Scandinavian Traveling Trunks

 By Amanda Munro 

When you visit the Nordic Heritage museum there is a lot to take in, but one thing that always intrigued me was the trunks on display that were once used to immigrate to America. These old trunks interest me simply for the fact of how they traveled with something so big and bulky unlike our more manageable suitcases, but also for the fact of bringing all of your belongs into a limited amount of space to a unknown land that claimed to have its streets paved with gold. What on earth would you bring? Nordic immigrants filled these beautifully decorated trunks with clothes, linens, shoes, bibles, pots and pans, and whatever else they needed for the long trek to a new land.

These trunks were always decorated ethnically to where that individual was from. Most commonly rosemaled, these trunks also had the name of the trunks owner, along with the year, stylistically written. After being used these trunks were kept in the home as a piece of furniture and a reminder of their native land. These trunks are admired and passed down through generations. I admire these trunks whenever I see them because they are a big piece of our heritage to see what our family members did and how even through traveling they preserved their culture.