By Carol Colburn

Carol Colburn

The Uprooting – Cleng Peerson and the Norwegian Immigration of 1825 is a play written by Vigleik Rosseland about 100 years after the action depicted in the play. The script was translated into English by Kristbjørg Eide, who directed its premier American performance in 2014. The Uprooting was produced by the Nordic Center, Duluth, Minnesota and presented in four venues by Thomas Mannes of Cleng Peerson Farm, Clifton Texas. This article focuses on the experience of taking the production on tour to Norway in June, 2017.

 Since September 2011 the Nordic Center in Duluth has been actively pursuing its mission: to preserve and advance Nordic culture through social, educational, and cultural/arts programs that serve the greater community. One of Nordic Center’s longest running projects has been producing and performing a play about the adventure of the Sloopers.  Slooper is a name that is proudly claimed by thousands of Americans who can trace their roots directly back to a first group of 53 Norwegian immigrants who made the journey in a small sloop from Stavanger, Norway, to New York in 1825.

The story of those original Sloopers’ journey is the subject of a play script discovered among a pile of papers belonging to the playwright’s family in 2012 on the island of Karmøy, Norway. It was translated to English by Nordic Center board member, Kristbjørg Eide.  Since its debut in 2014, the play has been produced four times.  It has grown artistically with each production, adding music, narratives, movement, and dual language elements – as the characters have evolved and grown into distinct personalities.

After performances at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center for a Sons of Norway convention, then at the Underground Theater for the Duluth Community, the play went on the road to the Norwegian-American community of Clifton, Texas.  Last summer, 2017, the Nordic Center’s Slooper actors were invited to perform their play in Tysvaer, Norway. (1)

Our core troupe consisted of director, costume designer, six actors, and a musician. (2) I recruited a volunteer costume crew for sewing, and we had additional backstage help for our final week of production in Norway. For most of our development time, we were a small group, so everyone assumed multiple responsibilities along the way. While telling the historical tale of the Sloopers was important to us, as it was to the original author, we also wanted our interpretation to resonate today. Though set nearly 200 years ago, we see how this story of the Sloopers reflects the same decisions and fears faced by groups today as they contemplate such a life-changing journey. Over time the story of the long-ago immigrations to America has made these journeys sound easier and more successful than the actual experience of any individual immigrant. We know that the Sloopers found a very uncertain welcome upon landing in New York harbor. Their first years in America were extremely hard as they first settled in upstate New York, moved on to Illinois, and finally many in the group moved to Texas. A goal of our production team was to tell the story of the difficult decisions that faced these emigrants before their life-changing journey. We asked the question, “Did the emigrants have second thoughts as they left family and friends, community, and homes behind?” 

Our cast members had the experience of sailing away from Stavanger on the North Sea. The scene brought to mind possible second thoughts of the original emigrants. Photo credit: Michael Anderson 

As a Nordic Center project, the production also set a goal to strengthen connections with individuals and organizations in Norway to enhance understanding and appreciation of this history that is shared by Norwegians and Americans alike. Most Norwegians have heard of the Sloopers and their guide and leader, Cleng Peerson. On the other hand, in America, few of those in the Norwegian-American community know this story. Personally, I knew a little about the Sloopers, but I did not know that one of the forces driving this first group of Norwegians from their homeland was religious persecution. Many of the Sloopers were Quakers, which at that time was not tolerated by the state church in Norway. (3)

The costumes for The Uprooting are intended to represent early 19^th century rural clothing for men and women, with attention to local conditions affecting their clothing. The Sloopers were from the Rogaland region of rural coastal Norway, where economic times were difficult, especially for farmers. In areas of deep fjords and high mountains, relative isolation further restricted access to changing fashion. Some of the real people on whom the characters in the play are based were farmers and Quakers, which at that time meant their clothing was very functional, unembellished, and made of plain fabrics in subdued colors. Lines in the play describe economic and social hardships Quakers suffered in their communities. Agricultural work on small subsistence farms meant their everyday clothing would show hard wear. Rural clothing of the time was largely made at home. Keeping sheep, spinning, weaving, and sewing were all part of the cycle of work each year. Each garment represented a large investment of both time and materials. 

