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Swedish Americans

Svenskamerikaner (Swedish)
Total population
3,322,477 (1.0%) alone or in combination 768,809 (0.2%) Swedish alone 2021 estimates, self-reported
Regions with significant populations
Most prevalent in the Midwestern United States
Minnesota	410,091
California	357,926
Illinois	241,187
Washington	209,559
Florida	143,896
Texas	140,123
Wisconsin	138,599
Michigan	132,003
Colorado	122,644
Languages
American English (accent), Swedish
Religion
Predominantly Lutheranism (denominations), Protestantism, Mormonism
Related ethnic groups
Swedes, Swedish Britons, Swedish Canadians, Swedish Australians, Scandinavian Americans, Danish Americans, Norwegian Americans, Icelandic Americans

Swedish Americans (Swedish: Svenskamerikaner) are Americans of Swedish descent. The history of Swedish Americans dates back to the early colonial times, with notable migration waves occurring in the 19th and early 20th centuries and approximately 1.2 million arriving between 1865–1915. These immigrants settled predominantly in the Midwest, particularly in states like Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, in similarity with other Nordic and Scandinavian Americans. Populations also grew in the Pacific Northwest in the states of Oregon and Washington at the turn of the twentieth century.

As a community, Swedish Americans have contributed to various aspects of American life, including politics, the arts, sciences, and business. They brought with them distinct cultural traditions like unique culinary practices, language, and celebrations such as Midsummer. These traditions are preserved by institutions such as the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia, Chicago's Swedish American Museum, and the Gammelgården Museum in Scandia, Minnesota.

Migration

Colonial

The first Swedish Americans were the settlers of New Sweden: a colony established by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1638. It centered around the Delaware Valley including parts of the present-day states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. New Sweden was incorporated into New Netherland in 1655, and ceased to be an official territory of the Realm of Sweden. However, many Swedish and Finnish colonists remained and were allowed some political and cultural autonomy.

A victim of one of the earliest recorded murders in North America was an immigrant from Sweden. In 1665, in Brooklyn, New York, Barent Jansen Blom, progenitor of the Blom/Bloom family of Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley, was stabbed to death by Albert Cornelis Wantenaer.

Present day reminders of the history of New Sweden are reflected in the presence of the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia, Fort Christina State Park in Wilmington, Delaware, Governor Printz Park, and the Printzhof in Essington, Pennsylvania.

Midwest

Swedish emigration to the United States had reached new heights in 1896, and it was in this year that the Vasa Order of America, a Swedish American fraternal organization, was founded to help immigrants, who often lacked an adequate network of social services. Swedish Americans usually came through New York City and subsequently settled in the upper Midwest. Most were Lutheran and belonged to synods now associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, including the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. Theologically, they were pietistic; politically they often supported progressive causes and prohibition.

In the year 1900, Chicago was the city with the second highest number of Swedes after Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. By then, Swedes in Chicago had founded the Evangelical Covenant Church and established such enduring institutions as Swedish Covenant Hospital and North Park University. Many others settled in Minnesota in particular, followed by Wisconsin; as well as New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Illinois. Like their Norwegian American and Danish American brethren, many Swedes sought out the agrarian lifestyle they had left behind in Sweden, as many immigrants settled on farms throughout the Midwest. There are towns scattered throughout the Midwest, such as Lindsborg, Kansas and Lindström, Minnesota, that to this day continue to celebrate their Swedish heritage.

New York and Pennsylvania

The port of New York, imports of Swedish iron, and the prevalence of Swedish mariners factored in making New York City the principal port of entry for Swedish immigrants. Swedes have been persistent during the long history of New York City, but have never been a major immigrant group in the metropolitan region. The place name for the Bronx has its origins in the early settler Jonas Bronck, who was part of the New Netherland colony in 1639 and likely of Swedish origin. A Swedish neighborhood along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn developed beginning in the 1850s.

An early community of Swedish immigrants (1848) became established in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York stemming from the port of Buffalo connecting the Erie Canal with the Great Lakes. Jamestown, New York, became a principal Swedish American city during the peak of Swedish immigration. The Swedish American community in this area often served as a stepping stone for immigrants who settled in the Midwest, especially early communities in Illinois and Minnesota, as well as Massachusetts.

New England

In the east, New England became a destination for many skilled industrial workers and Swedish centers developed in areas such as Jamestown, New York; Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston. A small Swedish settlement was also started in New Sweden, Maine. 51 Swedish settlers came to the wooded area, led by W. W. Thomas, who called them mina barn i skogen ('my children in the woods'). Upon arrival, they knelt in prayer and gave thanks to God. This area soon expanded and other settlements were named Stockholm, Jemtland, and Westmanland, in honor of their Swedish heritage. (Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, while Jämtland and Västmanland are Swedish provinces.)

