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The document "A Party of Colonists from Iceland," about Icelanders who came to settle in Minnesota, dates from the July 29, 1879, New York Times. This was during the mass emigration from Iceland to the United States between the 1870s and 1880s. The first Icelanders to come to America, however, were Mormons. They arrived in Utah in the 1850s and, by the turn of the century, were 2,970 in number. Between 1870 and 1914, approximately 15,000 Icelanders emigrated to North America. The causes for emigration were numerous. In the late 1800s, Iceland was involved in a struggle with the Danish government for executive governmental autonomy. In addition, Iceland's growing population strained already eroded rural areas. The eruption of a volcano in the east of Iceland in 1875 and a smallpox epidemic gave many Icelanders reason to leave. Letters arriving from Norwegians who had gone to America and the willingness of Norwegian...