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dissertation entitled

“SCANDINAVIAN PREFERRED”: NORDIC ETHNIC
IDENTITY, GENDER, AND WORK WITHIN CHICAGO,
1879-1933

presented by

ERIKA KATHLEEN JACKSON

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“SCANDINAVIAN PREFERRED”: NORDIC ETHNIC IDENTITY, GENDER, AND
WORK WITHIN CHICAGO, 1879-1933

By

Erika Kathleen Jackson

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

History

2010

 

 

 

ABSTRACT
“SCANDINAVIAN PREF ERRED”: NORDIC ETHNIC IDENTITY, GENDER, AND
WORK WITHIN CHICAGO, 1879-1933

By

Erika Kathleen Jackson

Over the past century, Scandinavian-American authors created a proud historical tradition
of recording the experiences of their ancestors within the city spaces of Chicago, yet their
narratives often committed two errors: a reliance on excessive ﬁliopietism and the failure
to recognize the signiﬁcance of American perspective in relation to a contrived set of
stereotypes and images. The topic of my dissertation begins to connect the vital
dichotomy of American and Scandinavian perspectives on ethnic identity, the experience
of work, and social hierarchies within the earlier enclaves of “Swede Town,” Lakeview,
and later Andersonville in Chicago. I argue that, beginning in the 18803, American
commentators began to create a gendered discourse on a “preferred” immigrant class
using “Nordic” racial features as a template for their visions. In locating the various
viewpoints of Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish immigrants and their Chicago neighbors,
the methodological focus of my study incorporates the use of both English-language
regional and national periodicals, as well as Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish-language
periodicals; various manuscript series; material culture; Progressive era reports and
exposes on vice; and quantitative contextual ﬁndings. The ﬁndings of my research add
nuance to our understanding of the study of ethnic identity and cross-cultural contact

within urban history and employ gender analysis to investigate the social character and

experiences of Scandinavians as men and women at work, home and in leisure. By
incorporating the American perspective into a larger Scandinavian-centric history, this
project will contribute to future historical research on similar topics that interrogate the

interactions of immigrants and their neighbors in American cities.

COPYRIGHT BY

ERIKA K. JACKSON

2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the course of completing my graduate work and writing this dissertation, I
received a tremendous amount of assistance from faculty, colleagues, family and
archivists in Chicago. In the preliminary stages of research, I was able to locate a rich
resource base at the Newberry Library of Chicago and the Chicago History Museum
through the help of archivists and librarians who painstakingly labored to ﬁnd contextual
resources on Scandinavians in Chicago. In grounding my primary research, I was given
the great opportunity to participate as a PhRMA fellow in the Trans-Atlantic Summer
Institute at the University of Minnesota; at the Institute, I was inspired by other fellows
and the Institute leaders, Donna Gabaccia and Barbara Wolbert, to help me utilize my
intellectual grounding in migration studies and consider my topic in new and fascinating
ways. My research also led me to vital documents housed at the F .M. Johnson Archives
and Special Collections at North Park University, where I had the distinct pleasure of
working with Anne Jenner, who helped me locate a wealth of manuscript sources for my
dissertation. This past summer, I was chosen as the Dagmar and Nils William Olsson
Research Fellow by the board of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at
Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. During my two-week stay in Rock Island,
Dag Blanck, Christina Johansson, Jill Seaholm, and Susanne Titus provided me with
crucial support in locating archival materials. This dissertation was also made possible by
ﬁnancial assistance I received over the years from the Department of History at Michigan
State University.

I have also had the honor to work with a number of outstanding scholars and

mentors at Michigan State, to whom I am greatly indebted. I cannot thank Lisa Fine

enough for the suggestions, encouragement, and support she has provided me with during
my time at Michigan State as my graduate advisor. As an exceptional college educator,
Lisa has also given me an invaluable basis in pedagogy and methods that I will employ in
my own future classes. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee members,
Kirsten Fermaglich, Peter Beattie, and Dionicio Valdes, for their unwavering support in
the completion of my project. In the ﬁrst class I took in my graduate career at Michigan
State on the study of historiography, I was impressed by the vital feedback Peter included
on my course project, which pushed me to interrogate the materials in fresh new ways.
After my ﬁrst year in the program, 1 was given the opportunity to travel to Vaxjo,
Sweden with Dionicio, who arranged a scholar-exchange with a group of colleagues at
Véixjd University; it was on that trip that I cemented the topic of my dissertation. The
next semester, I had the distinct pleasure of working with Kirsten, who provided me with
a solid ideological basis in migration and ethnic history through an independent study;
over the years, she has been a pivotal ﬁgure in my intellectual development. All of these
scholars have shown overwhelming commitment to both my intellectual growth and this
project. I could not have completed it without their vital support. I would also like to
thank two scholars who have been a source of great support during my time at Michigan
State, David Bailey and Keely Stauter-Halsted, who 1 credit with pushing me to see the
potential they saw in my work. I am truly grateful to have been a part of such a vibrant
and supportive community of historians.

I would also like to dedicate this project to my friends, colleagues, students, and
family, who in one way or another, encouraged me to keep going, or to escape the

conﬁnes of my work when possible. Jason Friedman, Elise Wagner, J .M. Davey, and Ted

vi

 

Mitchell painstakingly read over chapter drafts and gave immense feedback, even in the
midst of hectic semesters. My students gave me a welcomed break from my work, but
also helped me to think of it in new ways, while also inspiring me with their commitment
to their own work in my classes. My best friend, Amanda Bynum, listened intently over
the years to all of my stories of Scandinavians in Chicago and has become like a sister to
me. The topic of this project is one that I conceived of long before my entrance into the
Department of History at Michigan State as a Ph.D. student in 2005; growing up as a
child of Swedish ancestry, my family surrounded me with the rich cultural traditions of
Sweden and my mother told me stories of those who had come before us to Chicago and
the Midwest. I listened intently to these stories and hoped to one day turn them into a
larger project as my love for the study of history grew. I cannot express my gratitude to
my family enough, not only for their support over the years, but also for instilling in me
an identity that has become ingrained within my work. My parents, Jeff and Kathy
Jackson, have been my unwavering support system and I could not have completed my

work without them — this degree and dissertation, in large part, belongs to them.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ......................................................................................... ix
List of Figures ......................................................................................... x
Introduction ............................................................................................ 1
Chapter One

From Scandinavia to “Swede Town”:

Origins at Home and Migration to the Urban Midwest ........................................ 18
Chapter Two

Vikings and Dumb Blondes:
The Creation and Negotiation of a Gendered Nordic Identity
in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago .................................................................. 76

Chapter Three

“Everywhere were Swedish women, much sought after and well paid ”:

Scandinavians, Domestic Service, and the Experience of Work in

Chicago .............................................................................................. 128

Chapter Four

“The desire to go out evenings is strong. . .the full responsibility

for behavior and manner of living is placed upon the shoulders

of the young woman”:

Vice, Representation, and Reform in Scandinavian Chicago ................................ 181

Chapter Five
“The Scandinavian people are good citizens now as ever”:
The Construction of Social Success from WWI to the

Great Depression ................................................................................... 225
Conclusion

“In spite of all its faults, we love our city”:

Cultural Celebration in the midst of Depression ............................................... 281
Bibliography ....................................................................................... 290

viii

Table 1.1:

Table 1.2:

Table 1.3:

Table 1.4:

Table 3.1:

Table 3.2:

Table 3.3:

Table 3.4:

Table 3.5:

Table 5.1:

Table 5.2:

LIST OF TABLES

Rural and Urban Populations of Sweden, 1840-1890 ............................. 24

Immigration from Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden to America, 1879-1893 ................................................ 32

Emigration ﬁ'om Sweden to the United States
and Other Countries, 1851-1890 ....................................................... 36

Occupational Groups amongst Swedes in absolute ﬁgures,
divided by sex, 1850-1880 ............................................................ 53

Percentage of Manual Workers of Selected Groups
in the Labor Force, Chicago, 1890 ................................................. 138

Percentage of Manual Workers of Selected Groups
in the Labor Force, Chicago, 1900 ................................................. 140

General Occupation of Swedish Males and Females
16 Years of Age or Over in the Townsend District ............................... 142

Wives at Work, by general nativity and race
of head of family in Chicago, 1890 ................................................ 143

Occupational structure in 1900 of men and women
in enumeration districts 762 and 765, in percent of
the population older than 15 years ................................................. 146

Citizenship of Foreign-born white males 21 years
of age and over, by country of birth, for Chicago, 1910 ........................ 238

Number and Percent naturalized among foreign born
white males and females 21 years of age and over,
for Chicago, 1920 ..................................................................... 244

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1: Chicago City Map of the ﬁrst Scandinavian Settlement, 1889 ........................ 73
Fig. 2: Chicago City Map of “Swede Town,” 1889 ............................................. 74
Fig. 3: Chicago City Map of Lakeview .......................................................... 75
Fig. 4: Boat Ticket of a Single Swedish Immigrant Woman, June 1908 ................... 179
Fig. 5: Selection from best-selling cookbook, Swedish-American Book

of Cookery and Adviser for Swedish Servants in America (1890) ................. 180
Fig. 6: The Immanuel Woman’s Home circa 1927 ............................................ 220
Fig. 7: The reception parlor of the Immanuel Woman’s Home .............................. 221
Fig. 8: The dining room of the Immanuel Woman’s Home .................................. 222

Fig. 9: Portrait of some of the working women who lived at

the Immanuel Woman’s Home, circa 19103 ......................................... 223
Fig. 10: Photographs of the interior of selected rooms in

the Immanuel Woman’s Home ........................................................ 224
Fig. 11: Program and Menu from the Skandinavien-Amerika Linien, 1914. . . . . . . .........278
Fig. 12: Program and Menu from the Skandinavien-Amerika Linien, 1914. . . . . . . .........279
Fig. 13: Postcard from the R.M.S. Celtic ........................................................ 280

Introduction

In 1880, Chicago was a city on the brink of an explosion of industry, and
concurrently, receiving a massive inﬂux of people looking to ﬁll the thousands of new
positions created by its burgeoning industries.l Chicago’s already wide network of
newspapers illustrated this need for workers, publishing page after page of
advertisements for help wanted as a call to Chicago’s new arrivals looking for work.
Many immigrants would come to tailor the little knowledge they had of the English
language to a series of catchphrases that regularly appeared within the help wanted
sections in an effort to avoid embarrassment in not understanding the language of the
advertisements. Likewise, Chicagoans who published calls for help learned to be quite
succinct in their descriptions of who they were looking for to ﬁll positions, often
specifying which immigrant groups they were looking to employ — as well as which
groups need not apply. Time and time again, calls for help requested speciﬁc immi grant
groups for certain types of positions. Men from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden,
Norway, and Denmark were called upon for manual labor until the “new” immigrant

groups from Southern and Eastern Europe appeared in massive waves during the 1890s,

 

' The study of the city of Chicago in American history is a ﬁeld that is wide-ranging and incredibly rich in
depth. Due to the location of the city as a metropolis surrounded by an agriculturally-rich hinterland,
Chicago witnessed a meteoric growth of industry, consumer goods, and people between 1870 and 1890.
For examples of the now-classic histories on Chicago, see Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, in 3
vol. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937); Elmer A. Riley, “The Development of Chicago and Vicinity as a
Manufacturing Center Prior to 1880” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 191 1); Allan Pred, The
Spatial Dynamics of United States Industrial Growth, 1800-1914: Interpretive and Theoretical Essays
(Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1966); David Ward, Cities and Immigrants: A Geography of Change in
Nineteenth Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971); George E. Plumb, Chicago: Its
Natural Advantages as an Industrial and Commercial Center and Market (Chicago: Civic and Industrial
Committee of the Chicago Association of Commerce, 1910).

while calls for Irish sporadically shifted between requests for and rejections of their help
based on the context of the time period.

For immigrant women, job advertisements followed a similar pattern, requesting
the help of Western and Northern European women in “female work” such as factory and
piece work and education. Yet, in calls for the most common form of female labor during
this era —— domestic service — advertisers overwhelmingly requested the help of a very
speciﬁc type of worker. Advertisements speciﬁed the need for potential employees to
have qualities which included competence, accuracy, attentiveness, and sobriety, in
addition to good references, but time and time again, advertisements repeatedly published
similar calls: “Swedish. . .or Norwegian girl for general housework,” “a young Danish girl

”2 One article

to assist in light housework,” and most regularly, “Scandinavian preferred.
noted a similar call to employment agencies by potential employers looking to ﬁll their
homes with the best type of workers; in “Ruled by Fashion,” when the author asked one
employment agency what their most frequent request, the manager replied that “send me
a good strong Swedish or Norwegian girl; no Irish, English, or Americans,” was a
constant demand.3 The “situation wanted” sections of Chicago’s newspapers likewise
noted the realization of young workers to the needs of potential employers, often
describing themselves ﬁrst by their national origin, and second, by the work they would —
and would not — accept. Early on, potential employees would note their strength and

willingness to learn. However, at the same time, young Scandinavians quickly became

conscious of their preferential status within Chicago society, making presumptuous

 

2 The above quotations are examples taken from a review of help wanted advertisements in the pages of
various Chicago newspapers between I880 and 1881 which included the Chicago Tribune and The
Chicago Daily News. See “Wanted: Female Help, Domestics,” Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1880, pg.
14; “Wanted: Female Help, Domestics,” Chicago Daily News, April 7, 1881, pg. 18-9.

3 “Ruled by Fashion,” Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1898, pg. 16.

requests for small, “ﬁrst-rate” families and “light housework.”4 Over time, Scandinavians
would continue to ﬂock to Chicago for opportunities they either could not ﬁnd elsewhere,
or would have to work much harder to ﬁnd. Between the time of the earliest settlement of
Scandinavians in Chicago in the 18503 and the culmination of a truly Scandinavian-
American identity in the 19303, Scandinavians in Chicago were part of an active process
which elevated Nordic identity and physical image to one of preference amongst
Chicagoans — a legacy that would come to shape our understandings of racial and ethnic
identity for decades to follow.

The topic of this dissertation focuses on the vital connections between ethnic
identity, gender and urban space within the history of the United States in an effort to
locate the origins of social preference in connection with Nordic ethnic identity as
exhibited by Chicago’s Scandinavians. My dissertation uses these connections to explore
both public and private representations of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish women and
men who navigated Chicago and transformed undesirable city spaces into ethnic enclaves
grounded in the traditions of Scandinavian culture. I argue that, beginning in the 18803,
American public commentators created a gendered discourse on a “preferred” immigrant
class using idealized Nordic racial features as a template for their visions. Following
these commentaries within newspapers, many native Chicagoans began to form very
speciﬁc social conceptions of the “typical” Scandinavian — images focused on both the
physical and behavioral ideals of Nordic identity that equated Scandinavian women with
fair beauty and men with virile masculine traits. In turn, Chicago’s Scandinavians made
use of such perceptions to meet their needs in the workplace and within public spaces, as

many achieved great success and eventually moved up the social ladder, despite

 

4 “Situation Wanted,” Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1880, pg. 14.

maintaining strong ties to Scandinavian culture. At the height of nationwide panic over
white slavery and vice, many Scandinavians “fell” into unfortunate circumstances similar
to other immigrant groups. Yet, despite such massive public concern over the well being
of Chicago’s newest citizens, Scandinavians were able to escape relatively unscathed
from similar portrayals compared to other immigrant groups, despite the widely
published reports of their connections to vice within Chicago’s newspapers. And while
Scandinavians received some negative public attention in the early years of World War I
for their brotherly ties to Germany, the group as a whole had the capacity to turn the tide
and bring attention to their support of their new home instead of their old neighbors.
Throughout this process, Scandinavians found a way to maintain their ties to the culture
and traditions of home in spite of nativists’ calls for assimilation by embracing an
American way of life in public spaces while they continued to live an undoubtedly
Scandinavian way of life at home and in private. Throughout the 19203 and even into the
19303, the strength of Scandinavian connections within the city helped the group to
persevere, even in the toughest of times.

While previous historians assumed the easy assimilation and adjustment of

. . . th th . .
Scandrnavrans across Amerrca between the 19 and 20 centuries, and noted the ways in

which people of Nordic heritage had the intriguing ability to navigate an imagined social
ladder far better than other immigrant groups, attention to the historical signiﬁcance of
social preference has remained below the surface within the historiography of
Scandinavian Americans and migration. This vital omission is one that is a legacy of the
study of immigration to America begun by Oscar Handlin almost sixty years ago in his

integral work, The Uprooted. While his book brought attention to the notion of

immigration being the essence of the history of the United States, his negative portrayal
of an all-encompassing experience for America’s immigrants which involved alienation
and separateness created a lasting depiction.5 Much later, revisionists like John Bodnar

would build upon Handlin’s vision to show that a majority of immigrants who came to

. . th . . .
Amerrca 1n the late 1.9 century were not backwards, provrncral peasants, but instead left

worlds “which were already encountering capitalism and experimenting with ways to
deal with its realities.”6 One vital legacy of early historians like both Handlin and John
Higham was the renewed attention to the staggering effects of American nativism on
immigrants in the 18803 through World War I. In his book, Higham made a lasting
distinction between the concepts of racism and nativism; while the two were closely
entwined, racism dealt more speciﬁcally with distinctions between civilization and
barbarism, while nativism “always divided insiders, who belonged to the nation, from
outsiders who were in it but not of it.” Therefore, because of this vital distinction,
nativism could espouse assimilation, while racism could not, according to Higham.7
These early perspectives would grow into the vast historiography on the experiences of

European ethnics in America and would continually push the standard narrative to

 

5 According to Handlin, the origin of such alienation came from the vast difference between immigrants’
home countries and the cultures they encountered upon arrival in the United States; to Handlin, America’s
immigrants were plunged into societies they did not understand, where stripped of their traditions, and
fumbled through such feelings of separation before being hit with what he deemed the full “shock of
alienation” by the Americanization drive of the 19203. See Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted: The Epic Story of
the Great Migrations that Made the American People (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown and Company,

1951), 231-54.

6 John Bodnar, The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1985), 56.

7 Higham’s book reads as a piece of history itself, as it is grounded in the context of the time period that it
was written in. In his article, “Instead of a Sequel, or How I Lost My Subject,” Higham recalled his ﬁrst
book as a product of the McCarthy era, as the hysteria of the time period effectively colored his perspective
on the national hysterias of the past. Higham would later go on to lament that while he saw himself today as
the same historian he was when writing Strangers in the Land, his neglect of the connections between
ethnocentrism and nativism was his biggest regret. See John Hi gham, “Instead of a Sequel, or How I Lost
My Subject,” Reviews in American History, v. 28, n. 2 (2000): 327, 330; Higham, Strangers in the Land:
Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1955), 333.

include consideration of themes such as racial and ethnic identity, the study of whiteness,
and the treatment of women and gender, but would also create a scholarly habit of
focusing on the most destitute immigrant groups in order to uncover a discourse of
triumph in the face of adversity for many.

By and large, one of the major goals of this dissertation is to combine some of the
major themes addressed in standard narratives on the immigrant experience with the
historiography of Scandinavians in America to focus more closely on the experiences of a
group that was able not only to survive, but to prosper, in the face of adversity within a
growing American metropolis. In creating this dissertation, I found a problematic
ideological division between major or all-encompassing studies that tackle historical
questions regarding migration, the immigrant experience, and ethnic and racial identities,
taking into account all of the major European groups, and those which use a singular
focus on the people of one European country separate from all others, especially
hegemonic Americans. The historiography of Scandinavian Americans is far-reaching
and can best be deﬁned by a tradition of ﬁliopietism, as historians of these groups often
times maintain ties of heritage and therefore excessively venerate their ancestors or
traditions of the homeland. From as early as the 19203 into the 19303, American
historians of Scandinavian ancestry, such as George M. Stephenson, Theodore Blegen,
and Gustav Johnson made signiﬁcant contributions to the narrative of Scandinavian
Americans and the experiences of immigration, yet their exhaustive descriptions of their
subjects are largely biographical and focused on genealogical research techniques without

further interpretive analysis.8 Furthermore, during this earlier time period, historians had

 

8 For some examples of these older works, see George M. Stephenson, A History of American Immigration,
1820-1924 (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926); Theodore Blegen, Norwegian Immigration to America, in

a tendency to only focus on one speciﬁc ethnic group, rather than to incorporate groups
into a larger analysis of national heritage and connections across ethnic cultures.
Occasionally, authors would comment on the tumultuous relationship between Swedes
and Norwegians, a deep-seated rivalry cultivated in their adj oined homeland states and
transported to America; yet, the opportunity for further analysis of inter-cultural tension
between Nordic groups would be left for another generation to examine.

It was not until the 19603 and 19703, with the inﬂuence of the new social history
that the study of immigration in history incorporated new methodological techniques and
helped to situate the narrative of speciﬁc ethnic groups into a larger framework. One of
the most notable responses that brought about an entirely new approach to the study of
European immigrants in America was to Handlin’s The Uprooted, for a number of
differing, yet interrelated reasons. In connection with the general claim, that Handlin’s
narrative painted the experience of immigration as widely disruptive and painﬁrl for the
European immigrant, historians like Rudolph Vecoli also noted the incredible generality
of Handlin’s subjects, as “the immigrant” was almost always treated as a gender-neutral
actor with the speciﬁc role of women addressed in very few pages.9 Another problem that
historians of this time period noted of Handlin’s work was his failure to fully address the
process of immigration from both sides of the Atlantic, reducing his analysis to an

interpretation of experience that ignored half of the story. Scholars such as Ulf Beijbom

 

two volumes (Northﬁeld, Minn: The Norwegian American Historical Society, 1931); The Swedish Element
in America: A Comprehensive History of Swedish American Achievements from I 63 8 to present, in three
volumes, eds. Erik G. Westrnan and Gustav Johnson (Chicago: Swedish American Biographical Society,
1931).
9 While the most famous critique of Handlin’s book is John Bodnar’s The Transplanted, many historians
such as Sydney Stahl Weinberg and Rudolph Vecoli have noted the importance of Handlin’s book to the
gr 0Wth of the study of immigration in history because of the problematic nature of his narrative. See
Sydney Stahl Weinberg, “Forum: The Treatment of Women in Immigration History: A Call for Change,”
Journal of American Ethnic History, 11:4 (Summer 1992): 26; and Rudolph Vecoli, “Contadini in Chicago:
A C:l‘itique of The Uprooted,” Journal of American History, 51 (December 1964): 404-417.

and Dag Blanck noted this omission and made it a point to contribute to the history of
emigration from the homeland perspective, providing a perspective necessary to
completing the story begun by earlier historians. During the late-19703 and 19803, an
outpouring of scholarship meant to expand the earlier framework established on
Scandinavian Americans maintained this bi-coastal relationship between scholars. In
Sweden, the so-called “Uppsala group” produced the largest number of studies that were
representative of a new systematic interest in the homeland for the history of emigration,
while in America, scholars associated with the Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly,
such as its editor, H. Arnold Barton, helped to make Swedes among the best documented
of all immigrant groups in America. 10 For historians of Norwegian-Americans, the
historiography differed slightly from that of Swedish-Americans as one author, Odd
Lovoll, dominated the ﬁeld publishing six books between 1975 and 2010 that continue to
be the standard narrative on Norwegian-Americans as an ethnic group.ll Danish-
American historians are comparatively few and far between in relation to the study of
Swedes and Norwegians in America; there is yet to be a narrative published on the

experiences of Danish-Americans in Chicago and the majority of works on Danes are

 

‘0 Swedish-American Life in Chicago: Cultural and Urban Aspects of an Immigrant People, 1850-1930 ,
eds. Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck (Urbana and Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, 1992), 3.

” Odd Lovoll is considered to be the foremost historian on the Norwegian-American experience, and while
some recent works like April Schultz’s Ethnicity on Parade have begun to expand the relatively small
historiography on Norwegian-Americans, the subject continues to be dominated by Lovoll’s work. See Odd
Lovoll, A Folk Epic: The Bygdelag in America (Boston, 1975); Odd Lovoll and Kenneth O. Bjork, The
Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1925-1975 (Northﬁeld, MN: Norwegian-American Historical
Association, 1975); Lovoll, Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country
Town (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1984); Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life: The
Norwegians in Chicago before 1930(Champaign, IL: The Norwegian-American Historical Association,
distributed by the University of Illinois Press, 1988); Lovoll, The Promise Fulfilled: A Portrait of
Norwegian Americans Today (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1998); Lovoll , Norwegian
Newspapers in America: Connecting Norway and the New Land (Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical
Society Press, 2010). A few recent works inspired by Lovoll include April Schultz, Ethnicity on Parade:
Inventing the Norwegian American through Celebration (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
1994) and Interpreting the Promise of America: Essays in Honor of Odd Sverre Lovoll, ed. Todd W. Nichol
(Northﬁeld, MN: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 2002).

located in larger edited volumes which address issues of Scandinavian heritage, rather
than a singular focus on the Danish experience.12

From the 19803 onward, these and other scholars of Scandinavian American
history started to shift away ﬁ'om statistical analysis to investigate the qualitative aspects
of immigration history, focusing on larger questions regarding assimilation and
acculturation, cultural persistence over generations, organizational and religious life,
literary and artistic endeavors, and political involvement.13 In exploring these themes,
historians began to open up the ﬁeld to study the role of women within the Scandinavian
community in America, focusing on rural and urban spaces almost exclusively in the
Midwest. Inﬂuenced by scholars of immigration history, such as Maxine Seller and
Kathleen Neils Conzen, historians of Scandinavian Americans put into use the
frameworks that investigated the experiences of immigrant men and women separately
from one another. Additionally, the narratives of scholars such as Hasia Diner, Susan
Glenn, and Donna Gabaccia built upon this framework, focusing on the experiences of
women within a single ethnic group in order to trace their unique journeys from their

home countries to America.'4 In recent years, the focus on rural migration within

 

'2 While a wealth of useful materials on Chicago’s diverse immigrants contribute to the historiography of
the social history of Chicago, there is a signiﬁcant lack of monographs which focus on the experiences of
either Norwegian or Danish immigrants. Historians of the Swedish immigrant experience continue to
dominate the standard narrative on Scandinavian immigrants in Chicago, which most likely contributes to
the problematic association of “Swedish” with “Scandinavian.”

13 Anderson and Blanck, 4.

'4 These scholars contributed to the narrative focused on the “culture of everyday life,” as Donna Gabaccia
stressed the importance of studying within her book, From the Other Side. See also Maxine Seller,
“Beyond the Stereotype: A New Look at the Immigrant Woman, 1880-1924,” Journal of Ethnic Studies,
3:1 (Spring 1975): 59-70; Hasia Diner, Erin ’s Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the
Nineteenth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983); Susan Glenn, Daughters of the
Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990) Weinberg,
“Forum: The Treatment of Women in Immigration History: A Call for Change”; Donna Gabaccia,
“Immigrant Women: Nowhere at Home?” Journal of American Ethnic History, 10:4 (Summer 1991): 61 —
85; Gabaccia, From the Other Side: Women, Gender, and Immigrant Life in the US 1820-1990
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).

America has shed new light on the study of female migration in history; Joanne
Meyerowitz and Joy Lintelman have both noted the signiﬁcance of the single,
independent wage-earning woman to the study of female migration patterns to American
cities. In their narratives, the single wage-eaming woman posed a special problem for
Progressive reformers who created cultural images to support the need for protective
measures in the best interest of their subjects of interest. As Joanne Meyerowitz argued,
the cultural images of Progressives shifted over time within Chicago as once helpless
souls became ruthless opportunists in their eyes; for Joy Lintelman’s subjects, Swedes
were always looked upon by the general public as inherently good, even as their young,
single daughters traveled across the Midwest in search of employment opportunities
within Victorian homes.15 These studies written in the 19803 and 19903 created a
framework for the study of immigrant women that has been carried into the 20003 by
scholars of Scandinavian America, however, this framework is in desperate need of
revision. The story that has become somewhat of a template for the study of various
ethnic groups in America - one that begins at home, traces the process of immigration,
and reconstructs neighborhoods in America — needs to be reconstructed to include a more
signiﬁcant interrogation of the ideological meanings of these occurrences and

interactions. And while some scholars have noted the ability of Scandinavians to

 

'5 The works that most inﬂuenced the direction of my dissertation were studies authored by Joanne
Meyerowitz, Joy Lintelman, Margareta Matovic, and the authors of Peasant Maids — City Women, who all
in one way or another, focused on the experiences of immigrant women whose lives were shaped by their
Choices to migrate to Chicago for work or to follow family and friends. See Joanne Meyerowitz, Women
Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1 880-1 930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988);
Joy Lintelman, ““America is the woman’s promised land”: Swedish Immigrant Women and American
Domestic Service,” Journal of American Ethnic History (Spring 1989): 9-23; Lintelman, “More Freedom,
Better Pay: Single Swedish Immigrant Women in the United States, I880-1920,” PhD Dissertation,
University of Minnesota, 1991; Lintelman, “Our Serving Sisters”: Swedish-American Domestic Servants
and Their Ethnic Community,” Social Science History, v. 15, n. 3 (Fall 1991): 381 —95; Peasant Maids —
City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America, ed. Christiane Harzig et. a1. (Ithaca and
London: Cornell University Press, 1997); Lintelman, I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the
Life of Mina Anderson (Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009).

10

acculturate into American society without hesitation while still holding on to the
traditions of the homeland, I see that there was a more intricate cultural interplay between
native-bom Americans and Scandinavian immi grants that has not yet been fully
interrogated. In revisiting these and other studies, I explore notions of Nordic racial and
ethnic identity, the creation of cross-cultural stereotypes, gendered imagery and
ideologies, representations of sexuality and crime, the experience of work, and the
shifting dynamics of a dual identity that kept one foot in the traditions of home and the
other in America. Looking at these themes, my work begins to explore the dynamics of
social preference in application to Chicago’s Scandinavians by taking apart the basis of a
created set of public opinions and representations.

In an effort to expand upon this framework, as well as a shallow historiography
on Scandinavians in American urban history, my work focuses largely on Scandinavian
women and men who lived in Chicago between 1879 and the early 19303. For the past
century, historians viewed Chicago as the “capital” of Scandinavian America, as the city
witnessed the largest representation of both Swedish- and Norwegian-bom citizens in
America during the latter stages of immigration and was second for a period of time to
both Stockholm and 0310 in population of Swedes and Norwegians.16 During the peak
stages of immigration between 1879 and the 19003, over half a million Swedes arrived in
America and by the turn of the century, Swedes represented 10 percent of Chicago’s
immigrant population, making them the third largest ethnic group in the City after the

Germans and the Irish.17 At the same time, Norwegians comprised a much smaller

 

'6 Swedish-American Life in Chicago, 1.

