Nicolai A. Grevstad

Nicolai A. Grevstad (2 June 1851 – 20 February 1940) was an American diplomat, politician and newspaper editor.^[1]

Background

Nicolai Andreas Grevstad was born in Sunnmøre, the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. He graduated with a degree in law from the University of Christiania in 1878. In 1880 he became editor of Dagbladet, Norway's third largest newspaper. Founded in 1869, the newspaper was affiliated with the Liberal Party of Norway (Norwegian: Venstre). A split in the party caused the dismissal of Grevstad in 1883 because of his somewhat pronounced radical political positions.^[2]

Career

Grevstad subsequently emigrated to the United States and soon became editor of Nordvesten, a Norwegian language newspaper published in St. Paul, Minnesota. Grevstad’s mastery of the English language was so excellent that he was a leading editorial writer on the Minneapolis Tribune for two years, and he later edited the Minneapolis Times. Grevstad also served as director of Scandinavian publicity for the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety .^[3]

In 1886 he returned to Norway at the request of the Liberal Party leader Johan Sverdrup, who served as prime minister after the introduction of the parliamentary system the prior year. Sverdrup served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1884 until 1889. Grevstad subsequently returned to the Minnesota and became an editorial writer for a number of English language newspapers in Minneapolis.

From 1892 to 1911, he was editor of Skandinaven, the largest Norwegian language newspaper in Chicago, Illinois. For a period he was a member of the Illinois General Assembly. In 1906, he was knighted into the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. In 1911, he became an Ambassador of the United States to Uruguay and Paraguay.^[4][5]

In 1930, Grevstad, wrote Norwegian-American Hospital, Chicago which provided a concise historic sketch of the north side Chicago hospital which had been founded by Norwegian immigrants. Grevstad later returned to newspaper work and in 1930 again became editor of Skandinaven. Grevstad emphasized the growing importance of Skandinaven in politics by printing many of his editorials in English as well as Norwegian. Under his editorship, the paper reached the height of its circulation and influence in the first decade of the twentieth century. After Grevstad’s death, the paper would be edited by Reidar Rye Haugan.^[6][7]

References

1. Nicolay Grevstad (Orm Øverland. Store norske leksikon)
2. Norwegian Emigrants with University Training 1830-1880 (Oystein Ore. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume 19: Page 160)
3. Orm Øverland. "Nicolay Grevstad-Journalist, Diplomat". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
4. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (Bureau of Public Affairs. Bureau of Public Affairs: Office of the Historian)
5. Name Change and the Church, 1918-1920 (Carl H. Christlock. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume 27: Page 194)
6. Editorial Policy of Skandinaven, 1900-1903 (by Agnes M. Larson. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume VIII: Page 112)
7. Skandinaven and the John Anderson Publishing Company (Jean Skogerboe Hansen. Norwegian-American Historical Association Volume 28: Page 35)

Additional sources

• Hammer, Simon Christian (1929) Nicolai Andreas Grevstad (Norsk biografisk leksikon. H. Aschehoug & Co. Volume 4)

External links

• Norwegian-American Historical Association
• United States Department of State