The town of New Sweden, Maine, celebrates St. Lucia, Midsummer, and Founders Day (July 23). It is a Swedish American community that continues to honor traditions of the old country. Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church was served by a native of Sweden as recently as 1979–1985 (The Rev. Hans Olof Andræ, born 1933 in Vimmerby, Sweden) who was known to occasionally conduct special worship services in Swedish.

The largest settlement in New England was Worcester, Massachusetts. Here, Swedes were drawn to the city's wire and abrasive industries. By the early 20th century numerous churches, organizations, businesses, and benevolent associations had been organized – among them, the Swedish Cemetery Corporation (1885), the Swedish Lutheran Old People's Home (1920), Fairlawn Hospital (1921), and the Scandinavian Athletic Club (1923). These institutions survive today, although some have mainstreamed their names.

Numerous local lodges of national Swedish American organizations also flourished and a few remain solvent as of 2008. Within the city's largest historic "Swedish" neighborhood—Quinsigamond Village—street signs read like a map of Sweden: Stockholm Street, Halmstad Street, and Malmo Street among others. Worcester's Swedes were historically staunch Republicans and this political loyalty is behind why Worcester remained a Republican stronghold in an otherwise Democratic state well into the 1950s.

West Coast

Many Swedes also came to the Pacific Northwest during the turn of the 20th century, along with Norwegians and Finns, settling in Washington and Oregon. According to research by the Oregon Historical Society, Swedish immigrants "felt a kinship with the natural surroundings and economic opportunities in the Pacific Northwest," and the region experienced a significant influx of Swedish and Scandinavian immigrants between 1890 and 1910.

Notable influence can be felt in the neighborhood of Ballard in Seattle, Washington, and by the Swedish Medical Center, a major hospital also in Seattle. In Oregon, Swedish immigrant populations were concentrated in the rural areas east of Portland, and a significant Swedish community was also established in the coastal city of Astoria along with Finnish and Norwegian settlers who worked in the timber and fishing industries.

Assimilation

In the 1860–1890 era, there was little assimilation into American society. The Swedish Americans attached relatively little significance to the American dimension of their ethnicity; instead they relied on an extant Swedish literature. There was a relatively weak Swedish American institutional structure before 1890, and Swedish Americans were somewhat insecure in their social-economic status in America.

An increasingly large Swedish American community fostered the growth of an institutional structure—a Swedish-language press, churches and colleges, and ethnic organizations—that placed a premium on sponsoring a sense of Swedishness in the United States. Blanck (2006) argues that after 1890 there emerged a self-confident Americanized generation. At prestigious Augustana College, for example, American-born students began to predominate after 1890. The students mostly had white-collar or professional backgrounds; few were the sons and daughters of farmers and laborers.

These students developed an idealized view of Sweden, characterized by romanticism, patriotism, and idealism, just like their counterparts across the Atlantic. The new generation was especially proud of the Swedish contributions to American democracy and the creation of a republic that promised liberty and destroyed the menace of slavery. A key spokesman was Johan Alfred Enander, longtime editor of Hemlandet (Swedish for 'The Homeland'), the Swedish newspaper in Chicago. Enander argued that the Vikings were instrumental in enabling the "freedom" that spread not only throughout the British Isles, but America as well.

Adolph B. Benson in ending the book Vår svenska stam på utländsk mark i västerled, USA och Kanada, Stockholm 1952 (pages 428–429):

An old emigrant letter, written in the summer of 1865 by a farmer in the Swedish lands of the Midwest to relatives in his home country, tells how they were at work out on the farm, when the news of President Lincoln's death reached them. In words which clearly speak of how this notice chilled them to the core, we're told of how their chores came to a halt, how their tools fell from the hands of the men, how these Swedish settlers felt as if their whole faith in life suddenly had been displaced, had collapsed. Their pain was great and gripping. This is a concrete image, taken directly from life. Lincoln, who'd brought the civil war to an end in victory, and thus put an end to slavery, to these people had become a symbol, an ideal, of freedom, of right, of law. And all this was what they valued the most in life. To a significant extent, it was also the pursuit of that ideal that had brought them the long way across the sea to the Big Country in the west.

Swedes, moreover, were among the first founders of America with their New Sweden colony in Delaware. Swedish America was present in Congress under the Articles of Confederation period, and its role was momentous in fighting the war against slavery. As a paragon of freedom and the struggle against unfreedom, and as an exemplar of the courage of the Vikings in contrast to the Catholic Columbus, Swedish America could use its culture to stress its position as loyal adherents to the larger Protestant American society.

In 1896 the Vasa Order of America, a Swedish-American fraternal organization, was founded to provide ethnic identity and social services such as health insurance and death subsidies, operates numerous social and recreational opportunities, and maintains contact with fellow lodges in Sweden. Johannes and Helga Hoving were its leaders, calling for the maintenance of the Swedish language and culture among Swedish Americans, especially the younger generation. However, they returned to Sweden in 1934 and Vasa itself became Americanized.

