Immigration to Eau Claire will be featured Thursday evening as part of the programming celebrating the 150th anniversary of Waldemar Ager’s birth.
Brian Blakeley, a historian who is in the process of researching and writing about Eau Claire’ history, will talk about immigrants in Eau Claire with particular emphasis on Ager’s experiences and contributions. The free program is part of the Waldemar Ager Association’s “Conversations About Immigrant Identity” series.
It is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Eau Claire room at the L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.
Ager moved to Eau Claire in 1892, after emigrating from Norway to Chicago in 1885. Here, he worked for and later owned a Norwegian-language weekly newspaper and for 17 years also edited the quarterly journal of The Norwegian Society of America. He died in 1941.
Blakeley, an Eau Claire native who taught history at Texas Tech University for many years before his retirement, will focus on the importance of Ager’s work and ideas. Among those ideas were his advocacy of prohibition and his belief that America was stronger when it supported and celebrated its diversity.
Ager was also a strong advocate of retaining the Norwegian language as an essential part of preserving Norwegian culture. Blakeley’s talk will deal with the importance of Ager’s ideas and the controversial outcome of some of his convictions.
He will also discuss Ager’s efforts to improve Eau Claire’s quality of life and its economic development. He plans to conclude by discussing with the audience the ideas and issues included in his talk, according to a press release from the Waldemar Ager Association.
The Association is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization which owns and operates the Ager Museum: A Center for Nordic Culture at 514 W. Madison Ave.
Note: The home page image is a drawing of the Ager Museum provided by the Waldemar Ager Association.