Laurits S. Swenson

Laurits Selmer Swenson was born in New Sweden, Minnesota to Norwegian immigrant parents.

[1] He graduated from Iowa's Luther College with bachelor's (1886) and master's (1889) degrees and became Principal of Lutheran Academy in Albert Lea, where he worked from 1888 to 1897.

[7] In this post Swenson negotiated the terms for the sale of the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands).

In 1929 Time Magazine wrote: "Europeans have always marveled that the diplomatic and consular representatives of the U. S. are so often of the same strain as the people to whom they are accredited".

[15] In 1925 Swenson received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, on behalf of the US vice president Charles Gates Dawes.