'7 One of the most useful discussions of the various “stages” of Swedish and Scandinavian immigration to
America was noted by Sten Carlsson’s article, “Why did they Leave?” In the article, Carlsson divided
Swedish immigration into a series of ﬁve stages: stage one (1845 to 1854) or the “pioneer period” which

11

representation within Chicago, with only 22,011 inhabitants born in Norway, while
Danes recorded even smaller numbers with 10,166.18 While Nordic immigrants came to
Chicago from all of the Scandinavian nations, which would eventually grow to include
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland, my study will center on the social
interactions and cultural ties of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish immigrants. The total
number of immigrants from these countries displayed the largest numbers of
Scandinavian immigrants in Chicago. F urtherrnore, the censuses of 1900 and 1910
included F innish-bom immigrants in the population count of Russians, rather than as an
independent nation or part of the larger Scandinavian kingdom. Lastly, between the
ambiguous relationship of Iceland with the rest of the Scandinavian countries and the
minimal population of Icelanders recorded as living in Chicago prior to 1930, I chose not
to reference them within my study. In locating the origins of social preference of
Scandinavians, I decided to periodize my study to focus on the time period between 1879
and 1933 for a number of ideological reasons. First, the immigration cycle which began

around 1879 from Scandinavia to Chicago was one that was highly concentrated with

 

consisted mostly of farmers and artisans, as well as religious dissenters; stage two (1867 to 1873), the
“famine years,” when desperate Swedes plagued by the same famine that devastated Northern Europe
during these years; stage three (1879 to 1893), the peak years, when a large demographic of young, single
Swedish men and women emigrated to the US from both rural and urban areas motivated by economic
conditions; stage four (1900 to 1914) or “pre-WWI emigration,” when labor conﬂicts in Sweden led
thousands of workers to emigrate, especially those blacklisted for radical labor activity; and stage ﬁve
(1917 to 19303) represented the last phase, when many emigrated to the US in the post-war era up until the
Immigration Acts of 1924 and 1927 placed quotas on European immigration. Despite the fact that Sweden
had one of the larger quotas in comparison to other countries, with 3,300 immigrants allowed each year,
after the point of 1924, when rising prosperity in the homeland was a stark contrast to the looming
Depression years of the United States. In fact, many Swedes had earned enough money up to this point
within the United States that many were actually able to remi grate back to Sweden. For these statistics and
discussions, see Sten Carlsson, “Why did they Leave,” in Perspectives on Swedish Immigration ed. Nils
Hasselmo (Chicago: The Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1978): 25-6; H. Arnold Barton, The Old
Country and the New: Essays on Swedes and America (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
2007)

'8 E.W. Burgess and Charles Newcomb, Census Data for the City of Chicago, 1920 (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1931), Table 7: Distribution of foreign-bom population by principle countries of birth, in
order of rank in 1900, 20.

mostly young, single men and women who intended to come to the city ﬁrst and foremost
for work. Second, the years 1893 and 1933 were paramount in identity building for
Nordics, as numerous social and cultural clubs chose to use the celebratory events of the
World’s Columbian Exposition and the Century of Progress to create both physical and
ideological personas they wished Chicagoans to associate them with.

Within Chicago, interactions amongst Scandinavian immigrants was both
common and natural, particularly for Swedes and Norwegians, who shared a similar
cultural heritage and whose countries were physically connected, as well as connected by
the Swedish-Norwegian union until its breakup in 1905. Odd Lovoll noted in several of
his works the common Scandinavian cultural heritage shared by these two groups, as well
as the rivalry between them within American cities, especially after the breakup of the
Swedish-Norwegian union brought about a newfound sense of nationalism for
Norwegians in America. Lovoll and Harald Runblom have found that on social levels,
contacts between Scandinavians were much stronger than on an institutional level.
Scandinavians in Chicago typically navigated within neighboring city spaces, preferring
to live near each other in predominantly Scandinavian neighborhoods, such as “Swede
Town,” Lakeview, and later Andersonville. My research explores the social geography of
these city spaces, as well as the ways that Scandinavian men and women navigated
within their neighborhoods and throughout the city in an effort to get a sense of the
meanings they attached to various locales within the city; Scandinavians established
businesses on the basis of a shared cultural heritage and sense of comradery with their
neighbors. These neighborhoods were the heart of the Scandinavian American urban

experience and even today, are rich with cultural heritage and remnants of an older

13

generation exhibited in remaining traditions such as Midsommar celebrations, clubs,
restaurants and grocery stores, as well as places of leisure. In reading the letters, memoirs
and reﬂections of Chicago’s Scandinavians, it is apparent that these people felt a personal
bond to the city they chose to live in and had the capability to adjust easily to their new
surroundings without intimidation.

In locating both American and Scandinavian perspectives within Chicago, my
methodology incorporates the use of both English-language regional and national
periodicals, as well as Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish-language periodicals; various
manuscript series; material culture; Progressive era reports and exposes on vice; and
quantitative data. In dividing this study, the following ﬁve chapters make use of both
chronological and thematic organization when appropriate, and are divided into ﬁve
periods of change for Scandinavians in Chicago. The focus of chapter one uses a
transnational perspective on migration and emigration patterns of Scandinavians between
the 18403 and 18703 during Chicago’s booster years to form the basis Nordic identity
through cultural, social, and religious similarities amongst Scandinavians. In doing so,
the ﬁrst chapter ﬁlls in historiographical gaps from the time between migration and
upward social mobility within Chicago — an era which historians by and large ignored in
considering the historical importance of community building within ethnic
neighborhoods. Chapter two employs a gendered analysis of Nordic identity to
investigate the creation of mostly positive stereotypes in association with Scandinavian
immigrants in Chicago. Both images and commentary created by the American media
and supported by Scandinavians focused on both the physical and behavioral ideals of

Nordic identity, over time, creating the now commonplace stereotypical image of the

14

blonde-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian as beautiful, supported by shifting American
standards of beauty at the turn of the 20th century.

After building the physical and behavioral associations with Scandinavians,
chapter three moves into a discussion of the experience of work, focusing more closely
on the role of domestic service in the overall experience of immigrant life. Both
American and Scandinavian authors came to repeatedly associate Nordic immigrants with
catchwords like “honest,” “diligent,” and “hard-working,” and to a notable extent,
Scandinavian women became well-aware of their value as workers, thereby creating a
massive stream of immigration into the United States for work as domestic servants
between the 18803 and into the 19103. Both their work and their reputations within
Chicago created great pride for the Scandinavian community, who supported the images
both women and men fostered by way of their work identities during this time period and
beyond. The topic of chapter four, however, investigates the darker side of Nordic
identity — one that has largely been ignored within the historiography. Due to the massive
inﬂux of young, single migrants into the city during the early 19003, the Progressive
focus on vice in Chicago was intensiﬁed. With all the fervor surrounding the dangers of
vice and white slavery in connection with Chicago’s immigrant groups, Progressives
focused programs and social welfare on various groups deemed to be in great need. Yet,
based on anti-vice literature, Progressive-minded individuals were not overly concerned
with social problems emerging from the Scandinavian community; nevertheless, social
problems were a reality, which the community brought into clear focus as it held its
citizens ﬁrlly responsible for their individual actions. While Scandinavians did express

concern over further involvement of their citizens in clandestine activities through the

15

inﬂuence of settlement homes and other social organizations, the community held both
men and women accountable for the activities they engaged in outside of such agencies.
In the concluding analysis of the Scandinavian experience in Chicago, chapter
ﬁve focuses on the efforts of Scandinavian-Americans to continue to readjust their public
image in the wake of a major campaign to become “100% American” during and after
World War 1. Prior to the war, many Scandinavians continued to ground their lives in the
traditions of home, however, upon backlash against the community for their European
ties, many began to drastically Change their ways. Scandinavian-Americans consciously
used an image, which emphasized an acceptance of American culture and ideals, during
the post-war era to create a new dichotomy of social identity. 19 In the postwar era,
Scandinavian-Americans in Chicago exhibited a rare ability to maintain a positive public
image and enjoy the beneﬁts of social success, while privately maintaining a dedication
to the traditions and ideals of home. After work and on the weekends, Chicago’s
established Scandinavian-Americans ﬂocked to social clubs grounded in the language,
religion, and culture of home, most notably in the form of the Nordic Country Club.
established during the 19203 to celebrate the group’s success in America. This analysis of
social preference and success concludes with the celebration of Scandinavian Day,
encompassed in the city-wide Century of Progress fair, when Scandinavian-Americans,
like all other citizens, found themselves in the midst of dire times. Yet, rather than using

the event to remark on the extent of suffering within the community, Scandinavian-

 

” Within my research, I found that World War I and the beginnings of the “100% American” campaign
marked the crucial moment when Scandinavians began to view themselves more as “hyphenated
Americans” rather than as Scandinavians. Therefore, 1 shift my language to instead make use of the term
“Scandinavian-American” to describe those of Scandinavian heritage living in Chicago in the postwar
period. See chapter ﬁve for further discussion.

16

Americans Chose to celebrate their success through the cultural traditions maintained over
the decades since settlement.

My work redirects the study of Scandinavian Americans away from the excessive
ﬁliopietism of past narratives to instead recognize the larger signiﬁcance of American
culture in deﬁning racial and ethnic categories of European immigrants. By incorporating
the American perspective into a larger Scandinavian-centric historiography, this project
will make an important contribution to emerging research on similar topics that

interrogate the interactions of immigrants and their neighbors in American cities.

17

Chapter One

From Scandinavia to “Swede Town”: Origins at Home and Migration
to the Urban Midwest

In 1933, before a ﬁlled-to-capacity Scandinavian audience at Soldier Field,
attorney and community leader Carl Hjalmar Lundquist delivered a powerful speech that
marked the celebration of Scandinavian Day at the Century of Progress Fair in Chicago.
In his speech, Lundquist extolled the virtues of Chicago’s Scandinavian-American
community of the 19303 — merits which he felt connected directly to the community’s

origins in the homelands of Sweden, Norway and Denmark:

“The early inhabitants of Scandinavia were in the main one people, speaking the
same language, and having the same religion, and the same historical
traditions...we are one people, of one and the same racial stock, and I believe, we
Americans of Scandinavian stock and descent realize this much better than the
peoples of the Scandinavian countries themselves, for the simple reason that we
are removed four thousand miles from the homes of our ancestors, and our
perspective is consequently better. We have also come in closer contact with
many other peoples than our kinsmen in the North, who very seldom have the
opportunity to meet anybody not of their own race. We, therefore, know ourselves
better.”

The concept of racial superiority amongst those of “Scandinavian stock” that
Lundquist addressed in his speech was not, by any means, a new ideology shared by
Scandinavians or Americans of Chicago. Instead, Lundquist was repeating a similar

discourse created as early as ﬁfty years before his speech, when Scandinavian immigrants

arrived in Chicago by the thousands from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway and began to

 

I “Scandinavian Day at the Century of Progress,” speech delivered by Carl Hjalmar Lundquist at the
Century of Progress, 1933 at Scandinavian Day, Carl Hjalmar Lundquist Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript
Series #30, Box #3. F. M. Johnson Archives and Special Collections at North Park University, Chicago, IL.

18

establish their own city spaces.2 Between the 18403 and 18703, when immigrants from
northern and western Europe began to pour into the still-archaic city, the founders of the
assorted ethnic enclaves would face severe hardships in developing their claimed city
spaces, rife with crime and disease, into ones that more closely resembled home. It would
take the severe devastation of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to make that dream a
reality, giving Scandinavians the unintended opportunity to move to the north side of the
city and take ownership of a space they could call their own. The opportunity for a better
way of life was made possible by an underlying racial preference for those of
“Scandinavian stock” held by many Chicagoans and would help the Scandinavians of
Chicago to achieve a comparably high level of success as an immigrant group within the
city. This ideology, from its very origins, would come to link speciﬁc ideas and
stereotypes of race, ethnicity, gender, and physicality to perceived images and behaviors
deemed typical of “Scandinavian stock.”

The ties of Scandinavians to the city of Chicago are invaluable to its history as
they were amongst the ﬁrst groups of immigrants to answer the immense call for
manpower and settlement in Chicago’s booster years. The historical study of early
Scandinavians within the United States is a tradition that began as early as 1893 with the

publication of the ﬁrst scholarly study by Swedish historian O.N. Nelson in his History of

 

2 As will be discussed later in this chapter in greater detail, the term “Scandinavian” was actually derived as
a term used by Americans to refer to the people and cultural heritage of the countries of Sweden, Norway,
and Denmark according to political ties. As discussed in the introduction, while the term later came to also
encompass those from Finland and Iceland, this study will concentrate solely on immigrants from the ﬁrst
three countries. For further discussion on the historical distinctions made between these nation groups, see
Harald Runblom, “Chicago Compared: Swedes and Other Ethnic Groups in American Cities,” in Swedish-
American Life in Chicago: Cultural and Urban Aspects of an Immigrant People, 1850-1930, eds. Philip J.
Anderson and Dag Blanck (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992): 78.

19

the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States.3 In the century
following the publication of Nelson’s critical work, a signiﬁcant number of studies
dedicated to the formation of Scandinavian communities across the Midwest told and
retold the story of the valiant beginnings of these pioneers, and focused largely on their
commitment to church and community building.4 Despite the outpouring of literature on
the experiences of Scandinavians in America, the historiography on Chicago’s early
community and on the interactions of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes in urban spaces
remained relatively thin until the publication of Ulf Beijbom’s foundational work, Swedes
in Chicago in 1971.5 Over the past thirty years since the publication of Beijbom’s book,
the study of Chicago’s earliest Scandinavians has grown however, there is an
ambivalence that remains in contextualizing the origins of Nordic immigrants in their
adopted homes, and placing that framework within the larger context of multiple
migrations. Beijbom and other scholars who examined the ﬁrst two immigrant enclaves

Scandinavians shared with other nation groups in Chicago concentrated almost entirely

 

3 Nelson’s study, ﬁrst published in 1893-1897 and revised in 1904, is one that is invaluable as both a
primary and secondary source; Nelson, in addition to retelling the story of Chicago’s pioneer
Scandinavians, incorporated useful demographic representations of the Scandinavian community of
Chicago, and included much of his own commentary on community dialogue, Nordic identity, and the
experiences of the World’s Columbian Exposition. See O.N. Nelson, History of the Scandinavians and
Successful Scandinavians in the United States, 2 vols. (Minneapolis, 1893-97; rev. ed., 1904).

4 Some of the earlier works on Scandinavians in the United States are largely biographical and/or
bibliographical, employing an older framework focused on retelling the experiences of the Swedish,
Norwegian, and Danish cultural elite of the East Coast and the Midwest, with the most well-known
including The Swedish Element in America; A Comprehensive History of Swedish-American Achievements
ﬁom 1638 to the Present Day, 3 vols., ed. By Erik G. Westrnan et. a1 (Chicago: Swedish-American
Biographical Society, 1931); Enok Mortensen, Danish-American Life and Letters (Des Moines, 1945;
reprint, 1979); O. Fritiof Ander, The Cultural Heritage of the Swedish Immigrant: Selected References
(Rock Island, 111., 1956; reprint, 1979); Carlton C. Qualey, Norwegian Settlement in the United States
(Northﬁeld, MN, 1938; reprint, 1970).

5 Ulf Beijbom is credited by many historians of Scandinavian immigration as the “father” of the history of
Swedish Chicago. A demographic study focused on the social institutions and interactions of Swedes with
other Chicago immigrants from 1846 to 1880, Beijbom’s painstaking detail helped to recreate the story that
had been repeated since Nelson’s earliest work. See Ulf Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago: A Demographic and
Social Study of the 1846-1880 Immigration (Uppsala, Sweden and Chicago: The Historiska Institutionen at
the University of Uppsala, Sweden and Chicago Historical Society, 1971).

20

on the perspective of Scandinavians. In taking this approach, these scholars failed to take
notice of the short amount of time that lapsed between trans-Atlantic immigration into
slum conditions and inner-city migration to the adopted Scandinavian community of
Lake View — a neighborhood far removed from the dismal conditions of the city. Within
the span of just thirty years, Scandinavians acclimated to foreign social structures, and
maintained their own languages and set of religious and cultural practices. During this
process, the community watched as “their” neighborhood was encroached upon by other
groups, such as the Irish, Germans and Italians. Even though they shared space with other
groups, Scandinavians maintained a dominant cultural presence through ethnocentric
business ventures and, in turn, had the capability of taking ownership of their own city
spaces. And in comparison to other immigrant groups who held strong convictions in
maintaining their cultural and ethnic traditions, Chicagoans saw some groups’ practices
as threatening to American standards or traditions, while they saw Scandinavian cultural
practices as quaint, and sometimes humorous. Chicagoans appreciated the ways that
Scandinavians were able to “blend into” society based on their fair physical features - a
topic which will be discussed in greater detail in chapter two, which connected American
impressions and stereotypes of Scandinavians to the ways that Scandinavians went about
identifying themselves in Chicago.

Scandinavians’ easy transition can also be attributed to shared political and social

. . . . th
ties wrthrn Sweden, Norway, and Denmark from the earliest years of the 19 century to

the beginning of mass immigration. Similarities in language and social practice helped
Scandinavians forge a bond that formed the basis of a Nordic identity within the city

spaces of Chicago — even upon arrival. This is not to say that the founders of the earliest

21

communities of Scandinavians did not suffer — it was because of their perseverance that
the possibility for migration out of the slums was even available. It is vital to note that a
very different “push factor” motivated the two waves of Scandinavian immigrants to
come to America between 1840 and 1879 than their later counterparts. Beginning in the
18403, a large group of mostly single Norwegian men, motivated by capitalism upon the
building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal traveled to Chicago for work, while the 18503
and 18603 would bring largely Swedes and Danes eager to establish their own churches
and escape the famine of 1867 and 1868 in their home countries. Due to these factors,
the earlier groups of immigrants envisioned Chicago as a temporary stopping point on
their journey to rural areas of the Midwest, while later generations of immigrants would
conceive of Chicago as their primary destination in their quest to improve upon their
situations.6 The differences in these ideologies were vast, and created the basis for
settlement within Chicago’s ﬁrst Scandinavian establishments.

More and more, Scandinavians would come together under the guise of helping
each other acclimate to the conditions of a foreign society and culture, and in turn,
negotiate a Scandinavian-American identity that did not require the loss of culture, social
practice, or even language in private use or public community activities. The comparative
ease in their transition into a new culture also contributed to the origins of a Nordic
identity that these immigrants shared across country of origin and city space. Over time,
Americans who shared these spaces with their Scandinavian neighbors would, in many
ways, come to enjoy their presence, and would thereby view them in a positive light,

making the transitions of future immigrants much easier to bear.

 

‘5 The origins of the ﬁrst generations of immigrants to arrive in Chicago are discussed in greater detail in
Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago, 39-56.

22

Origins in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway — Demographics, Political, and Social
Connections
Since the beginnings of the nineteenth century, American and European
inte l l ectuals and writers conceived of the countries that comprised Scandinavia as misty,
sprawling, far-away lands touched by the frigid cold of arctic air — distinctively rural
areas that signiﬁed a continuation of simpler ways. In many ways, their conceptions of
Scandinavia were true. In 1801, over 90 percent of Norway’s inhabitants lived in rural
C 0mmunities, and even by 1865, when the population witnessed a signiﬁcant growth,
more than 80 percent hailed from agrarian communities.7 Similarly in Sweden and
Denmark, the majority of the population lived in rural areas dependent on the returns of
thieir agriculture to markets throughout Europe. Over the course of the nineteenth century,
the population of Sweden was essentially rural; however in the latter portion of the
nineteenth century the number of inhabitants migrating to larger towns increased. The

following ﬁgures illustrated this phenomenonsz

M

7 Odd S. Lovoll, Odd S. Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before I 930
(Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 4.

8 The Swedish Catalogue, commissioned for the World’s Columbian Exposition, made use of population
registers similar to the US. Census in compounding their ﬁndings; while the Catalogue does not specify
what was considered an “urban” space between 1840 and 1890, the comparison is nonetheless stark in
showing the predominantly rural nature of Sweden’s population. See World '3 Columbian Exposition 1893,
Swedish Catalogue, Exhibits and Statistics, Commissioned by the Royal Swedish Commission for the
World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893.

23

Table 1-1

 

Rural and Urban Populations of Sweden, 1840-1890

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year Population of Rural Urban

1 Sweden Population Population
I 1840 3,138,887 2,835,204 303,683
I 1850 3,482,541 3,131,015 351,526
1 1860 3,859,728 3,425,209 434,519
1870 4,168,525 3,628,876 539,649
1880 4,565,668 3,875,237 690,431
1890 4,802,751 3,890,086 912,665

 

 

(Source: World ’s Columbian Exposition 1893, Swedish Catalogue, Exhibits and
Statistics, Commissioned by the Royal Swedish Commission for the World’s Columbian
Exposition, 1893, 9-10)

Accordingly, the people who lived within those communities in small farming houses led
Seelfningly simple lives with gender roles that mirrored Americans’ domestic and
industrial lives during the same era. Margareta Matovic’s study of the Swedish province
of Dalsland paints such an image of rural Swedes in the second half of the nineteenth
century as people dependant on agriculture for sale, as well as for family consumption.

This dependency on Swedish natural goods became increasingly challenging as families

faced overpopulation across the countryside and growing industrialization within
S‘Weden’s cities. According to Matovic, rural Swedes lived in an environment greatly
2directed by the forces of nature, century-old traditions, and socioeconomic change that

made the maintenance of time-honored family life increasingly difﬁcult.9 When many
Would later arrive in their adopted homes in Chicago, the initial habit for the earliest
immigrants, regardless of their surroundings, was to return to such simpler ways of life.
Within these farming communities, the greatest concerns of Scandinavian families

centered on their crops and not as much on the political affairs of the kingdom. As

 

9 Margareta Matovic, “Maids in Motion: Swedish Women in Dalsland,” in Peasant Maids — City Women:
From the European Countryside to Urban America, eds. Christiane Harzig et. al (Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, 1997): 99.

24

Mato‘ViC and others explained, when export prices were high, both large and small
1311 d owners of farms maintained good incomes, which could afford rural folk simple lives
sep arated ﬁom the political affairs of larger towns.10 Yet, the changes that would come
about during this time would forever transform national and transnational political and
Cultural practices for the next century and beyond. On May 17, 1814, a constitution was
Si grled in Stockholm that would link the countries of Sweden and Norway together as one
utlited kingdom. The constitution, which was modeled on the same principles as that of
the American Constitution, signiﬁed a rebirth of the Kingdom of Norway following a
1 (311g period of national decline and the dissolution of Norway’s nearly 400-year union
With Denmark. In November of that same year, the newly established national assembly,
the Storting, surrendered Norway’s claimed independence to the demands of the political
realm and accepted a union with Sweden under the Swedish king. The union was, in part,
established as a dual-monarchy system that stood in place to serve the best interests of the
SCandinavian people — as historian Odd Lovoll explained the marriage of the two
Countries was a logical choice during this time period as “there were, of course, the
Obvious Nordic ethnic bonds and similar language and cultural traditions.”11 Such shared
ethl'ric bonds would be instrumental in America, when immi grants of the two countries

Would come together to form a united community of Scandinavians.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the united kingdom of Sweden was politically

united with Norway and ruled by the same king. The Scandinavian kingdom was

*

‘° lbid, 100.

H Odd Lovoll’s book, A Century of Urban Life, focused on the experiences of Norwegians in Chicago
before 1930, remains the only study of its kind on Chicago’s Norwegians, despite his call upon the book’s
1988 publication for the increased study of Norwegians in American urban history. See Odd Lovoll, A

Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before 1930 (Champaign, IL: Norwegian American
Historical Association, 1988): 4.

25

{mm ense in size and measured an area of more than 300,000 square miles; despite its

siz e , the kingdom had a comparatively small population of approximately seven million

peop l c, with the country of Sweden alone claiming over four million of those inhabitants.
In addition to its larger population, Swedish culture and language was dominant, as it was
estimated that the Swedish language was the mother tongue of at least six million people
tl‘Lrou ghout the shared Scandinavian kingdom. Swedes were and are traditionally known
for their proud cultural practices and considerable ties to their home country, as well as
tl'leir distinctively “Scandinavian” character. As the Royal Swedish Commission for the
World’s Columbian Exposition would point out in their booklet for the fair in 1893, more
than 99% of the population of Sweden consisted of “native” Swedes — otherwise, those
being of purely Nordic background and heritage. 12 As they explained, “The Swedish
people are supposed to have lived in the land they still inhabit for at least 4,000 years,
dUI‘ing this entire period not having assimilated other nationalities, or at least to no extent
Worth mentioning, so that the Swedish nation — as well as the Norwegian and Danish — is
of an origin far purer than any other at present existing outside of Scandinavia.”'3 Yet,
not all would share in the celebrated culture and national identity of Sweden. Many
NOrwegians lamented over a failed attempt to reclaim Norwegian nationalism in the
Political break with Denmark and many feared Swedish cultural encroachment was near.
For some Norwegians and Danes, living in the cultural shadow of Sweden was far too

difﬁcult to bear. The cultural hegemony of Sweden would only grow stronger due to the

k

12 The Swedish Catalogue commissioned by the Royal Swedish Commission was part national propaganda
as much as it was informational; while Nelson’s ﬁgures from the same era corroborate the statistical
information contained within the booklet, it is important to emphasize that this source speaks well as a
window into the public perception of Swedish identity. A larger discourse on the composition and racial

categories comprised in Nordic identity according to representations displayed at the World’s Columbian
Exposition of 1893 will be detailed in the following chapter.
13 -

Ibrd, 9.

26

inc: re asing inﬂuence of a massive migration of Swedes into Norway and Denmark, and

sub 5 equently to America.

Despite competitive difﬁculties between Scandinavians, those who hailed from
the three Nordic countries shared incredibly strong cultural similarities and ties,
espec ially those between Norwegians and Danes who shared a legacy of a centuries-long
political union. Odd Lovoll found that all three nation groups encouraged a common
N ordic identiﬁcation in Scandinavia; as early as the 18403, an intellectual movement was
gaining strength throughout the Scandinavian countries that paralleled similar uniﬁcation
movements in Germany and Italy. Scandinavism (also referred to as Pan-
Searrdinavianism) and Nordism as national ideologies sought to unite the Scandinavian
Countries and people of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden through a shared political,
Cultural, and literary heritage. One of the most recognizable reﬂections of
SCandinavianism at home was the focus of followers on a shared Nordic visualization of
the Viking Age. In particular, Scandinavian men used such romanticized representations
of the brutal seafarers to forge a masculine bond of national identity — bonds, which
Would be transferred to America in the form of hundreds of Scandinavian “Viking”
frElternal clubs and organizations. Another example of the shared bond between
SCandinavian men appears in stanzas of the Norwegian national anthem, “Ja, vi elsker
dotte landet” (“Yes, We Love This Country”). The lyrics, written in 1868 by Bjomstjeme
Bjomsen, read as a history of Norway’s valiant beginnings at the hands of its ﬁrst king,
Harald Fairhair in 872 AD, and in the sixth stanza, declared in the face of hardship,

Norway, Sweden and Denmark are “three brothers [who] stand united, and shall stand

27

like that.”14 Ultimately, a leading group of Norwegians, who fostered a strong sense of
nat i omalism, expressed their longing to exist as one country and people, separate from
another Scandinavian country in political and cultural ties, thereby subsequently
defeating the movement. 15 Though these currents of inter-Scandinavian. solidarity
su f‘f‘ered defeat, they did help to maintain a tradition of cooperation and inﬂuenced
attitudes about pan-Scandinavian endeavors at the popular level in Scandinavia, as well
as amongst Nordic immigrants in America. As Scandinavians ﬂooded into the cities of
Arnerica prior to the turn of the century, fraternal groups would refer back to these earlier
political and cultural ties from the homeland, using familiar symbols and representations

0f the Viking Age to create a sense of shared identity.

The Beginnings of Immigration from the Home Countries (1845—18 79)

. The historiography of Scandinavian immigration to America has created a
traciition of telling and retelling the “rural existence” to “urban destination” dichotomy,
Oﬁen falling short of recognizing the importance of issues such as short-distance

mi gration and remigration.16 While it is true that a large portion of Scandinavian

\

M The above lyrics appear in the sixth stanza of the Norwegian National Anthem, “Ja, Vi Elsker Dette
Landet,” which was ﬁrst adopted in 1864 as a melody written by Bjomson’s cousin, Rikard Nordraak and
\gter connected with Bjomson’s lyrics in 1868.
Odd Lovoll, “A Scandinavian Melting Pot in Chicago,” in Swedish-American Life in Chicago, 61; T.K.
Berry, A History of Modern Norway, 1814-1972 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 1-16.

Some of the major works of Ulf Beijbom, H. Arnold Barton, and Odd Lovoll perpetuated these images.
However, the 1997 collection of essays, Peasant Maids — City Women, made a useful departure from this
model by focusing predominantly on the rural/urban dichotomy as its premise, and relies on a “systems
approach” to the study of immigration, thereby viewing it as a “complex process through which the
contexts of the immigrants’ destinations and their places of origin are closely linked.” See Christiane
Harzig, “Introduction: Women Move from the European Countryside to Urban America,” in Peasant Maids
- City Women, 4; Cf. James Jackson and Leslie Page Moch, “Migration and the Social History of Modern
Europe,” Historical Methods 22 (1989): 27-36. Some examples of the older perspectives focused on the
“push” of rural economies and “pull” of urban industries, see Ulf Beijbom, The Swedes of Chicago (1971);

28

immi grants originated from a rural existence, it is possible to lose a significant segment
of the population and their experiences in this all-too-familiar tale of migration. Prior to
1 8 6 O , many Europeans still considered emigration to America to be an unreasonable goal
res erved only for the most desperate, or for those who were ﬁnancially capable of making
the l ong voyage. For most agrarian Europeans, seasonal migrations over short distances
were much more common; as women left home for opportunities on farms and in urban
areas as domestics and factory workers, men migrated for manual labor in construction
Work to establish modern infrastructures.” Following this pattern, many Scandinavians
Who desired greater opportunities closer to home opted for short-term migration. Young
men and women from the Dalsland province of Sweden traveled to neighboring Norway
fOI‘ opportunities as day laborers to local farmers in times of market stagnation. To these
fal‘rn laborers, Norway came to symbolize a solution to their economic struggles, and in
turn, the rural communities of places like Dalsland proved to be more ﬂexible and mobile
than was previously expected of a simple society.18 Despite the convenient opportunities
for short-terrn migratory work, between 1845 and 1859 the Scandinavian countries lost a
SrIlall portion of their inhabitants, about 32,765 artisans, farmers, and religious dissenters,
‘0 America for greater economic opportunities and greater social and religious

\

Odd Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life (1988); H. Arnold Barton, A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and
ﬁrvedish Americans, 1840-1940(Carbonda1e, 1L: Southern lllinois University, 1994).

