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Art and Design in Sweden and Swedish America

This guide is for anyone looking to conduct research on Swedish and Swedish American art and design using Swenson Center resources.

Archival Collections

The Swenson Center has several collections related to art and artists in Sweden and Swedish America. This is not an exhaustive list!

 

MSS P:7  O.A. Linder clipping collection, 1880-1930

The collection includes approximately 17, 000 clippings reflecting Linder's interest in the daily lives of the Swedish immigrants, including Art and Artists. See collection inventory for more detail.

 

MSS P:149  Ernst Teofil Skarstedt collection

This collection includes more than 40 scrapbooks compiled by Ernst Teofil Skarstedt. The volumes contain his writings and editorials submitted to Swedish and Swedish-American press and clippings on a wide variety of subjects such as Swedish-American biography and history, farming and agriculture, description and travel, prohibition, vaccination, criticism of the labor movements, literature, music and art.

 

MSS P:175  Charles and Sofia Haag artists' papers, 1902-1983

This collection includes materials related to the artists Charles and Sofia Haag. Charles Haag was a Swedish-American sculptor and woodcarver best known for his carvings that expressed the struggle of labor and immigration as well as his whimsical woodcarvings that paid homage to nature. Sofia was a Swedish-American weaver and textile artist who invented her own loom. The couple emigrated from Sweden separately and met in New York City in 1903. They spent most of their careers in Winnetka, Illinois. This collection includes information on their personal and professional lives, including hundreds of images of their artwork, article clippings from various magazines and newspapers on Charles' exhibits and career, and correspondence with other Swedish-American artists and art museums.

 

MSS P:319  Mary Swanson papers

The collections contain Mary Swanson's professional papers and include biographical information on Swedish-American artists she collected while conducting research at various institutions in the United States and Sweden. The Swedish-American artist, John F. Carlson, is particularly well represented. There is also general information about Swedish American art and drafts of Swanson's articles she submitted to professional journals. Included is also some professional correspondence, mostly relating to grants and other professional activities.

 

MSS P:339  Scandinavian American Portraits Collection

This collection of portraits contains many Scandinavian American persons of notable importance to Augustana College as well as to greater North America and Sweden. Also includes photographs of Scandinavian American churches and church and social groups.

 

SAC P:173  Charles Hallberg papers

The papers consist of an English translation of a letter written by Carl Milles, Stockholm, Sweden, in which he admires Hallberg's artwork and biographical notes on Hallberg.