With these conditions in mind, it is most important for us to tell the story effectively. We concentrated on the human story of what drove the emigrants from their homeland, the real fears they faced, hardships they had to overcome, and what they hoped to find in a new land. The action of the play depicts an important meeting arranged by members of the Quaker community. They invited the well known Cleng Peerson to their home to report on his travels to America, during which he scouted land in New York state for the group to settle. We see two couples from local farms (Hersdals and Rossadals) meeting Cleng Peerson, who arrives with Quaker leader and experienced seaman Lars Geilane. For this significant meeting, guests and hosts would present their best appearance possible. Cleng and Lars’s clothing would show their familiarity with men’s fashions from abroad, while the local people of Tysvaer appeared more parochial. We know that groups like this were meeting throughout the larger Stavanger area. The dialogue at such a meeting was imagined by the playwright, but would have been based on true accounts handed down in families such as the author’s family.

My goal as costume designer was to use costume to evoke the audience’s understanding of the characters. In truth, contemporary interpretation of period dress cannot be accurate in all aspects. We have to interpret what is most important about the clothing and the characters. Costumes also help the actors ‘become’ the real people they are portraying. My research meshed with the actors’ exploration of their roles. Actors contribute personality and a deeper understanding of motivation for each character, which is reflected in costume choices as well.

In my research for making new costume pieces for our production in Norway, I used both historical sources and some sources that were evocative of the time. Historical sources are those that have preserved scraps of information from very close to the time period of 1825: texts, artist renderings, sculpture, and remaining garments.  Evocative sources made by artists later in time interpret the historical story providing reflections on the Sloopers’ characters and events from the perspective of a later date. Contemporary sources are also referenced, such as the tradition of the bunad worn in Rogaland today. A few examples of these types of research follow.

While this play focuses on the Sloopers in the months before their voyage, the descendants of those Sloopers have preserved the story of their voyage and their arrival in America. Included in a book published by those family members is a quote from a New York City newspaper reporting on the day the immigrants arrived on the dock in the harbor. In wonderful serendipity for me, observations made by the reporter included a description of clothing, while also expressing the excitement of watching the Sloopers disembark.

“A vessel has arrived at this port with emigrants from Norway. . . .The appearance of such a party of strangers, coming from so distant a country and in a vessel of a size apparently ill calculated for a voyage across the Atlantic, could not but excite an unusual degree of interest. They have had a voyage of fourteen weeks and are all in good health and spirits. An enterprise like this argues a good deal of boldness in the master of the vessel as well as an adventurous spirit in the passengers, most of whom belong to families from the vicinity of a little town in the southwestern extremity of Norway, near Cape Stavanger.

Those who came from the farms are dressed in coarse cloths of domestic manufacture, of a fashion different from the American, but those who inhabited the town wear calico, ginghams, and gay shawls, imported, we presume, from England. The vessel is built on the model common to fishing boats on that coast, with a single mast and topsail, sloop-rigged. She passed through the English channel and as far south as Madeira, where she stopped three or four days and then started directly for New York, where she arrived with the addition of one passenger born on the way.” (4)

Guided by research on early 19^th century artists published by Aagot Noss, I found drawings and watercolor sketches that gave a good background on rural folk dress. (5)

The camera had not yet been invented, but we can use work of artists who were working to make accurate depictions of rural people and their clothing. Curator and author Aagot Noss wrote of the travels of Johannes Flintoe, Joachim Frich, and Adolph Tidemand. She described the clothing depicted by them in genre scenes and portraits, then compared the images to clothing artifacts in the Norsk Folkemuseum collections. Closest in time to when the action of the play takes place is the work of the Danish artist Johannes Flintoe, who traveled and sketched in rural Norway in the 1820s, although he did not travel to the Rogaland area on the West Coast. Adolph Tidemand traveled to Rogaland a little later in the 1840s. Tidemand’s model was Siri Peer’s daughter Strand (1772 – 1863), in Ryfylket, near Tysvaer. She was an older woman when painted, and she wore her old clothes. Older women held on to their clothing, because at that time clothing was made to last a lifetime. At the time of painting, younger people would have worn somewhat more fashionable clothing. (6)