Dirk Hoerder’s focus on the development of the Atlantic Core and its migration system between 1815
and 1915 contributes to a larger contextual discussion on the general patterns of migration within Europe
and across the Atlantic to America. See Dirk Hoerder, “Migration in the Atlantic Economies: Regional
European Origins and Worldwide Expansion,” in European Migrants: Global and Local Perspectives, eds.
Dirk Hoerder and Leslie Page Moch (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996): 36.

18 In Matovic’s study of Swedish women from the province of Dalsland, she alludes to the possibility that
our historical conceptions of “simple farm folk” in l9Lh century Scandinavia need to be revisited,
highlighting the simplicity of movement for Swedish women (and men) between Norway and Sweden. It is _
important to note that common language and social practices were additional factors in these comparatively

effortless migratory patterns in relation to other Europeans with shared borders yet vastly different
languages. See Matovic, “Maids in Motion," in Peasant Maids — City Women, 136.

29

free (ioms.'9 In comparison to neighboring countries in Northern and Western Europe, the
numbers of Scandinavians making the voyage to America were small — over the course of
just one year in 1840, Ireland sent 39,430 of its population to America in search of better
ernp l oyment opportunities, while England and Germany also sent staggering numbers of
its illl'rabitants.20 In 1867 and again in 1877, when Northern and Western Europe was hit
by a wave of crop failures and subsequent famine, the Scandinavian countries were
collectively in the midst of social panic. For the mostly rural populations of Norway,
SWeden, and Denmark, the loss of crops was completely devastating to many, as families
Watched their farms collapse and their families witness the harsh realities of starvation.
During these years, emigration from the homeland became not only a possibility, but a

necessity for many. Out of the various waves of Scandinavian immigration that would

. th th . .
Span the period of movement between the 19 and 20 centurres, the “famrne wave”

betvveen 1867 and 1877 was quite possibly the most desperate in measure to go West in
Search of viable farmland or economic opportunity.
Between 1879 and 1893 during what were referred to as the peak years, the
Character of those who migrated shiﬁed to include more people from industrial, urban
backgrounds, as well as increasing numbers of young, single immigrants. Enticed by the

lure of work including manufacturing and domestic service, these younger immigrants

\

‘9 According to the Statistical Review of Immigration 1820-1910, between 1845 and 1859 approximately

29,638 immigrants from Sweden and Norway and a much smaller number of Danish immigrants (3,127)
leﬁ the homeland for America; the peak years for this ﬁrst wave of immigration were in 1852 for Sweden
and Norway and 1857 for Denmark. See Reports of the Immigration Commission: Statistical Review of
Immigration 1820-1910; Distribution of Immigrants 1850-1900 (Washington: Government Printing Ofﬁce,
1911): table 9, pp. 22-27; Sten Carlsson, “Why did they Leave?” in Nils Hasselmo, ed., Perspectives on
Swedish Immigration (Duluth, 1978): 25-6.
20 Between 1834 and 1866-67, the numbers of those migrating from England, Germany, and Ireland were,
for the most part, signiﬁcantly higher than the whole of those immigrants from Scandinavia; it was not until
1866 and 1867 that the numbers of immigrants swelled for all Northern and Western European countries,
when the famine hit Northern Europe and forced many to leave on their own accord or join relatives who
left before them in the earlier waves. See Reports of the Immigration Commission, table 9, 20.

30

made up what would become by far the largest group of Scandinavians to arrive in the
Url i ted States.” In the earlier years of migration to Chicago, Norwegians represented the
large st numbers of migrants, yet in a matter of a few years, Swedish immigrants grew
exPomentially, creating the largest group amongst the Scandinavian countries within
America. In the year prior to the massive inﬂux of Scandinavian immigrants to the
United States, immigration statistics revealed far fewer newcomers; in 1878, only 5,490
Swedes, 2,105 Danes, and 4,759 Norwegians would migrate to the United States.
However, as illustrated in the following table, immigration from Sweden and Denmark
Would double during the course of 1879, and immigration from all three countries would

SI-lbstantially grow to reach an all-time high between the years of 1879 and 1893”:

x

2‘ A larger discussion of the opportunities for employment and experience of work for Scandinavian men
and women will be addressed in greater detail within chapter three, which focuses on the experience of
work in Chicago.

I compiled the following table using statistics from Reports of the Immigration Commission; in selecting
the ﬁgures reported for the three countries, I chose to omit the total number of immigrants from each
country for any given year and instead divided the numbers by sex to show the ratio of males to females
who chose to migrate for employment. These numbers were then also calculated to determine the
percentages of male to female immigrants for any given year. *Sex not reported in the immigration
statistics between 1893 and 1895. See Reports of the Immigration Commission: Statistical Review of
Immigration 1820-1910, table 9, pt. 2, 33-8.

31

1:" able 1.2 : Immigration from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden to America, 1879-1893

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

\
l\ 1893*

 

 

 

Denmark Norway Sweden
Year Males Females Males Females Males Females

(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
l 879 4,695 2,650 2,244 1,230 7,313 3,686
(64) (36) (65) (35) (66) (34)
1 880 4,466 2,110 13,165 6,730 26,862 12,324
V (68) (32) (66) (34) (69) (31)
Y 1 881 5,874 3,243 14,511 8,194 31,317 18,443
(64) (36) (64) (36) (63) (37)
1 882 7,517 4,101 17,929 11,172 41,335 23,272
L (65) (35) (62) (38) (64) (36)
L 1 883 6,228 4,091 13,799 9,599 22,916 15,361
(60) (40) (59) (41) (60) (40)
l 884 5,509 3,693 9,986 6,988 15,459 1 1,093
(60) (40) (59) (41) (58) (42)
l 885 3,541 2,559 7,054 5,302 12,491 9,757
\ (60) (40) (57) (43) (56) (44)
1 886 3,875 2,350 7,890 4,869 17,019 10,732
(62) (38) (62) (38) (61) (39)
l\1887 5,448 3,076 10,523 5,746 27,359 15,477
X (64) (36) (65) (35> <64) (36)
1888 5,649 3,313 11,888 6,376 34,762 19,936
\ (63) (37) (65) (35) (64) (36)
1889 5,301 3,398 7,372 5,818 19,919 15,496
\ (61) (39> <56) (44) (56> (44)
1890 5,713 3,653 6,601 4,769 16,532 13,100
\ (61) (39) (58) (42) (56) (44)
1891 6,455 4,204 7,644 4,924 21,746 15,134
(61) (39) (61) (39) (59) (41)
1892 6,230 3,895 8,910 5,415 24,684 17,161
(62) (38) (62) (38) (59) (41)

7,720 15,515 35,710

 

(Soul'ce: Reports of the Immigration Commission: Statistical Review of Immigration

1820-1910, table 9, pt. 2, 33-8.)

According to these statistics, all three Scandinavian countries sent vast numbers

of their citizens to America between 1879 and 1893. However, the number of male

lrnI‘Iligrants always outnumbered that of females. As discussed in greater detail in chapter

 

32

 

twee, the numbers of women who made the voyage to America for the purpose of work
are nevertheless important to the overall study of Scandinavians and the experience of
work, as Scandinavian women came to deﬁne the occupation of domestic service within
C hicago by the turn of the century. During this era of peak immigration, in comparison to
other European immigrants, Scandinavians were the fourth largest immi grant group
behind German, English, and Irish immi grants, until migration patterns shifted around the
turn of the century with the heavy inﬂux of the “new” immigrant groups from Southern
and Eastern Europe. From 1894 until the beginning of WWI in 1914, immigration for the
Nordic countries dropped off considerably; between 1893 and 1894, Scandinavian
immigration fell by almost half and remained much lower until 1914.23 Immigration to
America between 1893 and 1894 witnessed a sharp drop from all European countries due
to a severe economic depression during that same year. Nevertheless, it should be noted
that Scandinavian immigration witnessed a signiﬁcant jump after 1879 and did not fall
below 1 0,000 annual immigrants until World War 1 disrupted the international ﬂow of
iImnigrations into America.
During what Scandinavian historians refer to as the fourth stage of immigration,
from the turn of the century until the beginning of World War 1 in 1914, nearly 290,000
DCOple leﬁ Sweden alone, and authorities began to grow concerned about the adverse
effeCts of the population depletion on the country’s labor supply.24 During this period,
incl‘easing labor conﬂicts in the homeland led many workers and intellectuals to

23\
d Bﬁltween 1893 and 1894, immigration from Denmark fell from 7.720 to 5,003; from Norway 15,515
Own to 9,111; and from Sweden 35,710 to only 18,286. See Reports of the Immigration Commission, table
24’ pt- 2, 38.
Sten Carlsson was the ﬁrst to identify these various stages, and his study is frequently referenced in
atltitative discussions of especially migration from Sweden, however his division of stages is applicable
e whole of Scandinavian immigration. See See Sten Carlsson, “Why did they Leave?” in Nils
asSelmo, ed., Perspectives on Swedish Immigration (Duluth, 1978), 18, 25-6.

33

e migrate, especially those blacklisted for their labor activity. The ﬁnal stage of
immigration to the United States began again in the 1920s when over 100,000 people left
and ended with the worldwide economic depression in the 19305 effectively ending the
attractions of the labor market in the United States.25 After this point, many
S candinavians began a process of re-migration back to their home countries, yet the
majority of those who made this choice originated from a more recent group who has
migrated to the United States during the 19205.

For the length of the immigration period, commentators throughout Scandinavia
grew concerned about the potential loss of culture and heritage amongst Swedes, Danes,
and Norwegians on the world stage due to a relatively small population spread over an
immense area. O.N. Nelson, an early historian of Scandinavian immigration to America
discIISSed of his own perceptions on Scandinavian migration patterns from its origins in
1845 up to the turn of the century. Writing in 1901, he stated that the “barren and
unproductive” countries of Scandinavia, coupled with slovenly governments, were the
ﬁYSt t0 blame for the massive loss of its inhabitants, but the travelers from those countries

were equally troubled. While many educated and industrious Scandinavians arrived in

. . . th . . .
Amerrca during the earlrer parts of the 19 century, “Scandrnavran travelers, tourists, and
those who had ruined their ﬁnancial and social conditions in the old country” emigrated

. . th .
to Amerrca during the latter parts of the 19 century, only to meet “the sufferings and

hol‘I‘ors” which awaited them, and as Nelson described, “the barbarity of the American

2\

s
t' In one of the most useful quantitative studies of the factors that caused Swedes to migrate during this
“:39 period, Sten Carlsson’s “Why did they Leave” identiﬁed overpopulation and a comparatively late

PStrialization of the Swedish economy as the major influences for mass immigration in the post-1880
er“0d. See Carlsson, “Why did they Leave?”

34

”2

n 23tion. 6 On the whole, religious persecution and military service did not compel many

“Forthmen” to leave their native lands, Nelson believed, and on the whole, Nelson
(1 escribed the religious laws of Scandinavian countries as “very liberal.”27 First and
foremost, Nelson concluded that Scandinavians emigrated in order to achieve “material

b etterment” and to pursue a “love for freedom and adventure.”28

In more of a romanticized discussion of the reasons for emigration, Florence
Edith Janson attributed the more adventurous, gendered notions to the later and younger
group of emigrants who traveled to America seeking employment: “There was the son or
daughter who was not understood by the parents. The daughter, who did not wish to
marry the young man that the parents had chosen for her, sought escape through
emigration. . .then there was the young man seeking adventure by a trip into an unknown
land, or the young woman seeking romance by following a lover who emigrated a few
years before.”29 An immigrant herself, Janson remarked that the sex ratio of young
scandinavians started to balance out after 187 0 as an effect of great opportunities for
female employment: “the young and comely peasant girl had discovered that domestic
service in America was both more proﬁtable and pleasanter. She came in numbers to
53911211 her brothers.”30 Using table 1.2, it appears that Janson’s position was somewhat
Valid, especially during the 18805; however the ratio of male to female Scandinavian
iImmigrants was always slightly tipped in favor of males. Reading between the lines of

ﬁrst-hand accounts, it becomes increasingly clear that a shiﬁ occurred during the 18705

\
26

( ON. Nelson, History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States
2M1I1neapolis: O.N. Nelson & Company, 1901): 42.
28 Ibid, 43.
29 Ibid, 45.
30 anson, 20.
Ibid, 14.

35

and 18805 in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway as the youth of those countries came of age
a nd realized the potential of greater opportunities in America’s industrial city spaces.
Once prospective Scandinavian emigrants made the conscious decision to leave
11 ome, many factors played a part in their decisions as to where they would settle.
America, as a capitalist and democratic country, held the greatest pull for Scandinavians
who envisioned easy employment and greatly improved wages upon arrival, in addition
to the satisfactory living conditions their friends and relatives in America boasted about
in letters home. Nevertheless, the desire to emigrate between the 18405 and 18905 was
immense; the following table reﬂects the numbers of vast numbers of Swedes alone who
leﬁ home for either the United States or other countries between 1851 and 1890

according to the Swedish Catalogue:

Table 1.3: Emigration from Sweden to the United States and Other Countries,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1851-1890
l Period United States Other Countries Total
~48SI-60 14,865 2,035 16,900
#86140 88,731 33,716 122,447
l\1871-80 101,169 49,100 150,269
\1881-90 324,285 52,116 376,401
Qt: Loss in 529,050 136,967 666,017
Po ulation

 

(Solute: World '5 Columbian Exposition 1893, Swedish Catalogue, Exhibits and

tatistics, 19-20)

These statistics reveal why the governments of the Northern states looked upon

ernigration as a substantial loss to their countries, despite the efforts of their former

cltiZens to inject currency back into the economy through funds sent home to their

 

families who remained. Of the 137,000 citizens who went to countries other than the
U nited States between 1851 and 1890, as many as 124,000 were recorded as simply
moving to neighboring countries of Sweden — Norway, Denmark, Finland, Russia, and
G crmany. Census researchers found that of each 100 individuals who migrated to
N orway, 47 later returned, while 55 of every hundred of those who leﬁ for Denmark and
‘7 5 of every hundred who settled in Germany also returned to Sweden. In the end, only
6% of Swedes who leﬁ for America in the early waves eventually returned home for
good.31
When we compare the number of Swedish immigrants during these early waves to
the total number of Scandinavian immigrants who left their homes for America alone, the
substantial economic and cultural losses that Norway, Denmark, and Sweden witnessed
between 1878 and the 1890s during the peak years of immigration becomes clear.
Between 1881 and 1890, according to the United States Census, a total of 88,132 Danes,
11,370 Norwegians, and 29,632 Swedes emigrated to the United States, totaling 50,368
scandinavians during the span of nine years alone (otherwise, 13% of the total immigrant
Population of America as a whole).32 Between 1891 and 1899, that number fell by about
half as an additional 49,744 Danes, 85,689 Norwegians, and 212,028 Swedes emigrated,
tOtaling 347,461 Scandinavians for those years (yet still comprised 10% of the total
imlnigrant population of America).33 As increasing numbers of Scandinavians left their

Conntries of origin for other lands, those who remained either scrutinized their

?\
32 Ibid.
1 zscandinavian immigration reached its peak in 1882 nearly 65,000 Swedes, 30,000 Norwegians, and

’000 Danes arrived in America; after that point, emigration from all of the Nonhem countries showed a

:‘teady decline. See Report of the Immigration Commission, table 9, pt. 2, 33-8; Nelson, History of the
3 Scandinavians, 254-55.
bid.

37

t hirty-sev en children and experienced harsh behavior from the crew: “The treatment we
had on board said vessel was anything but human. The [Swedish] captain and crew
showed themselves as rough and mean towards us (especially Danish) as they could and
the provisions did not by any means come up to the bargain.”34 Jorgenson and other
ernigrants like him would soon realize that the trip would seem to go on forever, in reality
taking approximately two-and-a-half months from the ports of Christiana, Copenhagen,
and Malnno to their ﬁnal destinations throughout America.

As more and more Scandinavians made the difﬁcult decisions to leave their home
countries and try their luck in a foreign land, dissenting neighbors made their opinions
clear as to their dissatisfaction with those who chose to leave. In one editorial published
in the Stockholm paper Dagens Nyheter in 1882, the editor expressed such negative
observations as he watched mostly working class youth ﬂood into the ports of
Gomenburg in preparation for their trips on the big ocean steamers which left the city
every Friday for New York. He wrote that about 2,000 to 3,000 people arrived each week
to the port town, dressed very nicely and acted in a becoming manner: “They have much

‘0 tElke care of in Gothenburg: rent a room, buy their tickets and also some dishes,
matlTess, trunk and other necessary things for their journey. . .at least three steamers leave
in the same manner every Friday, carrying emigrants to American, week after week,
month after month. Sweden has, through this emigration, lost 1/11 of her population
dul‘ing the last twenty years.”35 Despite the editor’s disapproving tone in regards to those

Who chose to leave, he also expressed an understanding as to why some had no choice

\

34
Part of an excerpt from a longer journal entitled, “Reminiscences and Journal of Hans Jorgenson: The
Soul‘ney to America,” 79- 82, Manuscript Series 7330, LDS Church Historical Department Archives.
The Emigration from Sweden and the Cause of it, ” Svenska T rzbunen June 7, 1882, 5. (Reprint of
article 1n Dagens Nyheter, translations mine)

39

5,- 1

0--

 

but to leave. As he conceded, “The Swedish working man emigrates because he cannot
s ee how it is possible to live on a yearly income ranging between 400 and 700 Swedish
boner. There is no possibility of earning any extra income, when he must work twelve
hours daily for this small amount. . .then comes the good news from friends in America,
that they can make a good living on ten hours work and that a common worker is not
prevented from obtaining the education necessary to participate in society life of the
community.”36 As the editor highlighted, there were many hundreds of reasons for
Scandinavians to emigrate during this time period. This movement, coupled with the
immense number of “free tickets” for their journey to America supplied to Scandinavians
by their families and friends already there made the choice almost too good to resist.
In addition to the practice of sending “free tickets,” immigrants already in
America had an incredible inﬂuence on their families and friends who remained in
scandinavia. One popular practice was the use of the press as a method of inﬂuence and
35 an early form of advertisement for the various shipping lines in Swedish and
Norwegian ports such as Gothenburg and Christiana (Oslo). In an 1886 issue of Svenska
Tribunen, a group of ﬁfty Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish emigrants signed a statement
9f their experiences sailing from Gothenburg to New York on Christmas of 1885. The
Statement they signed had a distinctive air of propaganda as they discussed cleanliness of
their ships, the delicious and traditional Scandinavian meals they were served “three

t1mes a day,” and the general convenience of their voyage:

3\

6
.Ibid. For Scandinavians, like most European immigrants during the late-l9lh century, traditional chain
m‘gration was typical and practiced largely through the 18705 and 18805. While the term “chain mi gration”
S rrlet with numerous interpretations (or may not always be used), most scholars of Scandinavian migration
grffe that family members, villagers, friends, and cultural centers in the sending and receiving areas were a
aJ Or inﬂuence on how migrants chose their destinations, how they got there, where they settled. and what
ployment they took upon arrival. For further discussion of these concepts, see Odd Lovoll, A Century of
"ban Life, 5-26; UlfBeijbom, Swedes in Chicago 39-53.

40

“We, the undersigned Swedish, Norwegian and Danish emigrants, who now have
made a happy journey from Gothenburg direct to New York on the big and
splendid steamer “Katie of Svenska Linjen,” will herewith, before we make our
landing, express our deep thankfulness to officers and stewards for all the
courtesy they have shown us and their good treatment during our journey.
Everything has been kept so nice and clean and the meals served three times a
day, have been sufﬁcient and good. We were served coffee, newly baked wheat
bread and butter for breakfast. Dinner consisted of white cabbage soup, freshly

boiled meat and potatoes, pudding or pea soup with pork and fruit soup, and we
were served tea fresh break and butter with herring and potatoes. . .the

convenience for third class passengers was far better than what other steamers
present. Some of us have made the trip over the Atlantic on stylish steamships,
but the steamer “Katie” was much more pleasant in every way than any other ship
we have found in traveling to and from the United States?”7
The conclusion of the signed statement also attests to the fact that, even in the late 18805,
many Scandinavian immigrants were already taking part in a practice that would become
bOth Popular and common in the years to come — the process of circular migration to and
from Scandinavia.38 Even during the ﬁrst period of mass migration for Scandinavians,
many Were already ﬁnancially capable of international travel to and from their homes in
America and Scandinavia. The most palpable publicity about America came in the
“microns letters from friends and relatives who had already made the voyage — a practice
Which began with the very ﬁrst emigrants and continued all through the waves of mass
emigration. Letters often contained prepaid tickets and money for the trip, and always
exaggerated opportunities while neglecting to mention accompanying hardships. As one

SWedish emigrant noted of the Swedish-American “who returned to brag about his well-

being in his adopted country,” those who would typically visit Sweden would outwardly

\
37

3a Svenska T ribunen, “Emigration Journey in 1885,” January 2, 1886, 6 (translations mine).

e practice of circular migration is one that will be discussed in chapter ﬁve, which concludes with a
er investigation into the coping mechanisms of Scandinavians who re-mi grated to escape the effects of
Great Depression in America, only to later return when the economic climate improved.

jar
g

41

demonstrate their acquired wealth while failing to mention the difﬁculties they

encountered in achieving success.39

The power of publicity was not only adopted by Scandinavian friends and
families in America but also by emigrant travel agencies and land companies that worked
ﬁom an American perspective. As the United States expanded its territory westward, land
5 peculators looked for the “right kind” of immigrant to tend to the land and transform it
into rich farming communities. This discussion of the “best class” of immigrants arose

out of early speculations by both American economists and expansionists alike who, as
O -N. Nelson observed, considered the excellent record of the Scandinavians in regard to
crimes and pauperism, the readiness with which they took to farming and to becoming
Americanized, and the commendable educational and religious training they received in
the I\Iorth.4O According to these observations, from very early on, expansionists
determined Scandinavians were the “best” immigrants to settle and populate the Western
states. As early as the 18605, states such as Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, the
Dakotas, Kansas, and Nebraska were active competitors for Scandinavian emigration
While some southern states like Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Virginia also

attempted to attract northern emigrants. Land speculators from these various states would

 

\
39
In a useful reﬂection on Scandinavian emigration from the 19th century to the 19305, Florence Edith

12.11180!) looked back on the earlier and most recent periods of immigration to Chicago, incorporating both
h‘Stoljr and personal reﬂection on various important cultural events within the community, as well as her
Own re-migration. See Florence Edith Janson, The Background of Swedish Immigration 1 840-1930
£§3h ica go: The University of Chicago Press, 1931): 16.

0pular reﬂections on migration, like Ole Rolvaag’s Giants in the Earth or Willa Cather’s 0 Pioneers
gﬁen insinuated that Scandinavian tolerance for cold weather was one of the sole reasons migrants were
df‘aWn to the upper Midwest and upper-mountain-west. Yet, evidence such as Nelson’s ideological
i lSc9urse, as well as many other observations on the various immigrant “classes” in the earlier waves of
mml gration to America point to the signiﬁcance of race in these distinctions. These essential discussions
govide the foundation of chapter two, which highlights Nordic ethnic identity as one that is intertwined
SCI-t1) this ideal and built up by Americans and Scandinavians alike. See O.N. Nelson, History of the

andinavians, 249; Willa Cather, 0 Pioneers! (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifﬂin Co., 1913); Ole

R01 Vaag, Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927).

42

advertise in the rural press of Sweden, commonly using the tactic of easy transportation
and travel for the potential emigrant. Tickets were available for purchase through
emigrant companies to any place in the United States from the numerous agents scattered
Over the rural districts and in the large cities of Sweden. 41 The most important
component of this strategy was the companies’ policy of reaching the potential emigrant
in his home — otherwise, many rural Scandinavians might not have even known of the
vast possibilities for emigration or the potential for advancement in America.
Along with the purchase of a fairly inexpensive ticket, the emigrants were met at
various American ports by agents of the companies and the states, often escorted by the
guide who spoke their native language, to their destination. At the height of competition
in the 18805, Scandinavian guides were even furnished for the transoceanic voyage, with
every precaution taken to protect the traveler from runners and others who lived by
defrauding. Such practices were typical of other immi grant groups as well who came to
America speciﬁcally for the purpose of work during the 18805 through the turn of the
Century. As Nelson observed of the inﬂux of letters, newspapers, and special information
PUblished by steamship and railway companies came home to the Nonhem regions,
emigration “became a fashion,” assuming enormous proportions.42 By 1891 and 1892,
according to Nelson, 50% of the Scandinavian emigrants arrived by prepaid passage
ti ckets secured by their relatives, while $6,500,000 in actual cash was sent from America
to “the North” by “well-to-do immigrants” to their relatives.43 The opportunities which

drove migration, coupled with the symbolic importance of prepaid passage tickets forced

 

4 1

42 Nelson, 15.

43 bid, 44.

St 11 arriving upon this ﬁgure, Nelson consulted A.E. Johnson and Company, an emigration ﬁrm that kept
atlstics of various figures regarding Scandinavian emigration. See Nelson, 56.

43

those Scandinavians who ordinarily would not consider leaving their homes to seriously
contemplate this option. Yet, the decision of where to migrate would prove to be one of
1:116 easiest decisions for a majority of potential migrants — the burgeoning city of Chicago

5 tood as a symbol of opportunity and cultural persistence for those who looked to become

Chicagoans themselves.

Chicago as more than a “Stopping Point” — The Choice of Chicago for Scandinavians

. th . . . . . .
During the late 19 century, Chrcago was coming mto 1t5 own as an industrial

metropolis on the rise and was exploding in both population and acreage. Between 1880
and 1890 alone, the city of Chicago witnessed a 118.6% increase in population, boosted
almost entirely by the peak migration waves of several immigrant groups including
Swedes, and to a lesser extent, Norwegians and Danes."’4 In one of the most astonishing
ﬁgures on Scandinavian immigration to America, the editors of Swedish-American Life in
Chicago found that, as a result of massive immigration, Chicago was one of the largest
Swedish cities in the world at the turn of the century, second only to Stockholm. By
1 900, some 144,000 persons born in Sweden or in the United States to Swedish parents
1iV€=d within the city, while between the entire time period of mass immigration (1850-
1 930) over 1.3 million Swedes immigrated to America during this time.45 Even earlier, in
the 1 8805, the Swedish-bom population in Chicago increased by roughly 233% to more
than 43,000 and by 1890, when Swedish mass immigration to the city had spanned the

44\
EJTlest Burgess, Census Data for the City of Chicago, 1920, Population growth for the city of Chicago,

358 90~ 1930, 5.
R l2'1'lilip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck, “Introduction,” in Swedish-American Life in Chicago, pg. 1; Anita
" 01 son, “Swedish Chicago: The Extension and Transformation of an Urban Immigrant Community,

1 8 80- 1 920, Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1990: 2.

44

time period of thirty years, the Swedes of Chicago represented 10% of the city’s
i mmigrant population, making Swedes the third largest ethnic group behind the Germans
and the Irish.46 As Anita Olson explained, by the 18805 and 18905, the presence of
Swedish immigrants had become quite common in the city of Chicago as they had now
been coming in waves for nearly forty years. Yet, while earlier groups of immi grants had
only encountered Chicago as part of a stop on their way to the rich farmlands of the

M idwest, an increasing number were stopping to realize the opportunities that Chicago

had to offer and made the city their home.47

Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Midwest was historically a primary

destination for immigrants from Northern and Western Europe, especially the vast
farming opportunities that drew earlier groups from Scandinavia into a similar way of
1i f e. In examining the number of Scandinavians born in the homeland, coupled with the
total population of each state and territory in the United States in 1880, Illinois and
Minnesota had the largest population of Swedes; Minnesota the largest number of
Norwegians, and Wisconsin the largest Danish population. Most notably, the combined
foreign-born Scandinavian population of all three states reﬂected the largest numbers of
Scandinavians in the United States.“’8 Into the 18905, the numbers of Scandinavians in the
three Midwestern states continued to grow as migrants were drawn to the places where
their friends and families settled, helping to further boost the immigrant population of

Midwest cities like Chicago and Minneapolis. The draw of immigrants to their loved ones

:42\
1 Anderson and Blanck, “Introduction,” Anita Olson, “The Community Created: Chicago Swedes 1880-
47920,” in Swedish-American Life in Chicago, 49.
48 See Olson, “Swedish Chicago” and Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago.
th According to the US. Census of 1880, 6,029 Danes, 16,970 Norwegians, and 42,415 Swedes resided in
e State of Illinois and 6,071 Danes, 62,521 Norwegians, and 39,176 Swedes lived in Minnesota in 1880
wlth the combined population of Scandinavians numbering 65,414 in Illinois and 107,768 in Minnesota).

45

was vital to their choice of settlement and often took them to city spaces they would not
normally be accustomed to. Many of these immigrants conceived of the initial spaces
they settled as temporary “squatting” enclaves, and avoided signiﬁcant emotional or

social attachment to the places they lived.

Historian Ulf Beijbom’s comprehensive work, Swedes in Chicago, even after

t h irty years, remains the deﬁnitive textbook on the ﬁrst two waves of immigration to
Chicago, and continues to provide the basis of the early experiences of Swedes in
Chicago. From its very beginnings as a city, Chicago, Beijbom explained, was the
essence of “the promised land” for Swedish emigrants eager to ﬁnd a new place to call
home in America. As early as 183 8, Chicago became the home of its ﬁrst Swedish
emigrant, Olof Gottfrid Lange — a man who sought adventure in the West after short stays
in Boston and New York. Lange’s experiences set the stage for the ﬁrst mass wave of
immigrants from Scandinavia; after a brief bout of defeat with the failure of his ﬁrst
business, Lange tried his hand at farming and assisted at a general store before settling
into a job instructing Norwegians in English at Fort Dearborn.49 Even in the earliest
Stages of immigration, many Scandinavian emigrants represented the “upper classes” of

emigrants in America, in economic backing, but also in their ability to acclimate easily
into society.

A few years later in the 1840s, a new section of Swedish society made their
pilgrimage to Chicago upon the call of self-proclaimed prophet Erik Janson who
envisioned a Swedish Lutheran colony in Bishop Hill, Illinois. These “Jansonites”

Ori ginated almost entirely from an extreme form of religious awakenings across Norrland
\

(the northern-most portion of Sweden), and were predominantly rural people who sought
4

9 .
Beljbom, Swedes in Chicago, 9, 39.

