Estonian Americans ( et, Ameerika eestlased) are Americans who are of

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

ancestry, mainly descendants of people who left Estonia before and especially during World War II. According to the 2021

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a demographics survey program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census, such as ancestry, citizenship, educati ...

, around 29,000 Americans reported full or partial Estonian ancestry, up from 26,762 in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

History

Estonians first started coming to the United States as early as in 1627 in the colony of New Sweden along the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

. Significant numbers of emigration started in the late 19th century and continued until the mid-20th century. However, it is difficult to estimate the number of Estonian-Americans before 1920, since such immigrants were often characterized as Russians in the national censuses. The beginnings of

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

and commercial agriculture in the Russian Empire transformed Estonian farmers into migrants. The pressures of industrialization drove numerous Estonian peasants to emigrate to the United States continuing until the outbreak of World War II. In 1944, in the face of the country being re-occupied by the Red Army, 80,000 people fled from Estonia by sea to Germany and Sweden, becoming war refugees and later, expatriates. Some thousand of them moved on from there and settled in the United States. After the war's end, these displaced persons were allowed to immigrate to the United States and to apply for citizenship. In 1948, the Displaced Persons Act from U.S. Congress stipulated that 40% of the available visas go to “ Baltic” people (Estonians, Latvians, and

Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Uni ...

). This act and its 1950 revision allowed 11,000 Estonians into the United States between 1948 and 1952. Some of these refugees and their descendants started returning to Estonia at the end of the 1980s.

Notable people

President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

descended from 17th-century Tallinner colonists in

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

. Conductor Neeme Järvi was the music director of the

Detroit Symphony Orchestra The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music d ...

, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as the international Gothenburg Symphony, and Het Residentie Orkest of The Hague. His three children, conductors Paavo Järvi and Kristjan Järvi, and flautist Maarika Järvi, are prominent American musicians in their own right. Paavo Järvi is the chief conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Chemist

Lauri Vaska Lauri Vaska (May 7, 1925 – November 15, 2015) was an Estonian-American chemist who has made noteworthy contributions to organometallic chemistry. Vaska was born in Rakvere, Estonia. He was educated at the Baltic University in Hamburg, Germany ...

emigrated to United States in 1949. He is distinguished for his research in

organometallic chemistry Organometallic chemistry is the study of organometallic compounds, chemical compounds containing at least one chemical bond between a carbon atom of an organic molecule and a metal, including alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals, and so ...

, winning the prestigious ''Boris Pregel Award''.

Hillar Rootare Hillar Muidar Rootare (26 April 1928 – 2 October 2008) was a physical chemist and materials scientist best known for his work in the development of mercury porosimetry, high pressure liquid chromatography, and formulation of the Rootare-Prenzl ...

, a materials scientist, is best known for his work in the development of mercury porosimetry, high pressure liquid chromatography, and the formulation of the Rootare-Prenzlow Equation. In journalism,

Edmund S. Valtman Edmund Siegfried Valtman (May 31, 1914 – January 12, 2005) was an Estonian and American editorial cartoonist and winner of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Born in Tallinn, Estonia, he sold his first cartoons at age 15 to t ...

, a successful editorial cartoonist, won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

Ene Riisna Ene Riisna (born 27 June 1938) is an Estonian-born American television producer. She is known for her work on the American news show ''20/20''. Early life and education Ene Riisna was born in Tallinn, Estonia to politician Eduard Riisna and his ...

is an Estonian-born American award-winning television producer, known for her work on the American news program 20/20. Alar Toomre is an astronomer recognized for his research on the dynamics of galaxies. The ''Toomre sequence'' and '' Toomre Instability'' are named in his honor. In entertainment, singer and actress Miliza Korjus was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the 1938 film '' The Great Waltz''. Hollywood actor Johann Urb (born January 24, 1977) is an Estonian living and working in the United States. Kerli Kõiv (born February 7, 1987), better known mononymously as Kerli, is an Estonian pop singer residing in the United States since 2005. Psychologist, psychobiologist and neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp (born June 5, 1943) coined the term 'affective neuroscience', the name for the field that studies the neural mechanisms of emotion. Mena Suvari (born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, born December 26, 1953, in Sweden but raised in New Jersey, was the President of Estonia.

References

External links

at Countries and Their Cultures {{European Americans European-American society United States

History

Notable people

See also

References

Further reading

External links