Adolph Tidemand, Siri Peersdatter Strand, Strand i Ryfylke, 1849.  Nasjonalmuseet. Photo: Anne Jarre (7)

Artists from the time also created illustrations to make a record of rural occupations. These documented what was considered to be the vanishing rural way of life as ripples of the industrial revolution were being felt in Norway. A page depicting people in rural occupations was recently reprinted in Annemor Sundbø’s book Spelsau og samspill. (8) This was very useful in showing variations of women’s bodices, jackets, and accessories for different occasions. I was happy to find the use of long pants and short pants for men depicted as having been worn at approximately the same time.

Among the sculptures at Nordmands-Dalen, there is a figure from Rogaland. Photos showing two sides: Heidi Fossnes, Magasinet Bunad

Nordmands-Dalen, in the gardens surrounding Fredensborg Castle in Denmark includes carved stone sculpture – including a figures from Rogaland.  These free standing sculptures offer front, side, and back views with a degree of animation portrayed in the figures. The carving reveals the cut of clothing as well as how the garments were accessorized. Aagot Noss also wrote about these 18^th century sculptures as a pertinent source for understanding regional Norwegian dress. The sculpture garden and her research was recently highlighted in article in Magasinet Bunad. (9)

Hoping to see pictures of surviving garments from the Tysvaer area, I posed a question to Kari-Anne Pedersen at Norsk Folkemuseum. She forwarded my question to Kristin Gulbrandsen at the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume. (10) As a result, photographs of actual garments were generously sent to me via email. The photographic archive at the institute preserves results of a survey the institute made recently in the community of Finnøy in Rogaland. The survey documented garments preserved in private family collections including bodices, skirts, aprons, and caps.  All of these were ‘Sunday best’ clothing made of finer fabrics than would have been used by the characters depicted in The Uprooting, but these photographs of real garments allowed me as designer to appreciate and study overall shape and cut representing the history in this community very close to Tysvaer.

Bodices from Finnøy, in Rogaland. Documented by The Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume. Photo courtesy of Norsk institutt for bunad og folkedrakt, Fagernes, Norway

The next step in my research was to study actual garments from the period. I appreciate what you can learn from the inside and outside of historical garments. Garments from this time were entirely handmade; the sewing machine was not yet invented. While I was not going to make museum reproduction garments for this project, studying real garments was inspiring and provided insight to share with actors and with my group of skilled sewing volunteers. With the help of Head Curator Laurann Gilbertson, I found I could study garments at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa. Garments in collection from Rogaland and documented from the early 19^th century included two bodices and a skirt. A woman’s cap in the style of Rogaland was also available for study. (11)

Bodice dated as having been worn for a wedding in 1807 and brought by immigrants to Minnesota in the early 1890s. In the collection of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Photo credit: Carol Colburn

Made of wool and linen, these garments were similar in cut and materials as the garments in the photographs sent by the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume. This flowered brocade wool fabric is called ‘kalemank,’ and was used in a number of regions of Norway. A highly valued fabric, in the late 19^th century it was imported to Norway from England. What I found most exciting was being able to study the back pleats of the bodice peplum, the linings of both wool and linen; and the use of ‘spilesaum’ handsewn seams in construction the bodices.

This detailed clothing history was given nuance by finding the work of artists who depicted the emigration experience much later in time, not unlike what the playwright had done when he wrote the play in the early 20^th century. The story of Cleng Peerson and the Sloopers has been the subject of art and literature over time. For example, the Norwegian political cartoonist and illustrator Benjamin Blessum (1877–1954) illustrated the story in 1914; almost 100 years after this first emigration from Norway. While our play tells the story from the perspective of those who sailed away, Blessum’s illustration is from the view of families who saw the emigrants off at the dock in Stavanger, with tears and waves – knowing they were unlikely to see their family members again. (12)

