Between 1850 and 1920 around 350,000 emigrants left Denmark to start a new life in America. Some dreamt of a new start, with freedom, fortune, and happiness. Others fled unfortunate circumstances or a criminal past, or hoped for a religious freedom they could not find in Denmark. Nevertheless, the greater, coherent story of emigration over 70 distinct years in Denmark’s history remains untold in many ways.
For that reason we have created THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, based on Ole Sønnichsen’s bestselling book, Rejsen til Amerika (The Journey to America). The idea was to create a digital project with a television series, short educational films, an interactive game, teaching materials, and a website to encompass all parts. It should inform both the broader, history- and culture-minded public, as well as instruction in primary and secondary schools.
Journey to America is thus the story of a fundamental yearning in all of us: to get the best out of the life that has been given to us, to dare to seize it and have the courage, will, and belief that it is possible to create a new and better life. At the same time, the project hopes to reinforce the tie that was created between Denmark and the United States during the peak period of emigration. Over time, some stories were buried. The Danes disappeared into America and out of Denmark’s history. Tales of their lives ended up in dusty boxes in small archives on the prairie—stacked high, packed away, anonymous, under lids. But when the boxes are opened today, the stories stream out, stuck on handwritten memories, caught on yellowed letterhead, crumbling at the edges, framed in photos of men with large mustaches and grave faces, or preserved in women’s carefully kept diaries of life lived far from the old country.