46

an outlet for their staunch religious beliefs. Both Lange and the Jansonites were
representative of the vast differences between groups in the earlier waves of immigration
ﬁ-om Sweden. For the most part, between the 1840s and the 18703, immigrants new to
Chicago were either men from the poorest sections of Swedish society, or men and a few
women from the middle— to upper-classes, and therefore able to easily blend into society.
During this time period, Chicago witnessed a surge of boosterism, where the very rich to
the very poor learned to co-exist under the prospect of city grth and learned to
ace limate to class differences through separate living spaces.
In Sweden during this time period there was a remarkable surplus of women,
whereas the groups who migrated to America were characterized by a heavy
preponderance of men. Ulf Beijbom documented this shortage of women between 1850
and 1860 when the ratio was 84 women to every 100 men — a balance found to be typical
of Chicago during its “pioneer” years as a young city.50 The presence of a dominantly
male immi grant class, coupled with the primitive surroundings of early Chicago helped to
position the ﬁrst Scandinavian neighborhoods as raucous and shoddy — far from the
Simple, orderly existence that Scandinavian culture afforded even in the most destitute of
times. Such early neighborhoods represented a nostalgic reﬂection upon the spaces of
home, but also a simpliﬁcation on the part of emigrants who envisioned future upward

mObility that would take them away from such temporary surroundings.

50
Ibid, 119.

47

The Experience of Chicago — Mapping and Envisioning City Spaces

For many Scandinavians from agrarian backgrounds, the difﬁcult experiences of
farm labor, coupled with the desire to attain and own their own plot of land pushed many
to reconsider their place within society upon arrival in the United States. In Swedes of
Chicago, Beijbom broke down the settlement pattern of Swedes in Chicago into three
di stinct periods; the squatter period, the formation of three main enclaves, and the era of
the suburb. However, his third settlement distinction should be reconsidered in light of

what we now conceive of in relation to the expansion of Chicago’s city boundaries

between 1880 and the turn of the century. During this time, the city was rapidly

expanding in size, and the areas that were once considered “suburbs” were quickly
encompassed within the city limits.
For the ﬁrst period Beijbom identiﬁed, the establishment of the “squatter”
neighborhood deemed “Swede town” was instrumental in getting many of these
immigrants who traveled apart from friends and family acclimated while also introducing
them to people of their own cultural background.51 This Swedish settlement was part of a
larger region populated by tenements and makeshift shelters that dotted the pre-industrial
North Side of the city, directly north of the mouth of the Chicago River — an area that was
Imainly viewed as an eyesore by native Chicagoans who shared their city with these early
i1Illnigrants from the North. During what was considered the “squatter period,” roughly
betvween the late 18403 to the 18603, the neighborhood was deﬁned by its slum conditions
and lives marred by poverty and subsequent epidemics of cholera which resulted from a

C01leination of shoddy living conditions, swampy surroundings in proximity to the

\
5 1
Beijbom, 49.

 

48

Chicago River, and overpopulation. One popular account of Chicago, published by

S wedish author Fredrika Bremer, painted the city in September of 1850 as “one of the
most miserable and ugly cities” that she had yet to see in America. Bremer soon found,
however, that she was somehow able to overlook the vile conditions of the swampy city
because of the kind welcome she received from the city’s Scandinavians: “Nevertheless,
I have, here in Chicago, become acquainted with some of the most agreeable and
delightful people that I have ever met with anywhere; good people, handsome and

intellectual; people to live with, people to talk with, people to like and to grow fond of.”52

Bremer’s description of a run-down neighborhood conversely populated with a helpful

community created a ﬁtting dichotomy in describing the earliest conditions of the

S c andinavian neighborhoods.

At the northern mouth of the Chicago River, several ethnic groups lived in close
proximity to each other within diverse temporary communities. According to the 1850
census, the “North side” was occupied by a little over 8,000 people with one-fourth born

in Germany, one-fourth from Ireland, a much smaller group (around 400) from Norway,
With the majority from Sweden.53 In a Chicago School sociological study, The Gold
Coast and the Slum, author Harvey Warren Zorbaugh described the Near North Side of
the l 8505 as an area of the city rife with contradictions, one of both “high light and
Shadow of vivid contrasts — contrasts not only between the old and the new, between the

native and the foreign, but between wealth and poverty, vice and respectability, the

 

sz\

N I:l‘edrika Bremer’s accounts of Chicago are part of her larger published travel diary, The Homes of the
ew World, published in 1853 in Stockholm and later in London and New York. Within the published
VOllln‘ie, Bremer recounts her travels through the United States, as well as throughout Europe; the volume
Uec_al'ne very popular during the 18505 amongst those eager the read about the expanding cities of the

53 1ﬂuted States. See Fredrika Bremer, The Homes of the New World (Stockholm; 1853): 605-6.
The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850. Washington, DC, 1853.

49

conventional and the bohemian, luxu and toil.”54 Des ite such difﬁcult conditions,
ry P

immigrants of all nationalities stayed within this area not only out of necessity, but also

because of its close proximity to various sawmills, tanneries, ﬂour mills, breweries, and

the McCormick Reaper Works. Most importantly, however, this area was marked by its
preservation of cultural and ethnic heritage -— each group denoted its “boundaries” by
1 an guage, small businesses, and community, all within an uncomfortable proximity to one
another. For instance, Swedish settlers were drawn to the area between Erie and Kinzie
Streets, with Market Street (now North Orleans) and St. Ansgarius Church at the center
of the district (see ﬁg. 1). The Irish occupied an area adjacent to the Swedish settlement
on the river (and by many accounts, moved into dwellings without permission from

Swedes) referred to as Kilgubbin, while a disreputable area known as “the Sands” where

. . . . th th
Norwegians settled connected the Swedrsh-Irrsh settlement 1n the 7 and 8 wards.

The Sands had gained a notorious reputation throughout the 18503 as a morally and
geographically marginal neighborhood on the outskirts of the city limits. The

neighborhood contained within the Sands was one in which a “civilized” Chicagoan

Would not been seen, but was perceived by the immigrant classes as predominantly a
Working class area rich with cultural expressions and institutions.55 Yet, much to the

dismay of native Chicagoans, these “institutions” were mostly saloons and gambling

houses, rampant with prostitutes and thieves.

\

5
4 Zorbaugh was astonished by the extent to which people of vastly different ethnic backgrounds were able
to c=o—exist within such close proximity to one another — a viewpoint which is now instrumental in our
thdel‘standing of Chicago as a rapidly expanding industrial center in the Midwest during the 18503 through
N e 1 8805. See Harvey Warren Zorbaugh, The Gold Coast and the Slum: A Sociological Stuay of Chicago 's
5 Sear North Side (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1929): 4-6.
F or further discussion, see Carl Smith, Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief, 65~7; Lois Wille,

Cofever Open, Clear, and Free: The Struggle for Chicago ’s Lakefront (Chicago: The University of
hleago Press, 1972, 1991).

50

By all accounts, these three groups were situated at the very bottom of Chicago
society. As Zorbaugh noted, the very ﬁrst Swedes and Norwegians were “exceedingly
poor” and in 1855 alone cost the city $6,000 in damages and jailing fees, while over one
hundred of them were buried as paupers at public expense.56 Another observer of the day
described the primitive conditions of the small frame houses and log cabin shanties on the

North Side had no choice but to call home: “The neighborhood was literally ﬁlled with
these shanties, put up without respect for compass or street lines by poor immigrants who
could afford no better shelter. In these rude huts, hundreds of Swedes lived and died
during the terrible years of cholera scourge in the early ﬁfties.”57 The unforeseen positive
circumstance of the cholera epidemic in Chicago was vital to the future of the
Scandinavian community in Chicago. The resulting loss brought about by the epidemic
forced Swedes, Norwegians, and other immigrant groups to demand better city
conditions, in effect creating a movement for urban improvement and subsequent
imagined ownership of their city spaces.

As a new town prior to the 18503, no major epidemic illness had come to grip
Chicago. It was not until May of 1849, when cholera was brought to the city by way of
the river and canal route from New Orleans that the new Chicagoans came to the harsh
realization of the urban epidemic. Scandinavian squatters on the Near North Side were
the most affected by the cholera outbreak — not only were their homes situated on the
banks of the river, but also their drinking water was supplied by tainted wells. Cholera,
one Of the most rapidly advancing of fatal epidemic diseases, was a direct effect of a city

56\
Z")I‘baugh, 30. A note on geography - by current maps, the area once occupied by Swedes, Norwegians,

Gerrrlans, Danes, and the Irish is today an area right off the loop, with the Merchandise Mart at the center

of the area. For a map of the area during the 18803, see ﬁgure 1.
iStory of the Swedes of Illinois, vol. 1, eds. E.W. Olson, A. Schon, and MJ. Engberg (Chicago, 1908):

310-

51

water and sewage system not equipped for the new population. Norwegians were the ﬁrst
to be hit by the cholera epidemic and Swedes would follow shortly thereafter. At the
time, one doctor addressed his surprise at the “class” of irrrrni grants affected by the
epidemic; when he published his ﬁndings in 1850, he identiﬁed 44 deaths among the 332
Norwegians on the North Side, going on to describe the Norwegians residing there as
“people in moderate circumstances, who lived as comfortably as the average
Arrrericans.”58 Just as Evans pointed out, the epidemic was one that would affect all
classes of Chicagoans, but would touch those in closest proximity to the river the
greatest; by 1851, one out of every 36 people in Chicago died of cholera, but amongst
Norwegians, the number peaked at one out of seven.59 The disease raged every year
following 1849 in the summer and fall, when river conditions were at their worst and the
subsequent streams of immigrants only tempered the spread of the epidemic. Many
Norwegians, for fear of losing their families or their own lives to the epidemic, made the
dangerous attempt to escape the conditions of the city, only to be placed in close
proximity on the trip to others who had contracted cholera. Therefore, while many feared
the outbreak and attempted to leave the city, others were afraid to move on from Chicago
for fear that they would not survive their trips. The early struggles that Norwegians,
SVvedes, and their neighbors endured during the cholera outbreak of 1849-1854 instilled
Wi thin the community a longing for better conditions, as well as a desire to improve upon
the conditions they were faced with in Chicago.
Despite their meager beginnings, Norwegians and Swedes alike were quickly able

to pull themselves out of their dire situations and improve their situations at an

r
A-T. Andreas, History of Chicago. From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, in 3 vol. (Chicago,

:98 84-86): 1:595.
I«OW/011, A Century of Urban Life, 41.

52

 

astonishing rate as early as the mid-18503. According to the following table, which

illustrates a comparative analysis of the positions Swedes attained over the thirty years

which spanned early immigration, Swedes and other Scandinavians were largely

employed in working class positions which offered chances for upward mobility over

time:

Table 1.4: Occupational Groups amongst Swedes in absolute ﬁgures, divided by sex,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1850-1880
Occupational 1850 1860 1870 1880
Group Men* Men Women Men Women Men Women

Industry and 37 190 4 1934 276 4,484 774
Handicrafts
Trade and 12 83 0 400 62 1,298 61
Communications
Public Service/ 1 11 1 56 5 136 21
Professional
Domestic Work 0 7 79 12 818 94 1,310
Total Number 50 291 84 2,402 1,155 6,012 2,174
Grand Total 375 3,557 8,186

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Source: Table derived and adjusted from Beijbom, table 39, 166.)

According to these ﬁgures, Swedes by and large took employment within Chicago,

regardless of sex, between the years 1850 and 1880, which would become a main

indicator of improving status within the city. Another indication of improvements in both

S0Cial and economic status was a series of police raids in the “squatter” areas of Swede

town, Kilkubben, and the Sands in the early 18503; as one observer noted, squatters in the

area were driven out by “a police force of 81 men along with a work force, and several

53

 

hundred huts west of Franklin Street were town down in one day.”60 While this area was
torn down mainly due to its unsightly appearance and crime, some historians have
speculated that Mayor John Wentworth blamed such “squatter” areas for the cholera
epidemic, which was still largely associated with poverty and unclean conditions in areas
close to the Chicago River.“ In his ofﬁcial decree, Mayor Wentworth however publicly
stated that the area was to be demolished to make way for the construction of a larger
industrial center. In reference to this event, Beijbom indicated that while it was not a
unique occurrence for such squatter areas to be raided and torn down during this time, the
eviction order for Swedes in particular was most likely carried out in a somewhat “nicer”
manner than that of the Irish Kilkubben or “the Sands.” Those who could afford to moved
out ﬁrst, whereas the poorest (such as the Irish) remained there so long that they had to be
evicted by police force. 62 As the event is remembered in history, some Swedish
commentators quietly reveled in the fact that their Norwegian neighbors had to be
forcibly removed from their squatter neighborhoods, pointing to a notable competition
building amongst the two immigrant groups.63 Nevertheless, upon the demolition of the
Near North squatter district, those who had owned property that was bought out by the

city had the opportunity to invest in lower-priced lots just north of the original

 

 

6o Anders Larsson, “Nagra minnen af en Svensk, som vistats 28 ér i Amerika [Some memories of a Swede,
Who spent 28 years in America]” Series of articles in Nya Verlden, Dec.22, l873-June 8, 1874.

g 17"“ Onslations mine).

. In Wille’s book, Forever Open, Clear, and Free, she describes the horriﬁc conditions of the Chicago

yet- and the areas known as the Sands, when the river was referred to as a “mass of putrid matter.” See
22‘" 1 1 l e, 40.

ZOrbaugh, The Gold Coast and the Slum, 30-1; Beijbom also makes reference to this event to point to an
upsVving in the industrialization of the Near North area, which offered additional opportunities for
emPl oyment to immigrant men and increased transportation to their now former living spaces. See
633te hour, 63.

. t i s telling to note the natural competition that remains even today amongst Norwegians and Swedes as
Illustrated within the historiography of both groups; when Swedish historian Ulf Beijbom recollected the
:Yent, be related the Norwegians of “the Sands” to the poor and ill-regarded Irish, whereas Norwegian

lstoI‘ian Odd Lovoll remembered the event in hindsight much differently as one that signaled a positive
ups'Vving for the immigrant group. See Beijbom, 63; Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life, 69.

54

neighborhood. This forced, yet beneﬁcial, movement coupled with a boom in industrial
opportunities, brought the “pioneer” Scandinavians into a great deal of opportunity in the
years to come.

Out of this movement came a “new” Swede town, which was essentially the same
group, transplanted three city blocks north to an area that bounded by Division, Clark,
and Chicago Avenue (see ﬁg. 2). Beijbom and others would note that by 1860, as Swedes
were becoming more and more economically secure, they migrated to three newly

developing ethnic enclaves such as Swede Town, and in smaller numbers to Chicago’s
South and West Sides. As one Swede would later reminisce, this was at the time when
“the lake came right up to the water tower at Chicago Avenue and Michigan. . .Chicago
was an entirely different city...There were no 20 to 40 story skyscrapers; there were no
Outer Drives, boulevards, radios or televisions. There were very few places for
enjoyment of leisure and cultural pursuits.”64 As Swedes and Norwegians continued to
make these various city spaces their own, they remained insular in their activities, rarely
Venturing outside of their neighborhood in both physical and cultural terms.

As Carl Hjalmar Lundquist recounted, early Swedes were particularly stubborn in
their efforts to “become” American: “Green immigrants” with the knowledge of only our
own language, the Swedish, to an important part of the American people with its
c0Srnopolitan cultural life and traditions, and the knowledge of the English language. . .In

those early days we were oﬁen called “the damned Swedes” by those who were equally

64\

In a speech delivered to the Independent Order of Svithiod commemorating the 75th anniversary of the
Order (given Dec. 3, 1955) Carl Hjalmar Lundquist recounted some of the “dominant impressions” he had
3f the city in the 18805 and 18908. Carl Hjalmar Lundquist Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript Series #30, Box

3 - F. M. Johnson Archives and Special Collections at North Park University Archives, Chicago, IL.

 

55

ignorant, if not more so.”65 Scandinavians, much like other nationalities in Chicago,
created their own social worlds out of already established city boundaries. For instance,
the Swedes lovingly called Chicago Avenue “Stora Bondegatan” or “Smalandsgatan”
after Swedish places to reﬂect their imagined ownership of the area, while Norwegians
similarly referred to North Avenue as “Karl Johan” and Danes referred to the same street
as “N6rrebro.”66 Despite a heavy cultural presence in their designated areas,
Scandinavians still constituted a secondary position within “Swede town,” as the center
of the German enclave shifted to the North Avenue area to share space with Swedes and
Norwegians. In 1868 Germans occupied 20% of ward 15 as opposed to only 5% Swedes
and 4% Norwegians of the 21,000 occupants.67 Unexpectedly, two major events would
Change both the shape of the immigrant population of the city as well as the position of
Scandinavians within society: the “second stage” of emigration sparked by the famines of
l 867 and 1868 and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The wave of immigration from Scandinavia in the late 18605 is often referred to
as the most desperate and most balanced to date in regards to the ratio of men to women.
During this time, entire families of immigrants and their children came to America out of
dire need rather than a desire to build upon their agrarian ways of life. Between 1860 and
1 8 7 l, the population of “Swede town” quadrupled and shortly before the ﬁre, for a brief

amount of time Swedes appeared as one of the most important national groups on the

 

F‘
6: I bi (1.

Odd Lovoll found that while Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes created their own enclaves, evidenced
moSt visibly in residential patterns despite the dominance of one or the other group in speciﬁc areas, there

“(as regularly a common Scandinavian bond during the 18605. See Lovoll, “A Scandinavian Melting Pot in

ghi cago,” in Swedish-American Life in Chicago, 63.
ee Report of the Board of Health I 86 7, 1868, and 1869 and a Sanitary History of Chicago 1833-18 70,

Chicago (1871).

56

North Side.68 It was also during this time that a number of Scandinavian fraternal groups
were established to give assistance to new immigrants from Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark. Many of the societies took a similar approach to the establishment of fraternal
lodges such as Nora, Svea, and Dania, using symbols to cultivate Viking origins and a
return to the splendor of the heroic Nordic middle ages. During the 18605, these societies
focused largely on an appeal to a common Scandinavian heritage — a notice in
Scandinaven from October of 1869 invited the community to meet for the purpose of
“discussing with one another how best to encourage joint action and harmony among the
Nordic sister peoples in this place.”69 Such actions to unify Scandinavians under one
cause would prove to be essential in the aftermath of quite possibly one of the greatest
tragedies to hit the immigrant districts, or the city.

In hindsight, the generally deplorable conditions of a city built mostly of wood
coupled with an extraordinarily dry summer of 1871 proved to be a deadly combination
for Chicago — one that would result in quite possibly the most deﬁning moment in the
City’s history. The ﬁre, which is said to have sparked at the barn of an Irish couple,
Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, broke out just west of the Chicago River in an area also

Shared by Scandinavians and Germans.70 By several accounts, after the devastation of the

 

 

68 The Tenth Census of the United States, I 880. XIX: Report on the Social Statistics in the Cities.
cxvashington, DC, 1887.

. A notice in Skandinaven in October 1869 reﬂected the need for Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes to unite
In the midst of a second flood of immigrants into the city. Yet, as Odd Lovoll cautiously pointed out,
SCalldinavianism was, at times, too good to be true and resulted in more of what he deemed a “love-hate”
relationship which was “doomed to fail.” Despite Lovoll’s position on the relationship between
NONegians and Swedes in particular, it was nevertheless a signiﬁcant movement during 1860s on behalf
of Scandinavian peoples to unite the three nation groups under one cause. See “A General Scandinavian
9312138 Meeting,” Skandinaven, October 6, 1869, 2; Lovoll, 91-2.
1) As legend has it, the ﬁre was ignited when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern she had failed to

ljug into her home aﬁer milking the cow. And while this story was most likely created by a journalist to

p Olnt blame at the shoddy conditions of such immigrant communities where the O’Leary’s lived, it
ne‘j’ertheless became an important piece of Chicago lore, as well as a useful analysis of ethnic tensions and
a“‘Illosity aimed at the Irish in Chicago. For further discussion see Carl Smith, Urban Disorder and the

57

Great Chicago Fire that spanned over two days in early October 1871, Scandinavians
were among hardest hit by the ﬁre; according to one observer, of the 50,000 destitute by
the ﬁre, over 10,000 were Scandinavian.71 Furthermore, in an area of not more than forty
acres, several bodies were later located amidst the smoldering debris, none of which were
recognizable but were assumed to be either Scandinavians or Germans according to the
location and missing loved ones that families reported.72 The signiﬁcant damage within
“Swede town” was mainly attributed to the location of the most intense portion of the
ﬁre, countered with the immense panic that ensued when those escaping the ﬁre poured
over the limited bridges which led away from the ﬁre. In turn, the majority of those who
had lived within the area lost their homes and much of their livelihood and cultural
institutions as ﬁve Swedish newspapers and a number of Swedish and Norwegian
churches were lost to the ﬁre. Carl Smith described the Great Chicago Fire as “the
defining instance of American urban disaster among many catastrophes of the time” —
One that would ignite Chicagoans to direct blame at immigrants for the incident and
Would encourage others to move past the event.73
In the wake of the ﬁre, Chicagoans were faced with the harsh reality of a
destroyed city, as well as a toppled sense of previous social hierarchies that had

maintained civic order within the city. Therefore, as a whole, all residents of Chicago

 

 

Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman (Chicago:
the University of Chicago Press, 1995): 19-20, 25; Karen Sawislak, Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the
Great Fire, 1871-1874 (University of Chicago Press, 1995): 44, 312 n.129; Maureen Flanagan, Seeing with
their Hearts: Chicago Women and the Vision of the Good City, 1871-1 933 (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2002): 13-30; Richard F. Bales, The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. 0 ’Leary ’s Cow
gfefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Publishers, 2005).

El‘nst W. Olson and Martin J. Engberg, History of the Swedes in Illinois, Part 1 (Chicago: Engberg-
HO] mberg Publishing Company, 1908): 301 -1 2; Newspaper article series on Swedish Week in Edgewater

3? 77w Edgewater News, Wednesday, September 4, 1935.
73 Edith Abbott, The T enements of Chicago, [908-1935 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936): 23.

Smith, 2.

58

struggled in certain ways to reestablish stable city structures post-ﬁre and to reconstruct
social relations. A resulting clamor for post-ﬁre aid resonated just days after the ﬁre, and
as historians such as Karen Sawislak and Maureen Flanagan have asserted, the need for
aid was strongest amongst the poorest classes whose shelters were destroyed and those
who had nowhere to turn for outside help.74 The majority of the ﬁre relief groups of 1871
were comprised of middle- to upper—class men and women focused on assisting the needy
to ﬁnd suitable shelter and aid. Yet, as Carl Smith pointed out, in reality, societies like the
Chicago Relief and Aid Society were more sympathetic and generous to the needs of
Chicagoans who were not completely destitute prior to the ﬁre, as well as those that could
even be described as “better off,” including skilled artisans and professionals.75 Under
these stipulations for receiving aid, it would only seem appropriate that Norwegians,
Danes, and Swedes who were known to hold skilled positions would have been the ones
to receive the beneﬁt of aid. Surprisingly, very few Scandinavians accepted or were
recipients of aid in the years immediately following the ﬁre (1871-1873), with only 3,624
Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes receiving aid out of an estimated 50,000 citywide.76
While Scandinavians, especially Swedes, were historically known for their stubbornness,
especially in regards to charity, the true reason for such a low number of aid recipients in

all likelihood was a strong network of Scandinavian benevolent societies which catered

 

7
4 I(aren Sawislak, who Carl Smith referred to as the “leading social historian of the ﬁre,” posited that all

Chi cagoans in some palpable way were touched by the effects of the Great Chicago Fire, and were

th eI‘efore inﬂuenced in the aftermath by those effects. Maureen Flanagan added that those calls for aid were
aFISWered to a signiﬁcant extent by women whose vision of post-ﬁre Chicago “promoted a concept of urban
1‘ re and good government rooted in social justice, social welfare, and responsiveness to the everyday needs
of a] l the city’s residents.” According to Flanagan, it was the ﬁre that would ultimately spark Progressive
acti 0115 in a city that would become deﬁned by the movement. See Sawislak, Smoldering City, 22-5;

:1 a1Tlagan, Seeing with their Hearts, 5.

76 Smith, 75.
he number listed was in reference to “Scandinavians,” which at the time, only referred to Swedes,

T
Nomegians, and Danes. See Report of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society of Disbursement of

$3" tributions for the Sufferers by the Chicago Fire, 1874, pg. 122; Tenth Census of the United States,

80

59

predominantly to their own. Even more telling of either Scandinavian stubbornness or
success in the aftermath of the ﬁre is their difference in approach to the proposed ban on
new wooden construction than that taken by German immigrants. Germans, who lived
side by side with Scandinavians on the North Side, were vocal in the aﬁermath of the ﬁre
about their opposition to ﬁre—proof regulations, which required Chicagoans to rebuild
their homes out of brick and concrete, which was far more expensive than wooden
construction. And while Germans vocalized their concern over the ban as a threat to their
dreams of home ownership, Scandinavians acted collectively to either rebuild their homes
out of the required materials in the same neighborhood or simply to move outside the city
limits to build homes out of what they could afford.77 While these different reactions
require further investigation, one point becomes clear: Scandinavians were beginning to
garner the notice of their native Chicago neighbors as an immigrant group that was
willing to comply with the regulations imposed upon them by the city, and therefore
gained favorable recognition.

In the aftermath of the ﬁre, it became increasingly clear to early Progressive
reformers that the problems of a population explosion and overcrowding within
Chicago’s city limits were directly attributed to the lures of industry - an evil that was
necessary, but one that would require certain immigrant groups to expand into other areas
of the city for safety to be maintained. According to Richard Sennett, the response of a

select group of middle-class Chicago citizens to the ﬁre was to use the nuclear family and

 

77 Karen Sawislak discusses in great detail the opposition of German immigrants to the city’s ban on

wooden residential structures, clearly pointing out the degree to which Germans vocalized their dismay
over the ban. In stark comparison, both Odd Lovoll and Ulf Beijbom note the extent to which Swedes and
Norwegians collaborated to help out the community. Their narratives offer no explanation however as to
the difference in reactions between Scandinavians and Germans to the proposed ban. Instead, the authors
describe the post-ﬁre decision to stay in the neighborhood or venture up North as one decided upon by two
mag-j or factors: proximity to the church and their capacities to rebuild. See Sawislak, Smoldering City;
Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago, 72-9; Odd Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life, 105-138.

60

household as a refuge from the “unsettling forces of city life.” Sennett used a close
analysis of the area known as Union Park to observe a family culture steeped in fear,
which sacriﬁced sociability for privacy.78 Instead of retreating into what was left of their
communities in the aftermath of the ﬁre like Sennett’s citizens, Swedes and Norwegians
alike came together to contribute to the effort of rebuilding Chicago. For this action,
Scandinavian men in particular would receive recognition from native Chicagoans for
their symbolic importance in rebuilding the industrial metropolis of post-ﬁre Chicago. As
one newspaper recounted of their effort, the “men who had gone through the Chicago
Fire in 1871 became the builders of the city, aided in great part by Swedish builders who
in 1890 and 1891 erected the ﬁrst skyscrapers in Chicago, the 13-story Monon Building
and the l6-story Manhattan Building, both on South Dearbom Street.”79 Despite the
devastation of the ﬁre, the catastrophe did not change the location of “Swede Town”;
instead several “older” Scandinavians rebuilt their homes in higher-priced lots and started
to build brick buildings to house their restaurants, clubs, and various businesses grounded
in Scandinavian culture. Furthermore, several ﬁrst-generation Scandinavians would later
recall this neighborhood and time period in nostalgic terms as the last great Nordic
settlement prior to the 18805 separation into three separate enclaves. “Those were the
days when you could get Corned Beef and Cabbage free (as free lunch, with a 5 cent
glass of beer),” Carl Hjalmar Lundquist reminisced, “and in those days there was a

Swedish restaurant on Oak Street, where you could eat all you wanted for 15 cents, and

 

78 Richard Sennett, Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes of Industrial Chicago, 18 72-1890
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), 32-3.

79 Newspaper article series on Swedish Week in Edgewater in The Edgewater News, Wednesday,
September 4, 1935. The Monon Building was widely known by architects for its unusual decorative cornice
and its lower three stories, which were clad in rusticated stone. The ornate building was demolished in 1947
to make way for the Congress Parkway.

61

every Thursday you could get as many plates of pea-soup and “plattar” or pancakes as
your stomach could stand. . .we had no capitalists among our countrymen in those
days.”80 In his social analysis of the saloon in Chicago and Boston culture, Perry Duis
found that such ethnocentric establishments like those Lundquist discussed in “Swede
Town” were signs that the neighborhood had turned inward. As Duis explained, “the ties
of language or customs were much stronger than the centripetal forces of ethnic
intermixing and dispersal,” as members of the “old immigration” found the saloon and
other public establishments to be a comfortable complement to their ethnicity.81 For these
Scandinavians, life even after the devastation of the ﬁre and famine in the homeland was
made a little bit easier through the public cooperation of Nordic people in their adopted
home city.

Within the insulated community of “Swede town,” the cyclical movement of new
immigrants into the neighborhood and those who had come in previous waves
represented a smooth transition to the point of the 1880s. Between 1871 and 1884, the
population and size of the North Division (wards 16 through 18) increased signiﬁcantly.
In 1871, the population was 77,758 and made up an area of 2,533 acres, but by 1884,
when the next statistics on the national composition of the population by wards were
published, the population had increased to 128,490. While this movement was partially
due to the German population, which had by this time greatly increased, there continued
to be a fair proportion of Irish and Swedish imrni grants. Both German and Scandinavian

newcomers, who had begun to migrate to the city prior to the ﬁre, would become a

 

80 Speech delivered by Carl Hjalmar Lundquist to the Independent Order of Svithiod on December 3, 1955,
Carl Hjalmar Lundquist Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript Series #30, Box #4, Folder #26. F. M. Johnson
Archives and Special Collections at North Park University, Chicago, IL.

8' Perry Duis, The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1920(Urbana and Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1983), 146.

62

considerable factor in the life of the Near North Side.82 Aside from the occasional
squabbles boosted by the natural competition between different groups, a dynamic built
on family and cooperation was obvious within this community. In her memoirs, Pauline
Nelson Hegbom reﬂected on her time in the neighborhood as one of the original ﬁrst-
generation Swedish-Americans raised in a Swedish-bom family, giving a poignant
illustration of a community dedicated to helping one another. Her parents emigrated to
the United States separately; her father planned to attain work in Geneva, IL and her
mother came over as a potential domestic servant in Danville, IL, but their paths crossed
when they ultimately decided that there was far more opportunity for them in Chicago.
Both parents had jovial and endearing personalities and their small brick home came to
be known within the neighborhood between Ohio and Grand as a haven of entertainment
for young families and single immigrants.83 As Pauline recounted of her parents’
Thursday and Sunday evening parties:
”The young ladies worked for the rich people as cooks or second work for little or
nothing but young and happy not a care in the world. The young men came also to
meet the happy young girls. On the large porch we had, the young folks would
dance and sing and enjoy themselves. My father would play the violin and they
dance the old folk dances. And alas it was time to go home and the men would
escort the ladies to their different places. This went on every week.”84
While Pauline’s recollections of “young and happy” immigrants reﬂects a child’s

viewpoint in an new city, her descriptions of the interactions she saw within her own

home serve as invaluable commentary on the context of the time. Additionally, Pauline

 

82 Zorbaugh, 25.

83 The memoirs of Pauline Hegbom Nelson, entry dated January 13, 1882 (it appeared that she had
transcribed some of her mother’s earlier memoirs and later melded her mother’s into her own entries),
Manuscript Collection #39, Hegbom-Nelson Family Collection, 1870-1984, Box #2, North Park University
Archives, Chicago, IL.
8“ Ibid.

