The Julius E. Olson Papers are arranged in four groups: personal correspondence; articles, speeches, and notes by Olson; material concerning the Kensington Rune Stone; and thirty-three volumes of notebooks and scrapbooks.
The correspondence (Boxes 1-13) contains chiefly letters to Olson between the years 1871 and 1941, but it also includes a few letters written by him during these same years. These are from friends, students, and noted Scandinavian scholars; mainly asking about scholarship funds, praising and criticizing Olson's publications, and discussing Scandinavian activities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. This group is arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and letters are chronological within each folder.
The articles, speeches, and notes are composed of manuscript material by Professor Olson. There are copies of his addresses, literary articles concerning Scandinavian history and culture, and biographical sketches. The sketches include material on Abraham Lincoln, Magnus Swenson, and John Muir, but the bulk of the biographies are for Scandinavian scholars and authors as well as friends of Olson. Three boxes labeled “Miscellaneous”, contain primarily clippings and memorabilia.
Professor Olson was greatly interested in the authenticity of the Kensington Rune Stone and did research and writing on the controversy. Box 22 contains correspondence and clippings illustrating the differing opinions concerning the Rune Stone, as expressed by Olson and other Norwegian scholars, including Hjalmar Rued Holand.
The thirty-three volumes are composed of twenty-one notebooks of lecture and research notes on Scandinavian countries and people, and twelve scrapbooks of newspaper clippings concerning these same subjects. The notebooks have been arranged alphabetically by titles, while the scrapbooks are arranged chronologically by date. The contents list below gives each volume title.
