Invitation of the Royal Norwegian Commission of the Worlds Columbian Exposition to the Reception of the Viking Ship in New York Harbor. June 17, 1893. Virtually As New. 4 inches x 5 inches. Partially printed on cream card, with the recipients name filled in by hand. Autograph signature of Harry Randall, as Secretary. Just a single trivial corner bump, but bright and very clean otherwise. With the original mailing envelope addressed to F.W. Putnam as the Chief of the Department of Ethnology.<p>It seems out of place to have an invitation to an event associated with Chicagos Columbian Exposition taking place in New York Harbor, but it is quite in order. This is a remarkable artifact from a little known but fascinating entry into the Worlds Columbian Exposition. Though the Exposition was inspired by the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus 1492 voyage, the oral histories passed down through the ages in Norway suggested that the famous Norseman, Leif Erikson, had set foot on North America even earlier-hundreds of years earlier. The grand affair in Chicago would capture the attention of the world, so it seemed a prime opportunity to prove that such a voyage could have been done long before Columbus. At the time, there was no archaeological evidence of such a landing, so a plan was hatched to sail a "Viking ship" from Bergen, Norway to America for the Fair as a clear demonstration that it would have been possible.<p>The "Viking Ship" referred to here was built specifically for the 1893 voyage, and fashioned after an actual Viking ship discovered largely intact in an ancient burial mound in Norway in 1880. That ship was called the Gokstad. The new ship was intended to make a journey from Norway to Chicago (via New York harbor, the Hudson River, the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes) for the Fair, which it successfully did, with a crew of 11. It is unlikely that many at the time gave much consideration to the idea that Columbus might not have been the first European to reach North America, but in the 1960s, a site inhabited by Europeans around 1000 AD was indeed discovered on the coast of Newfoundland. It is considered to quite possibly be the site settled by Erikson and is known as LAnse aux Meadows.
