VÄLKOMMEN TO SWEDISH AMERICANA!
The Back Story
The Back Story
The website of SwedishAmericana evolved as a result of an inheritance from a Smoky Valley, Lindsborg, Kansas, Swedish American estate in 1996. As a teenager, I lived in Lindsborg from 1962 to 1968 when fluent Swedish was still spoken there. Here, I was immersed in the Swedishness of the community and was introduced to their Swedish past -- to their Swedish pioneers and to those who followed to build the great little Swedish American city that it continues to be today, known since the early 1960s as "Little Sweden, U.S.A."
As an adult living in my birth state California, I was the fourth, and last, Swedish American generation to own our beautiful Kansas family farmland producing rich abundant crops of wheat and milo complete with its abandoned homestead and ruins of an 1873 stone farmhouse built by Swedes. Soon after the inheritance of 1996, I became a member of the Swedish Club of San Francisco and the Bay Area where many members were, and are, fluent in Swedish. Immersed in their Swedish past -- active in their Swedish traditions, activities and conservation projects, they are also immersed in their Swedish present -- many keeping current with Swedish news, summer travel to Sweden as well as warmly welcoming the Swedish immigrant of today to America.
From these rural and metropolitan Swedish American exposures, I was led to write about my own Kansas Swedish Lindsborg family roots including the "early exciting days" of my Alma Mater -- Lindsborg's Bethany College founded in 1881. Travel to other Swedish American lands occurred in 2009 to Philadelphia and in 2010 to Chicago. In 2016 and 2017 I traveled to Sweden to explore the lands and towns of my maternal great great "Sohlberg" grandparents and was able to gift the Växjö Swedish Glass Museum with the restored and preserved Kosta, Sweden, 1867 Sohlberg Portraits. They were of my great great grandfather Ulric Sohlberg, his wife Antoinette, and children Ernest and Alma when Ulric was the Superintendent of the Kosta Glasbruk Factory, today known as Kosta Boda.*
In 2015 my curiosity further led me to compile a listing of Swedish American institutions, organizations, and establishments found in America. Today, that partial listing has become the central focus, the mission, of this website as found in the next section titled “Swedish American Entities,” as it delivers a smorgasbord of Swedish activities found in the United States to browse through for both the established Swedish American and for the Swedish immigrant of today.
The sections to follow it are "Finding Swedish Studies" the current replacement to “Swedish American Stories,” “Swedish News,” “Sweden,” "Contact" and “Other Settlements & Cities.” The "HIGHLIGHTING" of several key Swedish American cities and small communities appear throughout the website.
As an adult living in my birth state California, I was the fourth, and last, Swedish American generation to own our beautiful Kansas family farmland producing rich abundant crops of wheat and milo complete with its abandoned homestead and ruins of an 1873 stone farmhouse built by Swedes. Soon after the inheritance of 1996, I became a member of the Swedish Club of San Francisco and the Bay Area where many members were, and are, fluent in Swedish. Immersed in their Swedish past -- active in their Swedish traditions, activities and conservation projects, they are also immersed in their Swedish present -- many keeping current with Swedish news, summer travel to Sweden as well as warmly welcoming the Swedish immigrant of today to America.
From these rural and metropolitan Swedish American exposures, I was led to write about my own Kansas Swedish Lindsborg family roots including the "early exciting days" of my Alma Mater -- Lindsborg's Bethany College founded in 1881. Travel to other Swedish American lands occurred in 2009 to Philadelphia and in 2010 to Chicago. In 2016 and 2017 I traveled to Sweden to explore the lands and towns of my maternal great great "Sohlberg" grandparents and was able to gift the Växjö Swedish Glass Museum with the restored and preserved Kosta, Sweden, 1867 Sohlberg Portraits. They were of my great great grandfather Ulric Sohlberg, his wife Antoinette, and children Ernest and Alma when Ulric was the Superintendent of the Kosta Glasbruk Factory, today known as Kosta Boda.*
In 2015 my curiosity further led me to compile a listing of Swedish American institutions, organizations, and establishments found in America. Today, that partial listing has become the central focus, the mission, of this website as found in the next section titled “Swedish American Entities,” as it delivers a smorgasbord of Swedish activities found in the United States to browse through for both the established Swedish American and for the Swedish immigrant of today.
The sections to follow it are "Finding Swedish Studies" the current replacement to “Swedish American Stories,” “Swedish News,” “Sweden,” "Contact" and “Other Settlements & Cities.” The "HIGHLIGHTING" of several key Swedish American cities and small communities appear throughout the website.
LINDSBORG'S SVENSK HYLLINGFEST OF 2019 CELEBRATING 150 YEARS
2017 Svensk Hyllningsfest -- Courtesy of Emily Writer of Kansas University
Swedish Folk Art by Lindsborg's Shirley Malm of the 2009 Lindsborg "Old Iron Bridge" over the Smoky River
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SwedishAmericana
~ restoring, preserving and promoting Swedish American histories & cultures ~
~ sharing the Swedish American tapestry with all ~
All color photography throughout SwedishAmericana is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since 2015 to 2024 www.swedishamericana.org All rights reserved.
SwedishAmericana
~ restoring, preserving and promoting Swedish American histories & cultures ~
~ sharing the Swedish American tapestry with all ~
All color photography throughout SwedishAmericana is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since 2015 to 2024 www.swedishamericana.org All rights reserved.