Another example is the trilogy written by author Alfred Hauge. In the mid 20^th century, he wrote the Cleng Peerson story in novel form, illustrated by Hans Christian Sondresen. Sondresen’s evocative woodcut prints show the crowded conditions of the sailing vessel. Later in the story we see the immigrants just after they landed, standing close together on the edge of the dock with their trunks piled around them. You feel their relief in landing in New York City together, while still facing an uncertain future. (13)

Cast and guests from Norway danced at the Cleng Peerson Farm near Clifton, Texas. After dining and dancing together, the Mayor of Tysvaer extended an invitation for the theater troupe to travel to Norway in 2017 for a performance and historical tour in the region where the play takes place. Photo: Michael Anderson

I first saw bunads from Rogaland when our theater troupe traveled to Texas to perform. As part of a celebration after the performance at the Cleng Peerson Farm, we met a group of 30 Norwegian visitors who had also come as guests to Clifton. They were members of Tysvaer Historielag, a historical group from the area where Cleng Peerson grew up. The Sloopers who sailed to America came from towns and farms in the same area, so many of these visitors have relatives that descended from the Sloopers. Significant for me were the garments worn by the members of the Tysvaer historical group when we met them. Many had brought bunads representative of their home area of Rogaland. Bunads are used throughout Norway today primarily for special occasions. Bunads from each region have evolved from both everyday and festive regional folk clothing of older times. Although not exactly the cut or fabrics that the Sloopers would have worn, these fine garments worn today were inspiring for me as costume designer. The festivities at the farm provided an opportunity to see these garments in action – not as static images in art, or as artifacts. I knew that our audience in Tysvaer would also be familiar with their local bunad tradition when they viewed our historical play set in their community. There are many published and online sources available that trace the development of the Rogaland bunad. (14)

By early spring in 2017, the actors were meeting weekly to rehearse, and I began to draft patterns, have fittings, and recruit assistants for sewing and finishing the costumes. As about a year had passed between each of our four separate productions of The Uprooting, we relied on our written records each time we revived and added new elements to our interpretation of the script. We wrote and published a book containing the script in Norwegian and English, including the story of finding and translating the script, as well as musical and narrative additions. A chapter on costume considerations includes my character analysis and early costume sketches. (15) After compiling costume research, making character sketches served to solidify my ideas and then served as a guide as the various costume pieces came together for each character. These simple sketches became my blueprint for assembling some pieces and constructing new pieces that would reflect the sources described above. It is a way of making a visual list for the costume designer, and serves to let the director and performers know what to expect when the costumes are finished.

Sample Character Sketches for The Uprooting, Carol Colburn

Our budget was ‘shoestring’, meaning a very tight budget, relying on volunteer help and fundraising to pay for all production related expenses and materials. All members of our theater troupe initially paid for their own transportation. We sold Norwegian cookies (krumkake) and sent out letters to seek donations. The University of Minnesota Duluth Department of Theater was very supportive in allowing rental of period costume pieces from their stock, as we could not make or purchase everything needed, given our restricted time and budget. We were able to borrow garments such as men’s pants and coats, boots, and hats.

Six characters and the musician were fully costumed, with a number of new items made to reflect the research on Rogaland regional folk dress. For traveling to Norway, the costumes also needed to include all the layers of real clothing at the time, because we anticipated being outdoors in any weather. I drafted period  patterns to replicate the women’s cap and the bodice with pleated peplum that I had studied in the Vesterheim collection. Machine sewing and hand finishing was accomplished with skilled stitchers from the Duluth Fiber Handcrafter’s Guild and community volunteers. The main items that were newly built for the performance in Norway were the vests for the men, the bodices for the women, linen shirts and caps for the women. I made some design compromises due to restrictions on time and money. While I had hoped to make men’s knee length pants, my decision was to approximate the look with wool pants adjusted to be neatly tucked into tall boots. 

Period costumes are never one size fits all, so every time we produced the play over four years, there were changes in the cast requiring adjustments to the costumes. Another interesting factor was our lead singer’s growing family, with two pregnancies during our four years of producing the play. We decided it was very appropriate for her character to be pregnant. Adjusting the costumes for real size changes required for comfort while maintaining consistency with 19^th century maternity clothing was a challenge for both the performer and costumer. We made the decision that elastic was just fine as long as the audience did not see it.

