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.

A colorful man, he had reportedly left his homeland out of boredom, and, being an unemployed printer who didn't think highly of the existing Norwegian American press, he decided to start his own newspaper. Thus was born Nordisk Tidende, which published its first issue on Jan. 3, 1891.

To win the eye of readers, Nielsen initially filled the pages of his new weekly with rumors, scandal and murder stories. His penchant for sensationalism led to several lawsuits and threats, but it also enhanced circulation. As the highly esteemed historian Odd Lovoll put it: "On occasion, Nielsen turned the newspaper into a scandal sheet. The love of reading was thereby increased considerably in the Norwegian colony, it was claimed." But higher standards of journalistic professionalism ultimately prevailed, and Nordisk Tidende soon evolved into a respected publication, winning praise as a "well-edited" and "well-established" newspaper, providing a vital forum for cultural exchange between two continents.

The early 1890s were not easy years for the immigrants. It was a time of economic depression and psychic crisis, particularly for new-comers who found themselves strangers in a strange land. Historians point to the church-and the press-as being the two most important institutions, providing vital information and a sense of community to the immigrants, shoring up their identity, helping them understand their adopted country, and keeping Norway alive in their daily lives.
It was also during this time-four years after Emil Nielsen tested the ink on his new newspaper-that the first Sons of Norway lodge was founded, thousands of miles away in the "other" major Norwegian settlement, Minneapolis. Nordisk Tidende is thus one of the longest surviving original Norwegian American institutions in the land. But its longevity came as a surprise, even to its founder.

When the staff of Nordisk Tidende held its five-year anniversary celebration in 1896, Nielsen reportedly seemed stunned that the paper had lasted even that long. Little did he know that 110 years later, his little project would be one of only two surviving Norwegian newspapers in the United States. A large part of its success has been due to its origins in the midst of a thriving Norwegian community of Norwegian immigrants who settled on the Atlantic seaboard.

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