NEARLY 400 GATHER IN OMAHA FOR CONFERENCE ON DANISH-NORTH AMERICAN RELATIONS SINCE WORLD WAR II

A crowd of 392 registered participants more than doubled the attendance expectations at a conference on Danish-North American Relations Since World War II and created enthusiasm for another meeting soon.

“It’s clear that we need to be thinking of planning the next conference … and there’s pressure to schedule one in three years,’’ said Dr. John Mark Nielsen ’73, planning committee chairman and Dana College professor of English. Nielsen said the planning committee is considering a follow-up conference to take advantage of momentum established in October in Omaha.

The Omaha conference attracted people from 28 states, Washington DC, Canada, Sweden and 20 from Denmark. Conference sessions examined the economic, social and cultural factors that motivated immigrations, the laws relating to immigration and the experiences of those who immigrated. The conference also explored how immigrant communities, international travel, business and study contribute to relations between Denmark, the United States and Canada.

Bo Lidegaard, a Danish historian and member of the Danish Foreign Service, Edward P. Gallagher, President of the American Scandinavian Foundation and Edward E. Elson, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark from 1993-98, delivered key addresses. Tours were made to the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa, and to the Danish Immigrant Archive at Dana.

The Omaha meetings were a follow-up to a 1992 conference sponsored by the Danish Emigration Archives in Aalborg, Denmark. Nielsen said that if another conference were held in the United States in 2005 it would coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.

The conference was sponsored by Dana College, The Danish Immigrant Archive at Dana, the Danish American Heritage Society, The Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa, and Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa.