Last week in Chat I mentioned Sigrid Johnson, late Keeper of the Icelandic Collection in the University Library of the University of Manitoba in Canada. I can't remember how she came up, but she did. I thought some of you might be interested to know something more about her, so here we go.
I was lucky enough to meet Sigrid when I visited the University in 2017; here's a pic of me with her and the Head of the Department of Icelandic, Peter Buchan.
After listening to these scholars chat for 5 minutes I realised that they had probably forgotten more about Iceland than I shall ever know, and it was good to be in Sigrid's life work - the Icelandic Collection which she built up over 40 years from not very much to be the second biggest collection of its kind in North America. She spoke only Icelandic in her early years at home and told me she really liked it when in Iceland people thought she was a native Icelander who had spent a long time living abroad.
Sigrid's achievements did not go unnoticed. In 2000 she was admitted to the Order of the Falcon in Iceland, and in 2003 she was chosen to be The Lady Of The Mountains at the Icelandic Festival Of Manitoba in Gimli.
I found some pics on the Internet, sadly not very big ones. One is a formal portrait, and the other is when she was caught slightly off guard in the Collection storeroom. I'm going to do my best to remember her as she was in the storeroom!
And here are links to her obituary and her listing as a memorable Manitoban.
https://memorials.neilbardalfuneralhome ... table=true
https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/johnson_j3.shtmlLike the late Chaircat Midge, I am not always right.
