莱夫·埃里克松发现美洲

The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 marked 400 years since Columbus, and Norwegian Americans wanted to press a rival claim: that a Norseman had reached the continent five centuries before him. They commissioned Christian Krohg to paint the moment, and he showed Leif Erikson leaning far out over the dragon prow of his ship, one hand shading his eyes, his crew straining around him as land, most likely Newfoundland, comes into view. That same summer a full-scale replica Viking ship, simply called Viking, sailed from Norway to the fair to make the point in the flesh. The painting hangs in Oslo now. Krohg's son Per later made a copy of it that has hung in the United States Capitol since 1936.