In 1900, Greater New York counted about 11,000 Norwegians, a number which rose
quickly to 63,000 in 1930. The majority of them-23,000-lived in Brooklyn, the
borough directly across the East River from Manhattan. The metropolis quickly
became the most urban center of Norwegians outside Norway. The colony came to
be affectionately called mysostkolonien, after the Norwegian cheese mysost.
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LOYAL CITIZENS
After the outbreak of World War I, the use of the Norwegian language among immigrants
declined sharply, and the number of Norwegian-language newspapers dropped correspondingly.
In 1917, as World War I hysteria cast a chilling effect on even the most everyday
expressions of ethnic separation in America, a presidential order required all
editors of non-English periodicals to file an English translation of all political
stories and editorials with their local postman. Nordisk Tidende complied, demonstrating
the unswerving loyalty to the United States of the entire community, as well
as its determination to preserve and maintain the language and culture of its
readers.
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NORWAY IN THEIR HEARTS
Yet as these Norwegians became assimilated, proudly adopting American ways and
watching their children forego much of the mother tongue, they went about their
new lives "with Norway in their hearts," a phrase that summed up the
blend of memories and sentiments that they experienced on the deepest level,
according to historian Christen T. Jonassen.
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BIG CITY RESTLESSNESS
In 1941-a dark year for Norway--Nordisk Tidende marked its 50th anniversary.
As part of its commemoration activities, it published a 32-page booklet, "Facts
About the Norwegian-American Colony in Brooklyn, New York and Nordisk Tidende,
'America's leading Norwegian newspaper.'"
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RESCUING TREASURE
In 1996, when the Norwegian investment company that owned it then wanted to
sell, a group of Norway Times employees stepped in and purchased it. "We
recognized it as a cultural treasure," says Marianne Onsrud Jawanda.
"The paper was at a point where it might not have survived unless something
was done to rescue it. We had a lot of ideas about how to make it thrive again,
and we are happy today that the paper is making new inroads across the continent,
reaching the Norwegian community of the 21st Century in a way that is relevant
and enriching to their lives."
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Population of
4 681 100
as of
1 January 2007
The official name
of Norway is
The Kingdom of Norway
Head of State
His Majesty
King Harald V of Norway
Language
Norwegian,
Bokmål and Nynorsk
In some districts,
Sámi is also an
official language.
State Church
Church of Norway,
Evangelical Lutheran
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