Call Number:

10

Repository:

American Swedish Historical Museum

Extent:

2.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

1929-1965 (bulk) and 1904-1974 (inclusive)

Creator:

American Swedish Historical Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.).

Abstract:

Amandus Johnson (1877-1974) was a prominent figure in the Swedish American community who was instrumental in the founding and early operations of the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The American Swedish Historical Museum Amandus Johnson collection, 1904-1974, is an assembled collection of records relating to Johnson's role in the American Swedish Historical Museum, as well as some of his private papers and scholarship. It features a large number of glass plate and film negatives of pages of documents, exhibits, places in Sweden, etc.

"Amandus Johnson (1877-1974) was a prominent figure in the Swedish American community for many decades. He was recognized for his historical research and publications, for his vigorous promotion of national Swedish American celebrations, and for founding and serving as first curator of the American Swedish Historical Museum. He became well known in the Swedish-American community while still a doctoral student. He was well into his seventies before he concluded that the strain of cross-country fund raising travel had finally outweighed the merits of publishing additional volumes of his History of the Swedes in America. This decision marked Johnson's retirement from organizational activity."

Bibliography:

Quoted text from: Felsten, Judith. "Register of the Papers of Amandus Johnson." Historical Society of Pennsylvania: MSS 41. September 1982. Accessed March 19, 2012. http://www2.hsp.org/collections/Balch%20manuscript_guide/html/johnson.html

This is an assembled collection of records relating to Johnson's role in the American Swedish Historical Museum, as well as some of his private papers and scholarship. There are correspondence and ephemera regarding the opening of the museum; correspondence, meeting minutes, and memos regarding Johnson's later conflicts with the museum; and honors given to Johnson and obituaries. There are also carbon copy drafts of Johnson's books The Swedish Settlement on the Delaware (1911) and The Swedes in Pennsylvania (1938), and a small number of receipts for imported Swedish books.

The collection also includes a large number of glass plate and film negatives of pages of documents, exhibits, and places in Sweden, circa 1920-1940. These negatives were likely made by Johnson, either to track museum objects or to use in lectures.

Additional Johnson materials may be in the American Swedish Historical Museum's institutional records, but were not included in this survey.