Literature

As a highly literate population, their output of print media was even more remarkable, and cultural leadership was exerted by numerous magazine and newspaper editors more so than by churchmen. The Swedish American press was the second largest foreign-language press in the United States (after German language imprints) in 1910. By 1910 about 1200 Swedish periodicals had been started in several states. Valkyrian, a magazine based in New York City, helped fashion a distinct Swedish American culture between 1897 and 1909. Valkyrian helped strengthen ethnicity by drawing on collective memory and religion, mythicizing Swedish and Swedish American history, describing American history, politics, and current events in a matter-of-fact way, publishing Swedish American literature, and presenting articles on science, technology, and industry in the United States.

The community produced numerous writers and journalists, of whom the most famous was poet-historian Carl Sandburg from Illinois. The harsh experiences of the frontier were subjects for novelists and story tellers, Of interest revealing the immigrant experience are the novels of Lillian Budd (1897–1989), especially April Snow (1951), Land of Strangers (1953), and April Harvest (1959). Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg wrote a series of four books about a group of Swedish-American emigrants, starting with The Emigrants (1949), which were translated in the 1950s and 1960s. They were also filmed by Jan Troell as The Emigrants and The New Land.

Socioeconomic mobility

Baigent (2000) explores the dynamics of economic and cultural assimilation and the "American Dream" in one small city. Most Swedes in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, between 1880 and 1920 were permanent settlers rather than temporary migrants. Many ended up comfortably off and a few became prosperous. They judged their success against Swedes in Sweden, not McKeesporters of other nationalities. They had no illusions about American life but they chose to stay and confront difficult living and working conditions rather than move on or return to Sweden where good jobs were scarce and paid much less.

Many of their children were upwardly socially mobile, and America offered girls in particular greater opportunities than Sweden did. The immigrants greatly valued the religious freedom that America offered, but their political freedoms were heavily circumscribed by McKeesport's "booze interest" and iron and steel bosses. Swedes dominated the prohibition movement in the town, but this did not open the door to a wider political stage. The dreams of many individual Swedes came true, but the dream of creating a permanent Swedish community in McKeesport was not realized, since individual Swedes moved on within the United States in pursuit of continued economic success. Swedish Americans formed their own social identity within the U.S. during the period through their memberships of social clubs and their deliberate membership or non-membership in different ethnically based institutions.

The story of A. V. Swanson, who in 1911 left Bjuv at age 20 and settled in Ames, Iowa, eight years later is a case study in farming and business success.

Working-class Swedes

The Swedish group was, as many other emigrant groups, highly differentiated. There still is a lot of research waiting to be done on the more urban and working-class parts of the Swedish immigrant group, where some ended up in slums like Swede Hollow in St. Paul, Minnesota, which had a population of about roughly 1,000 squatters around 1890 (slightly less in 1900, according to the census carried out that year). Child mortality was high and diphtheria and pertussis common. Many also died in work-related accidents. Drunkenness and wife beatings were also common.

Swedish housemaids were in high demand in America. Working conditions were far better than in Sweden, in terms of wages, hours of work, benefits, and ability to change positions.

Stereotypes

During the first waves of migration the Swedes were also subjected to certain stereotypes and prejudices. The expression "dumb Swede" was established as they had difficulty learning English. There were entertainment shows which used a character called "John Johnsson" when poking fun at Swedes. He was dumb, clumsy, drank too much and talked with a funny accent. Many also complained about the smell of the Swedes that was considered to smell fishy like herrings. In 1901 Horace Glenn wrote, "Walking behind a string of Swedes is impossible to a person with delicate nose. It's an odor which could only come from generations of unwashed ancestors."

Swedish Americans opposed entry into World War I, in which Sweden was neutral. Political pressures during the war encouraged a rapid switch from Swedish to English in church services—the older generation was bilingual by now and the youth could hardly understand the old language. Swedish language newspapers lost circulation. Most communities typically switched to English by 1920.

By the 1930s, assimilation into American life styles was almost complete, with few experiences of hostility or discrimination.

Preserving Swedish cultural heritage (1940–present)

After 1940, the Swedish language was rarely taught in high schools or colleges, and Swedish-language newspapers or magazines nearly all closed. A few small towns in the U.S. have retained a few distinctive characteristics. For example Silverhill, Alabama; Lindstrom, Minnesota; Karlstad, Minnesota; Gothenburg, Nebraska; Andover, Illinois; Kingsburg, California; and Bishop Hill, Illinois.

Lindsborg, Kansas, is representative. It was founded by Lutheran pietists in 1869 on land purchased from the Kansas Pacific Railroad; the First Swedish Agricultural Company of Chicago spearheaded the colonization. Known today as Little Sweden, Lindsborg is the economic and spiritual center of the Smoky Valley.

The rise of agribusiness, the decline of the family farm, the arrival of nearby discount stores, and the "economic bypass" of the new interstate system wrought economic havoc on this community. By the 1970s Lindsborg residents pulled together a unique combination of musical, artistic, intellectual, and ethnic strengths to reinvent their town. The Sandzén Gallery, Runbeck Mill, Swedish Pavilion, historical museum at Bethany College, and Messiah Festival were among the activities and attractions used to enhance the Swedish image. The Lindsborg plan is representative of growing national interest in ethnic heritage, historic preservation, and small-town nostalgia in the late 20th century.

