Pioneering Pages: Forming the New American Woman – Presentation with Dr. Nancy Coleman

<p>Join Dr. Nancy Coleman for this free online presentation in connection with the Vesterheim exhibit.</p> <p>Dr. Nancy Coleman joins Vesterheim for a free online presentation on in connection with the Vesterheim exhibit, Pioneering Pages: Forming the New American Woman.</p> <p>Learn more about Norwegian immigrant sisters Ida Jensen Hansen and Mina Jensen who started a magazine for women in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the late 1880s. The publication offered information to help immigrant women learn customs and skills to adapt to American ways of life. But the magazine was much more, advocating for women’s education, equality, and suffrage.</p> <p>Dr. Coleman holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian literature. She is a retired teacher at Hamar Cathedral School and the author of works on Norwegian literature, women in the Viking Age, and Norwegian immigration to America.</p> <p>She has worked with a team of Norwegian scholars to shed light on this important part of Norwegian immigration history through the “Pioneering Pages” exhibit at Vesterheim, open through May 18, 2026.</p> <p>The exhibit is supported by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from the Tomson Family Foundation.</p>