The formation of the Bishop Hill Colony is recognized as one of the largest driving forces in the immigration into the United States of millions of Swedes and others from Scandinavia. Bishop Hill was a focus of the Swedish and American Jubilee Committees during the year 1996. Other participants included Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Indianapolis Chidren's Museum, and the Minnesota History Center.
Interesting Sites from Augustana College
Lindsborg, Kansas - A Bit of Sweden in the Heart of America
Swedish American Church Records
Despite the Swedish establishment of a small colony along the Delaware River in the mid-seventeenth century, the majority of Swedish immigrants arrived in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the first Swedish immigrants of the nineteenth century were primarily middle class persons in search of adventure, subsequent immigrants left their country due to a large population boom and the availability of cheap, fertile farmland in the Midwest, especially in Minnesota. Since this time, Swedish immigration has slowed to a trickle.
Swedish Information Service (Consulate General of Sweden)
Swedish Resources from University of Minnesota
Swenson Swedish Immigration Center, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois
National Archives
& Records Administration |