63

was quick to explain that “Swede town” was a neighborhood not just comprised of
Swedes, but also Irish, German, and Norwegian immigrants — all of whom coexisted
within the same city space as a diverse blend of cultures. Yet, even through the eyes of
child, it was clear that careful divisions were present, most likely through conversations
her parents had in front of her, especially in regards to the Irish families who shared the
neighborhood. As Pauline recalled, relations between Irish and Scandinavians were
“congenial,” but she was quick to describe a “nice” Irish family by the name of O’Leary
who lived in the middle of the block whose son was “not too good. . .the patrol wagon
was sure to be there once a week.”85 Similar to Lundquist’s later recollections, Nelson’s
were also ﬁlled with nostalgia for the old neighborhood, as she described the assorted
houses, grocery stores, delicatessens, milk depot, and a saloon, “where people rushed the
can or pail for a pint of beer at 5 cents.”86
Most signiﬁcantly, Nelson reﬂected on a Swedish-American way of life in
Chicago that was still very much rooted in homeland traditions, especially in her
reminiscence of the very ﬁrst Christmas she could remember: “Christmas was quite a
celebration at our home as all the young folks gathered at our house and had their
traditional Christmas with all the Swedish cooking. My mother used to buy a whole lamb,
a whole pig, and a large ham, and a large turkey that was a Christmas giﬁ from the
butcher. Those days all the storekeepers gave a gift. We would have a big pot of rice and

”87

a lot of good homemade bread, also head cheese and beets. For an immigrant family of

any origin in Chicago during the 18805, the holiday feast that Nelson described would

seem extravagant, even by today’s standards. Yet, Nelson was quick to point out that her

85 Ibid.
8“ Ibid.
8’ Ibid.

64

mother intended the feast for their extensive network of friends — their family away from
home. The Hegboms also faced their fair share of struggles during this time, much like
any other immigrant group, yet they held resources that would greatly assist in their
tough time, most notably their own home. Nelson recalled that her family, as well as
many people within the neighborhood took in boarders when times were tough, mostly
single men who had come over in the later period of famine immigration.88 This common
tactic would become a symbol of success and ingenuity in the years to come as
Scandinavians came to realize the ultimate goal of building a home and taking ownership
of spaces they could call their own.

Prior to the turn of the century, new Scandinavian immi grants (with the exception
of live-in domestics) initially gravitated towards “Swede town” as their ﬁrst area of
residence, eventually moving onward to the more desired enclave of Lakeview after
earning money. Due to this cycle, the former center of Scandinavian life would
eventually become known as the poorest section of Scandinavian Chicago, associated
almost entirely with the newest immigrants. It was because of this gravitation that Ulf
Beijbom concluded his study in the year 1880, when he argued that the Swedish
community effectively assimilated into American society, and thereby eroded after the
point of 1880 due to its movement away from the older “Swede town” into a tri-clustered
system of ethnic enclaves on the West, South, and predominantly North Sides of

Chicago. Since publication of his book, several document collections have since become

 

88 Ibid. See also Margaret Garb’s narrative, City of American Dreams, which recounts similar tactics as a
way for immigrant families to supplement their income to help pay the important cost of homeownership of
future homes as well as the current ones they needed to pay off. Importantly, Garb uses this tactic to show
the ways that Chicago’s neighborhoods over time became sharply divided from one another based on
Property values. See Margaret Garb, City of American Dreams: A History of Home Ownership and Housing
Reform in Chicago, 1871-1919 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).

65

available and revealed Scandinavian ethnic identiﬁcation continued to ﬂourish in
Chicago from the 18805 well into the 1930s, even as Swedes and their Scandinavian
counterparts moved away from their original enclaves.89 In the 1880s and into the 18905,
Scandinavians began this cycle of migration into new “suburban” regions such as
Lakeview, Englewood, and Hyde Park as they made more money and had greater
opportunities presented to them. As Scandinavians abandoned their older enclaves for
newer neighborhoods, the structure of what they considered a neighborhood became
modernized to match the evolving city — soon areas that were once farmland became
bustling residential and commercial centers. And when they moved, their community
afﬁliations came with them — by the late 18805, there were over one hundred fraternal
lodges, benevolent societies, singing societies, theatres, and similar organizations spread
throughout the three major enclaves, in addition to eight Swedish-language daily or
weekly newspapers.9O First and foremost, new settlers moved to these areas to build new
homes and improve their living conditions from the grime of the downtown tenement
regions, while effectively taking ownership of their city spaces.

One example of this movement came from Swedes who occupied Armour Square
in the 18808; for years they had complained about their health as they watched factories
spring up in the area and pollute the air and water supply, along with the already

disastrous stockyard district. Many of these Scandinavians had experienced the cholera

 

89 Anita Olson challenged Beijbom’s argument in her dissertation, “Swedish Chicago,” taking aim at his

theoretical framework that emphasized the territorial aspect of community that led him to project that
assimilation and movement away from the original enclave went hand and hand, pointing to cultural
erosion. Olson’s challenge, however, should be further investigated due to the fact that she ceases her own
study with 1920, thereby omitting the complex argument over the immigration quotas of 1924, as well as
the creation of a middle- to upper-class society of Scandinavians in Chicago from consideration, which this
Sgt—My does. See Anita Olson, “Swedish Chicago.”

Zorbaugh, 30.

66

epidemic and the rise in typhoid fever deaths throughout the second half of the 19th

century, which was linked to the pollution of the river. Aspects of Scandinavian culture,
rooted in cleanliness and physical health, contributed to this desire for clean living in the
early Chicago settlement. In 1887, civil engineers put a plan into place to reverse the ﬂow
of the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan, rather than directly into it, which was
met by a warm reception by Scandinavians who pushed for such a plan for years. By the
turn of the century when the river was reversed, many Scandinavians had already attained
the means to move away from the stench of the River and downtown area.”
Nevertheless, their campaign would contribute to later connections between groups of
native-born Chicagoans, who would come to praise Scandinavians for their healthy ways
of life and attention to the physical structure of the city they shared.

By the 18803, Scandinavians were once again on the move, with the majority
(approximately three-quarters of the city’s total population) aiming towards the Northem-
most part of the city and building upon the smaller satellite enclaves on the West and
South Sides. From this point forward, Lakeview Township, or the neighborhood which
today is simply referred to as “Lakeview,” would increasingly become linked to
Scandinavian culture and people (see ﬁg. 3). As one author would later note, Lakeview

Township “had begun to share with the city as a whole a quite cosmopolitan character,”

 

9’ The purposeful movement of Scandinavians away from the polluted areas banked by the Chicago River
contributes to a much larger discourse on the Chicago River, health issues, and the problems of urban
sprawl. Harold Platt’s Shock Cities uses a comparative analysis of Chicago and Manchester to show the
effects of unbridled urban development on similar terrain, climate, and water sources, putting the blame for
pollution on the industries, not the people. Quite possibly the ﬁrst historian to draw contemporary attention
to the detail of public regard for the city and the environment in Chicago was Lois Wille, who in Forever
Open Clear and Free, recounted the ultimate struggle to maintain Chicago’s Lake Shore as a natural habitat
for public enjoyment. See Harold Platt, Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of
Manchester and Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005); Lois Wille, Forever Open Free
and Clear.

67

as businesses and social clubs of various kinds exploded within the area, catering not
only to Scandinavian clientele, but transforming into a sophisticated leisure district within
the city.92 In addition to various churches, Scandinavians founded a number of social and
fraternal organizations during the 18808, of which the most powerful was the Good
Templar Society. Under the auspices of the society, lodges organized libraries and even a
popular temperance café, the Café ldrott, in Lakeview. The Cafe’ opened on Belmont
Avenue as a tool of outreach of the International Order of Good Templars — the Cafe,
which did not offer alcohol, did offer companionship and, most importantly, a center for
intellectual stimulation. The Café would eventually become the center for all intellectual
and cultured Swedes within the city; word of the Cafe would reach the homeland through
letters and soon, immigrants who came to Chicago would stay in nearby rooming houses
and use the Cafe Idrott as their mailing address until they found permanent residences.93
During the time of the peak waves of immigration, Swedes established eleven fraternal
lodges in Lakeview and built more than 72 churches and over 130 secular clubs
throughout the city. The variety of churches established — Augustana Lutheran, Mission
Covenant, Free Church, and the Swedish branches of the Methodist and Baptist churches,
among others, reﬂected the particular denominational interest of the Swedish people.94
Secular societies tended to develop in neighborhoods after the establishment of the

mainline Swedish churches at a point when the Swedish population was large enough to

 

92 In The Gold Coast and the Slum, Zorbaugh noted this era for Scandinavians as a signiﬁcant turning point,
mostly in regards to their position within the city, both physically and in American conception. By his
account, by the 18805, Scandinavians on the North Side of the city had found a way to cast off the “slum”
conditions of the 18508 and 18608 through hard work, but also through their insistence upon claiming their
own city spaces. See Zorbaugh, 25, 30.

93 Kerstin B. Lane and Carl lsaacson, Andersonville: A Swedish-America Landmark Neighborhood, booklet
published by the Swedish American Museum Center, 2003, pg. 15.

' 4 Olson, 53.

68

sustain a variety of organizational interests. The result was the creation of diverse
Swedish enclaves in widespread areas of Chicago.

Two forces worked to help the neighborhood to grow during the 18808 — the
inﬂux of the “third wave” of immigrants from the homeland, drawn almost exclusively
by the possibilities Chicago’s burgeoning industries offered; and the draw of a
speciﬁcally “Scandinavian” area of the city, where immigrants from the North were the
dominant group instead of sharing their space with other groups as they had in the past.
On the whole, Scandinavians continued to migrate within the city as a larger group;
according to The School Census of the City of Chicago, in 1884 there were 407 Danes,
317 Norwegians, and 1,077 Swedes in Ward 16; 672 Danes, 953 Norwegians, and 10,742
Swedes in Ward 17; and 800 Danes, 242 Norwegians, and 1,237 Swedes in Ward 18.95
F urtherrnore, once Scandinavians moved into the area, they built up their homes to match
their needs and stayed put. As The Chicago Land Use Survey estimated, 43% of all
homes in Lakeview that remained standing in 1940 when the survey was conducted were
built between 1880 and 1894 — the same time period of mass movement into the
Lakeview area by Scandinavians.96 Lakeview would continue to grow signiﬁcantly in
population and development, resulting in further annexation in 1889 of “Andersonville,”
a rural suburb of the city of Chicago, in preparation for the World’s Columbian
Exposition. The annexed portion of Lakeview was part of a larger effort to “modernize”
the city in the later part of the 18805, combined with the expansion of transportation
means on the North and South sides. The elevated train ﬁrst opened in Chicago on the

South Side in 1892 as a means of transport for people from all the areas of the city to the

 

95 School Census of the City of Chicago, 1884; Zorbaugh, 25.
96 The Chicago Land Use Survey, 1940.

69

World’s Columbian Exposition, and would soon become vital for expanding the ways
that working Chicagoans traveled to their places of employment, including Scandinavians
who traveled to the very outskirts of town for their jobs in many cases.97 For many, the
opportunity presented by the elevated train to live in a much different place than one
worked was immeasurable — especially for Scandinavians who hoped to build a separate
community that catered to their cultural needs.

By the 18908, the Scandinavian foreign-born population of Chicago had grown to
almost 72,000 people (43,032 Swedes, 21,835 Norwegians, and 7,087 Danes) or 6% of
Chicago’s entire population, separated by distance, but connected through ethnic
afﬁliations and ties to the homeland. For Chicago’s Scandinavians, the city held a
signiﬁcance that was unlike the other growing cities of the Midwest, such as Minneapolis
and St. Paul, where Scandinavians also gravitated to},8 Chicago, for the earliest settlers,
was considered to be a dirty and barren environment —- not the kind of place where a
family would want to lay down its roots instead of moving north or westward towards the
ﬁelds and farms. Yet, over the years, as a growing number of Scandinavians made the
pact to join together and build up their communities in the image of their homeland
villages and towns, they had the capacity to build up Chicago in the ways they seemed

most ﬁt to their standards. Into the 18905, the largest wave of Scandinavian immigrants

 

97 Land Use Survey, “From Intramural to L” (1923), Document #9, Chicago History Museum pamphlet
collection.

98 It is signiﬁcant to note that these numbers did not include those born in the United States, where one or
both parents were born in the speciﬁed country. Furthermore, by the 18905, Minneapolis and St. Paul
claimed a signiﬁcant number of Scandinavians (33,364 in Minneapolis and 16,753 in St. Paul), yet the two
cities were still conceived of by many Scandinavians as lacking in industrial opportunities in comparison to
Chicago. See Ernest Burgess, Census Data for the City of Chicago, 1920, Table 8: Number and Proportion
of Foreign Born in Chicago, distributed according to country of birth, by decades, 1920-1870, pg. 21; ON.
Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, table viii, pg. 260; Swedes in the Twin Cities: Immigrant Life and
Minnesota '3 Urban Frontier, eds. Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck (Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical
Society Press, 2001).

70

arrived in Chicago at the same time the city witnessed a level of excitement
unprecedented in its short history. With the arrival of the World’s Columbian Exposition
of 1893, Scandinavians from all three communities would collectively decide that there
was no better time but the present to display their achievements and traditions in the city
and in the homeland, much to the delight of fairgoers. The subsequent displays,
festivities, and general excitement of the Scandinavian community would in turn create a
set of images and perceptions for the world to see, and in later years, would set the stage
for a larger discourse on European immigrants at large.99

While traveling from their countries of origin to Chicago, Scandinavians, over a
very short period of time, were able to assert their independence as an immigrant group
and move into city spaces they would eventually reﬂect upon with great pride. Within

these communities and within the public sphere, a signiﬁcant negotiation would take

place between the 18808 and the early 20th century that would deﬁne who these curious

“Nordics” were along lines of physical and behavior traits. As Carl Lundquist pointed
out, the notion of “Scandinavian stock” and the meanings attached to such an identity

were transferred from the Scandinavian countries and intte ected into American public

. th th . . .
discourse of the late 19 and early 20 centuries through various means. These ideas,

which were still in their infancy prior to the 18808 would transform into a much livelier
discourse as immigration from Scandinavia increased, but also a “new” immi grant class
made its mark on Chicago society. A larger discussion of the meanings behind the

perceived outward appearance attached to “Nordic” identity, coupled with the idealized

 

99 The displays and exhibitions shown at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 will be discussed in
greater detail in the next chapter, which begins with this crucial outward portrayal of Scandinavian culture
as it was intended to be interpreted by Americans who visited the fair.

71

ways that “Nordics” navigated the public sphere would be negotiated by Americans and

Scandinavians alike in the years to come.

72

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(Fig. 1: Chicago City Map of the ﬁrst Scandinavian Settlement, 1889. Courtesy of the
Maps Library, Michigan State University Main Library)

73

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Michigan State University Main Library)

74

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

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(Fig. 3: Chicago City Map of Lakeview (Source: Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
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75

Chapter Two

Vikings and Dumb Blondes: The Creation and Negotiation of a Gendered Nordic
Identity in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago

As a city built entirely by migrants, Chicago’s diverse population was the point of
great observatory discourse amongst its visitors and inhabitants from its very origins. In
one early travel account of 18508 Chicago, writer John Lewis Peyton recorded his
interactions with “passing parties” of European migrants who were “wild, rough, almost
savage looking men from North Germany, Denmark, and Sweden — their faces covered
with grizzly beards, and their teeth clenched upon a pipe stem.” Coupled with these wild

men, Peyton noted, were “stout, well-formed, able-bodied wives and healthy children.”1

th . . .
Over the course of the 19 century, Chicago rose from its swampy foundation to become

the epitome of a modern Midwest metropolis and with the changing city, the
interpretations of the city’s inhabitants shifted as well. Immigrants like those Peyton
encountered who in earlier years appeared backwards and slovenly softened their
outward physicality to American observers and became respectable citizens of the city.
By 1893, just months before the growing city celebrated the World’s Columbian
Exposition, another commentator observed that the city was full of “strange faces” of a
type he was not used to in the East: “a dish-faced, soft-eyed, light-haired

people. . .Scandinavians; but they are malleable as lead, and quickly and easily follow and

 

' John Lewis Peyton’s observations as recorded in his book, Over the A lleghenies and across the Prairies.
Personal Recollections of the F or West One and Twenty Years Ago (1848) in As Others See Chicago:
Impressions of Visitors, 1673-1933, ed. Bessie Louise Pierce (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1933):
100-01.

76

adopt every Americanism.”2

Ralph’s attention to the “malleable” nature of Scandinavians
was expressed by many Chicagoans that came to prefer Scandinavians over other
immigrant groups within the city. At this time, an assumption about the physical
appearance of Scandinavians as blond-haired, blue-eyed was one that, while somewhat
common amongst Scandinavian immi grants, became a public stereotype created by
native Chicagoans to distinguish Scandinavians from other groups. By 1893, Chicagoans
and Scandinavians were in the process of creating a set of ethnic, cultural, and gendered
identities centered upon new national trends and ideals of beauty, efﬁciency, and
integrity. This public discourse would come to associate people of Nordic descent with
fair physical features — a gendered physicality that would come to be highly regarded as
beautiful and strong.

In considering these observations, as well as the creation of an ethnic identity
based largely on physicality, several historiographical questions arise: How did the
prototype of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed individual become synonymous with
Scandinavian descent, but also with beauty and attractiveness? Why today, when we are
asked to consider a person of Nordic origin do we initially create a vision of a person
with such fair physical features, as well as an additional set of virtues including a
generally calm demeanor, a strong work ethic, and a gentle spirit? And probably most
importantly, why was blonde considered the standard for beauty and why were fair
features prized as beautiful over others? These questions are integral in distinguishing a
discourse that has now become second-nature to many Americans over time. American

media and social commentators at the peak of migration from the Northern and Western

 

2 Julian Ralph, author and journalist, wrote a commentary on Chicago of 1893 which was reprinted in As
Others See Chicago, 300-01.

77

European countries to America in the 18808 discussed ethnic attributes and, following
these commentaries, many Chicagoans began to form very speciﬁc conceptions of the
“typical” Scandinavian. These images focused on both the physical and behavioral ideals
of Nordic identity, equating Scandinavian women with fair beauty and men with a virile,
yet gentle brand of masculine traits. From that point forward, as Scandinavians ﬂooded
into cities like Chicago, despite their strong ethnic ties to native culture and their
countries of origin, they were immediately viewed as more desirable than other groups
based on their physicality. In a matter of a few years, the burgeoning urban elite of the
city would come to view Scandinavians as trustworthy and poised, thereby placing
advertisements in papers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily News which
would note their preference for Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish women and men as
workers in their palatial homes. Waves of new Scandinavian immigrants prompted an
internal conversation and backlash in Scandinavian newspapers against their own, who
community members viewed as frivolous and an embarrassment to the “true” nature of
Nordic group identity. At the point when public discourse regarding a “true” Nordic
identity reached its apex, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 would play a vital
role in the transmission of ideals that represented ethnic identity. Sweden’s and Norway’s
pavilions at the Exposition represented their own as well-educated, poised, and culturally
proud — even in the wake of nativist calls for acculturation into American society for all

who wished to be “American.”3 These combined social practices would create a vital

 

3 A number of articles dedicated to Scandinavian representation at the World’s Columbian Exposition of
1893 exist, including those by historians Odd Lovoll and Dag Blanck. Their articles, which focus primarily
on the advent of urban Scandinavianism as expressed in the displayed heroic images of Leif Ericson and
the Vikings, fail however to recognize the signiﬁcance of such displays in regards to gendered identities.
See Odd S. Lovoll, “Swedes, Norwegians, and the Columbian Exposition of 1893,” in Swedes in America:
New Perspectives, ed. Ulf Beijbom (vaxjo, Sweden: The Swedish Emigrant Institute Series, 1993): 185-
194; Dag Blanck, “Swedish Americans and the 1893 Columbian Exposition,” in Swedish-American Life in

78

public discourse focused on representations of how Americans perceived Scandinavians.
Over time, the prototype of “Nordic” physicality became increasingly gendered as it was
further associated by Americans with a set of social and behavioral traits and adopted by
Scandinavians as a method of “getting ahead” in their jobs and their private lives.
Therefore, as this chapter argues, the concept of Nordic ethnic identity in Chicago was
one that was negotiated by Americans and Scandinavians — Americans who viewed
Scandinavians as blonde-haired, blue-eyed “preferred” immigrants, and Scandinavians
who supported this beneﬁcial identiﬁcation of their ethnic group. The cultural identities
this process would create were shaped at the turn of the century by the media through a
growing consumer culture in Chicago that supported the image of blonde-haired, blue-
eyed women and men as strikingly attractive. This was a dynamic process, equally
grounded and undertaken by immigrants and citizens alike, where physicality and
gendered notions of ethnicity were key components.

In the years following the publication of “The Invention of Ethnicity: A
Perspective from the U.S.A.,” authored by Kathleen Neils Conzen, David Gerber, Ewa
Morawska, George Pozzetta, and Rudolph Vecoli, a scholarly discourse on the notion of
ethnicity as a malleable concept gained strength and continues to be renegotiated. As a
departure from anthropological debates, like that of the writings of Clifford Geertz, which
pointed to ethnicity as primordial and inherent to the group’s survival and basic identity,
or sociological ones that addressed the contemporary discourse on “symbolic ethnicity,”

the authors of “The Invention of Ethnicity” instead supported ethnicity as a process of

 

Chicago: Cultural and Urban Aspects of an Immigrant People, 1 850-1930, eds. Philip J. Anderson and
Dag Blanck (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992): 283-295.

79

cultural construction accomplished over time.4 The “invention of ethnicity” poses the
possibility that ethnic identity incorporates outside factors, adapts, and ampliﬁes
preexisting communal solidarities and memories, thereby, ethnicity is most importantly
grounded in social experience.5 Aside from this scholarly discussion of the invention of
ethnic identity, studies of ethnic groups from an urban perspective continue to focus on a
set of cultural attributes and behaviors “typical” to said immigrant group, narrowing in on
the perspective of the featured group. In deﬁning a group’s collective ethnic identity,
attention is paid to features such as language, religion, and cultural representations of
homeland traditions including food, celebration, dress, and “typical” habits of a group.6
Yet, this perspective shifts when viewed from the viewpoint of Norwegian and Swedish
scholars, especially in regards to methodology. Many Scandinavian authors tend to use
tunnel-vision when writing about the dynamics of the collective group, incorporating

little on the native-born American perspective and relying on immigrant newspapers and

 

4 The most comprehensive discussion of the invention of ethnicity from a historical perspective continues
to be “The Invention of Ethnicity,” by Kathleen Conzen et al. See Kathleen Neils Conzen, David A.
Gerber, Ewa Morawska, George E. Pozzetta and Rudolph J. Vecoli, “The Invention of Ethnicity: A
Perspective from the U.S.A.,” The Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 12, no. 1 (Fall 1992): 3-41. See
also Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973); Herbert J. Gans, “Symbolic
Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and cultures in America,” in On the Making of Americans: Essays
in Honor of David Riesman, ed. Herbert J. Gans et al. (Philadelphia, 1979): 193—220; Richard Alba, Ethnic
Identity: The Transformation of White America (New Haven, 1990).

5 Conzen et al., 4-5.

6 Many of these ethnic group studies originated from a surge of materials written by American authors in
the 19808 and 19905 dedicated to the collective experiences and ethnic identities of a single immigrant
group. Some examples of studies most pertinent to this discussion include Virginia Lans-Mclaughlin,
Family and Community: Italian Immigrants in Buffalo, I 880-1 930 (Urbana-Champaign: University of
Illinois Press, 1982); Hasia Diner, Erin 's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth
Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983); Susan A.Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl: Life
and Labor in the Immigrant Generation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991); George J. Sanchez,
Becoming Mexican—American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicago Los A ngeles, 1900-1945
(Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1995); Thomas A. Guglielmo, White on Arrival: Italians, Race
,Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945 (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2004).

80

commentary.7 In doing so, these studies fail to include a vital component of the process
of “inventing” and negotiating a unique Nordic identity in America.

Scholars of immigration and ethnicity often agree that celebratory displays of
culture from the old country offer the most signiﬁcant illustrations of outward ethnic
identity in history. From the perspective of tum-of-the-century Chicago, the World’s
Columbian Exposition offers quite possibly the most pervasive display of ethnic identity
in recent American history. April Schultz explored a similar mode of ethnic celebration
and argued in response to the creation of a collective Norwegian identity that “ethnicity is
not inherent, but a constructed dialogue between immigrants and the dominant society.”
She viewed ethnic identity as not something to be preserved or lost, but rather a process
of identiﬁcation marked by a particular moment to cope with historical realities. 8
Schultz’s portrait of ethnic identity as a concept that is constantly renegotiated is useful in
exploring the possibilities for further negotiation of ethnicity in history. Even though I
would agree with Schultz and others on the concept of an invented ethnic identity, I

would emphasize the importance of the perspective in distinguishing these concepts. For

 

7 The majority of the studies that rely on the Scandinavian perspective and fail to incorporate larger ethnic
histories are written by scholars who originated from Scandinavian countries. However, even some
American scholars like Joy Lintelman have taken similar approaches, incorporating very little on how
Americans conceived of their Nordic neighbors. See Odd Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life: The
Norwegians in Chicago before 1930(Urbana: The University of Illinois Press, 1988); Joy Lintelman, “Our
Serving Sisters”: Swedish-American Domestic Servants and Their Ethnic Community,” Social Science
History 15:3 (Fall 1991): 381-95; Lintelman, More Freedom, Better Pay: single Swedish Immigrant
Women in the United States, 1880-1920, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1991; Swedish-
American Life in Chicago, eds. Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck (Urbana: The University of Illinois
Press, 1992); Swedes in America: New Perspectives, ed. Ulf Beijbom (Véixjt'i, Sweden: The Swedish
Immigrant Institute Series, 1993). The most recent work to make a departure from this methodology is
Margareta Matovic’s chapter in Peasant Maids — City Women, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life,” yet her
focus is predominantly on the perspective of the immigrant women of her study. See Matovic, “Embracing
a Middle-Class Life: Swedish-American Women in Lake View,” in Peasant Maids — City Women: From
the European Countryside to Urban America, eds. Christiane Harzig et al. (Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press, 1997): 261-297.

8 April Schultz, “The Pride of the Race Had Been Touched”: The 1925 Norse-American Immigration
Centennial and Ethnic Identity,” Journal of American History, vol. 77, no. 4 (March 1991): 1267.

81

Scandinavians, the World’s Columbian Exposition served as both a showcase of
homeland products as well as a chance to display the “true” nature of Nordic culture as a
collective ethnic identity. To Chicago’s Scandinavians, this was a tangible persona linked
to traditions of home, rather than a superﬁcial set of physical and behavioral traits. In the
subsequent years after the fair, American perceptions of this collective identity continued
to focus more on the “typical” physical and behavioral traits. However, the “invented”
ethnic identity that had once deﬁned Scandinavians was now emphasized by a shift in
American culture which placed gendered traits in a new perspective.

The turn of the twentieth century in America forced many to consider roles for
men and women in new ways, largely due to the inﬂux of an immigrant class that
changed the ways Americans thought of women and men in work and in leisure. In recent
years, the work of historians such as Donna Gabaccia, Joy Lintelman, Christiane Harzi g,
and Margareta Matovic has begun to open up a vital discourse on the experiences of
female immigrants apart from that of men, yet as Joan Scott has argued, the ideological
study of gender as a category of analysis in history is most essential. In an essential
historiographical essay on the subject of the unique experiences of immigrant women in
history, Donna Gabaccia’s “Immigrant Women: Nowhere At Home” distinguished a gap
in the collaborative efforts of historians of women and immigration and both Joy
Lintelman and Margareta Matovic recently pointed out a signiﬁcant omission of the

experiences of single women. 9 Yet, as this chapter illustrates, it is vital that we analyze

 

9 For recent discussions on the place of immigrant women in history see Donna Gabaccia, “Immigrant
Women: Nowhere at Home?” Journal of American Ethnic History, 10:4 (Summer 1991): 61 —85; Joy
Lintelman, “More Freedom, Better Pay: Single Swedish Immi grant Women in the United States, 1880-
1920,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1991; Joy Lintelman, “On My Own”: Single, Swedish,
and Female in Turn-of-the-century Chicago,” in Swedish-American Life in Chicago: Cultural and Urban
Aspects of an Immigrant People, [850-] 930, ed. Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck (Urbana and Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1992): 89-99; Sydney Stahl Weinberg, “The Treatment of Women in

82

the gendered experiences of both men and women as an immigrant class; in Chicago and
across America at the turn of the century, a unique process took place in which the
physical identity of an immigrant group informed American conceptions of gender, rather
than the hegemonic culture informing ethnic identity. By investigating the reasons for
this phenomenon, this chapter seeks to open up further discussion on the gendered
experiences of Scandinavians in Chicago who actively sought to “invent” a uniquely

urban ethnic identity, only to be met with hegemonic American conceptions of the group.

Nordic Identity: Etymology and Ideological Origins of the term “Nordic ”

Before looking at the history of the “creation” of a Nordic ethnic identity, it is vital to
ﬁrst explore the etymology and ideological origins of the actual term “Nordic” in both
America and Scandinavia. The term Nordic is and was historically used as both a noun

and an adjective — a derivation of the German term nordisch concerning, belong to,

. . . . . . th
originating m, or characteristic of the north of Europe from as early as the 17 century. ‘0

As an adjective, Nordic is also used in relation to Scandinavia, the Scandinavian people,
or their languages. Yet, as noted in the simplest of deﬁnitions, the perceived physicality
of said people remains universal, characterized by tall stature, a bony frame, light
coloring, and dolichocephalic, or long and narrow, heads.ll In the 19205 and into the

19305, nativist doctrines emphasized such characterizations through various avenues like

 

Immigration History: A Call for Change,” Journal of American Ethnic History, 1 1:4 (Summer 1992): 25-
46; Peasant Maids — City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America, ed. Christiane
Harzig et. al. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997).
'0 Oxford English Dictionary, 11‘h Edition Revised (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008): “Nordic.” The
etymology of the term is also related to the Swedish and Danish term nordisk originating in the same time
period.

Ibid.

