Olaf Sand Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: Photo 2095

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Olaf Sand photograph collection consists mainly of portraiture, including of Dr. Sand, Dr. Sand with family or friends, portraits of people in Dr. Sand’s family, and two images of Dr. Sand in medical rooms. There are six images of Dr. Sand’s birth town in Norway. Also included is a postcard with a Native American picture on front. These photographs were accessioned with Dr. Olaf Sand’s papers in 1956. The papers have been processed separately as Manuscript 570. The Dr. Olaf Sand Portraiture Series contains nine portraits of Dr. Olaf Sand. There is one of him as a teen or young adult probably taken in the 1890s and reprinted in Fargo after he moved to Fargo in 1905, as well as two photographs of Dr. Sand relaxing outside. There are four studio portraits starting in 1925 and then taken throughout his life. There is one image of Dr. Olaf Sand standing outside on the steps in front of a building wearing his physician’s coat. Also included is a photograph of Dr. Sand in Athens. The Norway Series contains six images, four photographs and two postcards, of Dr. Olaf Sand’s birthplace in Norway. There is a photograph of Olaf Sand and friends taken at a mountain cabin in Norway the spring of 1947, as well as a photograph of Dr. Sand’s home near Sand Church, Nord-Odal, Norway taken on August 1, 1950. There is a photograph of Olaf Sand’s brother’s house in Norway and a panoramic view, composed of two separate images, of the town where Olaf Sand was born in Norway. One postcard image is of Olaf Sand’s native village and the other is also a Norwegian postcard with an image of a small town on the water front. There is one postcard in the Native American Series. It is a photographic postcard of an unidentified Indian male. On the undivided back is a message written to “Mr. W. C. Palmer. Agricultural College N. Dak.” on September 14, 1920 from R.A. Corbett. The message says “Will try to leave Mandan for Steele, early Wednes. P.M. The Co. Agt. There will help stage a couple of Farm scenes trying to get me home late Wednes.”

Dates

Majority of material found within 1920 - 1952

Creator

Sand, Olaf, 1871-1954. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection remain with the creators.

Biography

Dr. Olaf Sand was born March 14, 1871 at Sand, Nord Odal, Norway, the son of Ludvig Olsen Sand and Frya Hansdatter Skieppentad. He attended school near home and in Oslo (then Christiania). In 1889 he entered the University of Christiania, in Oslo, Norway where he received the degree in medicine in 1897. That same year he married Eva Crawford, and they went to practice on the island of Hareidand near Ålesund for two years. In 1899 he returned to Christiania where he interned at the state hospital and his wife continued her medical studies receiving her degree in 1901 although she never practiced. In 1901 Dr. Sand also did post graduate work in Berlin and in 1902 they came to Pelican Rapids, Minnesota where he worked with Dr. Tufte and where their only child Hedvig was born in 1903. They moved to Fargo, N.D., in 1905 where Dr. Sand became associated with Dr. Nils Tronnes. Together they and several other doctors organized St. Luke's Hospital and the Fargo Clinic. During his active career he did post graduate work at Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Chicago, New Orleans, and the Mayo Clinic. In June 1941 his wife died, and he retired in 1944 from his practice. In 1947 in Norway he married Prudence K. Gearey of Fargo. They returned to Fargo where they lived until Dr. Sand's death on September 28, 1954. In 1954 he had received the Knights Cross, First Class of the Order of Saint Olav from King Haakon of Norway. Prudence Sand died Jan. 3, 1984.