Library

The Center's library holdings are extensive and include a wide variety of materials on the Swedish-American immigrant experience in North America, Swedish genealogy and local history.  Please use the links on the right for more specific information about the various collections. To search for an item use the Augustana College online library catalog ALiCat.  Books in our collections will be noted as Swenson Center in the Location Field above the call number when you view an individual record.  For access to a specific item found in the online catalog or if you have any other questions about the library please contact sag@augustana.edu.

Book Collections

Immigration Collection was established as a special subject collection in the 1960s by the Augustana College Library and is currently maintained by the Center as a major collection of printed source materials on Swedish immigration to North America and Swedish-American culture. Special concentration and emphasis include: Swedish-American bibliography; background perspectives on Swedish and Scandinavian emigration; histories of Swedish settlements in the U.S. and Canada; histories and publications of Swedish-American organizations and institutions; Swedish-American literature; Swedish-American publishing; Swedish-American fine arts and music; Swedish travelers and visitors to the North American continent; Swedish-American biography and family history; Swedish-American religious life, including denominational histories as well as anniversary booklets for many individual congregations.  

O.A. Linder Collection was donated to the Augustana Library in the late 1930s by Oliver A. Linder, a former editor of the Swedish-American weekly Svenska Amerikanaren Tribunen (Chicago). It complements the Immigration Collection with its holdings of Swedish-American literature, general Swedish-American history, Swedish-American fine arts, Swedish-American journalism and press history, and Swedish-American religious life.  

 G.N. Swan Collection was donated to the Library in the late 1920s by Gustav N. Swan, a key figure in Swedish-American cultural and literary circles. Besides involvement in local business interests, Augustana College, and the Augustana Synod, Swan served as Swedish vice consul for Sweden and Norway (1899-1905) and for Sweden (1905-1929) in Sioux City, Iowa. Emphases of this collection include: general Swedish and Scandinavian literature up to the 1930s; Swedish literature in translation (English and other languages); works by Tegner; foreign literature classics, especially Shakespeare and Dante; general history of religions; and some Swedish Americana. The Swan pamphlet collection comprises over 700 separate publications from the1850s to the 1940s on topics including Word War I, banking and international monetary systems, Swedish regional brochures and travel guides, poetry and song collections, historical Sioux City souvenir publications, and Swedish-American concerns, events and landmarks.  Search the index of WWI pamphlets or index of pamphlets on other topics.

Scandinaviana Collection is a "hybrid" collection of books and some serial publications dealing generally with background conditions and features of the Scandinavian countries, particularly Sweden. Subject matters include history, topography, local history, education, national literatures and fine arts, church history, and religion.  

 N.W. Olsson Collection is an exclusive collection which is especially strong in Swedish genealogy, local history and regional history and is of particular interest to family historians and others interested in regional Swedish history and culture.
 
 C.W. Mortenson Collection is approximately 200 books on the Viking presence in North America. This collection includes many of the standard scholarly works as well as fiction and several rare items such as C.C. Rafn's Antiquitates Americanae Sive Scriptores Septentrionales Rerum Ante-Columbianarum in America, printed in Copenhagen in 1837 and Arthur Middleton Reeves' The Finding of Wineland the Good. The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America, published in London in 1890.

Library Catalog

ALiCat

Book Collections

Immigration Collection
O.A. Linder Collection
G.N. Swan Collection Scandinaviana Collection
Nils William Olsson Collection
C.W. Mortenson Collection

Periodicals & Newspapers

Listing of Swedish-American Newspapers on microfilm

Currently received periodicals

Index of defunct journals

Bibliographies

Children's literature

Mailing address:
Swenson Center
Augustana College
639 38th St
Rock Island IL 61201-2296 USA

Tel: 309.794.7204
Fax: 309.794.7443

sag@augustana.edu