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Foreword
- Wayne State University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Foreword After World War II Armas K. E. Holmio and other Finnish Americansbegantoexploretheirimmigrantpast.Theimmigrant generation was fast disappearing along with its organizations and newspapers . During the heyday of immigrant life before the war, few individualshadtheresourcesorthetimetopreservesystematicallyevidence oftheFinnish experience.Becausethepresent demanded much from themincopingwiththevicissitudesoflivinginanewland,it left immigrantslittletimetothinkhowthefuturemightviewthem.Within the two decades after the war, however, Holmio and others made a frantic effort to salvage the evidence needed to prepare historical accounts oftheirpast. In 1945 SuomiCollegeinHancock,Michigan (renamed Finlandia UniversityinJuly2000),reneweditserstwhileworkofcollecting FinnishAmericanhistoricalmaterialsontheoccasionofitsfiftiethanniversary .Thecollectinghadstartedin1932,buttheGreat Depression stalled thework.The Suomi Synod, or FinnishAmerican Evangelical Lutheran Church,which operated thecollegeanditsseminary,lacked resourcestocontinueit.Soonafter thewar'send,however,thecollege reconsidered the matter and began to plan the establishment of the FinnishAmericanHistoricalArchives. ProfessorJohn I.Kolehmainen ofHeidelberg College (Ohio) spent1945-1946atthecollegeandassistedtheplannersofthearchives. Kolehmainen, the leading American scholar of Finnish immigration, alsosurveyed the materials held bythe college and prepared abibliographical guide of immigrant publications. In 1947 the college published his guide under the title The Finns in America.1 In 1950 the Finnish American Historical Archives finally acquired its own room, whichwastended onapart-timebasisbyacollegelibrarian. Armas Holmio came on the scene in 1946 just after Kolehmainen completed his stayin Hancock. The college had invited him to become professor ofhistory, particularly church history. Assuming 8 Foreword responsibility asarchivist ofthe FinnishAmerican Historical Archives in 1954,Holmio alsolaterserved asaseminarydean.Bornin Finland in 1897,hehadstudiedattheTheological Department ofthe University ofHelsinkiandwasordainedin1921.BeforecomingtotheUnited Statesin 1926,hebeganhisprofessional careerasliteraturedirectorof the FinnishMissionary Societyfrom 1921to 1929and then served as Finnish seamen's pastor in San Francisco from 1930 to 1933,and as pastor ofFinnish congregations in Boston and Cape Cod, Massachusetts , from 1933 to 1943.During World War II he served the U.S. Army as a chaplain and worked also with its military intelligence branch.In addition, in 1940hereceived adoctorate intheology from BostonUniversity,writingadissertationthatwaspublished asThe Lutheran ReformationandtheJews:TheBirth oftheProtestantJewish Missions .2 Holmiodiedin 1977. WhenHolmio arrivedinAmericainthemid-1920s,the influx ofimmigrantsfromFinlandhadpeaked.In1920thenumberofforeignborn Finns in the United States reached its highest level at 149,824. Thereafter their numbers declined as U.S. immigration policies, the Great Depression, and other factors slowed theinflux toan infinitesimal level.By 1940the immigrant generation numbered 117,210, and in 1950,95,506;tenyearslateritwasonly67,395,orlessthanhalfthe totalin 1920. Although the immigrant generation managed to maintain its communityactivities—suchaschurches,laborhalls,andnewspapers— atahighleveluntilthe 1940s,itcouldnolongerdosoafterWorldWar II.Their community life lostmuch ofitsvitalitybecause of declining numbers. U.S.-born Finnish Americans did not always embrace the cultural activities oftheir parents,and during thewartheybegan dispersing fromimmigrantcenterstoseekworkelsewhere.Finnsreduced theleveloftheirinstitutionallife:laborhallswereclosed;thePdivalehti was the first of several major newspapers to suspend operations; the Suomi Synod merged in 1962with the Lutheran Church in America; andtheCentralCooperativeWholesalecombinedin 1963withanonFinnish organization.Theimmigranterawasfastclosing. Even before the immigrant erahad reached itsplateau, however , Finnish Americans were occasionally exploring their past. They did sonot somuch topreserve agolden ageastomarkmilestones in their lives. Their history began in the 1860s with the arrival of the earliestimmigrants from theRussianGrand DuchyofFinland. Immigrant numberspeakedbetween 1899and...