Organizations preserving Swedish culture

• American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia, PA
• American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, MN
• Concordia Language Villages (Swedish Language Camp)
• Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN
• Nordstjernan (newspaper), New York, NY
• North Park University, Chicago, IL
• Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation (SACHF), Thousand Oaks, CA
• Scandinavian Heritage Foundation, Portland, OR
• Svenska Sällskapet, Minneapolis, MN
• Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce (SACC), New York
• Swedish American Chamber of Commerce (SACC), Washington, DC
• Swedish American Hospital, Rockford, IL
• Swedish American Museum Andersonville, Chicago, IL
• Swedish Council of America (SCA), Minneapolis, MN
• Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago, IL
• Swedish Women's Educational Association (SWEA)
• The American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, NY
• Vasa National Archives, Bishop Hill, IL
• Vasa Order of America

Cities preserving Swedish culture

• Bishop Hill, IL
• Center City, MN
• Chicago, IL
• Chisago City, MN
• Geneva, IL
• Jamestown, NY
• Kingsburg, CA
• Lindsborg, KS
• Lindström, MN
• Mount Jewett, PA
• New Sweden, ME
• Oakland, NE
• Rockford, IL
• Scandia, MN
• St. Peter, MN
• Stockholm, ME
• Stockholm, WI
• Westmanland, ME
• Wilcox, PA

Cities built with Swedish labor

• Astoria, OR
• Scotia, CA – Humboldt County

Swedish American holidays

Several holidays celebrated in Sweden have been brought to the United States by Swedish Americans. These include Trettondagen (Epiphany), Tjugondedag Knut (Saint Canute's Day), Fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday), Valborg (Walpurgis Night), Midsummer and Lucia (Saint Lucy's Day). Some are already celebrated in the United States though somewhat differently, such as Påsk (Easter), Första Maj (May Day/International Workers' Day/Labor Day), Jul (Christmas/Yule Eve and Day), and New Year's Eve.

Swedish Americans can celebrate with various Swedish Heritage societies across the country who try to keep the Swedish traditions alive.

Påsk

Swedish Easter is celebrated around the first week of April, when Easter is celebrated in the United States. Traditionally, Swedes celebrate by dressing up children as little påskhäxor (Easter witches) and their then going door to door asking for candy, similarly to Hallowe'en in the U.S. More recently Swedes celebrate a typical American Easter with egg hunts and candy for the little ones to find. Swedish Americans often include påskris (an Easter bush) with twigs cut from a tree, placed in a vase with colored feathers and decorative hanging eggs added. Swedish tradition also found in Swedish American homes has a traditional påskbord, a large meal that is eaten together by families with foods such as deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, meatballs, pickled herring and other fresh fish like salmon.

Midsommar

Midsummer is celebrated at the summer solstice, recognizing the longest day of the year. Many Swedes dress in traditional folk costumes, often with girls and women wearing flowered head garlands, and gather together to eat, sing traditional songs with bands playing, and dance around a maypole. Festivities begin with decorating the horizontal maypole as people gather to affix greenery first, then after thus covering most of the pole, they add various types of flowers until the whole pole is covered. The men then lift it upright while the women follow in a line behind singing as they walk around with the maypole. At the end of the song, the men place the maypole in a hole in the ground raising it to its final position. The celebrations in Sweden often last all day and night with food and alcoholic beverage accompanied with songs and snapsvisor.

Swedish American of the Year

Annually a Swedish American of the Year is awarded through Vasa Order of America District Lodges 19 and 20 in Sweden.

Swedish-American business owners

• Walgreens – Charles Rudolph Walgreen
• Nordstrom stores – John W. Nordstrom
• South Coast Plaza, South Coast Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom High School – Henry Segerstrom
• O.F. Mossberg & Sons firearms; uses Swedish iconography in their logos.
• Ragnar Benson Inc., founded by Ragnar Benson, was at the time one of the 10 largest general contracting firms in the United States. The company became one of Chicago's top builders, and erected many Fortune 500 landmark buildings.
• Greyhound Lines – Eric Wickman

Churches

Formal church membership in 1936 was reported as:

• Augustana Synod (Lutheran) – 1,203 churches – 254,677 members
• Mission Covenant – 441 churches – 45,000 members
• Swedish Baptist – 300 churches – 36,820 members
• Swedish Evangelical Free – 150 churches – 9,000 members
• Swedish Methodist – 175 churches – 19,441 members

The affiliated membership of a church is much larger than the formal membership.

Other churches

• Swedish Seaman's Church – located in many states
• Church of Sweden, Los Angeles – Svenska kyrkan
• Danish Church

Until 2000, the Church of Sweden was the official state church of Sweden.

