Europeana/1914-18/Wikimedia Norge/Letters

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Three collections of Norwegian letters have been uploaded to the Europeana Transcribathon, for deciphering, transcribing and annotating handwritten stories from 1914-1918. You can see the geolocations of the letters on this page

The team Norwegian letters on Europeana Transcribathon, with 7 members (consisting of editors, Glam representatives and Wikimedia Norge employees), have transcribed 16,829 characters and 22 documents.

  • Undset letters from 1914-1918: Letters from the writer Sigrid Undset written during the First World War to the writer Nini Roll Anker. Norway became the first independent country to introduce women's suffrage in 1913 when a motion on universal suffrage for women was adopted unanimously by the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget). Both Undset and Roll Anker wrote several books about women's living and working conditions, but from different perspectives. While Roll Anker wrote literary realism novels, Undset's most famous book are about Norwegian medival times. Undset was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. Letters are contributed on behalf of The National Library.
  • Quislings letters from 1914-1918: These are letters written by or to Vidkun Quisling during the First World War whilst he was studying at the Norwegian Military Academy: Letters are contributed on behalf of The National Archive.
  • Amundsen letters from 1914-1918. Letters to and from Roald Amundsen between 1914 and 1918. Some of the letters are written to Fridtjof Nansen. Just before World War I the Norwegian explorer of polar regions, Roald Amundsen had led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole. Letters are contributed on behalf of The National Library.

On Europeana Transcribathon you can also read both a diary and postcards of the amazing story of the German ship SS Berlin, which stranded in the Trondheim Fjord and the crew was interned there until after the war. Inspired by this we made a list of ships sunk in the current Norwegian economical sector during the battle of Jutland from The Directorate of Cultural Heritage's Kulturminnesøk / Search for Norwegian Cultural Heritage Sites.