As costume designer I attended all rehearsals, and often read roles for absent actors.  This way I stayed in touch with exactly how the costumes would be required to function for movement on stage, and how they would be seen by the audience. Throughout the rehearsal process we incorporated costume props and accessories such as boots, hats, purses, walking sticks, and smoking pipes. 

Final dress rehearsal in Duluth with most of the cast in their basic indoor clothing. Additional layers were provided for their costumes for outdoor events in Norway. Photo credit: Carol Colburn

After final dress rehearsal, each actor tightly rolled their bulky costume pieces to be packed in their personal luggage for the flight to Norway. I packed a tool kit and back-up pieces as I knew in Norway there would be wear and tear on these costumes beyond the one evening’s performance. Having heard from our hosts in Norway, we anticipated coastal and mountain conditions of cold or heat – wind, rain, and mud – knowing that many outdoor activities were planned for cast and crew.

After our arrival in Bergen and driving about half way along the coast to Stavanger, we were introduced to the countryside and landmarks that had been the homeland of the Sloopers. Our visit was covered by newspapers in the area and Norwegian national news. Midsummer festivities in Tysvaer provided opportunities for meeting community members at outdoor events. Cast members joined the annual Cleng Peerson Walk, a hike along the very path the emigrants took from the Rossadal farm to the Hersdal farm. Community members reenact this rugged hike every year, and they continue on to the edge of the fjord, where the Sloopers boarded a boat to take them to the sloop named Restauration in Stavanger. We attended a musical event at a monument to Cleng Peerson, and also presented music from the play in the mountainside farmyard of the Hersdal farm.

We experienced sailing the reconstructed Restauration and imagined the crowded conditions the original Sloopers experienced on their three month voyage. Photo credit: Carol Colburn

A day later, the cast and crew sailed on the North Sea in heavy rain, sailing out of the docks in Stavanger. We sailed in the rain for a day. It was sobering to think of the 53 Sloopers who sailed in all weather for 98 days, crowded together with all their luggage and supplies. Despite a very small ship, no privacy for families, and only preserved and dried food, all the Sloopers arrived safely. On board, a healthy baby was born, so when they arrived in the New York harbor, there were 54.

The outdoor community experiences for our theater troupe helped us understand more about 19^th century rural life. Along the way, we met local residents of the area who knew all about the real people on whom the characters were based. It was not a new story to them, but it was a new experience for them to meet Americans who had crossed the ocean to ‘bring the story back.’ It was also satisfying for me to hear local residents comment on the costumes. One woman who is a bunad maker recognized and commented on the pattern cut and the wool and linen fabrics that did reflect Rogaland clothing traditions to her trained eye. In addition to the rather dramatic experiences of hiking and sailing, we visited other historic sights, such as the small home where Cleng Peerson spent his childhood years, and to the Quaker meeting house, the location of which had to be secret in those days due to fears of religious persecution. Each of the trips required costume maintenance with quick turn-around time for cleaning, steaming, and ironing before every event. Luckily, we were fed and housed very comfortably with host families. We were able to re-group each night while maintaining this demanding schedule for 10 days.

Linen shirts drying on the clothesline. Photo: Carol Colburn

Our costumed flute player joined us for staging rehearsals in the 360 seat house in the community center in the town of Aksdal. To our surprise, the stage was set by our friends in the Tysvaer Historielag with props and furniture from the Cleng Peerson historical house. Lights were added by the house theater technician, and sound levels were adjusted to the action at our final technical rehearsal.

My role the night of performance was to make sure everyone was ready backstage, and then to take a seat in the audience to watch the costumes in action. As costume designer, I am not on stage as part of the curtain call – but for me, being backstage and then in the audience gives me a full experience of theater that is the best of both worlds.

Curtain Call. After our performance of The Uprooting, a community choral group from the nearby community of Sand told another chapter of the Slooper story in song. We shared the final curtain call with the chorus, also in costume. Photo credit: Caitlin Nielsen

A live performance is not complete without the participation of the audience. Director Kristbjørg Eide summed up her impressions of the play’s effect on the audience, and their response, in her article published in The Banner.