Nobel Conference

The Nobel Conference is an academic conference held annually at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Founded in 1963, the conference links a general audience with the world's foremost scholars and researchers in conversations centered on contemporary issues related to the natural and social sciences. It is the first ongoing academic conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

Demographics

A few small towns in the U.S. have retained a few visible Swedish characteristics. Some examples include Silverhill, Alabama; Cambridge, Minnesota; Lindstrom, Minnesota; Karlstad, Minnesota; Scandia, Minnesota; Lindsborg, Kansas; Gothenburg, Nebraska; Oakland, Nebraska; Andover, Illinois; Kingsburg, California; Bishop Hill, Illinois; Jamestown, New York; Mount Jewett, PA, Wilcox, PA, and Westby, Wisconsin, as well as significant areas of central Texas, including New Sweden and Georgetown, and areas in northern Maine: New Sweden, Stockholm, Jemptland, and Westmanland.

Around 3.9% of the U.S. population is said to have Fennoscandinavian ancestry (which also includes Norwegian Americans, Danish Americans, Finnish Americans, and Icelandic Americans). According to the 2005 American Community Survey, only 56,324 Americans continue to speak the Swedish language at home, down from 67,655 in 2000, most of whom are recent immigrants. Swedish American communities typically switched to English by 1920. Swedish is rarely taught in high schools or colleges, and Swedish-language newspapers or magazines are rare.

Swedish Americans by state

In 2020, Minnesota had the most Swedes, both by number (410,091) and by the percent of the state's population they make up (7.3%).

State	Swedish Americans	Percent Swedish American
United States	3,627,796	1.1%
Minnesota	410,091	7.3%
California	357,926	0.9%
Illinois	241,187	1.9%
Washington	209,559	2.8%
Florida	143,896	0.7%
Texas	140,123	0.5%
Wisconsin	138,599	2.4%
Michigan	132,003	1.3%
Colorado	122,644	2.2%
New York	109,623	0.6%
Utah	108,317	3.4%
Massachusetts	104,211	1.5%
Oregon	97,651	2.3%
Arizona	95,995	1.3%
Pennsylvania	93,901	0.7%
Iowa	78,456	2.5%
Nebraska	70,921	3.7%
Ohio	67,149	0.6%
Kansas	57,965	2.0%
North Carolina	57,417	0.6%
Missouri	55,260	0.9%
Indiana	52,950	0.8%
Virginia	52,819	0.6%
Connecticut	49,315	1.4%
Idaho	49,151	2.8%
New Jersey	48,759	0.5%
Georgia	42,287	0.4%
Nevada	32,449	1.1%
Maryland	31,399	0.5%
Tennessee	30,738	0.5%
North Dakota	29,630	3.9%
Montana	28,717	2.7%
South Dakota	26,383	3.0%
New Hampshire	25,551	1.9%
Oklahoma	23,779	0.6%
South Carolina	23,408	0.5%
Maine	21,676	1.6%
Kentucky	17,107	0.4%
Wyoming	16,125	2.8%
Rhode Island	15,721	1.5%
New Mexico	15,035	0.7%
Alabama	14,952	0.3%
Alaska	14,781	2.0%
Arkansas	13,574	0.5%
Louisiana	11,753	0.3%
Vermont	10,170	1.6%
Hawaii	9,184	0.6%
Mississippi	8,696	0.3%
Delaware	7,226	0.7%
West Virginia	5,975	0.3%
District of Columbia	5,592	0.8%

Swedish language

In 2020, 53,697 people reported speaking Swedish in the United States. The top eleven states by Swedish speakers are:

•  California: 12,921
•  New York: 4,492
•  Texas: 4,236
•  Florida: 3,776
•  Washington: 2,621
•  North Carolina: 1,880
•  Massachusetts: 1,664
•  Illinois: 1,645
•  Colorado: 1,497
•  Virginia: 1,362
•  Minnesota: 1,350

Notable people

See also

• Nordic and Scandinavian Americans
• Languages of the United States#Swedish
• Swedes in America, a documentary film
• Allt för Sverige, reality show about Swedish Americans
• Sweden – United States relations
• Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church
• Sweden-bashing
• Swedish Canadians
• Swedish American of the Year – annual award program
• The American-Scandinavian Foundation
• Swede Hollow, neighborhood of St Paul Minnesota
• Swedes in Chicago
• Swedes in Omaha, Nebraska
• Nordstjernan – Swedish-American Newspaper
• American Swedish Historical Museum
• List of Swedish Americans
• American Swedish Institute

