Education

Two months after their arrival in Manitoba’s New Iceland, the first settlers began operating a school. Until the municipal system took over responsibility for education in 1887, the settlement’s council ran the schools within its jurisdiction. Instruction was in Icelandic, although English was also taught. In Winnipeg, learning English was considered more imperative and was actively pursued from 1876 onward. Both men and women were encouraged to attend school, as education continued to be highly valued in the Icelandic-Canadian community. For example, according to the 1921 census, only 2.5 percent of Manitoba’s Icelandic population were considered illiterate. Some of the ladies’ aid groups associated with local churches provided instruction.

A desire to establish an Icelandic high school in Winnipeg dates from at least 1886, when the Reverend Jón Bjarnason donated $100 to an academy fund. Obstacles, delays, and intergroup disagreements delayed the opening of the Jón Bjarnason Academy until 1913. It began in temporary quarters, but ten years later found a permanent home in the Icelandic neighbourhood of the west end. Although Icelandic was taught, English was used for most instruction, thus allowing other students interested in its Christian teaching to attend the academy. By 1930 only about 50 percent the student body was of Icelandic origin, and five years later the proportion had decreased to 13 percent, in part because of the addition of grade twelve, which other Winnipeg schools did not offer between 1932 and 1940. Originally, rural students outnumbered urban ones, but in the 1930s this situation also changed. As a result of declining Icelandic involvement and economic difficulties, the academy closed in 1940, and its library became the basis of the Icelandic collection at the University of Manitoba. Women intending to pursue teaching as a profession had entered Winnipeg’s Normal School beginning in the late 1880s, while men had gravitated to the medical and law schools. In 1905 Mary Anderson was the first Icelandic woman to graduate from the University of Manitoba. By 1910 students were also enrolling in agriculture and engineering. A lecturer in Icelandic subjects was appointed at Wesley College, now the University of Winnipeg, in 1902, and students were trained in Icelandic language and literature, history, and geography until 1926.

Driven by a desire to pass on knowledge of their culture, community leaders worked long and hard to finance a chair of Icelandic language and literature at the University of Manitoba. During the 1920s they achieved some encouraging results, but the Depression and World War II dampened the fund-raising efforts. The post-war years brought renewed interest, stimulated by the dedication of P.H.T. Thorlaksson. With financial and moral support from across North America, the chair was finally established in 1951. Finnbogi Gudmundsson held it for the first five years, followed by Haraldur Bessason from 1956 to 1987. Kirsten Wolf became the third incumbent the following year. A chair of Icelandic-Canadian studies was added in 1992, with funds from the federal department of the secretary of state. Vidar Hreinsson and Daisy Neijmann have held this position.

In conjunction with the chair in Icelandic studies, a department was established to teach old and modern Icelandic language and literature. Its mandate is both academic and community based; in addition to providing language and literature courses, it assists teachers to create materials for instruction in Icelandic and promotes study of Icelandic history and culture in North America. The department also sponsors a dynamic series of speakers that attracts an audience from within and outside the university, maintains links with Icelandic scholars throughout the world, and supports scholarly work such as translation projects.

The Icelandic collection, housed in the Dafoe Library at the University of Manitoba and overseen by Sigrid Johnson, is of central importance to the continuing documentation of Icelandic-Canadian culture. Established in 1936, it is comprised of books, magazines, newspapers, periodicals, and audio-visual materials, primarily in Icelandic but with some works in other Nordic languages and in English. The Icelandic Althing has a policy of donating a copy of every book and periodical published in the homeland to the collection. Although increasing costs have reduced the size of this gift, the Icelandic government retains an interest, and in 1989, on the occasion of her state visit to Canada, President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir donated money to enhance its coverage of contemporary publications. The collection now includes over 25,000 volumes, making it second in size only to the Fiske Icelandic collection at Cornell University.

The Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Alberta offers courses in Old Norse phonology and the history of Nordic languages, as well as classes in the Norwegian and Swedish languages and Scandinavian literature and culture. Richard Beck, formerly chair of modern and classical languages at the University of North Dakota, bequeathed his sizable collection of Icelandic writings to the University of Victoria along with a financial endowment. W.D. Valgardson and John Tucker have added a lecture series and an occasional summer school with courses on Icelandic film, language, and literature.