“The story of the Sloopers filled the Tysvaertunet Theater in the glow of stage lights, to the haunting music of a traditional Norwegian flute accompanying a melodic soprano as characters on stage delivered lines in both English and the Norwegian dialect of the Sloopers’ home region. A rhythmic ovation of 360 audience members clapping in unison showed their appreciation. And all this began at our Duluth Nordic Center.” (16)

Carol Colburn – Designing costumes for this play focusing on Norwegian emigration, Carol has combined her interests in Norwegian-American clothing history and theatrical costume design. She is co-author with Laurann Gilbertson of the Vesterheim publication Handweaving in the Norwegian Tradition and has contributed chapters on Norwegian-American clothing to Marion Nelson’s books Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition and Material Culture and People’s Art Among the Norwegians in America. After a career teaching design for theater, opera, and dance, she is Professor Emerita at the University of Northern Iowa. Now living in Duluth, Minnesota she continues to write about clothing history and to make garments inspired by her research. She teaches heritage sewing workshops at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota and John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. 

1. Kristbjørg Eide, “The Uprooting in Norway: Theater Troupe with a Mission,” The Banner (newsletter for the Nordic Center), Fall, 2017.
2. Production Team: Director Kristbjørg Eide and Costume Designer Carol Colburn. Actors Jason Nordberg (Cleng Peerson), Mike Raschick (Lars Geilane), Jim Anderson (Kornelius Hersdal), Erika Bjerketvedt (Kari Hersdal), Michael K. Anderson (Daniel Rossadal), Caitlin Nielson (Berta Rossadal), and Laura Larson (Musician).
3. J. Hart Rosdail. The Sloopers: Their Ancestry and Posterity. Norwegian Slooper Society of America, 1961.
4. New York Daily Advertiser, Wednesday, October 12, 1825. Reprinted in The Sloopers by J. Hart Rosdail
5. Aagot Noss. “Norske folkedrakter set med kunstnarauge: Ei Kjeldekritisk studie 2.”  Kunst og Kultur Nr. 1, 2002. Published by Universitetsforlaget in collaboration with the  Nationalgalleriet.
6. Email to Carol Colburn from Kristin Gulbrandsen, The National Council of Folk Costumes in Norway, March 24, 2017. 
7. ibid.
8. Annemor Sundbø. Spelsau og samspill. Bokbyen Forlag, 2015, page 127. 
9. Heidi Fossness. “Nordmands-Dalen,” Magasinet Bunad, Nr. 1, May 2015, page 54-67.
10. Email to Carol Colburn from Kristin Gulbrandsen, The National Council of Folk Costumes in Norway, March 24, 2017. 
11. Vesterheim Collection. #LC0914. These garments have been in the Vesterheim Collection since 1953 (at that time the collection at Luther College) donated by Aslaug Toftoy. This bodice dates from 1807, known because it was used as bridal clothing by Kari Olsdatter from Solim on Sunday 19, July 1807, when she married Holger Nielsen Toftoy.  Place of origin is stated as Norway/Rogaland/Haugesunddistricktet/Ryfylke/Solim.
12. J. Hart Rosdail. The Sloopers: Their Ancestry and Posterity. Norwegian Slooper Society of America, 1961.
13. Cleng Peerson: Hundevakt (1961, Part I of the Cleng Peerson trilogy of novels); Cleng Peerson: Landkjenning (1961, Part II); Cleng Peerson: Ankerfeste. (1965, Part III)
14. Husfliden Stavanger. http://husflidenstavanger.no
15. Vigleik Rosseland. The Uprooting. Cleng Peerson and the Norwegian Immigration of 1825: A Play. The Nordic Center, 2015. Contributors: Thomas Mannes, Text plus Norwegian translation; Kristbjørg Eide, Text plus English translation; Carol Ann Colburn, Costumer.
16. Kristbjørg Eide, “The Uprooting in Norway: Theater Troupe with a Mission,” The Banner (newsletter for the Nordic Center), Fall, 2017.