References

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33. See Geo: Olson och Hanson bodde på soptippen – svenskarna sågs som korkade och smutsiga i USA Archived August 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
34. Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck, eds., Swedes in the Twin Cities: Immigrant Life and Minnesota's Urban Frontier (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001), p. 17
35. Chris Susag, "Retaining Modern Nordic-American Identity Amongst Diversity in the United States Today." Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 2002 53(1): 6–29.
36. ^ Steven M. Schnell, "The Making of Little Sweden, USA" (Great Plains Quarterly 2002 22(1): 3–21) ISSN 0275-7664
37. "A quick guide to Swedish holidays and traditions". October 30, 2019. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
38. Barton, H. Arnold. A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840–1940. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994
39. "Swedish Heritage Society | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
40. "Svenska och amerikanska påsktraditioner – Q&A". April 16, 2019. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
41. Tidholm, Po; Lilja, Agneta (June 29, 2004). Det ska vi fira : Svenska traditioner och högtider [Let's celebrate: Swedish traditions and holidays]. Svenska institutet. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2022 – via www.diva-portal.org.
42. Schön, Ebbe, ed. (1995). "I glädje och sorg" [In happiness and sorrow] (PDF). Fataburen (Yearbook) (in Swedish). Nordiska Museet and Skansen. ISBN 9171083758. ISSN 0348-971X. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 7, 2021 – via www.diva-portal.org.
43. "Ragnar Benson: Full-Service General Contractor & Construction Manager". Ragnar Benson. Archived from the original on December 25, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
44. Dag, Blanck (2016). ""Very Welcome Home Mr. Swanson": Swedish Americans Encounter Homeland Swedes". Nordic Association for American Studies (NAAS). 48:2 (2016): 107–121. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
45. ^ "Members – Horatio Alger Association". Archived from the original on April 19, 2022. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
46. Nichols, Mike (November 5, 1989). "LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: RAY BENSON LIGHTENS HIS WALLET GIVING TO". chicagotribune.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
47. Benson and Hedin, (1938) p. 150, based on U.S. Census of Religion.
48. New Sweden Historical Society
49. "Data Center Results – Compare". Mla.org. January 18, 2010. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
50. ^ "American Community Survey 2016–2020 5-Year Data Release". Census.gov. March 17, 2022. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
51. "MDAT". Explore Census Data. Retrieved November 13, 2023.

