Fifty memorable years at St. Olaf

This booklet of newspaper articles and photographs, reprinted from the Northfield News, chronicles the first fifty years of St. Olaf college with an emphasis on its relationship to the Norwegian ("Norse") immigrant experience, especially in Minnesota. There is statistical information here about Minnesotans of Norse background, their occupations and their population. Grose tells why so many Norwegians emigrated from the 1840s through the 1860s, and discusses some of the traits he believes characterize them as an ethnic group. St. Olaf is a Lutheran college, and this work includes an extended tribute to its founder, the Rev. Bernt Julius Muus, who first came to Minnesota in 1859 as a Lutheran missionary. From its opening in 1875, the college received extensive support from the Norse community, which espoused education as a principal means of advancement.