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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December 3, “ScanFair”
New location: Portland Memorial Coliseum
Saturday, December 3, 2011 ~ 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sunday, December 4 ~ 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
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. After some preliminary discussions, it was decided that the following questions were to be asked:
Who were the Swedish immigrants? Where did they come from? Why did they leave Sweden? What brought them to Oregon? How did their lives turn out? What did they achieve?
A series of preliminary meetings were held, and in 1999 they led to the creation of “Swedish Roots in Oregon — An Immigration Research Project.” Read more...
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
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...
