author
George T. (George Tobias) Flom
1871–1960
A pioneer of Scandinavian studies in the United States, this linguist explored how languages travel, change, and leave traces in one another. His work also helped preserve the early story of Norwegian immigration to America.
2 Audiobooks
Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch A contribution to the study of the linguistic relations of English and Scandinavian
by George T. (George Tobias) Flom
A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848
by George T. (George Tobias) Flom
About the author
Born in Wisconsin in 1871 to a Norwegian American family, George Tobias Flom built his career around language, history, and the Scandinavian heritage of the Midwest. He studied at the University of Wisconsin, earned a master's degree from Vanderbilt, continued his studies in Copenhagen and Leipzig, and received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1900 for research on Scandinavian influence on Scots.
Flom taught Scandinavian languages and literature at the University of Iowa and later at the University of Illinois, where he became an important figure in the growth of Scandinavian studies. His scholarship ranged across philology, paleography, Norse literature, and comparative linguistics, and he also served in editorial roles for major scholarly journals. In 1936, he was president of the Linguistic Society of America.
As an author, he is especially remembered for A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States: From the Earliest Beginning Down to the Year 1848, along with many other studies of language and Norwegian culture. His long academic life left a lasting mark on both linguistics and the study of Norwegian American history.