Oral Histories

Interview of Waldemar Westergaard

UCLA professor of history.
Subtitle:
Memoirs of an Historian
Series:
Z: Orphan Interviews pre 1999
Topic:
UCLA and University of California History
UCLA Faculty
Biographical Note:
UCLA professor of history.
Interviewer:
Nunis, Doyce B. Jr
Interviewee:
Westergaard, Waldemar
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Interviewee Retained Copyright
Abstract:
Youth and early education in Danish farm community in North Dakota; teaching in country school; graduation from North Dakota state normal school; attendance at University of North Dakota, 1904-6; summer trip to San Francisco to see result of earthquake and fire, 1906; summer session lectures by Frederick Jackson Turner at University of California, Berkeley; graduate work at Berkeley; Henry Morse Stephens and purchase of Hubert Howe Bancroft collection for Berkeley library; William A. Morris and Herbert Bolton on Berkeley faculty; doctoral degree awarded, 1925; head of history department, Pomona College, 1916-25; Phoebe Estelle Spalding; James A. Blaisdell; American-Scandinavian Fellowship to Sweden, 1922; appointment to University of California, Southern Branch, faculty, 1925; Vermont Avenue and Westwood campuses; setting up graduate program at UCLA; Ernest Carroll Moore; Robert Gordon Sproul; Edward A. Dickson; academic freedom at UCLA; Moore's fears about campus communists; development of history department; Frank J. Klingberg; John C. Parish; Joseph Lockey; David Bjork; Louis Knott Koontz; research on Scandinavian history at UCLA and in Europe; relationships with American and European historians.