During the 19th and early 20th century, three million people from the Nordic countries emigrated to the United States and Canada.
Sweden was the largest country of origin with 1.2 million emigrants. Norway had the largest emigration per capita, as 850,000 Norwegians left a country of just above 2 million. Many parishes in Sweden and Norway saw more than half their population leave overseas.
Legacy
[edit]The Emigrants, original Swedish title Utvandrarna, is an acclaimed series of four Swedish historical novels by Vilhelm Moberg, published from 1949 to 1959.
The books marked the centennary of the Swedish emigration to North America, and were praised by critics. They have been adapted as a 1970s series starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, and the 1995 stage musical Kristina från Duvemåla. Since 2025, they are included with the Swedish canon.
Destinations
[edit]Sweden
[edit]
- 1 House of Emigrants (Utvandrarnas Museum), Vilhelm Mobergs gata 4 (Växjö). A museum concerning the great emigration from Sweden in general and from Småland in particular in the 19th century.
- 2 Joe Hill Museum (Gävle). This was the birthplace in 1879 of Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, better known as Joe Hill. In 1902 he emigrated to the USA, where he became a labor organizer, song-writer and activist for "Industrial Workers of the World", the "Wobblies". In 1914 a Salt Lake City grocer and his son were shot dead by two intruders; Joe Hill came to a local doctor that evening with a gunshot wound to his chest. He was eventually convicted of the murder, and executed by firing squad in Nov 1915. The prosecution case was shaky and his many supporters believed he was shot for being a "wobbly", but his refusal to convincingly explain his wound sealed his fate.
- 3 Karlshamn (Blekinge). Where the Nilsson family in The Emigrants boarded the brig Charlotta to America.
- Duvemåla, Emmaboda, Småland
United States
[edit]- New Sweden was the largest Swedish territory outside Europe. It included both banks of the Delaware River, from the Atlantic up to present-day Philadelphia. The colony was established in 1638 by the Swedish South Company, when Fort Christina was set up in what is now Wilmington. The colony was invaded by the Dutch in 1655 and incorporated into New Netherlands, and while many residents stayed, large scale Swedish immigration to the US wouldn't begin until two hundred years later.
- 4 Battery Park (Manhattan Financial District, New York City). A waterfront green space, named for the artillery batteries which were installed here to protect the settlement of New York when it was under Dutch, then British rule. During the mid-19th century, the Castle Clinton was converted into an immigration and customs center.
- 5 Solvang (California). The city is Danish-themed as if it were the Danishland section of Disneyland, since it was founded by Danish immigrants and quite a few Danish descendants live here.
- 6 Andersonville (Chicago). A neighbourhood originally settled by Swedish immigrants. Today, it's mainly known as the hub of Chicago's lesbian community, though a few Swedish restaurants and bakeries remain.
- 7 Ballard (Seattle, Washington). Traditionally the home of Seattle's Scandinavian immigrants. Though now a trendy neighborhood, Ballard still preserves some of its Scandinavian atmosphere. Home of the National Nordic Museum.
- Minnesota and North Dakota, the destinations of many Nordic emigrants, prominently celebrate their Nordic heritage statewide.
- 1 Karl Oskar Days (Lindstrom, Minnesota). Lindstrom is known as "America's Little Sweden", northeast on 35E from Minneapolis. The Karl Oskar Days are a celebration of Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg's Emigrants series, about Swedish settlers in Minnesota.
- 8 Hjemkomst Center (Moorhead, Minnesota). The star attraction of this local museum is the Hjemkomst, a replica Viking ship built by a local family that actually sailed from Duluth across the Atlantic to Norway in 1982. There's also a full-scale replica of the wooden Scandinavian Stave Church in Vikøyri.