An immigrant’s journey, in letters

Some 42,000 Danes immigrated to Canada between 1945 and 1957. Among them was Christian Bennedsen. A diligent correspondent, he saved over the course of a lifetime all the letters he ever received from family, and was able to recover those he’d written himself. An epic recounting of over 50 years in the life of an immigrant and his adopted country, Bennedsen’s collection of 700 letters, an impressive number of photos and various personal documents have been acquired by the Canadian Postal Museum.

A man of words

After an eight hour crossing to New York and an interminable train trek north to a farm in Beamsville, Ontario, Christian Bennedsen was turned away from the job he’d shown up for. So he backtracked to the big city, where he found himself seated on a bench in front of Toronto’s Union Station. He spoke not a word of English and other than $5 bucks, carried only a dream of a better life.

Where so many would have turned back, Bennedsen looked forward to his adventure. Lively encounters and experiences allowed him to slowly shed any anxiety. After several years labouring on farms and small construction sites, Bennedsen settled in the burgeoning city of Toronto. It was there he met Concetta “Connie” Colangelo, a second-generation Italian immigrant whom he married in 1959. Their Danish-Italian marriage was a poignant symbol of a Canada in social transition.

Embraced by his wife’s Italian family and enamoured with his new homeland, Bennedsen’s identity became a hybrid of Danish roots, Italian culture, and Canadian reality. Elements of a successful immigration – good job, comfortable home, a family built among the tightly-woven Italian diaspora – sustained Bennedsen until his death in 2002.

Real life, virtual life

An extraordinary record of his life as an immigrant now exists thanks to Bennedsen’s meticulousness. Letters, photos, official documents, employment records – it’s all there.

In 2002, the Canadian Postal Museum acquired the remarkable collection, of which a portion had been catalogued by the Canadian Culture Online programme of the Department of Canadian Heritage. But such a precious collection had to be made accessible to the masses. That’s when John Willis, Ph.D. – Curator of Postal and Communications History at the Canadian Museum of Civilization – got the idea to turn archival into ‘virtual’.

It would have been quite a challenge to present a collection like this in the traditional way. Imagine having to pick and choose which documents to highlight in compelling ways to make the museum experience interesting. That’s why this virtual version works so well. A cyber scrapbook chock full of photos, letter excerpts, intriguing texts, and clips of audio interviews, this exhibition not only retraces Christian Bennedsen’s inspiring journey through post-war immigration – it sheds a new light on Toronto’s exciting post-war multicultural evolution.

Christian Bennedsen – Scrapbook of a life in letters is a moving testament to how the real and the virtual can come together to delight history lovers.