83

the eugenics movement, the Immigration Act of 1924, and in the Nazi movement, which
regarded the “Nordic race” as essentially superior to other races. Eugenicists in America
who believed in the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans with the
aim of improving the species, helped to inspire the Immigration Act of 1924. Created out
of the eugenic belief in the racial superiority of “old stock” white Americans as members
of the “Nordic race,” the Immigration Act of 1924 strengthened the position of existing
laws prohibiting miscegenation.12 Due to this latter set of ideologies, the term “Nordic,”
when used in the wrong context can today be construed as a form of bigotry, but in an
earlier era, the term was central to identifying Scandinavian identity and character.

The most recent works on ethnic identity and the study of whiteness make the
distinction between the etymology and deﬁnition of the term Nordic when used in
reference to Scandinavian ethnicity. In their works, David Roediger, Matthew Frye
Jacobson, and Noel Ignatiev sometimes use Nordic as a blanket term to refer broadly to
all northern and western European immigrants, while other times using it to refer more
speciﬁcally to groups arranged by nation, yet still wholly inclusive: Scandinavians,
Germans, Finns, and “Alpines” (another ambivalent term). The majority of their
scholarship is based on the wording used in the restrictive legislation of 1924 which
sought to regulate world immigration to the United States -— legislation that over time has
been deﬁned as problematic in terminology. In Whiteness of a Different Color, instead of
deﬁning a distinct Nordic identity, Jacobson used “Nordic” in racial terms to deﬁne

nordicism rather than ethnic prevalence of a shared identity. The history of American

 

‘2 As discussed in the following chapter, many social commentators applauded Scandinavian immigrants
for responsible reproductive habits, including delay of marriage and childbirth and the preponderance of
intra-ethnic marriages (at the turn of the century, almost 95% of Scandinavians married within their ethnic
group). For further discussion, see chapter three.

84

nativism from the 18403 to the 19205, Jacobson explained, is largely the history of “a
fundamental revision of whiteness itself,” and the resulting legislation was intended to
favor the continued arrival of “desirable” Nordics and curtail larger numbers of
“problematic ‘Alpines’ and ‘Mediterraneans’.”l3 In works like Roediger’s that take a
more comprehensive approach to the combined study of ethnic identity and whiteness,
the use of “Nordic” is linked to notion of an “embraced” identity. Scandinavians, who
were intelligent in their interactions with the “right” types of immigrant groups from
“favored” nations, including Germans and Finns, would eventually reap the beneﬁts of
their success — that is, just as long as they embraced American values of liberty,
republicanism, and prosperity and eventually became part of the “English-speaking
races.”l4 Therefore, it is imperative to create both a working deﬁnition of “Nordic” in
historic terms, as well as a term meant to refer speciﬁcally to Scandinavians. Historically
in Chicago Scandinavian immigrants used the term “Nordic” to signal race and ethnic
identity; however during this time period American citizens often used the term “Nordic”
to solely refer to a race of people.

From the very origins of Scandinavian migration to Chicago, interactions within
group were centered upon a distinctive set of symbols, folklore, and characteristics that

would eventually combine to create a speciﬁc Nordic identity based in racial and ethnic

 

'3 Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999): 68-9.

‘4 David Roediger adapted this discussion from a theoretical concept posed in the 19605 by Milton M.
Gordon, who argued that “previously vague and romantic notions of Anglo-Saxon people-hood, combined
with general ethnocentrism, rudimentary wisps of genetics, selected tidbits of evolutionary theory, and
naive assumptions from an early and crude imported anthropology produced the doctrine that the English,
Germans, and others of the “old immigration” constituted a superior race of tall, blonde, blue-eyed
“Nordics” or “Aryans,” where the peoples of eastern and southern Europe made up the darker Alpines or
Mediterraneans — both “inferior” breeds whose presence in America threatened, either by intermixture or
supplementation, the traditional American stock and culture.” See Milton M. Gordon, “Assimilation in
America: Theory and Reality,” Daedalus, vol. 90, No. 2, Ethnic Groups in American Life (Spring 1961):
268; David Roediger, Working Toward Whiteness: How America 's Immigrants Became White: The Strange
Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs (New York: Basic Books, 2006): 53.

85

terms. In Swedish scholar O.N. Nelson’s narrative on the beginnings of Scandinavian life
in America, he pointed out that racially, the English, the Germans, the Dutch, the
Scandinavians, and their descendants were all members of the Teutonic family. However,
he explained that one could determine the identities of individual groups by examining
the common traditions and behaviors they shared. Nelson noted that while Danes,
Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Dutchmen, and Englishmen all shared a common
mythology and common superstitions, be singled out Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, as
having the closest ethnic group connection based on the common language they spoke. ‘5
Similarly, as Nelson added, there was a basic set of physical characteristics that
Scandinavians shared indicated by their locations in Northern Europe: “the diverse
inﬂuences of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have developed different characteristics of
the people in the respective countries. But the people of the northern part of Sweden
differ more from the inhabitants of southern Sweden than the latter do from those who
live on the Danish islands — the last two having a very fair complexion, being the purest
descendants of the Goths the former are often as dark as Frenchmen, which is also the
case with many Norwegians, and those residing in Danish Jutland.”l6 Nelson’s
distinctions between racial features and ethnic traditions for the Scandinavian groups
resonated with scholarly communities in America at the turn of the century, but the ﬁrst
mention of this duality originated much earlier as a product of a new wave of immigrants
to Chicago beginning in 1879. This group was like no other that came before — young,
mostly single, and perched on the edge of change for a city ready to emerge into an age

of cosmopolitanism.

 

‘5 O.N. Nelson, History of the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States
(Minneapolis: O.N. Nelson & Company, 190]): 1-2.
16 Nelson, 23.

86

The Newcomers — Third Wave Immigration to Chicago

The year 1879 is oﬁen considered by historians of Scandinavian immigration as a
momentous time when a major generational shift took place in Chicago. For Chicago’s
Swedes, it was during this year that the older Swede Town was said to have reached its
“high point” according to Ulf Beijbom, when almost half the Swedish population resided
in the neighborhood’s seventeenth ward. ‘7 The neighborhood, as discussed in chapter
one, would undergo extreme changes during the next two decades as an inﬂux of “new”
immigrants from Sicily and Poland inﬁltrated the neighborhood and caused the upwardly
mobile Swedes to move north into the newly annexed portion of the city called Lake
View. Approximately at the same time, Norwegians took part in similar inner-city
migration patterns — after the new boundary system of 1876 divided the city into 18
wards placed under city regulations, around 80% of the Norwegian population moved
just outside of the city limits to the near Northwest Side.18 In doing so, the Norwegian
population separated from their more afﬂuent Swedish neighbors, remaining just west of
the Chicago River — a short distance from their original shared community of Swede
Town. Yet, the neighborhood that would become known as Wicker Park would
encompass those Swedes and Danes, as well as Norwegians, who had not yet experienced
upward social mobility comparative to Scandinavians in Lake View. For the majority of

the 18803, Norwegians and Danes displayed nearly identical mobility patterns moving

 

‘7 Ulf Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago: A Demographic and Social Study of the 1848-1880 Immigration
(Uppsala, Sweden and Chicago: The Historiska Institutionen at the University of Uppsala, Sweden and
Chicago Historical Society, 1971): 218.

'8 Lovoll explains in his ﬁfth chapter, “Norwegians in Industrial America,” that the near Northwest area
became a refuge for Norwegian workers who whished to build cheap frame homes outside the city limits,
Odd Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before 1930 (Urbana-Champaign:
University of Illinois Press, 1988): 139.

87

into Wicker Park, as well as Humboldt Park to the south of the city. The southern
neighborhood, which Danish historian Christian Nielsen referred to as “a compatible
enviromnent for Scandinavians,” appealed to such working immigrants who delighted in
the evenly-spaced, yet cheaply produced dwellings.19 By 1879, Chicago’s Scandinavians
were distributed across the city into three urban enclaves as an effect of the Great Fire,
yet this redistribution would only be one part of a much larger agent of change in the
Nordic community.

By the late 18708 Europe’s economic crisis reached its apex as several factors
contributed to both the downfall of the Scandinavian export market and the rush of the
largest inﬂux of emigrants ever. Following the famine that spread across Scandinavia in
1867 and 1868, the importation of cheap American grain for survival contributed to a
long-standing crisis within Scandinavian agriculture, especially in rural Sweden. For
those troubled by the effects of agricultural failures and subsequent economic
depressions, letters and cards from friends and relatives already in America comforted the
troubled Scandinavians. Similarly, the constant invitations from loved ones encouraged
many to make the trip to America, either until conditions in the homeland improved, or
for good. Between 1878 and 1879 in Sweden alone, the number of emigrants more than
doubled from 5,390 to 11, 001 and by 1888, emigration to America reached 54,698

people in one year — its absolute high point.20 Aside from sheer numbers, these “new”

 

'9 Christian Nielsen, “Halvfems aar,” 41-42, in Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life, 146.

20 Between 1878 and 1879, immigration from Norway and Denmark also rose, as the number of Norwegian
emigrants jumped from 4,759 to 7,345 and Danish emigrants from 2,105 to 3,474. Comparatively, Swedish
immigration between 1879 and 1893 is usually regarded as the most signiﬁcant of the three countries due to
the fact that Swedish immigrants arrived in such magnitude. For census ﬁgures, see Reports of the
Immigration Commission, Statistical Review of Immigration 1820-1910, Table 9: Immigration to the
United States, 1820-1910 (Washington: Government Printing Ofﬁce, 1910):33, 36. For further discussion
of the European economic struggles of the 18705 and 18805, see H. Arnold Barton, “Swedish Reactions to
the Emigration Question around 1900,” in The Old Country and the New: Essays on Swedes and America

88

Scandinavian immigrants were more diverse than those who had come before them in
many ways. The two most important differences between the generations of immigrants
were, ﬁrst in age, and second, in their reasons for emigration to America. These
immigrants, who were mainly young unmarried men and women, traveled to Chicago to
join family and ﬁiends who had arrived in the previous waves. Most notable, was the
striking number of young women who arrived at this time; the arrival of Swedish
irmnigrants effectively tipped the ratio of females to males in the age group 15-29 years
to 136 females to 100 males.” For Norwegians, the numbers of young, unmarried
immigrants were similar, however men continued to outnumber women as they had in the
waves before -— by the turn of the century more than 70% of all men and 62% of all

women who left Norway for America were between the ages of 15 and 30 and nearly

. . . th
80% of those men and women were srngle. 22 In the remaining years of the 19 century,

this group of young, unmarried Scandinavians would be the ﬁrst to come into constant,
daily contact with their Chicago neighbors through employment and in the media. As
Chicago newspapers began to take note of their physical presence within the city, their
physical and symbolic identities began to take the shape of gendered American ideals.
Some of the ﬁrst recollections of Scandinavian men in Chicago during the 18805
reﬂected upon representations of the Viking age and the heroic tradition of a brute form

of masculinity. The symbol of the Viking in popular memory painted a picture of tall,

 

(Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007): 54-6; Sten Carlsson, “Why did they Leave?” in
Nils Hasselmo, ed., Perspectives on Swedish Immigration (Duluth, 1978): 25-6; Christiane Harzi g and Dirk
Hoerder, “European Immigrant Women in Chicago at the Turn of the Century: A Comparative Approach,”
in Swedes in America: New Perspectives, ed. Ulf Beijbom (V axjo, Sweden: The Swedish Emigrant
lnstitute’s Series, 1993): 92-3; Leslie Page Moch, “The European Perspective: Changing Conditions and
Multiple Migrations, 1750-1914,” in European Migrants: Local and Global Perspectives, eds. Dirk
Hoerder and Leslie Page Moch (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996): 125-6.

2‘ Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago, Table 14, 121, 125, 142.

22 Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life, 152.

89

“wild” men whom O.N. Nelson posed as “strong and robust, having white bodies, yellow
hair, broad shoulders, wiry muscles, ﬂorid complexion, and ﬁerce blue eyes that during
excitement gleamed with ﬁre and passion?” The cultural symbol of the Viking was
characteristic of a strong individuality and love for freedom — traits that Scandinavian
men adopted as an identity that connected homeland traditions to their adopted culture.
However, the adopted image of the Viking as characteristic of the common Scandinavian
man was much tamer in comparison than to the historical discussions of the true
homeland heroes, especially through the lens of the American media. In one article that
told of the celebration of Leif Eriksen Day, the author gave a tongue-in-cheek description
of the event which set out to prove Eriksen to be the true discoverer of America:
“Columbus had the honor last week, Leif Eriksen had his turn last night at
Scandia Hall on West Ohio Street near Milwaukee Avenue, and where a large
company of sons and daughters of the land of Vikings paid their tribute to the
man whom they claim discovered America 400 years before Columbus set foot on
San Salvador. Speech-making, dancing, songs, and instrumental music were the
features of the Eriksen “Fest.” It was an evening that bore much signiﬁcance to
the people ﬁom the Northland, for it meant nothing less than a claim on the part
of the Norwegians to the honors for discovering America.”24
As the speakers of the event, including A.J. Elvi g, historian John Fisk of Harvard

University, and the editor of Scandinaven P.A. Conradi recounted the heroic traditions of

“Erik the Red,” journalists of the event were instead infatuated by the “pretty girls with

 

23 Nelson’s is an intriguing inference because it creates an assumption of how the Vikings would have
appeared .. a description that would have been created over time without any hard evidence of merit other
than primitive records of Viking pillage in ancient times. See O.N. Nelson History of the Scandinavians
(1901): 6, 19, 22.

2‘ “Leif Eriksen’s Day, His Discovery of America Celebrated by Norwegians,” Chicago Tribune, October
28,1892,pg.6.

90

red frocks” and their beautiful mothers and fathers with Nordic features.25 Another more
unfortunate recollection of Scandinavian men in Chicago reﬂected upon their early days
in the pioneer shantytown on the river. In describing the criminality of early
Scandinavians of the Chicago shantytown, “where all the scum gathers,” Anders Larson
wrote that there was a deﬁnite type of “Swedish-bom rogue” — a frequent patron of the
local pub whose heavy drinking and hard-living gained him a reputation for
delinquency.26 Even as the newest group of Scandinavians to arrive in Chicago sought to
dispel these stereotypes of Nordic masculine character, their image in the eyes of the
American public ﬂuctuated between a confused picture of Vikings and drunkards.

At the same time in 18803, Chicago newspapers such as the Chicago Daily
Tribune and the Chicago Daily News illustrated a new preference amongst potential
employers. Within the classiﬁed advertisements, there was a clear call for a certain type
of worker — one who could sew, do general housework, and cook. While the call for
domestic workers was common in the burgeoning city and others like it, a new
speciﬁcation was put into place. Ad after ad announced a speciﬁc request for
“competent” and “young” girls of Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish descent to be put to
work at some of the most prestigious addresses in the city. As an additional mode of
employment, agencies such as G. Duske of 195 Milwaukee Avenue published special

requests for “good German and Scandinavian girls for private families, hotels, and

 

25 Ibid. Odd Lovoll also recounted the celebration of Lief Eriksen as ﬁrst to discover America, yet focused
mostly on the actual celebration and events rather than the attention of Chicago’s newspapers. See Odd
Lovoll, “A Scandinavian Melting Pot in Chicago,” in Swedish-American Life in Chicago, 62.

26 See H. Arnold Barton, “Rascals and Ne’er-Do-Wells: The Underside of Swedish America,” in The Old
Country and the New: Essays on Swedes and America, ed. H. Arnold Barton (Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press, 2007): 264-66)

91

boarding houses” alongside classiﬁed ads.27 Similarly across Scandinavia, newspapers
and recruiters in the homeland promised young men and women secure employment and
a sense of personal fulﬁllment in return for their emigration to cities like Chicago. By
today’s standards, a recruitment campaign of such measures would be viewed with great
skepticism. Yet, to the youth of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the promise of markedly
high wages and comfortable living conditions in some of the most opulent areas of the
country was a wish fulﬁlled. This call for Scandinavian workers would bring the largest
group of female immigrants from the homeland in vast waves to the streets of Chicago
between 1879 and 1893.

As David Katzman found, by the turn of the century a fourth of Chicago’s
domestic servants were of Swedish origin. On the national level, Swedish women were
among the predominant groups in household labor, along with the Irish, Germans, and
Norwegians. The booming rate of Scandinavian women working in Chicago as domestic
servants was part of a larger phenomenon in America as 62% of Swedish—bom women
and 46% of Norwegian-bom women took domestic positions in 1900.28 In a series of
state labor studies, it was found that employers preferred American-born domestics as
their ﬁrst choice, followed by Scandinavians as their second choice.29 Yet, the question

remains: why would American employers actively recruit recent immigrants from

 

27 In a review of advertisements from both the Chicago Daily Tribune and the Chicago Daily News,
classifieds between 1879 and into the 18905 reﬂected a substantial call for women of Scandinavian descent.
While the experience of work for Scandinavian men and women will be addressed in the next chapter, this
chapter will brieﬂy focus on the images that Americans associated with Scandinavians they encountered,
using domestic servants as an example. See Chicago Daily Tribune, Classiﬁed Ad. 11, November 21, 1880,
g. 14.
£8 Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 1 (New York, 1970): 830-838.
29 Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics, Annual Report 1910 (Augusta, Maine, 1910): 340;
Minnesota Bureau of Labor Statistics, Biennial Report 1887-1888 (n.p., 1887): 154; David Katzman, Seven
Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1978): 49, 70. Similarly, Odd Lovoll also would note that in 1880, about three-fourths of Norwegian-
bom women working outside the home were domestic servants. See Lovoll, 155.

92

Sweden, Norway and Denmark to work in their homes when many of them did not have a
ﬁrm grasp of the English language or American domestic customs? Christiane Harzig and
Dirk Hoerder explained that Scandinavian housemaids were popular as live-in servants
and gained a reputation for being honest, diligent and hard-working, willing to learn and
without complaint.3O It could be argued, then, that the time period that preceded the turn
of the century was an integral time for the creation of these perceptions, coupled with a
new image of the beautiful housemaid.

Beginning in the 18805 with the inﬂux of the “new” immigrant group, it became
clear that Americans began to desire Nordic immigrants within their homes and
workplaces based on the formation of a distinctive set of stereotypes and cultural images
centered on the “prototypical” Scandinavian. While it was not unique from the
perspective of industrial America for Chicagoans to have formed preconceived notions of
various immigrant groups, the signiﬁcance of these images lay in the optimistic nature of
said images. Prior to their arrival in Chicago, the seemingly simple lives of Scandinavian
women were nonetheless a topic of much discussion in newspapers and public
commentary. Some of these commentaries would often place the beautiful physicality of
such women against the backdrop of a similarly striking landscape in order to emphasize
the signiﬁcance of their choices to emigrate for better opportunities. In one such article,
the author introduced the “dreary existence of some Norwegian women” who worked as
dairy maids during the early summer months of May and June. The women, who by

nature of their jobs were forced to stay with the cattle in the valleys and high up in the

 

3° Christiane Harzig and Dirk Hoerder, “European Immigrant Women in Chicago at the Turn of the
Century: A Comparative Approach,” in Swedes in America: Intercultural and interethnic perspectives on
contemporary research: A Report of the Symposium Swedes in America: New Perspectives, ed. Ulf
Beijbom (vaxja, Sweden: The Swedish Emigrant Institute Series, 1993): 101.

93

mountains, “lead lonely lives. . .with only fortnightly visits at the most from their relatives
or lovers?” 1 Coupled with the depiction of a mostly rural existence, Chicago newspapers
would also portray Scandinavian women as quiet and loyal, rarely capable of a
disagreement.

Many of the earliest domestic servants of Scandinavian descent helped to support
the perceptions of the American media, as well as their employers. A signiﬁcant number
of domestic servants worked as live-in help, which provided them with continual
interactions with their Americans and enabled them to learn English quickly. In
comparison to Irish and German women, many rural Scandinavian women gained
experience in the homes of wealthier people in the major cities of Sweden, Denmark, and
Norway, and were thereby accustomed to “appropriate” social interactions between
employers and domestics. Once in America, although Scandinavian immigrant domestics
were still doing similar work to that in the home country, they were rewarded by higher
wages and greater esteem. Margareta Matovic pointed out that their success as domestic
servants, in comparison to other groups, facilitated rapid upward mobility — Scandinavian
women made a profession out of housework and used their knowledge and skills to
specialize in their ﬁeld.32 Therefore, early in their careers, as Scandinavian women
illustrated pride in their positions as domestics, they were rewarded by their employers
with a public discourse of their success. This discourse was not ignored by American
advertisers; the producers of Sapolio scouring soap claimed in an ad proudly published in

the pages of Skandinaven that “American families learn that Norwegian girls are tidier,

 

3' “The Domain of Woman: Some Good Things Said of and by the Gentler Sex,” Chicago Daily Tribune,
September 25, 1886, pg. 16.

32 Margareta Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life: Swedish-American Women in Lake View,” in
Peasant Maids and City Women, 290.

94

cleanlier, and faster than the Irish and German girls,” by using their product.33 During an
era when advertisers failed to recognize the discriminatory nature of such advertising,
Scandinavian women were nevertheless pleased to receive such accolades for their work
and subsequent beneﬁts in their capabilities to be selective in the work they chose.

Yet, somehow over time, this loyal and quiet nature would be transformed into an
unfortunate cultural stereotype that would depict especially the Swedish as slow,
dimwitted, and gullible. The title of another article, “Swedish Girls Not slow; they have
been working for freedom if they don’t say much,” epitomized this stereotype as it
depicted Swedish women as eager to attain greater rights in society without causing a
scene or drawing attention to themselves. One Scandinavian woman interviewed for the
article corroborated this image in her explanation that Scandinavian women “go to the
colleges, they practice the professions. . .but they didn’t get their rights by too much

talking.”34

Historian Joy Lintelman stated that American public opinion of Scandinavians
prior to the turn of the century tended to focus predominantly on their “slow” nature as a
coping mechanism in dealing with linguistic and cultural difference}5 Scandinavian
language and social practices would create an initial barrier between immigrants in search
of employment and American employers who could not understand their sing-son g
speech patterns. However, in an interesting turn of events, Scandinavian women,

especially domestic servants, would also ﬁnd themselves at the center of a debate

regarding behavioral practices from their own community.

 

33 Advertisement for Sapolio scouring soap, Skandinaven, March 30, 1901.

34 “Swedish Girls Not Slow; they have been working for freedom if they don’t say much,” Chicago Daily
Tribune, February 14, 1891, pg. 16.

35 Joy Lintelman, “Our Serving Sisters”: Swedish-American Domestic servants and Their Ethnic
Community,” Social Science History 15:3 (Fall 1991): 381-95.

95

When Scandinavian women ﬁrst began to work as domestic servants in the homes
of Chicago’s elite, their community rallied in support of their “sisters in service” and
viewed their work as both safe and beneﬁcial to their future endeavors. Women who
attained positions with Chicago families often received room and board, uniform pieces,
three square meals a day, and most important, a family to watch over them. Historian
Stina Hirsch recollected of her family members’ own experiences in the homes of
Chicago’s elite, that “many employers were gracious and generous, and shared some of
their afﬂuence with the domestic help.” However, she also pointed out that their
generosity could sometimes have the taint of condescension, “as in the case of leftovers
from costly meals prepared for the family and their guests or hand-me-down clothes.”36
Therefore, for domestic servants of all nationalities, there was an unavoidable social
stigma attached to domestic service within American culture — the women who worked as
servants were taken care of for the most part, but above all, were servants to others.37
And while many Americans saw the economic discrepancies of their workers as an

opportunity to treat their help whatever way they saw ﬁt, many Scandinavians began to

view the labor of domestic servants as above “their girls.”38 In playful jabs aimed at the

 

’6 Stina Hirsch’s master’s thesis, “The Swedish Maid: 1900-1915,” serves both as a secondary and primary
source for the study of the experiences of Scandinavian domestic servants in Chicago at the turn of the
century. Hirsch was the daughter and niece of ﬁve former Swedish domestic servants who were employed
at the turn of the century in Chicago; her thesis is a combination of both oral history and contextual
information on the North Shore region, thereby offering a vital contribution to the existing source base. See
Stina Hirsch, “The Swedish Maid: 1900-1915,” Master’s Thesis, De Paul University (June 1985): 40.

37 Lillian Pettengill, who worked as a domestic at the turn of the century, concluded in her widely-
referenced study that the reason American women viewed domestic service so negatively was due to the
negative “social stigma” attached to it, due to a lack of prestige in American society in relation to the job.
Yet, regardless of this open disdain, Scandinavian women nevertheless ﬂocked to accept positions in the
homes of American women. See Lillan Pettingill, T oilers of the Home: The Record of a College Woman '3
Experience as a Domestic Servant (New York: Doubleday, Page, and Company, 1903).

38 In an article published in the Swedish-language newspaper, Svenska Nyheter in 1903, the editor created a
comparison of two positions available to Swedish women: maid or “factory girl.” The editor used this
comparison to stress the importance of domestic work for women who sought security and pushed for them
to avoid the various problems that factory girls encountered. Nevertheless, the author also stressed the

96

work of domestics, the Scandinavian press used ethnic humor to diffuse this discussion;
within cartoons and humorous commentaries, Scandinavian domestics would often be
portrayed as dim-witted or frivolous. One common joke illustrated in the pages of the
Scandinavian press featured a servant standing in the kitchen next a cooked pig, holding
an apple in her mouth and curled paper in her ears because she did not translate the recipe
correctly.39 This seemingly harmless poke at Scandinavian domestics who struggled to
accommodate to American culture would transform into a wide-ranging iconic stereotype
and point of cultural ridicule over time. The epitome of this joke would come in the form
of a new character in American history — the “dumb blonde.” As the American media
caught on to the cultural inﬂuence of the “Swedish maid” in society, magazines and
newspapers across the country regularly featured jokes aimed at the prototypical
domestic. In one commentary, Puck featured a popular joke that contributed to this

cultural trend:

Fortune Teller: 1 can read that there is to be a wreck in your home, and it will be
caused by a blonde woman.

Patron: Oh, that has already occurred. Our new Swedish maid let the dumb-
waiter fall and broke all the dishes.40

The cultural foil of the “dumb Swedish maid” would come to be magniﬁed in both

American and Scandinavian commentary as the joke added a new element of absurdity.

 

difﬁculty of work within domestic service and hinted at the fact that, at the turn of the century, Swedish
women had more opportunities than other immigrant women. See “Maid or Factory Girl,” Svenska Nyheter,
June 23, 1903, pg. 4.

39 Andrew L. Lofstrom, Bland Kolingar och Kogubbar, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1908) as illustrated in Joy
Lintelman’s article, “Our Serving Sisters,” pg. 384.

40 “Two Good Reasons,” Puck, July 28, 1909, pg. 13; the joke was also featured the same week in the
Baltimore American and the Chicago Tribune.

97

In an era where Americans perceived of cross-dressing as humorous (rather than
“deviant” as it became in the 19305), male sports teams, actors, and cabaret acts alike
would expand upon the joke by dressing as the cultural foil for a laugh.4| The New York
Times featured commentary on one such public display, where the residents of
Englewood, New Jersey, were treated to a match between the Women’s Club and a rival
team of eighteen “girls” comprised of well-known local amateur baseball players.
Receiving the biggest laugh, however, was a “girl” dressed in a yellow wig tied up with a
green ribbon - “a big Swedish maid with ﬂaxen locks” — the man, who had a big
mustache, was said to have “brazenly smoked cigars” in an effort to play up the gag for
the crowd.42 By the time the famous silent screen actor, Wallace Beery, performed his
infamous character of “Sweedie” — a caricature of a hardworking Swedish domestic who
behaved like a man and was incredibly dumb — for Chicago’s audiences, the stereotype of
the “dumb Swedish maid” was engrained in American cultural discourse as an
unfortunate misrepresentation of an immigrant group.43 Before “Sweedie” became a
movie star, the Scandinavian community united in preparation for one of the most
important displays of national identity to date - the World’s Columbian Exposition. In an
effort to correct some of the American public’s misconceptions of Swedish, Norwegian,

and Danish culture in the United States and in the homeland, delegates from the three

 

4’ As George Chauncey and John D’Emilio argued, the “closet” and notion of cross-dressing was not
perceived as “dangerous” until the 19308, when the closet was “constructed” by way of the red scare and
the Great Depression. For further discussion of these historical myths as ﬁrst identiﬁed by D’Emilio, see
John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” in Making Trouble: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and
the University (New York: Routledge, 1992); George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture,
and the Making of a Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994).

42 “Englewood’s Field Day,” New York Times, September 13, 1908, pg. 8.

43 Wallace Beery’s personal life, particularly his marriage to Gloria Swanson, and his professional life
portraying “Sweedie” will be discussed in much greater detail in chapter three.

98

countries gathered in Chicago and conceived of the ways that their representative

countries could most properly be displayed for the world to see.

The World’s Columbian Exposition of I 893 and Scandinavian Representation through
Public Display

During Swedish Week in Edgewater in 1935, one newspaper wistfully recalled
the excitement of the community leading up to the World’s Columbian Exposition: “The
World’s Fair of 1893 brought the importance of the Swedish people to the city’s notice
startlingly on July 20, 1893, when a parade of 10,000 marched to Swedish day at the
exposition. . .again the Swedish showed their pioneering spirit, always keeping ahead of
the city’s outward expansion.”44 In looking back at this historic period in the evolution of
Chicago’s Swedes, historian Dag Blanck commented that Sweden’s representation in the
fair, notably “Sweden’s Day” represented a massive, concerted effort on behalf of the
Chicago Swedish community to communicate to the larger American society that their
community was active, numerous, and an important component of the growing
metropolis of the West.45 The pomp and circumstance of the event could be seen
throughout Lakeview in the months leading up to the world’s fair as Scandinavians
celebrated their triumphs within the city while also carefully selecting the ways that they
would enter the public stage and create a representation of Chicago Scandinavians as a
cultured and distinguished immigrant group. Most importantly, however, Scandinavians

would use this opportunity to mark their entrance into larger American society as a group

 

4" Newspaper article spread on Swedish Week in Edgewater in The Edgewater News, Wednesday,
September 4'”, 1935.

’5 Dag Blanck, “Swedish Americans and the 1893 Columbian Exposition,” in Swedish-American Life in
Chicago, 292.

99

inherently tied to the homeland, yet willing to compromise their cultural heritage and
practices for the sake of becoming successful Chicagoans in the interim. The
foundational idea that drove the fair itself was built on the basis of expansion to mark the
anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the Western Hemisphere; when a group of
ﬁnancial and political elite won the campaign to host the fair against stiff competition
from representatives in New York, their win was symbolic of the very expansion of
Chicago as a cosmopolitan American city. For Chicago, the World’s Columbian
Exposition grew in symbolic importance for the city as Frederick Jackson Turner
delivered his now seminal lecture on the signiﬁcance of the frontier in American history;
for many, the notion of the ﬁontier as “closed” indicated that Chicago would grow as a
metropolis on the border of the once-promised land for those travelers sought the West as
an escape.

