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Ole Bull's flag (Norway)

Last modified: 2021-08-25 by christopher oehler
Keywords: norway |
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Ole Bornemann Bull (1810-1880) was a virtuoso violonist of the Romantic period. Famous in Europe and in his borth country, where he supported the playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) and the musicians Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and Rikard Nordraak (1842-1866), he also performed several times in the USA. After a failed attempt in 1853 to set up a Norwegian farmers' colony in Pennsylvania, he went back to Norway. Ole Bull's manor, built on the Lysøen island, close to Bergen, has been transformed into the Ole Bull Museum.
Inside the Ole Bull Museum is shown a big flag, made of a Norwegian flag (but with a centered cross) with an American flag in canton and a yellow writing on the horizontal arm of the cross of the Norwegian flag. The flag is shown on two photos available on Flickr:
- a photo of a room, taken by "Jøy" on 25 July 2009, showing the whole flag. < http://www.flickr.com/photos/francescagreen/3759223351/ >
On the original sized photo, the writing appears to be " Herr Ole Bull ... Philharmonic Society" < http://www.flickr.com/photos/francescagreen/3759223351/sizes/o/ >
The American flag has 30 stars (1848-1851).
- a photo of the upper left part of the flag, taken by "Papafrezzo" on 7 July 2007 < http://www.flickr.com/photos/verhelstaal/755148779/ >
Ivan Sache, 17 December 2009

These link write more about the presentation: This link leads to page 169 in Ole Bull: Norway's romantic musician and cosmopolitan patriot, where the presentation of the flag is mentioned. This link leads to Ole Bull - A Memoir, quoting the New York Tribune with even more detail, including the supposed lettering "Herr Ole Bull, from the N. Y. Philharmonic Society". It turns out the missing part of the text is even more readable at here. I make it that the lettering mentioned above is correct, except for the "the". In other news, on the Ole Bull Colony, this link transcribes:  "About ten o'clock we arrived at New Bergen, the first village in the colony. It is composed of low, log cottages, neatly built, and presents the appearance of thrift and industry. On entering the village we saw the Star Spangled Banner and floating beside it the orange, white and blue Scandinavian flag. We gave three cheers which were answered by cheering and firing of guns."
What flag is that?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 17 December 2009