Swedish American Newspapers Available Online for the First Time

New web portal launched today lets people search 300,000 newspaper pages

Minneapolis, Minn. (Oct. 20, 2016) —The Swedish American Newspapers, (mnhs.org/newspapers/swedishamerican ) launched today, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, is a new online portal that allows users to explore more than 300,000 pages from 28 different Swedish American newspapers. These titles were published across the United States between 1859 and 2007 and catered to America's Swedish immigrant communities.

Among these papers is the Svenska Amerikanska Posten, which began in 1885 and was published for 55 years, flourishing under the leadership of American Swedish Institute (ASI) founder Swan Turnblad, who used it to build his fortune. Turnblad implemented new practices for the time including English as well as Swedish articles, extravagant advertising, color, comic strips, special sections for women on gardening and children, and a “People’s Voice” column to run letters to the editor.

“This is an extremely valuable resource for historians, researchers and anyone curious about Swedish American history,” said Bruce Karstadt, President/CEO of the American Swedish Institute. “We are proud to be one of the partners who collaborated to make this wealth of information widely available in searchable digital format for the first time to the public, especially given its historical significance to our organization.”

The portal is available in Swedish and English and includes a keyword search, text correction and annotation tools to help researchers dig deep into the Swedish-language newspapers. Users can explore more about Swedish America through essays, photographs and recommendations for further reading.

Swedish American Newspapers is the first result of the Swedish American Newspaper Project, an eight-year collaboration of the National Library of Sweden (Kungliga biblioteket), Stockholm, Sweden; the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN; the American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, MN; and the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center (SSIRC), Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.

To find out more about the Minnesota Historical Society’s online newspaper collections, visit http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers , including the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub, Historical Minneapolis Tribune and the National Digital Newspaper Program.

SUPPORTERS: Swedish American Newspapers was created through a partnership of the Minnesota Historical Society, Kungliga biblioteket (National Library of Sweden), the American Swedish Institute, and the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College, Illinois. Funding for digitization was provided by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, and the King Gustaf VI Adolf's Fund for Swedish Culture. Funding for online access was provided by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.