Swedish participation at the exposition was closely linked to the official national
Swedish delegation, and in turn, the Royal Swedish Commission for the fair was made up
almost entirely of Swedes who would travel to the event to present goods and products on
behalf of Sweden.46 Those involved planned the exhibits in a way that representative
goods would be displayed in the various pavilions as well as in the ofﬁcial Swedish
pavilion, modeled in appearance to reﬂect a rural Swedish barn. A careful distinction
would be created at the exposition between two groups of products: those which Swedes
were prideful of and would represent them in a positive light as a society, versus products

and displays that would represent Swedish culture as separate from American practices.

 

’6 In preparation for the fair, circulars were sent out by the various bureaus of commerce requesting that
ﬁrms notiﬁed the subsequent governments of their intentions to exhibit at the fair. While many of the
representative countries received little to no feedback from potential ﬁrms of exhibit, Sweden’s delegates
received a signiﬁcant response from those excited to display the goods of the homeland in Chicago. See
“Sweden and the World’s Fair,” Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1891, pg. 8.

100

In the agricultural department, a selection of typical Swedish fare was present, including
various displays of Swedish ﬁsh, such as caviar and pickled herring, as well as various
types of sweets and Swedish cheeses, or Herrgardsost, and cheese-making machines.47 In
the manufactures department, various Swedish ladies displayed embroidered table décor
including curtains, wall hangings, and rugs, representing a distinctive Swedish style that
combined old world handiwork with more modern design. One of the most memorable
departments, however was that which focused on education, literature, public works, and
sport, where Swedish delegates exhibited a large display of gymnastic equipment,
including all sorts of items for use in winter sports such as skates and toboggans.48 An
emphasis on physical development, training and condition was clear at the Swedish
pavilion, where displays illustrated the extent to which Swedish education centered on
especially Gymnastics.

The skills and methods of Scandinavian gymnasts were dominant features many

took away from the fair as deﬁnitive elements of the group. The Swedish system,

founded by RH. Ling in the early 19th century was said to have been inspired “to revive

the ancestral spirit in the Swedish people by the help of sport. . .to draw out once more the
great qualities, the strength, the courage and the will, which in old times had
distinguished the Scandinavian race.”49 A short aside at the display noted the recent
growth of women’s gymnastics in the Ling tradition, and explained that gymnastic
associations which catered to women of the working classes in Sweden were growing in

practice in Chicago as well. Additionally, the commission was careful to distinguish the

 

47 World 's Columbian Exposition 1893, Swedish Catalogue, Exhibits and Statistics, Commissioned by the
Royal Swedish Commission for the World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, pg. 15.

4“ Ibid, 15-16.

49 Ibid, 192.

101

advancement of Swedes in higher education, as well as the strides that the country saw

th . . . . .
over the course of the 19 century in education. As the commrssron explarned, “at the

commencement of the century a person who could not read was rarely met with, and
nowadays the whole nation may be said to be able to read, with hardly a single
exception;” both the Swedish delegation and the Swedish Ladies’ Committee to the
World’s Columbian Exposition reﬂected upon a dedication to education for all
Scandinavians regardless of sex, class, or age. Scandinavians emphasized this
commitment, especially in comparison to other European nationalities: Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden were found to have incredibly low rates of national illiteracy as 99
‘/2 people out of 100 could read and write, in comparison to Russia at 21, Italy at 58,
Hungary at 61, Austria at 75, and even the United States at 78."0 By these numbers alone,
the commission was able to make a case for the overall intelligence and athletic
capabilities of the Swedish people as a whole, which played into American perceptions of
them. Yet, the commission was also deliberate in its efforts not to display mistruths, and
therefore, showcased what Americans would consider to be the more scandalous parts of
Swedish society as well.

One of the more astonishing displays for modest Americans was that of the public
baths on display at the Swedish pavilion. As the display explained, in the later portion of
the 19th century, public bathing grew in popularity in Sweden when the climatic
conditions of the country coupled with the sparse population made public baths possible.
The display was careful to distinguish the importance of public hygiene as the cause for

these baths, but also made clear the cultural importance of such public baths for a

 

5" Nelson, 33.

102

population that prided itself on cleanliness and public health. Scandinavians had different
ideas in regards to modesty than that of their American neighbors, yet the Swedish Royal
Commission pointed out that the larger baths in Sweden are generally provided with
separate divisions for men and women, with additional “class” divisions with different
ﬁttings and charges — the warm baths, either hot-air (Jacuzzi) or vapor (sauna) baths, or
large swimming pools, where bathers would also receive scrubbing and massage by the
bath-attendants.51 The practice of “social bathing” on display at the Swedish pavilion was
so popular in Sweden that Saturday was declared “tub-day” by many in the North, which
the comrrrission explained, was “very Swedish” by practice and part of a larger cultural
practice.52 Perhaps even bolder on the part of the Royal Swedish Commission was their
admission of a national problem of alcohol consumption particularly amongst Swedish
men, which was vastly improved by the work of a powerful temperance movement in the
homeland. In the earlier portion of the 19th century, when Swedes “had not the best of
names,” it was estimated that each inhabitant consumed no less than 10 gallons a year of
alcoholic beverages — a number that was rounded to include every individual regardless
of temperance status. Furthermore, in the 18803 and 18905 the Commission admitted to a
constant increase in the consumption of alcohol, but attributed the increase to the social
acceptance of drinking ale or wine with a meal as opposed to drinkng for the sole
purpose of becoming intoxicated.53 While these admittances on the part of the Swedish
Commission were honest and forthcoming, nevertheless, Chicagoans in later years would
use similar admittances to color their perceptions of Scandinavians as a whole as

immodest and frivolous.

 

5' Ibid, 200.
52 Ibid, 201.
’3 Ibid, 15-16.

103

One display that would ingrain a ﬁrm understanding of social difference
between Swedish women and men could be found at the Women’s Pavilion at the
exposition, where an elected group of Swedish women created an outward portrayal of
what constituted female social behavior in Sweden. Amongst the most conspicuous
features in the character of the Northern woman, “self-sacriﬁce, presence of mind and
prudence, ability and acuteness, together with a passionate sense of revenge” deﬁned the
nature of Swedish women, according to the group.54 Northern women were additionally
deﬁned by their domestic capabilities, yet were able to enjoy a wide independence as the
mistress of her own home as “the emblem of her house-wifely authority were the keys,
handed over to the bride, and often remaining with the house-wife in her grave,” even in
ancient times.55 Many ancient traditions, laws, and rituals in Swedish society showed a
pattern of relative independence amongst Swedish women, both single and married,
including legislation that prohibited against women being forced into marriage and
prevented abuse within marriage; a law that stated that both men and women within
families were considered equally eligible as heirs of their parents’ estates and therefore
“entitled to inherit equal shares” of an inheritance; and the capability of women to take

on many kinds of work due to a considerably unbalanced sex ratio in the Northern

countries during the 19th century.56 The group told of foreigners who visited Sweden

during the early 19th century and extolled of their admiration for the Swedish woman in

her performance of such “manly” pursuits, and the “spirit and intrepidity she evinced.”57

 

5" The Social Condition of the Swedish Woman, prepared with a design to the World’s Columbian
Exposition (Stockholm: A.L. Normans Boktryckeri-Aktiebolag, 1893): 3.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid, 44.

57 Ibid, 7.

104

th . . . . . .
Over the course of the late 19 century, Swedish women received additional legislative

gains, including the right to manage their own property, the right to separate property
owned in common with her husband, and the revocation of the need to attain consent of
her nearest kinsman for marriage. Coupled with the comparatively progressive legislation
for women in Sweden was the introduction of the “woman problem” by the F redrika
Bremer Association as a point of discussion to the Swedish public; their goal was to
promote, by the cooperation of men and women, “a sound and steady development of
reforms in the condition of women, morally and intellectually as well as socially and
economically.”58 Through their display, it became increasingly clear to their intended
audience that women in Sweden were not to be considered as backwards, rural, or
uneducated — instead, in many ways, women’s position in Sweden was more advanced
than that of American women, especially in the rights women had within marriage (as

well as outside of it).

Physical and Behavioral Characteristics of an Immigrant Group on Display

In the years before the publication of 0N. Nelson’s History of Scandinavians in
America, a prominent group of Scandinavians placed sets of statistics and facts on display
for the American public in an effort to choreograph a distinctive Scandinavian identity
separated by sex in the homeland and in America. The display at the World’s Columbian
Exposition would set the stage for larger discussions on the behavioral and physical

characteristics of Scandinavians as their displayed facts would be combined with

 

5“ Ibid, 27.

105

American perceptions of their character and group identity. At the World’s Columbian
Exposition, the Swedish exposition and catalog mirrored Nelson’s later viewpoint of
physical characteristics shared by Scandinavians, and created a further emphasis on
health and vitality in Nordic culture. Giving accolades to a healthy climate and
reasonable social conditions, the catalog compared Sweden to England in regards to the
birth rate of healthy children in both countries. The study found that out of 1,000 children
born between 1871 and 1880, 775 boys and 798 girls in Sweden survived their ﬁfth
birthday, compared to only 734 boys and 763 girls in England.59 In addition to displaying
the signiﬁcant portion of Scandinavian culture dedicated to sport, health, and vitality as
discussed in chapter one, the Swedish delegation was careﬁil to note the distinguish
physical characteristics that would been seen as favorable in the eyes of American
viewers. One such example pointed out the average height of Swedish men as noted in
the compulsory military examinations; the catalogue emphasized that “the Swedes are
acknowledged to be one of the tallest nations of the world. ..in Jemtland, the mean height
of the conscripts was no less than 172 centimeters (5’8”), and the same height has been
found to be the average for scholars of the same age (20-21), though at that time of life,
in this northern climate, the men are not fully developed.”60 The eagerness of the
delegation to place an emphasis on the further grth of Swedish men between the ages
of 22 and 23 exhibited a desire to portray Nordics in a way that highlighted their virility
as a race.

In addition to an emerging discussion of physical characteristics that comprised

Scandinavian identity, a large portion of the featured displays focused on the positive

 

59 World ’3 Columbian Exposition 1893, Swedish Catalogue, Exhibits and Statistics, Commissioned by the
Royal Swedish Commission for the World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893: 13.
60 .

Ibrd, 14.

106

behavioral characteristics of Scandinavians, including the pursuit of formal education in
Scandinavia and in America. In a more speciﬁc focus on women’s education, at the
Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Committee of Swedish
Ladies exhibited a portfolio which contained various statistics on the position of women
in Sweden, including statistics on female students at the universities of Sweden and
woman’s work in high schools for girls, common and primary schools, practical schools,
and schools for “abnormal” children. While the members of the Swedish Ladies’
Committee made note of a priority for Swedish men to receive a proper education in light
of the social composition of Swedish society, the Committee emphasized the desire of

many women to attain higher education — a goal which the Committee recognized as vital

. . . . . . th
to the success of Swedish socrety in the face of economic tumor] in the late 19 century.

The Committee noted that while female labor was largely made up of “practical”
occupations including house and farm work, “several women of learning are mentioned
in our chronicles, and a certain school education has for centuries been considered
necessary to women.”61 The portfolio of the Committee reﬂected a viewpoint on the
dedication to women’s education that was similar to a Progressive stance in America
during the same era — women deserved the right to higher education, but that right was
not to interfere with their commitment to their roles as women. The education system of
Sweden reﬂected the “appropriate” place for women in society; the catalog listed the
various levels of education including the national school education (same for both sexes);
higher education (for boys, the cost was state sponsored, for girls, education was “an

entirely private undertaking”); female training colleges (“conferred upon women the

 

6' Reports from the Swedish Ladies ’ Committee to the World ’5 Columbian Exposition at Chicago 1893,
printed by Central Tryckeriet, Stockholm 1893, pp. 7-8. Printed in Swedish and English.

107

 

same rights as upon men for studying at the Universities); and the professional schools of
Sweden (where women “were excluded with the exception of all the ﬁne art schools as
well as those for Gymnastics,” which were open to both sexes).62 Swedish girls and boys
learned similar curriculum focused on Swedish language and literature, religious
instruction, Swedish history, foreign languages (including French, German, and English),
as well as arithmetic and natural science. In later years, students would focus their studies
more intensively on the study of Scandinavian geography, zoology and botany, hygiene,
cookery, geometry, and drawing. A signiﬁcant portion of the school week was to be
dedicated to health and wellness as teachers drilled students of all ages in Ling’s
gymnastics, facilitating the growth of several voluntary female gymnastics clubs across
the country.63 Once Swedish women completed primary school, several families would
send their daughters to special cookery and housekeeping schools, where they would
spend an average of six to twelve months focused on the basic skills necessary in keeping
their own homes, or more importantly, the homes of other families.”4 Despite the noted
commitment to formal education for both men and women in Scandinavia, the second
portion of the Reports from the Swedish Ladies’ Committee focused on Scandinavian
domestic service would eventually become the single largest component of Scandinavian
female identity within America for numerous decades.

Another component of Scandinavian identity deﬁned at the World’s Columbian
Exposition was a general commitment to the integrity of moral character for both men
and women. In Denmark, Sweden, and Norway during the 18803 and 18903, a noted

commitment to philanthropic work focused speciﬁcally on “preventative philanthropy” —

 

62 Ibid, 8-9.
63 Ibid, 20-23.
6“ Ibid, 53.

108

a term used to distinguish the commitment of men’s and women’s reform groups who
worked to protect children from the dangers of society. Such organizations created outlets
for self help, charity, nursing and medical care, prison discipline, poor mothers, and
mission service (focused on piety, morality, and temperance). Particularly, Swedish
women and men are historically known for their work in various temperance
organizations in America and throughout Europe as they noted a signiﬁcant problem that
linked Scandinavians to drink. Mostly Lutheran-based, these organizations sought to
combat the problems connected to alcohol consumption from various directions, targeting
Scandinavians of all ages, class positions, and both sexes. Even the Women’s Committee
noted in their catalogue that, “as a rule, the Swedish woman is temperate, though sad
exceptions exist. Of the whole number of persons found guilty of drunkenness in the
years 1870-1889, 2.6% were women, and, during the same time, of 2,208 alcoholic
patients among the poor, 7.7% were women. Among the 902 persons who died in
Stockholm from 1861-1888 of alcoholism, 6.2 or 6.7% were women.”65 Therefore, while
the numbers reﬂected a very small component of women who regularly imbibed alcohol,
the Committee still felt that it was necessary to publish the numbers of those who did as a
word of caution to those who could potentially fall onto the same path.

The Women’s Committee speciﬁed within their catalogue a detailed outline of
measures taken to ﬁght immorality and prostitution in Sweden between 1879 and 1891,
which included a federation fund for interest-free loans offered to young women to
prevent them from turning to prostitution; a refuge for servant girls which offered a cheap

home for girls arriving from rural areas; and a night shelter for homeless women that

 

65 Ibid, 44.

109

offered three succeeding nights of shelter for free.66 Similarly, there were reading rooms
and associations dedicated to assisting working men as well as women. One noted refuge
was the pavilion run by the Women’s Temperance Union called “The Workman’s
Friend,” situated in a Stockholm tramway terminus, where drivers, conductors, and other
working men could obtain coffee, tea and sandwiches at a low price.67 The majority of
these shelters and others like them were located in the major industrial regions and port
towns of Scandinavia, including Stockholm, Christiana, Upsala, Gothenburg, and
Copenhagen, where the “adrift” gathered, much to the dismay of charitable and
progressive societies. However, the outreach campaign of several of these societies did
not end at the borders of Scandinavia; one refuge, “The Scandinavian Sailors’
Temperance Home in London,” sought to extend charity to Scandinavian men in order to
maintain the moral character and integrity of their nation of origin, even in remote
locations. The mission home, called “Strangers’ Rest” and situated near the London
Docks, was run by Mrs. Agnes Hedenstrom Welin who began her work in 1878 with
Scandinavian sailors who she sought to lead in better directions. As she recounted, her
ﬁrst goal was to “rescue” them from the hands of their “destroyers,” including grog-shops
and dancing saloons, which were eventually forced to close due to lack of business from
their now reformed customers. As this dedication to moral uplift and appropriate
behavior spread amongst Scandinavian sailors who docked in London, Welin’s “Swedish
Room” at the Strangers’ Rest soon became a favorite resort for seamen of other
nationalities, as well as visiting Scandinavians.68 Based on this perspective, the Royal

Swedish Commission hoped that Americans would come to recognize Scandinavians as

 

6“ Ibid, 423.
6’ Ibid, 47.
68 Ibid.

110

largely moral and upright citizens of society, and therefore capable of blending into
society and “becoming” American. Yet, as the Swedish Catalogue of the World ’s
Columbian Exposition would show, the fair marked the beginning of a sort of confusion
as to a distinct Scandinavian identity from an American perspective.

On display at the Exposition, the State, National, and Foreign Government
exhibits, presented by the Nordiska Museet (The Ethnographical Museum of the North),
created displays intended to “illustrate in the best manner possible the life and culture of
the Scandinavian nations in past times.”69 The series of exhibits, with a large
concentration on Swedish peasantry and life, featured some of the brightly colored and
intricately detailed folk-costumes of Scandinavia, which were quite possible the most
integral display of Scandinavian culture in American memory. The exhibits represented
the twenty-ﬁve provinces (historical, geographical, and cultural divisions rather than
political) of Sweden, which Swedes and Norwegians regularly engaged in discussions of
cultural distinction, and therefore interpreted as outward reﬂections of their character to
Americans. Furthermore, many of the exhibitions contained reﬂections of Scandinavians
as ﬂirtatious, somewhat sexualized, and in many ways “backwards” as a society in
relation to American cultural representations, especially in regards to women. In one
display, young girls from Osteraker in the province of Sodermanland entitled “Yes, No,
Yes, No,” represented two young girls who, according to the catalogue, “consult the ox-
eye-daisy regarding a love-affair.” The catalogue went onto note that the costume itself, a
summer-dress worn by young girls as late as the 18603 “is one of the handsomest ever

found amongst the Swedish peasantry.”7O In another display entitled “Hosta-grebba”

 

69 -
Ibid.
70 World’s Columbian Exposition Swedish Catalogue, 60.

111

 

(harvest girl), a young girl from the district of Herrestad in the province of Scania
appeared, by comparison, to be more scantily clad — her dress, which consisted of a
chemise only, was commonly used for outdoors farm work during harvest time.
Unmarried women (a “sort of stock” noted the catalogue) would adorn their simple
sheaths with a knitted woolen ribbon and head gear made of colored kerchiefs to indicate
their status as single women to the young men who would pursue them during
rrridsommar and harvest celebrations.71 After the fair, these and other representations of
Nordic physical and behavioral traits would be openly negotiated within the media and
the public spaces of Chicago. At the dawning of a new era, the signiﬁcance of the
displays of the fair, coupled with the emergence of a fresh image of what constituted
beauty within American society would place Scandinavian women and men at the

forefront of a deﬁnitive discourse on gender, culture, and society.

American Consumer Culture built upon a New Esthetic of Beauty

In the aftermath of the fair, a signiﬁcant cultural shift took place that would shape
the image and ideology of the “ideal” woman in American society. Historian Lois Banner
noted this shift in image from what she deemed the “voluptuous woman” of the
Postbellum era to that of Charles Dana Gibson’s iconic “Gibson girl” as a successful
challenge to European hegemony over popular standards of beauty. Between 1800 and
the 18908, two contrasting images of feminine beauty dominated cultural standards for

women; as Banner described, during the antebellum years the “frail, pale, willowy

 

7' World’s Columbian Exposition Swedish Catalogue, 61.

112

woman enshrined in the lithographs of fashion magazines” was the norm, but during the
Civil War era, the former was challenged by a “buxom, hearty, and heavy model of
beauty.”72 She attributed this shift to the inﬂuence of a popular burlesque troupe known
as the “British Blondes”; led by an audacious British Showgirl, Lydia Thompson, the
troupe’s comic plays entertained working- to middle-class Americans by making fun of
(or “burlesquing”) the operas and social habits of the upper classes.73 During these
comedic performances, the shapely troupe of women would play men’s roles in tights and
what were then considered skimpy costumes — a great departure from the bustles, hoops
and frills that kept the female body of the Victorian era hidden. However, what
Americans found most fascinating about the British Blondes was their blonde hair, to the
extent that audience demand prompted several members of the troupe with darkish hair to
don blonde wigs. Banner attributed this fascination to the small number of blondes in the
United States in the 18605, but regardless, blonde hair was generally in vogue as
portrayed by the popularity of the British Blondes." Over the course of the 18905, this
fascination would return and grow with the advent of a burgeoning beauty industry that
offered women the chance to improve upon their physical appearance.

As the World’s Columbian Exposition exhibited, a popular health movement and

a new athleticism prevailed in the 18905, in effect shifting standards of beauty away from

 

72 Banner divides her study of the history of “American beauty” into four major periods between 1800 and
1921: the antebellum years, the Civil War era, the era of the Gibson girl, “whose vogue was superseded in
the 19103 by a small, boyish model of beauty — the “ﬂapper model.” See Lois Banner, American Beauty: A
Social History Through Two Centuries of the American Idea, Ideal, and Image of the Beautiful Woman
(New York: Knopf, 1983): 5.

73 Americans of the 19’h century made use of the term “burlesque” in reference to a spoof or farce rather
than how it is used contemporarily to refer to a provocative dance form. Historian Robert Allen noted the
signiﬁcance of burlesque’s legacy as a cultural form as it established patterns of gender representation that
changed the role and “place” of woman in American society. See Robert G. Allen, Horrible Prettiness:
Burlesque and American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991): 258-59; Banner,
7" Banner, 124.

113

the “voluptuous woman” of the postbellum era to instead focus on healthy bodies and
natural beauty. Charles Dana Gibson’s drawings reﬂected this new standard of beauty,
which ﬁrst appeared in Life magazine in 1890. According to Gibson’s “girls” the “ideal”
in feminine beauty included a slimmer ﬁgure than that the “voluptuous woman,” an
appreciation for athleticism, and a dedication to comfort in clothing. Like many important
cultural models, the Gibson girl appeared to represent a number of styles to different
groups of women. The blouses and skirts she wore for athletic activities appealed to
female reformers like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who wrote that the Gibson girl was
“braver, stronger, more healthful and skillful and able and free, more human in all
ways.”75 From another perspective, the working classes also claimed the Gibson girl as
one of their own. Journalists were often haunted by the question of Gibson’s original
model for the ﬁgure; as Banner revealed, Gibson would not comply with the demands of
journalists to know who his vision encompassed, and therefore, reporters were even more
determined to ﬁnd the original model amongst the working classes in order to
“demonstrate that the wealthy were not the sole possessors of beauty, that beauty, in the
end, was democratic.”76 In actuality, Gibson’s creation of an ideal female type originated
from the months he spent studying as an artist in Paris. After a relatively negative
experience focusing on the Dutch masters, Gibson concluded that he did not like their
portrayals of heavy, voluptuous woman; upon his return to the United States, Gibson told
his sister that he was “determined to sell the American way” by depicting American

female form as athletic and natural.77 Regardless of who Gibson intended as his

 

7’ Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics, ed. Carl N. Degler (New York: Harper & Row,
1966): 148; Banner, 156.

7° Banner, 158.

77 Gibson Knowlton, Longield: The House on the Neck (Providence: Oxford Press, 1956): 31 l.

114

prototypical “girl,” his illustrations appeared to perfectly match the young, athletically-
minded Scandinavian women who were increasingly becoming the topic of great
discussion in Chicago during the late-18903 and into the next century.

In the early stages of the developing cosmetics industry in the 18905, as Kathy
Peiss found, women were largely responsible for the formulation and organization of an
emerging “beauty culture” to a remarkable extent. Both Peiss and Nan Enstad
emphasized the importance of immigrant and working class women as entrepreneurs in

this “beauty culture,” who played a surprisingly central role in redeﬁning mainstream

ideals of beauty and femininity into the 20th century.78 By the turn of the century, it

became increasingly acceptable for women of all classes to venture outside of the home
for public entertainment and leisure — therefore, the meaning of being visible in the
public sphere changed the ways that women viewed themselves and others. For many
women of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, the notion of using cosmetic products to
enhance or reshape their physical appearance to meet American standards of beauty
meant the possibility to blend into mainstream society. While this was true for many
groups of women, those who had the lightest features were actually placed in the
forefront as the models of beauty according to popular cosmetic trends and media
portrayals. One example of this trend was the invention of a new product in the midst of
the explosion of cosmetics introduced to female consumers: bleach. Female consumers

who made use of hydrogen peroxide and bleach as household cleaning products were

 

78 For further discussion of the use of cosmetic goods by female immigrant consumers, see Kathy Peiss,
Hope in a Jar: The Making of America ’5 Beauty Culture (New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998): 4-5; Nan
Enstad, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working Women, Popular C ulture, and Labor Politics at the
T urn of the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999): 61, 95, 215n20, 229n18;
Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Class Women and Leisure in Turn-of—the-Century New York
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986): 56-87.

115

warned of the potential of those products for changing the color of fabrics. The hair-
bleaching properties of hydrogen peroxide were ﬁrst discovered by actresses who hoped
to replicate the new image of feminine sensuality introduced by the “British Blondes”
who combined purity and voluptuousness with their iconic light features.79 Inﬂuenced by
displays at the World’s Columbian Exposition and trends practiced by the modern
American woman, Sears Roebuck introduced a new product in 1896 to female consumers
in the pages of its’ catalog: a liquid, hydrogen peroxide-based cosmetic product that
promised to transform even the deepest tresses into ﬂaxen locks.80

Additionally, women with darker skins tones could choose to lighten their skin
with a variety of products. These products held a dual purpose for immigrant and
working class women; for them, cosmetics and paints marked distinctions between and
within social classes in a time when white racial beauty was considered superior and
civilized.“ One Scandinavian retailer in Chicago recognized the demand for products that
would change the skin tone and color of women who desired to have more Nordic
features. In an advertisement, Ele'n Maria Nordic offered women a return to the days of
“creamy, ﬂawless complexions enjoyed by the world renowned beauties in the court of
King Gustav III of Sweden.”82 By using these tissue creams, cleansing oils, and

astringents, Chicago’s female population could highlight the same admired features as

 

79 Banner, 124.

so On an interesting note, at the same time Chicago’s Sears Roebuck introduced peroxide for use dyeing
hair blonde, the company simultaneously sold blonde wigs and hair pieces made from real hair at a
premium. While the brunette and black-haired pieces sold for $1.00, blonde and grey-haired wigs sold for
anywhere from $1.50 to $2.00. Sears Roebuck & Company Catalog, June 1896.

8' Kathy Peiss explained of this process, that “because appearance and character were considered to be
commensurate, the beauty of white skin expressed Anglo-Saxon virtue and civilization,” thereby equating
whiteness with a civilized demeanor for women. See Peiss, Hope in a Jar, 31.

82 Advertisement from the pages of the newsletter of the Nordic Country Club, “The Nordic Fairway,”
Nordic Country Club Records, 1924-1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #6, Periodicals 1925-
29, F. M. Johnson Archives and Special Collections at North Park University, Chicago, IL.

116

their Scandinavian neighbors - a promise made to both Scandinavian and American
consumers in the pages of Chicago’s various periodicals. For women who used these
products to bleach their hair and skin, the choice to manipulate their appearance in such
as drastic way to conform to a new ideal of femininity was signiﬁcant; this physical
change would later be linked to a set of stereotypes based on the selective actions of
women who replicated these features.83 While the invention of this singular product and
resulting practice of physical manipulation would later explode into a contemporary
feminist debate over female identity and character, it was clear that at the edge of a new
century, Americans were in the midst of a transformation that placed the attainment of
“Nordic” features as a priority.

In the years following the Exposition, American consumers began to pay attention
to some of the novelty products from the Scandinavian countries; as one article in the
New York Times noted, until the World’s Columbian Exposition, there was no established
Scandinavian center for the distribution of the countries’ goods in America. After the fair,
one of the Swedish Commissioners made a decisive move to create a center that would
make available products from the “land of the midnight sun” to Americans who desired
“something novel” in their homes.84 As the author of the article noted, urban dwellers of
the upper classes were aware of the positive qualities of Swedes their handicrafts from
the Exposition: “We know Sweden as the home of the wood sloyd work. We are familiar

with Swedish gymnastics; recognize a graduate from a Swedish school of domestic

 

8’ In the years following the modern women’s movement, a lively debate has emerged that links the essence
of “becoming” blonde to a negotiated and tangible persona. One of the most fascinating contemporary
feminist debates originated from a multimedia interactive exhibition, “Blonde,” which invited visitors to
explore the notion of blonde not just as a hair color but as a state of mind. For further discussion of this
exhibit see Jane Round, “Altogether Different: From Black to Blonde and Back Again,” Feminist Review,
no. 81, Bodily Interventions (2005): 105-08.

8" “Novelties from Sweden: Quaint Wares which have come into popular favor,” New York Times, October
1,1899, pg. 21.

117

science as a household treasure, and when a Swedish artist shows us how to carve wood
we know it is well done.”85 The author went on to further recognize the positive qualities
of Swedish women noted from the Exposition displays, and described the Swedish
woman as “more independent than the majority of European [women]. . .she is able to
take care of herself, travels alone, is well educated, and is more frequently than not
educated to support herself if need be. She often does make her own living, even though
she belongs to a good family, and is in good circumstances.”86 At the same time,
Chicago’s newspapers began to echo a similar preference for Scandinavian women; in
one article, the author joked that the legal age at marriage be lowered especially for
Swedish women while another found Danish women to be the most beautiﬁrl of the city’s
Scandinavians.87 Over the course of the following decade, Chicago’s newspapers would
expand upon this vital concept of Scandinavian beauty and preferred physical attributes,

thereby forming a new standard of feminine identity at the dawn of the modern era.

Scandinavian Culture, Nordic Identity, and the Urban Media

At the turn of the century, the formation of the “urban celebrity” — a social darling
of the media whose only real accomplishments entailed marrying well and remaining
visible in the public spotlight — had begun in both Chicago and New York. These urban
celebrities preceded the famed inge'nues of ﬁlm or the cabaret girls and performers of the

Ziegfeld follies and were the standard media fodder of the day. Female readers were able

 

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 “Marriageable age for Swedish Women,” Chicago Tribune, February 6, 1892; “The Wonderful Blonde
Beauties of Denmark,” Chicago Tribune, January 8, 1905.