Further reading

• Akenson, Donald Harman. Ireland, Sweden, and the Great European Migration, 1815–1914 (McGill-Queen's University Press; 2011) 304 pages; compares the Irish and Swedish emigration
• Anderson, Philip J. and Dag Blanck, eds. Swedish-American Life in Chicago: Cultural and Urban Aspects of an Immigrant People, 1850–1930 (1992)
• Anderson Philip J. and Blanck Dag, editors. Swedes in the Twin Cities: Immigrant Life and Minnesota's Urban Frontier (2001).
• Anderson, Philip J., "From Compulsion to Persuasion: Voluntary Religion and the Swedish Immigrant Experience," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, 66#1 (2015), 3–23.
• Attebery, Jennifer Eastman. Pole Raising and Speech Making: Modalities of Swedish American Summer Celebration (University Press of Colorado, 2015).
• Baigent, Elizabeth. "Swedish Immigrants in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania: Did the Great American Dream Come True?" Journal of Historical Geography 2000 26(2): 239–272. ISSN 0305-7488)
• Barton, H. Arnold. A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish-Americans, 1840–1940. (1994)
• Barton, H. Arnold. "From Swede to Swedish American, or Vice Versa: The Conversion Motif in the Literature of Swedish America," Scandinavian Studies 70:1 (1998): 26–38.
• Barton, H. Arnold. The Old Country and the New: Essays on Swedes and America (2007) ISBN 978-0-8093-2714-0
• Benson, Adolph B. and Naboth Hedin, eds. Swedes in America, 1638–1938 (Yale University Press. 1938) ISBN 978-0-8383-0326-9
• Biltekin, Nevra. "Migrating women and transnational relations: Swedish-American connections since the 1920s." Scandinavian Journal of History (2021): 1–19. online
• Björk, Ulf Jonas. "The Swedish-American Press as an Immigrant Institution," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 2000 51(4): 268–282
• Blanck, Dag. Becoming Swedish-American: The Construction of an Ethnic Identity in the Augustana Synod, 1860–1917. (Uppsala, 1997)
• Blanck, Dag. The Creation of an Ethnic Identity: Being Swedish American in the Augustana Synod, 1860–1917, (2007) 256 pp ISBN 978-0-8093-2715-7)
• Blanck, Dag, and Adam Hjorthén, eds. Swedish-American Borderlands: New Histories of Transatlantic Relations (U of Minnesota Press, 2021).
• Blanck, Dag. "'Very Welcome Home Mr. Swanson': Swedish Americans Encounter Homeland Swedes." American Studies in Scandinavia 48.2 (2016): 107–121. online On the 250,000 who went to USA but returned to Sweden.
• Brøndal, Jørn. Ethnic Leadership and Midwestern Politics: Scandinavian Americans and the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890–1914 (University of Illinois Press, 2004).
• Brøndal, Jørn. "'The Fairest among the So-Called White Races': Portrayals of Scandinavian Americans in the Filiopietistic and Nativist Literature of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries." Journal of American Ethnic History 33.3 (2014): 5–36. in JSTOR
• Dribe, Martin; Eriksson, Björn; Helgertz, Jonas (2022). "From Sweden to America: migrant selection in the transatlantic migration, 1890–1910". European Review of Economic History.
• Erling, Maria Elizabeth. "Crafting an urban piety: New England's Swedish immigrants and their religious culture from 1880 to 1915" (PhD dissertation,  Harvard Divinity School; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1996. 9631172).
• Granquist, Mark A. "Swedish Americans." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp. 305–318. Online
• Gustafson, Anita Olson. "'We hope to be able to do some good': Swedish-American women's organizations in Chicago." Swedish-American Historical Quarterly (2008) 59#4 pp 178–201; covers 1840 to 1950.
• Gustafson, Anita Olson. Swedish Chicago: The Shaping of an Immigrant Community, 1880–1920 (Northern Illinois University Press, 2018).
• Hale, Frederick. Swedes in Wisconsin. Wisconsin State Historical Society (2nd ed 2013). excerpt
• Hasselmo, Nils. Perspectives on Swedish Immigration (1978).
• Hillary, Michael Lee. Religion, immigrant churches, and community in an industrializing city: Swedish Protestants in Rockford, Illinois, 1854–1925 (PhD dissertation, Columbia University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2005. 3151265).
• Janson, Florence Edith. The background of Swedish immigration, 1840–1930 (1931; reprinted 1970), Push factors in Sweden. online
• Johnson, Amandus. The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, 1638–1664 (2 vol. 1911–1927) "%29&sort=-date online
• Kastrup, Allan. Swedish heritage in America (1975) online
• Lindell, Terrence Jon. "Acculturation among Swedish immigrants in Kansas and Nebraska, 1870–1900" (PhD dissertation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1987. 8810322).
• Lindquist, Emory. "The Swedish Immigrant and Life in Kansas," Kansas Historical Quarterly (1963) 29#1 pp: 1–24 online
• Lintelman, Joy Kathleen. " 'More freedom, better pay': Single Swedish immigrant women in the United States, 1880–1920" (PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1991. 9212069).
• Ljungmark, Lars. Swedish Exodus. (1996).
• Ljungmark, Lars. For Sale: Minnesota. Organized Promotion of Scandinavian Immigration, 1866–1873 (1971).
• Lundström, Catrin. "Embodying exoticism: gendered nuances of Swedish hyper-whiteness in the United States." Scandinavian Studies 89.2 (2017): 179–199. online
• McKnight, Roger. "Those Swedish Madmen Again: The Image of the Swede in Swedish-American Literature." Scandinavian Studies 56.2 (1984): 114–139. online
• Magocsi, Paul Robert. Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples (1999), pp 1218–33
• Mead, Rebecca J. Swedes in Michigan (Michigan State U Press, 2012) online review
• Nelson, O. N. History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States (2 vol 1904); 886pp online full text also online review
• Nelson, Helge. The Swedes and the Swedish Settlements in North America 2 vols. (Lund, 1943)
• Nelson, Robert J. If We Could Only Come to America... A Story of Swedish Immigrants in the Midwest. (Sunflower U. Press, 2004)
• Norman, Hans, and Harald Runblom. Transatlantic Connections: Nordic Migration to the New World After 1800 (1988).
• Olson, Anita Ruth. "Swedish Chicago: The extension and transformation of an urban immigrant community, 1880–1920" (PhD dissertation, Northwestern University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1990. 9031971).
• Ostergren, R. C. 1988. A Community Transplanted: The Trans-Atlantic Experience of a Swedish Immigrant Settlement in the Upper Middle West, 1835–1915. (University of Wisconsin Press).
• Pihlblad, C. T. "The Kansas Swedes," Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 1932. 13#1 pp 34–47).
• Rasmussen, Anders Bo. Civil War Settlers: Scandinavians, Citizenship, and American Empire, 1848–1870 (2022) see online book also see online book review
• Rooth, Dan-Olof, and Kirk Scott. "Three generations in the New World: labour market outcomes of Swedish Americans in the USA, 1880–2000." Scandinavian Economic History Review 60.1 (2012): 31–49; on occupations
• Runblom, Harald and Hans Norman. From Sweden to America: A History of the Migration (Uppsala and Minneapolis, 1976)
• Schersten, Albert Ferdinand. "The Relation of the Swedish-American Newspaper to the Assimilation of Swedish Immigrants" (PhD dissertation, University of Iowa; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1932. 10764279).
• Stephenson, George M. The Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration (1932).
• Swanson, Alan. Literature and the Immigrant Community: The Case of Arthur Landfors (Southern Illinois University Press, 1990)
• Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980)
• Tsuchida, Eiko. "Science, technology, and Swedish-American identity: An immigrant acculturation in Chicago, 1890–1935" (PhD dissertation, University of Chicago; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2014. 3615684).
• Wheeler, Wayne Leland. "An Analysis of Social Change in a Swedish-Immigrant Community: The Case of Lindsborg, Kansas." (PhD dissertation, University of Missouri-Columbia; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1959. 5905657).
• Whyman, Henry C. The Hedstroms and the Bethel Ship Saga: Methodist Influence on Swedish Religious Life. (1992). 183 pp.
• Wittke, Carl. We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant (1939), 552pp good older history pp 260–77 online

