2. Bio Data
1861 – born in Ålesund, Møre og
Romsdal county, Norway
1887 – immigrated with her family to
the US
3. Family of artists
Jacob Fjelde
Sculptor
Pauline Fjelde
Paul Fjelde
Sculptor and educator
Rolf G. Fjelde
Playwright and poet
siblings
4.
5. Early Life
the sixth child in the family
showed an early interest in drawing
and painting
her father was a furniture designer and
wood carver and set a high standard
of craftsmanship for his children
a crippling disease at the age of 12
which resulted in permanent curvature
The family began dividing in 1871
6. First job
Needlework instructor in Copenhagen
until1887
She stayed with her brother
Jacob, who studied there
Her sister Thomane also followed
them there
8. Back to Europe
Aims:
To study weaving
To begin Arts and Crafts movement
among the Norwegian-American
To create a monument to American
Indians (based on the theme from
Longfellow’s poem Hiawatha)
10. Arts and Crafts Movement
1860 – 1910
International design movement
Stood for traditional craftsmanship
Simple forms
Anti-Industry: for hand-made
production
11. “This Society was incorporated for the purpose of
promoting artistic work in all branches of handicraft. It
hopes to bring Designers andWorkmen into mutually
helpful relations, and to encourage workmen to
execute designs of their own. It endeavors to
stimulate in workmen an appreciation of the dignity
and value of good design; to counteract the popular
impatience of Law and Form, and the desire for over-
ornamentation and specious originality. It will insist
upon the necessity of sobriety and restraint, or
ordered arrangement, of due regard for the relation
between the form of an object and its use, and of
harmony and fitness in the decoration put upon it”.
William Morris,
the leader of Arts and Crafts movement
12. Pauline Fjelde within Arts and
Crafts Movement
Embroidery
Textile art
Gobelins
14. Daughters of Norway
The organization first appeared in
Washington in 1897 as a women’s lodge
of The Sons of Norway
It incorporated all Norwegian immigrants
in America
The meetings were held in Norwegian
Pauline joined this organization in 1910
and took active part in promoting it
During the World War I Pauline and her
sister joined the Red Cross and were
helping people in occupied Norway via
the DN’s network
15. “Daughters of Norway… This
organization is like a family to me. Far
from my homeland, I have only two
things to protect me from losing myself
– my weaving and my friends in the
Daughters of Norway”
Pauline Fjelde, 1913
16. Nowadays, The Daughters of Norway
community still exists, and one of the
lodges in Minnesota is named after Pauline
Fjelde
Emily Baker, in MINNpost
17. Pauline’s Legacy
Banners for Norwegian organizations
(including DN)
“Hiawatha” and “The Animal Kingdom”
tapestries
Minnesota flag
Works on display at the Minneapolis
Institute of the Arts
Permanent collection in Vesterheim
Norwegian-American Museum in Iowa
19. Minnesota flag
“Sisters Pauline andThomane Fjelde, immigrants to Minnesota from
Norway and respected needleworkers, were contracted to produce
the actual prototype flag.The Fjelde sisters did such a fine job of it
that the Minnesota flag earned a gold medal for embroidery at the
Chicago exposition”
Matt Anderson from Minnesota Historical Society
20. Resources used
A Forgotten Artist Remembered (an
article by Lila Nelson in Norwegian
Textile letter)
http://www.placeography.org/images/0/06/Mdougla--nortl1104.pdf
MNHS website (Minnesota Historical
Archive)
http://discussions.mnhs.org/collections/2008/07/minnesotas-first-
state-flag/
Minnesota Post Archive
http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2011/05/state-flag-
prototype-hiawatha-celebrating-pauline-fjelde-and-her-embroidery
Website of Vesterheim Museum
http://collections.vesterheim.org/items/browse/3?collection=3
