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One of the oldest items in the St. Olaf College Archives has an impressive story that spans the Atlantic Ocean — and plays an important part in U.S. music history. It is a 118-year-old wool jacket worn by members of the St. Olaf Band on their 1906 tour of Norway.

It was worn by David Davidson, a 1908 St. Olaf graduate and one of 48 student musicians who participated in the tour. The trip was significant for two reasons: one musical and another non-musical. First, and more importantly, it would be the first time that a U.S. college instrumental music organization had conducted a concert tour abroad. Second, during the tour, the band members participated in the first recorded instance of a baseball game being played in Norway.

The commemorative jackets were made to be worn by the musicians as they traveled to different destinations and concert halls.

The band jacket had been manufactured two years earlier in the Midwest. A pale gray color, it is embroidered with a gold-like trim, with two gold pins on the cuffs. In the center of the pin, a faint image of the old Minnesota state flag stands. Circling it is a proud inscription:

“Minnesota … Etoile du nord …” (Which, as most Minnesotans know, is a French phrase meaning “The Star of the North” and serves as the state’s motto.)

It’s an apt description of the wearers of the jacket as well, who would be their own stars in Norway. 

What was the trip like for this band jacket?

The first stage of the tour was the arduous journey to the coast and across the Atlantic Ocean. After traveling by train to New York, the jacket-wearers climbed aboard a Scandinavian American Line ship called Oscar II. This ship regularly shuttled Norwegian emigrants between Kristiania (Oslo) and New York. It was only apt that it would take some young descendants back to their homeland. 

Leaving campus during the peak of the Minnesota summer at the end of June, the jacket came in handy for the contrasting windy and cold conditions of the 10-day voyage. Oslofjord, then called Kristianiafjorden, was where most ships traveling to Norway docked in the capital city. Members of the St. Olaf Band were welcomed to Norway like superstars — a throng of cheering Norwegians filled the wharfs of the pier, waving handkerchiefs and headpieces. A welcoming burst from the cannon at the grand Akershus Castle signaled the group’s arrival. T. R. Dahl (Theo Dahl) wrote in an Olaf Messenger article of his awe at this welcome.

The band’s first concert was in Oslo, and they then traveled throughout the country to perform. Today’s music tours at St. Olaf regularly include opportunities for excursions — and the same was true for the 1906 tour. 

On July 3, 1906, the Oles took a trolley car accompanied by the Christiania Student Singers on a hiking excursion to Frognerseteren, a mountain trail just outside of Oslo. The swooping, tight paths took the tour up to breathtaking viewpoints. The author of a literary piece in the Olaf Messenger wrote:

“All around us lay scenes, famous in story, song and ‘sagn.’ There, below us, softened in outline by a blue haze, lay the city; and beyond, the fjord with its myriads of boats and islands gleamed and curved as far as the eye could reach.”

Afterwards, the tour group rapidly descended down the mountain — ahead of their guides — hunger brewing in their stomachs. Holmenkollen, a fancy restaurant, awaited them with selections and offerings that tickled the appetites of the students. In due course, an evening of acquaintanceship and joy-making followed. 

The next day would herald the first July 4 that some — but not all – of the students on the tour spent away from the U.S. They marked it by playing an exhibition baseball game between “Team USA” and “Team Norway.” There are no reports of the final score, though Team USA was able to secure an away victory thanks to “grandstand stunts and some good plays.” Nevertheless, none of the band members would be drafted to the newly formed Major League Baseball. 

The evening of July 4, “America” was the word in central Oslo. A police escort was needed to guide the band through the streets to the park, where a throng of citizens gathered to get a glimpse of the sleek, gray-uniformed young men who would entertain them that evening. 

Throughout the event, the crowd reacted with noise and enthusiasm at the end of each musical number, and the band was presented with a Norwegian flag by the Student Singers. After St. Olaf President John N. Kildahl spoke a word of thanks, the Norwegian national anthem, Ja, vi elsker dette landet, was played. It elicited the most deafening cheer of the night.

Just the previous year, Norway had attained its full independence after the Norwegian parliament voted to dissolve its union with Sweden, gaining their own monarch in the process — King Haakon VII. His majesty had the chance to listen to the band in Trondhjem, in the town square where they played the national anthem (Haakon gave high compliments), and a reception with royalty followed. Another instrumental figure in the 1905 unionsoppløsningen (union dissolution) was prime minister Christian Michelsen, who spent an afternoon with the St. Olaf Band during the tour. Michelsen and his wife, Benny, hosted them at their castle residence in the city of Bergen.

Just like today, this first St. Olaf Band tour meant that students were able to connect with alumni around the country and world. One of these grateful alumni in 1906 was Andrew Tollefson, who graduated in the early 1890s, and was then living in Stavanger. 

Stavanger is located in southwest Norway, and is home to the nation’s oldest cathedral. Underneath the 12th century diaphragm arches and high Roman-style nave, the St. Olaf Band’s melody sung and stirred the hearts of Tollefson and the 800 audience members. It had not been just the music that the locals appreciated, but also the character of the students.

“On speaking with those who came somewhat in contact with the boys while in Stavanger, it appeared that all were very favorably impressed by the young Americans. Their good figure and correct deportment elicited many admiring remarks,” wrote Tollefson later that October.

The tour was more than just a historical first, a chance to wear snazzy jackets, or to dine with royalty. It was also an opportunity to connect the Hill with its origins in the Nordic peninsula. They played a concert at the cathedral church in Trondheim, and also had an excursion to the small village of Stiklestad. Both are located in Trondhjem County, where the two “founders” of St. Olaf are linked by 870 years. Saint / King Olaf II, the namesake of the college, was killed in battle in Stiklestad. Bernt Julius Muus, the founder of the college, is buried in the Nidaros Cathedral and was born in the county. 

The conductor of the St. Olaf Band in 1906, F. Melius Christiansen, also had the opportunity to return to his native land and visit his family’s town, Larvik. This tour was a grand homecoming of sorts, and fostered a sense of unity between communities separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

“There are indications which seem to prove that this concert tour has strengthened the ties that connect us with our kinsmen across the Atlantic,” concluded Tollefson.

This sentiment was echoed in the reflections from others on the tour.

“The band was considered everywhere as officially representing the Norwegian-Americans of America, and we hope, while assuming this role, we have done nothing to discredit the class which we were taken to represent,” the author of an article in the Mess said.

As they toured and created history in the land of their college’s namesake in their burnished wool jackets, the words on their buttons reminded them of its new home.