By Josh Brown, Ph.D.

For ten days in early September 2025, Eau Claire, Wisconsin hosted Anne Tiedemand-Johannessen Møller and her billedvevene (woven tapestries). This year we are celebrating the 200^th anniversary of Norwegian immigration to the United States. The sloop Restauration arrived on October 9, 1825, in New York City with 52 people aboard and has since become a symbol of Norwegian American identity. In this anniversary year, Møller came to the Upper Midwest with many of her woven tapestries so that we could delight in their depictions of Norwegian life and history. A highlight of the exhibition was Møller’s tapestry of the Restauration itself being led across the ocean by a bald eagle. I was especially intrigued by her use of threads outside of the woven ground to show interest and dimensionality.

Møller grew up on a farm in Gausdal, northwest of Lillehammer, Norway. As a child, she enjoyed exploring the outdoors — hiking in the woods and mountains and skiing in the winter. She began work in healthcare but later took further education in art history and eventually weaving courses in Lillehammer. She enjoys that her tapestry weaving can tell a story.

In 2004, Møller’s This is Norway — a set of twelve tapestries — travelled around the country. She intended them to feature the months in her region of Norway. The tapestries are full of animal life with wolves, puffins, and polar bears. My favorite one was December which presented to the viewer as if peering through from a warm inside through a window to the cold outside. The folks outside were just as warmed through it seems, enjoying some fun winter activities.

Two friezes depicting historical events in Norwegian history were also included in the exhibition. The first depicted scenes from Norwegian history and was woven by Møller to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the dissolution of union with Sweden. 

Another frieze, woven to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution in 2014, shows decades of recent history in Norway.

[Left: Detail of the Frieze, Norwegians heading to church. Right: Detail of the frieze, Svinesud Bridge crossing Iddefjord joining Sweden and Norway, 2005]

I was honored to offer the presentation “From Norway to the American Midwest: 200 Years of Immigrant Folk Art” as a complementary program to the exhibition. I used the presentation to position Møller’s traditional craft within a larger story of Norwegian folk art and craft in the diaspora — with a special focus on the lasting contribution of Norwegian folk art and craft in the American Upper Midwest and the value in maintaining it and its practitioners.

Møller’s visit and exhibition was sponsored by Løven Lodge (Sons of Norway), Midwest Institute of Scandinavian Culture, Waldemar Ager Association and Museum, McIntyre Library (University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire), and L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library. She continues to work on tapestries and is currently weaving one of St. Olaf, the 11^th century King of Norway.

October 2025

Josh Brown is Skwierczynski University Fellow in Languages and professor of German and linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. He prefers spending time at the loom, learning about the techniques that are deeply rooted in a culture, especially his own Pennsylvania Dutch culture and Scandinavian cultures. Josh has published and presented widely on heritage language communities in the U.S., including the Scandinavian Americans. He dreams of a life as an artisanal weaver in New England. His academic website is: https://www.joshuarbrown.com/ and his weaving website is: https://www.thebullfroginn.com/