An Immigration Research Project
"Bort till det stora landet i vester"
Immigrant ship ink drawing by Swedish artist Olof Grafström, ca 1885
Upcoming Events
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Annual New Sweden Antique and Garage Sale
SRIO will have a table at the Annual New Sweden Antique and Garage Sale at Fogelbo. Sale raises funds for the Trollbacken Children’s Swedish Language Camp.
Friday/Saturday, May 10/11 -
Scandinavian Midsummer Festival
Stop by the SRIO table at the 85th Annual Portland Scandinavian Midsummer Festival at Oaks Park, a summer solstice celebration for the entire community.
Saturday, June 15,
$6 adults; $3 children (6-12 years of age); Family $15 (2 adults, 2 children). Oaks Park is located at 7805 SE Oaks Park Way, Portland OR 97202. Visit Scandinavian Heritage for complete details.
A Brief History
Swedish Roots in Oregon (SRIO) was formed in 1999 when Ross Fogelquist of Oregon’s New Sweden Cultural Heritage Society suggested that a project be initiated to research, document, and preserve the rich history of Oregon’s Swedish immigrants. Due to the extensive effort that would be required for such a project it was decided that a separate organization be formed to carry out the project. It was also recommended that this new group was to be a small, tightly focused research organization unencumbered by the responsibilities of maintaining a general membership. Read more...
Olof Grafström
A Swedish Artist in Portland 1886 - 1890
Olof Grafström (1855 – 1933) was born in Attmar, Medelpad, the son
of a well-to-do farmer. In 1875 he was admitted to the Academy of
Fine Arts in Stockholm, where he became a protégé of Per Daniel Holm
and was considered one of his most promising students. He graduated
in 1882 as an accomplished landscape painter. During his years at
the academy Grafström was a contemporary and friend of Swedish
artists such as Anders Zorn, Bruno Liljefors, Richard Bergh, and
Johan Tirén.
Read more and see the pictures...
Selma Lagerlöf
A hundred years ago, Selma Lagerlöf had an admiring reader in the United States named Samuel Magnus Hill.
He was a Professor of Swedish literature and served as one of the editors of
Ungdomsvännen [Youth‘s Friend],
an illustrated Swedish-American ―Magazine for the Home.
Read more
from links on the Hill page...
Samuel Magnus Hill
Theses
biographical portraits of Samuel Magnus Hill have been written by
James Iverne Dowie and Lars Nordström. Dowie’s chapters were
originally included as two separate chapters in his doctoral thesis
and they describes Hill’s life from his arrival in the United States
in 1868 to his move to Oregon in 1915.
Read more...
Ernst Skarstedt's Biografies
New: Pictures added!
In 1911, the well-known Swedish-American journalist Ernst Skarstedt finished the third volume
in his trilogy of Swedes in the Far West, Oregon och dess svenska befolkning
[Oregon and its Swedish population]. The book covered the period
1880 to 1910, and it was organized in the same way as its two
predecessors – it began with a general history of the state, moved
on to the various activities of the Swedes, and concluded with a
substantial biographical section of prominent Swedish immigrants.
Read more...
