Pauline Fjelde was a Norwegian artist born in 1861 who immigrated to the United States in 1887. She came from a family of artists and showed an early talent for drawing and painting. In the US, she became involved in the Arts and Crafts movement through embroidery, weaving, and tapestry work. She helped establish the Daughters of Norway organization to support Norwegian immigrants. Fjelde is renowned for her tapestries and embroidered works, including the first design of the Minnesota state flag. Her artworks are in permanent collections in Minnesota.

1. Pauline Fjelde
Norwegian artist, embroider and painter
1861-
1923
By Svetlana Prosviryak
lanaprosviryak@yahoo.no

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

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

7. Moving to America
Lila Nelson in Norwegian
Textile Letter

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)

9. “Manufacture des Gobelins”
- A Tapestry
factory in Paris
• Pauline studied
gobelin weaving
there

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

13. Daughters of Norway

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

18. Paulina’s
Works

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