Norway's King Harald V (b. 1937) and Queen Sonja (b. 1937) came to Seattle in 1995 for a four-day visit that included events around Puget Sound. Harald had visited Seattle twice previously as crown prince, first in January 1964 for an official visit, then in briefly in October 1967 after an official visit to Canada. The Pacific Northwest is home to a large concentration of people of Nordic heritage, and King Harald's father, King Olav V (1903-1991), made four trips to the region: twice as Crown Prince, in 1939 and 1942, and again in 1968 and 1975 after becoming king.
The program pictured here is from a banquet honoring King Harald V and Queen Sonja at the Westin Hotel in Seattle. Hosted by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General and the Royal Visit Host Committee of Seattle, the event featured remarks by Seattle Mayor Norman B. Rice (b. 1943), Secretary of State Ralph Munro (b. 1943), and a speech by the king. King Harold V returned to Seattle in 2015, where he made a public appearance at Ballard’s Bergen Place and met with representatives from Norwegian and American tourism companies and from the Norwegian-American fishing industry.
Caption information source: "Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja start four-day Northwest visit on October 24, 1995," by John Caldbick, HistoryLink.org Essay 11063.
Physical Description: 1 folded program ; 5.5 x 8.5 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
