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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Felt Raabet (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1887-1889

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About Felt Raabet (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1887-1889

Felt Raabet (“Battle Cry”) was a Norwegian-language weekly news and temperance newspaper published in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1887 to 1889. It began publication on May 13, 1887, as a four-page, six-column newspaper that covered local, regional, national, and international news. The editor and later co-owner of Felt Raabet was Hallvard Tobias Askeland, who emigrated from Stavanger, Norway to Minneapolis in 1875. Askeland graduated from Augsburg Seminary in Minneapolis in 1882, taught music for a several years, and then became editor of the Felt Raabet. He was also for a time organist of the Norwegian Lutheran Trinity Church and secretary of the Minnesota Total Abstinence Association.

Proclaimed as “A Norsk Prohibitions-Blad” (or “A Norwegian Prohibition-Paper”) on its masthead, Felt Raabet appealed to the large segment of the Norwegian American community that opposed alcohol consumption. Some English-speaking Norwegian Americans made fun of the paper’s name, calling it “The Felt Rabbit.” Nevertheless, it attained a large circulation, reaching 4,000 subscribers by 1888, not least because the owners had many friends who subscribed.

The Felt Raabet offices were located at 408 and 410 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, in the heart of a large Scandinavian district. In the late 1800s, and throughthe turn-of-the-century, the area around Cedar Avenue was the commercial hub of the Minneapolis Scandinavian immigrant community.  The new residents lived in boarding houses in the neighborhood, where Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish languages were spoken in many businesses. The community was close to the city’s industrial area so it was easy for new immigrants to walk to their jobs at the mills.  The neighborhood was also well known for its many dance halls, saloons, theaters and meeting halls.

For those Scandinavians strongly opposed to liquor and who advocated for temperance there were other influences in the neighborhood, such as the Swedish-founded I.O.G.T. (Independent Order of Good Templars) Hall which provided social and cultural activities without alcohol, and the Salvation Army’s Scandinavian Corps which held temperance rallies. So Cedar Avenue was not a surprising spot for a Norwegian language prohibition paper tobe headquartered.

According to Carl G.O. Hansen’s book My Minneapolis, Norwegian author “Knut Hamsun and a number of other ‘intellectuals’ found the Feltraabet office a pleasant place to while away the hours, and in a modest way it became quite a cultural center.” Hamsun, the 1920 Nobel Prize winner in literature, also contributed editorials and sent letters to Felt Raabet when he was travelling in Europe.

Felt Raabet ceased publication around November, 1889. According to an article on December 4, 1889, in The North, an English language newspaper for Scandinavian Americans, plans were being made in late 1889 to merge Felt Raabet with the newspaper Reform of Eau Claire, Wisconsin to form a new paper to be named Fremad (“Forward”) and edited by Askeland. This does not appear to have come to pass because when the Felt Raabet ceased Askeland became a librarian at a local branch of the Minneapolis Public Library.

Provided By: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Felt Raabet (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1887-1889

Dates of Publication

  • 1887-1889

Created / Published

  • Minneapolis, Minn. : Felt-Raabet Pub. Co., 1887-

Headings

  • -  Norwegians--Minnesota--Newspapers
  • -  Minneapolis (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Hennepin County (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Norwegians
  • -  Minnesota--Minneapolis
  • -  Minnesota--Hennepin County
  • -  Minnesota
  • -  United States--Minnesota--Hennepin--Minneapolis

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  1ste aarg., no. 1 (13de mai 1887)-
  • -  Ceased in 1889.
  • -  A Norwegian prohibition paper.
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In Norwegian with occasional text in English.

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn90059904

OCLC Number

  • 1757617

ISSN Number

  • 2694-412x

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Felt Raabet Minneapolis, Minn. -1889. (Minneapolis, MN), Jan. 1 1887. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059904/.

APA citation style:

(1887, January 1) Felt Raabet Minneapolis, Minn. -1889. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059904/.

MLA citation style:

Felt Raabet Minneapolis, Minn. -1889. (Minneapolis, MN) 1 Jan. 1887. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059904/.