Peterson - Swedish Chicago

CITY OF NEW YORK, DEPARTMENT OF DOCKS. While those portrayed here are probably exhausted from their long voyage, one can sense the gaiety and anxious excitement on the faces of these Swedish immigrants as they await processing at the port of arrival. (Courtesy of Elsie Lindgren.)

A TYPICAL SWEDISH PASSPORT. Utilized by the authors grandmother for vacation purposes years after her initial arrival to America, this passport reflects an image most common to those who traveled the Swedish American line. (Courtesy of Bruce Peterson.)

CROSSING THE ATLANTIC. Anna Olson (center), the authors grandmother, crosses the Atlantic with two friends as they make their way to the United States. Shortly after arriving in America, she would travel to Chicago, find work in a bakery, and later marry Charles Peterson with whom she had two childrenBruce and Evelyn. (Courtesy of Bruce Peterson.)

A SWEDISH TRUNK. Travel clothes, blankets, cooking pots, herring, and potatoes were just some of the items typically found in the trunks of Swedish emigrants. Any belongings or necessities to which one desired accessboth during the trip and after arriving in the United Stateshad to fit in this archaic form of luggage. (Photograph by Paul Michael Peterson; courtesy of Swedish American Museum Center.)

PAINTING OF A VIKING SHIP. Although not a member of the Swedish American line, the early Viking craft illustrated above is an impressive, if less luxurious form of travel. This piece, taken from a three piece mural restored by Edward Olson, was once displayed at the Swedish Club on LaSalle Street before its arrival at the Swedish American Museum Center where it hangs prominently today. (Photograph by Paul Michael Peterson; courtesy of Swedish American Museum Center.)

M.S. GRIPSHOLM. According to information gathered by the Swedish American Museum Center, the M.S. Gripsholm was the third ship in the Swedish American line, but the first to be built for the SAL rather than purchased from another steamship company. Because the U.S. government initiated an immigrant quota system in 1924, the Gripsholm was employed more as a cruise ship than as an emigrant transport. The first North American diesel engine motor ship (as opposed to her steamship predecessors), the Gripsholms smokestacks were merely decorative. (Postcard courtesy of Paul Michael Peterson.)

SWEDISH AMERICAN LINE MENU. This tourist menu from 1948 reflects the culinary selections for the dinner or middag meal. (Courtesy of Bruce Peterson.)

EBBA THUFVESSON. She sailed to America on the last boat out of Norway before 1940. Her husband, Alf (pictured in the back row, center, in the photograph below), traveled from Sweden through Russia and Siberia on a Japanese freighter before reaching America where he worked as a 3-D engraver. Ebba and Alfs daughter, Susan Erickson, presently owns and operates the Sweden Shop on Foster Avenue in Chicago. (Courtesy of Susan Erickson.)