The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2000, Qupperneq 11

Vol. 55 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
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from continued support for the purchase of books and other materials by the Government of Iceland.
The Collection now contains approximately 27,000 print and non-print items of which some 90%
are in Icelandic and include books, periodicals, newspapers, government publications, manuscript
materials (personal papers, literary manuscripts, organization and church records), audio-visual
materials (audio and video tapes, photographs, slides), microfilm and microfiche materials, diskette
and CD-ROM materials. Notable collections are, of course, the personal libraries of Stephan G.
Stephansson and Guttormur J. Guttormsson. The scope is interdisciplinary covering all areas except
the pure sciences.
Renewed initiative for a department
During the second quarter of the last century, the establishment of a Department focused on
Icelandic Language and Literature was never far from the minds of leaders of the Icelandic
Canadian community. Discussions to that end by the Icelandic National League had begun from the
start of that organization in 1919. The 1930s saw several notables urging the establishment of an
Icelandic department, among them Dr. B. B. Jonsson (in an address to the Icelandic National
League), Dr. Sigurdur Nordal, a distinguished scholar from Iceland, and Mr. Justice H. A. Bergman
(at the 60th anniversary meeting of Islendingadagurinn in 1935) as well as the initial offer by
Asmundur P. Johannson to match $50,000 if that amount were raised by the others towards the pro-
posed Chair.
The 1940s saw action. In 1944, Justice Bergman, then Chair of the Board of Governors of The
University of Manitoba and A. P. Johannson persuaded Dr. P. H. T. Thorlakson "to accept the
responsibility of organizing a campaign to collect funds." The Foundation Committee, consisting of
Miss Margret Petursson (as secretary). Judge W. J. Lindal, Mr. G. L. Johannson, Consul for Iceland,
Dr. L.A. Sigurdson and Mr. A. G. Eggertson, Q.C., was formed under the chairmanship of Dr.
Thorlakson and the campaign formally launched in the spring of 1948. Initially $150,000 was con-
sidered as the goal of the campaign.
Skuli Johnson Arinbjorn B. Olson Einar Sturlaugsson
At the suggestion of Professor Skuli Johnson, the Foundation Committee formally raised the
campaign goal to $200,000 and determined that the official end of the campaign was to be June 17,
1952. By that time, a sum of $203,652.25, had been placed in Trust with the University. With accu-
mulated interest this gave a total value at the end of the campaign of $219,132.72, enough at that
time to endow the Chair, the Department and the Library Collection. The initial financing of the two
pillars of the Department and Chair and of the Library Collection seemed to be in place. On March
30, 1951, at a celebratory evening held at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg, Dr. A. H.
S. Gillson, President of The University of Manitoba formally announced the establishment of the
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