Historiography

• Attebery, Jennifer Eastman. Up in the Rocky Mountains: Writing the Swedish Immigrant Experience (2007), studies letters written back to Sweden excerpt
• Barton, H. Arnold. "Emigrants Versus Immigrants: Contrasting Views" Swedish-American Historical Quarterly (2001) 52#1 pp 3–13
• Barton, H. Arnold. "Cultural interplay between Sweden and Swedish America" Swedish-American Historical Quarterly (1992) 43#1 pp 5–18.
• Beijbom, Ulf. "The Historiography of Swedish America" Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 31 (1980): 257–85)
• Beijbom, Ulf, ed. Swedes in America: Intercultural and Interethnic Perspectives on Contemporary Research. Växjö, Sweden: Emigrant-Inst. Väers Förlag, 1993. 224 pp.
• Blanck, Dag. "The Transnational Viking: The Role of the Viking in Sweden, the United States, and Swedish America." Journal of Transnational American Studies 7.1 (2016). online
• Kvisto, P., and D. Blanck, eds. American Immigrants and Their Generations: Studies and Commentaries on the Hansen Thesis after Fifty Years. (University of Illinois Press, 1990)
• Lovoll, Odd S. ed., Nordics in America: The Future of Their Past (Northfield, Minn., Norwegian American Historic Association. 1993)
• Schnell, Steven M. "Creating Narratives of Place and Identity in 'Little Sweden, U.S.A.'" The Geographical Review, (2003) Vol. 93,
• Vecoli, Rudolph J. "'Over the Years I Have Encountered the Hazards and Rewards that Await the Historian of Immigration,' George M. Stephenson and the Swedish American Community," Swedish American Historical Quarterly 51 (April 2000): 130–49.

Primary sources

• Barton, H. Arnold, ed. Letters from the Promised Land: Swedes in America, 1840–1914. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press for the Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1975.)
• Lintelman, Joy K. ed. I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson (2009)
• Varg, Paul A. ed "Report of Count Carl Lewenhaupt on Swedish-Norwegian Immigration in 1870" Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly. 1979, 30#1 pp 5–24. Swedish diplomat provides a wealth of factual detail on immigrants. online free copy

External links

Media, publications, education

• Swedes in America, video, 17:17, c. 1942, narrated by Ingrid Bergman
• Concordia Language Villages – Swedish Language Camp
• Nordstjernan – Swedish Newspaper in America
• Svenska kyrkan Church of Sweden
• Swedenborgian Church
• Swedish American of the Year

Organizations and associations

• Embassy of Sweden, Washington D.C.
• House of Sweden
• International Expats Club
• ISwede – New York and Los Angeles
• Multi-cultural America Swedish Americans
• New Sweden Cultural Heritage Society
• Swedish American Central Association of Southern California (SACA)
• SACC New York – Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce New York
• Swedish American Heritage Society of West Michigan
• Swedish-American Historic Society
• Swedish Colonial Society
• Swedish Council of America (SCA)
• Swedish Historic Society of Rockford, IL
• Swedish Women's Educational Association (SWEA)
• Vasa Order Of America (VOA)

Museums and research centers

• American Swedish Historical Museum
• American Swedish Institute (ASI)
• Heritage Park of North Iowa in Forest City, IA
• Swedish American Museum Center in Chicago, IL
• Swedish American Museum in Swedesburg, Iowa
• Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center – Augustana College, IL

Festivals, music, points of interest

• Bishop Hill, IL; Dedicated to preserving the life of the pioneer Swedish immigrants in America, following spiritual leader, Erik Jansson
• Svensk Hyllningsfest in Lindsborg, Kansas
• Wayfarers Chapel, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275

Scandinavian centers and organizations

• Scandinavian American Cultural and Historic Foundation – Thousand Oaks, CA
• Scandinavian Cultural Center – Santa Cruz, CA
• American Scandinavian Foundation – Santa Barbara, CA

Social media

• VASA Global.com – Intl. Chamber of Commerce Support
• Scandinavian Foodie; Recipes, Restaurants – post yours & share stories
• Vasa Order of America (friends of) Swedish-American
• Swedish Expats Club

v t e Swedes abroad and their descendants
Europe	Estonia Finland Poland Russia Varangians Ukraine dialect United Kingdom
Asia	Japan
Americas	Argentina Brazil Canada Chile Costa Rica Mexico United States Venezuela
Oceania	Australia New Zealand
See also: Nordic diaspora and Swedes

• American people of Swedish descent
• Swedish diaspora
• European diaspora in the United States
• Swedish diaspora in the United States