118

to follow the everyday activities of their favorite social debutants through the gossip
columns of their newspapers, which would often focus on large events such as weddings
or romantic scandals. One such section in the Chicago Tribune featured “Gossip from
Gotham” to its readers who sought to follow the urban celebrities of the city often
epitomized for its glamour and cosmopolitanism. In February 1898, the section, which
reported the courtship of Nellie Neustretter by railroad mogul William K. Vanderbilt, was
quick to equate Neustretter’s “beautiful face and wondrous eyes” with her Swedish
ancestry:
“Nellie Neustretter, who has had all Paris at her feet, is in New York, it is said,
and living in luxurious apartments in an up-town street. In all of history of mad,
extravagant, heartless Paris no other woman has played the dizzy part that has
fallen to the lot of this beauty. Nellie Neustretter is a rather tall blonde of 28 or 29
years. She is part Swedish, and is known as the luckiest woman in Paris. William
K. Vanderbilt met her in Paris ﬁve years ago, and was at once smitten with her
beauty.”88
Continuing with the air of scandal, the Chicago Tribune reported Neustretter’s
pairing with Vanderbilt much to the dismay of his wife who immediately separated from
him upon word in America of the pairing. Despite the reported adultery committed by
Neustretter and Vanderbilt, the author carefully omitted any suggestion of wrong-doing
on the part of Neustretter. In another less scandalous pairing within the city, the Chicago
Tribune reported in April 1903 of the “romantic marriage” of Miss Lotten Lillieberg,
described as “a cultivated woman of the highest type of Swedish beauty” and “highly
connected in Sweden,” to Judge Arthur Henry Chetlain of the Cook County Superior

Court. The couple, who met when Lillieberg worked as a companion to Chetlain’s

mother, secretly married and kept the family in the dark until the newspapers reported the

 

88 “Other Gossip from Gotham: Nellie Neustretter in New York,” Chicago Tribune, February 10, 1898.

119

marriage in the society columns.89 While it is unclear as to why the couple kept their
marriage a secret, one indication from the article points to the fact that the careful
wording of “companion” may have stood in place of “domestic” — despite the level of
“connection” Lillieberg had in Sweden, the marriage of a domestic servant to a high-
standing public ofﬁcial could have potentially led to undesired gossip for the Chetlain
family. Other articles featured in the pages of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily
News focused on the more casual pairings of society ﬁgures, nevertheless reporting every
detail of the background of the bride and groom to their country of origin. An article
published in July 1907 reported the pairing of Miss Ingeborg Katherine Grace Bade,
described as “one of the leading society belles of the Norwegian capital,” to Dr. Anders
Frick, an established Chicago doctor and “member of an aristocratic family in Malmo,
Sweden.” The couple, who met in Chicago when Bade was traveling with the members of
the student chorus of the University of Christiania, would publicly create a symbolic
importance through their union, which Chicago’s newspapers enthusiastically noted as an
“international alliance” between Norway and Sweden.90 Each society column that
featured women of Scandinavian descent contained an underlying discourse focused on
their physical attributes as a factor in their social positions in addition to their status
inherent in familial standing. For women who read Chicago’s society columns, one
message was clear — while societal standing was a signiﬁcant component in climbing the

social ladder, the attainment of physical beauty could greatly enhance the possibility of

“marrying up.”

 

89 “This is my birthday — A romantic marriage: Miss Lotten Lillieberg,” Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1903.
90 “Norwegian Belle is to Wed 3 Swede,” Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1907, pg. 6; the article was also
reported in the Chicago Daily News on the same day.

120

The era of the Gibson girl represented a general American fascination with the
female ﬁgure on public display — in connection to this created public personality formed
by the media, a new form of pageantry took the stage around the turn of the century.
Women in America had taken part in beauty pageants ever since Phineas T. Barnum held
the ﬁrst public display of women’s faces and ﬁgures before a panel of judges in 1854.
Signiﬁcantly, Barnum ﬁrst used the concept of the beauty pageant as a display of female
beauty as a showpiece of Swedish songstress Jenny Lind; Barnum praised Lind as a
“mantle of moral respectability,” according to Lois Banner, yet he held an equal
fascination with the regular newspaper accounts of noted New York City beauties.91
Despite the lavish prizes Barnum offered to the winners of his public pageants, potential
contestants were difﬁcult to come by during an era which prized female presence in the
home and dissuaded her from the public stage. For Barnum, the concept of the
photographic beauty pageant was much more of a success; women who feared
association with those of disreputable social standing were much more inclined to
participate in media promotional devices that portrayed them as society beauties.
Between the 18503 and the 18905, newspapers across the country regularly held
photographic beauty contests, which remained a staple long into the 19208. However, it
was not until the World’s Columbian Exposition that the public beauty pageant would
gain credibility as a morally acceptable activity for young female participants. At the
World’s Columbian Exposition, alongside the buildings which housed statues of classical

female goddesses, featured international displays like those of Sweden and Norway

 

9' Banner stated that Barnum ﬁrst began the public beauty contest upon his realization of the “powerful
appeal of beautiful women to their audiences,” and initially failed to realize the amount of moral opposition
the public would display in protest of such public displays of the female form. For further context on the
history of pageantry and female beauty, see Banner, American Beauty, 255-57.

121

 

placed female participants on the public stage as a symbol of proud cultural heritage in
America and in the homeland. One featured display, the Congress of Beauty, comprised
of young women from various countries represented at the fair dressed in the folk
costumes of their native lands, became one of the most widely visited displays at the
fair.92 After the fair, public commentators came to realize the signiﬁcance in the
popularity of this and other public displays of the female form, thereby resulting in the
modern day beauty pageant.

Despite the push for further beauty pageants, Europeans were the ﬁrst to truly
accept the notion of female beauty on public display. Nevertheless, Chicago’s
newspapers were quick to report the minute details of such cosmopolitan beauty
pageants, especially those focused on international beauties. One such contest held by a
popular French magazine carefully illustrated the virtues of its various international
beauties; in catering to its readers the Chicago Tribune paid particularly close attention to
the Norwegian and Danish contestants. The Tribune described the small Norwegian with
a French name, Hugues Le Roux, as a “blonde beauty” who nevertheless lacked a sense
of style which the author unfortunately mistook as representative of all Norwegian
women. Despite this fashion faux pas, the author found Le Roux to be equal in feminine
beauty to her Scandinavian counterpart Adolphe Brisson —- a Danish girl who showed a
great sense of poise that inﬂuenced the author to describe the young Scandinavian girl as
“more interesting” than a “grown American woman.”93 A similar international pageant

inquired as to which Scandinavian country would prove to have the “world’s most

 

92 For further discussion of the Congress of Beauty see David Berg, Chicago 's White City of 1893
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1982): 218; Banner, American Beauty, 259; Ellen Strain, Public
Places, Private Journeys: Ethnography, Entertainment, and the Tourist Gaze (New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 2003): 55.

93 “Paris excited over a beauty contest of all nations,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1903, pg. 53.

122

beautiful living woman” —— Sweden or Norway? As the Chicago Tribune would point out,

the most beautiful woman would surely be found in one of these two countries, regardless
of the fact that the pageant accounted for women of countries from all over the world.
The remaining contestants were both described as “slender, straight, and well developed,”
but the author speciﬁcally noted his surprise over the physical appearance of the Swedish
contestant; she was not “blue eyed” or “light haired” as he assumed, but instead “a
woman of ﬁnely chiseled, severe features, with eyes the depth and color of the wonderful
dark blue mountain lakes, and with heavy, generally dark hair.”94 In June, the judges of
the international contest decided upon the Norwegian beauty, who they described to the
press as “of the purest Norwegian type and is a girl of great charm as well as beauty.”95
While it may never be known whether or not the aberrant features of the Swedish
contestant resulted in her loss of the title of “the World’s Most Beautiful Living

Woman,” it is clear that the media played a signiﬁcant role in determining public opinion

in relation to female beauty at the turn of the century and beyond.

Around the same time in Chicago, the reported beauty pageants in sophisticated
European cities like Paris encouraged immi grant communities to hold their own
“international” displays on a much smaller scale. Later that June, the Swedish Society’s
cenﬁal Association for the Old People’s Home held a local beauty contest that resulted in
an embarrassing outcome. The pageant held at the Society’s annual picnic at Park Ridge
so“ght to decide upon the “prettiest Swedish girl in Chicago”; naturally, upon
announcement of the contest, the picnic’s attendance more than doubled to over 6,000

atte’rrdees. After the pageantry, the judges announced six ﬁnalists, but due to the

 

 

94 “Will the World’s Most Beautiful Living Woman be found in Sweden or Norway?” Chicago Tribune,
January 19, 1908, article 3.

5“Most Beautiful Woman in Norway,” Chicago Tribune, June 18, 1908, pg. 21.

123

Contestants’ comeliness, the judges could not agree upon a winner, resulting in a
deadlock. The head judge jokingly declared: “We will bring beauty experts to our next
picnic, and with their aid will make the award.”96 While the local Swedish community
ins inuated that Swedish women were, indeed, the most beautiful in the city, several
Chicagoans continued to instead ﬁnd beauty in all Scandinavian women. In another
report of a national beauty contest, the author posited that Chicago’s Scandinavians were
the most beautiful women in the world:

“The reason of Chicago’s eminence in the beauty world is not far to seek.
Chicago is the most cosmopolitan city on the globe, and the result of the contest
shows all the types of world beauties. . .Chicago has all these national types of
beauty, heightened by the mental and physical perfections of the Chicago spirit
and the Chicago climate. ..Scandinavian beauties more radiant than any that
bloom along the ﬁords of the North sea or the bay of Bothnia [are found here].
Nowhere in Europe may be found a local type of loveliness that may not be
surpassed here.”9
In March 1912, a Chicago beauty pageant asked the public to be the judge in determining
“Chicago’s most beautiful working girls;” the contest counted Miss Goldie Johnson, a
SW6d ish saleswoman in Marshall Field & Co.’s candle shade section as one of its
cor-rte stants. In an interesting illustration, the Chicago Tribune pointed out that Johnson
did not have “typical” Swedish features and instead described Johnson as having a “mass

0f1i ght brown hair, big brown eyes emphasized by ﬁnely penciled brows, [and] a pretty

month,” but pointed out her Nordic complexion “that would make any beauty parlor

 

 

96 “Judges unable to decide Swedish beauty contest; Embarrassment of Comeliness Results in a Deadlock
and young women must wait for the next picnic,” Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1903, pg. 4.
97“Here are the Rest of the 96 Prize Winning Beauties. Is the Most Beautiful of All Among Them?”

Chicago Tribune, February 10, 1907, pg. 16.

124

f'an‘lous.”98 Chicagoans and Scandinavians would continue to form opinions about what
feminine traits and features were considered beautiful as the city’s newspapers and

periodicals reﬂected such public discourse — both positive and negative.

Conclusion

In 1901, ON. Nelson asked a professor at the University of Minnesota about his

impressions of the behavioral characteristics of Scandinavians — a group the professor
was very familiar with at a university and city comprised largely of Scandinavians. To
Nelson’s inquiry, the professor commented: “the Scandinavians, with all their virtues, are
not without faults. They are often narrow-minded, in the city sometimes clannish and
given to making demands, political and social, as Scandinavian-Americans. The Swede is
frequently jealous of the Norwegian, and vice versa. But as a class they are sober,
eall'nest, industrious, and frugal.”99 Nelson built upon his interviewee’s comments,
breaking down his own perspective on the speciﬁc characteristics that came to mind
when he considered Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians separately as national groups.
Nelson described Danish islanders (including southern Swedes in Skéne and Blekinge) as
“Open and frank, easy to become acquainted with, polite to strangers, not specially witty,
bl“ reﬁned and polished in their intercourse with other people,” and found them to be

indllstrious, frugal, peaceful, and held a great amount of energy and shrewd business

 

 

98 6;

Are these Chicago’s most beautiful working girls? Do you know of any more beautiful?” Chicago
gribune, March 10, 1912, pg. G4.

0.N. Nelson unfortunately left his source as anonymous, yet noted in his text that he was a prominent

scholar and respected Scandinavian-American at the University of Minnesota, giving credit to his opinion
as a notable commentator on the subject. See Nelson, 65.

125

tag ties.100 In comparison to Norwegians, Nelson did not view Danes as agitators or
ex tremists, nor as “aristocratic and conservative” as northern Swedes, but instead a
careful combination of both Swedes and Norwegians in behavioral composition.101 In
consideration of Swedes, Nelson painted the group as generally reserved, difﬁcult to
become acquainted with, and in many ways, as viewing themselves as part of an older
aristocracy, and therefore above the other two groups. Speaking speciﬁcally of the
Swedish man, Nelson noted that “he is proud of his country, its history, and himself. . .he
mu st dress well, comply rigorously with the latest rules of etiquette, and drink the most
expensive wine. He has a large assortment of bows, bobs, courtesies, and hat-liftings,
varying according to the age, condition, and class distinction.”102 Because of these
behavioral characteristics, the distinction between classes in Sweden, Nelson explained,
was far greater and varied more than any of the other Scandinavian countries.

Ending his description with a ﬁnal witty jab at his own group, Nelson pointed out
that to many other Scandinavians (and Europeans as a whole), Swedes were often called
the “Frenchmen of the North” for their snobby air and distinctive reﬁned tastes.’O3 In
comp arison to Swedes and Danes, Norwegians, Nelson found, were far less ceremonious
and held very little class distinction amongst them. If a Norwegian happened upon a
stran ger, they would be treated, according to Nelson, with a certain kind of cold courtesy
described more as a casualty of shyness than rudeness. Above all, Norwegians were

“independent, somewhat haughty, radical, progressive, extreme, and above all,

100

Ibid, 24.

Ibid.

103 Ibid.
Ibid.

102

126

 

Norwegians. . .called the Englishmen of the North.’”04 Despite all of his characterizations,
Nelson only brieﬂy noted the fact that his ﬁndings were based on his own observations as
a swede. As Nelson’s discussion would show, a new Nordic identity was forged in the
shadow of the World’s Columbian Exposition — one that continued to be negotiated by

Scandinavians and Americans alike. At the commencement of a new century — one that
woul d encompass all that is soon-to—be modern —— Chicagoans were unknowingly perched
on the edge of social and physical change for their city. As this chapter has investigated,
there was a signiﬁcant process undertaken by Scandinavians and their neighbors in
distinguishing social perceptions on racial and ethnic identity around the turn of the
century. The process of selection was negotiated by both groups, however for
Scandinavians, the process of identity formation turned in their favor as native
Chicagoans came to prefer Nordic immigrants over other groups based on a set of
Physical and behavioral characteristics. After both groups determined the basis of a
“Preferred” immi grant class, these ideological discussions would expand to include the
Process and experience of work. The combination of these thematic discussions would
continue to inﬂuence the lives of Chicago’s Scandinavians into the 19103, as many found

thenlselves faced with societal pressures to live up to the images Chicagoans created for

them, and those which they created for themselves.

104

Ibid.

127

 

Chapter Three

“Everywhere were Swedish women, much sought after and well paid”:
Scandinavians, Domestic Service, and the Experience of Work in Chicago

In 1912, after his travels to the United States, Swedish author Johan Person
dedi cated a chapter of his book, Svensk—Amerikanska Studier, to “Our Serving Sister[s]”
— Swedish domestics who, he believed, were the pride of the country. By this time,
according to Person, employers and the media in Chicago came to view Sweden and the
other Scandinavian countries as “nation[s] of servants — most domestic, happy, willing to
work, friendly and beautiful servant girls.”1 In his piece, Person went on to further boast
that Scandinavian girls were “much more popular” than any other immi grant group in
domestic employment as many American families counted Swedes and other “service
girls” as their “favorites.” Not only were Scandinavian women an asset to families who
were lucky enough to employ them, but they were also good citizens in the eyes of their
comrrmnity; as Person emphasized, “the Swedish-American newspapers count them as
their best subscribers, the Swedish-American churches as their best members, and
SWeClish-Americans in general, we believe, as their “best girls.”2 One US. study showed
that Person’s observations were not just another example of national pride; next to
Amel‘ican-bom servants, American employers showed comparatively high preference for
Scatldinavians to work in their homes because they had gained a reputation for being

“honest, diligent, and hard-working, willing to learn and they were seldom

 

 

I Johan Person, “Den Tjanande System” (Our Serving Sister”), in Svensk-Amerikanska Studier (Rock
Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1912) Translations mine, 106.
’ Ibid, 104.

128

 

complaining?’ Scandinavian women came to Chicago well-prepared, with extensive

in formation on working conditions and wages they could expect to receive for their work
Most importantly, as this stream of single young women arrived in the city between the
18 8 Os and the 19 1 Os, many were admittedly conscious of their value and took full
advantage of the preferential status established by employers and their own communities.
For Scandinavians, the experience of domestic service offered a chance to become versed
in the characteristics of a “real lady,” live in one of the palatial homes of Chicago’s
affluent North Shore region, and potentially move up the social ladder through their
comparatively high earnings as domestics. Stina Hirsch, whose family worked as
domestics in some of the most beautiful North Shore homes, recalled that their
experiences as domestics inﬂuenced their values, habits, styles, and behaviors as they
acquired tastes “they could hardly afford.” Nevertheless, Hirsch admitted that these were
the qualities “that seemed to distinguish live-in Swedish domestics from any other group
of immigrants” and on Chicago’s North Shore, “everywhere were Swedish women, much
sought after and well paid.”4 The favorable experiences of Scandinavian domestic
serv ants in Chicago offer a vital illustration of preferential treatment on a larger scale
affoI‘ded to Scandinavian workers, and to their children as second-generation ethnics.

Domestic service is an occupation that is given an extensive amount of attention

Within the historiography of women, immigration, and labor as the position lends itself to

 

 

3 U -S. Senate, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Occupations of the First and Second Generation of
Immigrants in the United States (Washington DC, 1911): 71. Another localized study of Minnesota’s
mmligrant workers reﬂected a similar preference for Scandinavian domestics amongst American
employers, who applauded their servants for their hard work and their willingness to learn English. See
Firs; Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of Minnesota for the Two Years Ending
PeCember 31, [887-88 (St. Paul: thos. A. Clark, 1888): 157, 154, 165, 160.
As discussed in chapter two, Stina Hirsch’s thesis serves as a vital primary source in detailing the

experiences of herself and her family members as Swedish domestic servants on Chicago’s North Shore at
the turn of the century. See Stina Hirsch, “The Swedish Maid: 1900-1915,” 5.

129

 

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a vibrant discussion on various themes including class conﬂict, gender relations, and the

effects of industrialization. Prior to David Katzman’s seminal work, Seven Days a Week,
and the study of “new social history,” historians had only looked superﬁcially at the
posi tion, yet Katzman brought signiﬁcant attention to the dynamics of domestic service, a
posi tion he referred to as “the last pre-modem occupation” and also the most prevalent
form of women’s paid labor prior to 1900.5 Katzman’s early work emphasized the
negative connotations associated with domestic service as his study argued that while
servants’ wages and living conditions were equal or better than those of female factory
workers, domestic service was generally looked down upon by working class women and

servants themselves, stressing the incompatibility of live-in service with modern values.6

5 Some of the more prevalent studies on domestic service and female immigrants published prior to
Katzman’s work include a number of studies dedicated to Irish domestics — a group associated with
domestic service as much, if not more, than Scandinavian women — as well as Italians, and African
Americans. However, as Katzman explained, the study of African American domestics in the north was,
Prior to 1978, still an incredibly understudied topic due to the combination of an absence of contemporary
research in the area and the historical invisibility of such workers. Therefore, the majority of studies
fwailable on African American domestics in northern cities were limited to sociological studies conducted
1n the 19205, aside from a select number of monographs. For a few notable examples of studies on
domestic service published before 1978, see Oscar Handlin, Boston’s Immigrants: A Study in Acculturation
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941); Blaine e. McKinley, “‘Strangers in the gates’: Employer
Reac ti ons Towards Domestic Servants in America, 1825-1875 (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State
UmVersity, 1969); Douglas V. Shaw, The Making of An Immigrant City: Ethnic and Cultural Conflict in
Jersey City, New Jersey, I 850-] 87 7 (New York, 1976); Virginia Yans McLaughlin, Family and
COWMunity: Italian Immigrants in Buffalo, I880-1930(lthaca: Cornell University Press, 1977); Elizabeth
ROSS Haynes, “Negroes in Domestic Service in the United States,” (M.A. thesis, Columbia University,
1923); Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago (Chicago, 1922); David Katzman,
Before the Ghetto: Black Detroit in the Nineteenth Century (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois
Press’ 1973). See also David Katzman, Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in
Ind zurtrrializing America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978): vii-viii. The inﬂuence of Katzman’s
monograph was notable, and throughout the 19805 and 19905, a number of studies dedicated to the study of
do“lestic work and household labor in America helped to expand the historiography of an occupation with
great depth. Some useﬁrl studies include Daniel E. Sutherland, Americans and Their Servants (Baton
Rogue, LA, 1981); Susan Strasser, Never Done: A History of American Housework (New York, 1982);
Faye E. Dudden, Serving Women: Household Service in Industrial America (Middletown, Conn., 1983);
H'aSia Diner, Erin 's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century (Baltimore:
JOhr‘rs Hopkins University Press, 1983): 70-105; Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and
Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989);

Christine B.N. Chin, In Service and Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian
:Modernity ” Project (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
Katzman, Seven Days a Week, 44.

130

 

However, Katzman’s narrative not only failed to distinguish between the experiences of
native-born and immigrant domestics in its vast study, but also fell short in recognizing
the vital position Ulf Beijbom took on the occupation in his 1971 demographic study,

Swedes in Chicago. In his study, Beijbom instead found that Scandinavian women took
pride in their skills as potential domestics and showed great determination in locating
service positions prior to their arrival in Chicago. Beijbom would later argue in his
chapter, “The Promised Land for Swedish Maids,” that Katzman’s assertion, that
domestic service was looked down upon and rife with social stigmas, did not apply to
Scandinavian domestics, who instead were of “a sort of privileged class of working
women.”7
Historians of Scandinavian America, such as Beijbom, Joy Lintelman, and
Margareta Matovic would continue to build upon this notion of preference and privilege
in relation to Swedish domestics, culminating in Lintelman’s most recent work, I Go to
A’"er'ica, however none of these works successfully interrogate the signiﬁcance of urban
Space, American social mores, or the meanings of “privilege” in connection to the
Proposed ease in employment and work experience. Furthermore, these studies employ a
focused vision of Swedish domestic servants on a national level, detailing the opinions of
their communities towards their jobs, yet fail to examine the role of the larger ethnic

group or American opinion, in the experiences of domestics within a single city.8 My

 

 

7 U“ Beijbom, “The Promised Land for Swedish Maids,” in Swedes in America: Intercultural and

I'"erethnic Perspectives on Contemporary Research, ed. Ulf Beijbom (Véixjo, Sweden: The Swedish
Emigrant Institute Series, 1993):122; David Katzman, 143.
' The larger contribution of Scandinavians to the occupation of domestic service continues to be a topic that
15 understudied in comparison to other immigrant groups and African Americans. Furthermore, while the
Prototype of the “Swedish maid” has been deﬁned and redeﬁned by scholars like Ulf Beijbom and Joy
Lintelman, the speciﬁc experiences of Norwegian and Danish domestics are, to a large extent, omitted from
the historiography. For further examination, see Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago: A Demographic and Social
Study of the 1846-1880 Immigration (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1971); 172-73, 197; Odd

131

 

chapter looks to ﬁll these gaps in the historical narrative by examining the various
intersections of preference in employment as indicated by domestic servants in Chicago
and its outlying suburban enclaves between the 18805 and the 19105. This focused
examination of Scandinavian domestic servants in Chicago connects larger themes of
ethnic group identity, the larger meanings of work for Scandinavian men and women, and
the inﬂuence of elite Chicagoans in building such preferential ideologies in reference to
Scandinavians and their work. Furthermore, this chapter begins to investigate the issue of
agency in relation to the experience of work for Scandinavians. Whereas previous
standard works on women’s work limited the scope of worker agency within
employment, this study takes a different perspective to explore the notion of signiﬁcant
agency within what would seemingly be an oppressive workplace on the surface. Just as
the current historiography on American immigration focuses on active people who were
subjects of their own lives rather than objects of historical processes, it is vital to study
the experiences of this group of men and women as part of a larger process of personal
agency.

In an elite world that valued characteristics in their employees that would become
the leading catchwords for the Progressive movement — efﬁciency, expertise, beauty —
Chicago’s north shore residents would contribute a vital component of this story. Yet,

historians of urban Scandinavian-Americans have missed the opportunity to delve into

 

Lovoll, A Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before 1930 (Champaign, IL: University of
Illinois Press, 1988): 155-56; Joy Lintelman, “‘America is the woman’s promised land’: Swedish
Immigrant Women and American Domestic Service,” Journal of American Ethnic History, v. 8, n. 2
(Spring 1989): 9-23; Lintelman, “‘Our Serving Sisters’: Swedish-American Domestic Servants and their
Ethnic Community,” Social Science History, v. 15, n. 3 (Autumn 1991): 381-395; Beijbom, “The Promised
Land for Swedish Maids,” in Swedes in America, 110-125; Margareta Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class
Life: Swedish-American Women in Lake View,” in Peasant Maids — City Women: From the European
Countryside to Urban America ed. Christiane Harzig et. al. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,
1997): 261-298; Lintelman, I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson
(St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009): 92—134.

132

 

this intriguing world, where domestic work in any of these homes was highly valued and
placed at a premium by its workers. As Joy Lintelman previously indicated, Swedish
women ﬁ’equently changed employers and geographic location as “they chose positions
in domestic service as well as other occupations that offered them the best combination of
wages, working conditions, and time off.”9 Yet the question still remains: Why were
these women able to make choices in employment to a great extent than their immigrant
peers? And why were Scandinavian women eager to take such positions that were
considered to be “beneath” American women and other immigrant groups within the
“old” immigrant class? In answering these questions, a majority of the chapter focuses on
women in domestic service for two major reasons: ﬁrst, because of the importance of the
position as the most popular employment choice of single Scandinavian immigrant
women in Chicago and throughout America. As the Dillingham Commission reported in
its study of the US. Census of 1900, 62% of Swedish-bom and 75% of Norwegian-bom,
gainfully employed women worked in service positions at the turn of the century in
America, therefore, the signiﬁcance of this position is clear. '0 Second, work as a
domestic servant in Chicago provided many beneﬁts to Scandinavian women including
reasonable wages, security, English-acquisition, and a beneﬁcial social persona — all
factors that would positively affect their children in later years. And while the role of men
and their work were a vital contribution to later economic and social success,
Scandinavian domestic servants made use of their beneﬁcial positions to save money,

marry later, and provide for their families, later emphasizing the importance of education

 

9 Joy Lintelman, I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson (Minneapolis:
Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009): 94.

'0 As a note, the statistical information of Danish women working as domestic servants was combined with
Swedish and Norwegian statistics due to the comparatively smaller number of Danish female immigrants.
See Reports of the Immigration Commission, v. 1(New York, 1970): 830-38.

133

 

and cultural preservation to their children. As the editors of Swedes in America pointed
out, Scandinavian live-in servants often met better material conditions than newly arrived
men, and therefore had the capacity to contribute more to the community, and later to
their families through their earnings.11 Even more importantly, many Scandinavians took
domestic positions with clear goals of becoming a member of the modern urban
bourgeoisie of Chicago; Margareta Matovic emphasized this goal in her study of Swedish
women in Lake View who told of how they saved money for a respectable dowry, would
postpone marriage until they found a husband who met their standards, and would later
move to the middle-class section of Lake View to give their children a healthy, clean
environment to prosper within. ‘2

The chapter begins with a demographic study of the two most populated
Scandinavian communities in Chicago at the turn of the century as a contextual backdrop
to the larger experiences of Scandinavians and work. After establishing the demographics
of the community, the chapter focuses more directly on both sides of employment in

Chicago’s elite households — the American. perspective as employers and the

 

” The editors of Swedes in America speciﬁcally emphasized the vital importance of women in Swedish
communities throughout America at the turn of the century through their work as domestic servants, but
also through their work to preserve cultural traditions within their communities. “Women played a great
role for ethnicity,” they noted, as “both formal and informal expressions of Swedishness were supported
and often generated by females” through social clubs and programs, as well as a faithful readership of the
ethnic press amongst immigrant women. Furthermore, Joy Lintelman recently pointed out that while
gender, along with social class, race, time of migration and marital status, worked to shape immigrant
women’s experiences, she also considers women as historical actors in their own right -— not as suggested in
Vilhelm Mogerg’s classic work, that their experiences were largely shaped by the males in their lives.
While this study supports Lintelman’s position on the vital importance of immigrant women’s voices in
history, I argue that it is imperative to study the role of Scandinavian domestics within the larger
perspective of their communities and their families. See Swedes in America, 10; Lintelman, I Go to
America, 10; Vilhelm Moberg, The Emigrants: A Novel (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951).

12 As Matovic and other scholars found, once Scandinavian women were far enough removed from the
cultural practices of the peasant classes at home, many made the conscious decision to postpone marriage
and limit their families to a number of children they knew they could support on the family economy. As
will be discussed later in the chapter, Scandinavian women, perhaps more than any other immigrant group
in Chicago, chose to marry within their national group, which also played an important role in their choice
of spouse. See Peasant Maids - City Women, 5.

134

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Scandinavian perspective as servants — to show the correlation between the opinions
employers and Chicagoans at large formed in regards to Scandinavian domestic service
and the capacity of domestics and their children to “move up” the social strata through
employment in positions not readily available to other immi grant groups. As a
concluding discussion, the study of domestic service will then focus on the second-
generation in regards to available employment, and the educational and intellectual goals
of young Scandinavians —- goals which would carefully blend traditions from home with

American ideals.

Two Scandinavian Neighborhoods at the T am of the Century: A Demographic
Comparison of the Experiences of Work and Community

As discussed in chapter one, the pull of American industry in the burgeoning
cities of the United States was insatiable for Scandinavians in the midst of a dire time of
crop failures, over-population and unemployment in the homeland. Between 1879 and
1893, Chicago’s immense economic growth coincided with the largest inﬂux of
Scandinavian immigrants to reach the city’s borders as a group comprised largely of
single youth between the ages of 15 and 29 came to Chicago in search of employment. ‘3
Ulf Beijbom explained of this time period in Sweden that many migrants of this wave
followed a similar pattern of movement; both men and women would migrate to larger

cities in the homeland for better employment opportunities, and would soon ﬁnd that

 

‘3 For further statistics on the “peak” wave of Scandinavian immigrants between 1879 and 1893, see
chapter one. On a larger scale, between 1881 and 1890, 65% of Scandinavians to arrive in Chicago were
between 15 and 40 years of age, 11% were over 40 years old, and 24% of Scandinavian immigrants were
children under 15. See US. Eleventh Census, 1890, “Population,” Part 11, 650-651; O.N. Nelson, History of
the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavians in the United States (Minneapolis: O.N. Nelson and
Company, 1901): 46.

135

 

their chances for upward mobility would be much greater in the United States. As
tradition in Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish cultures dictated, children were responsible
for taking care of their families when they were unable to support themselves. When
remembering her decision to leave Sweden for Chicago, one young woman considered
her journey as the only solution to helping her parents. Upon the prompting of her best
friend to come to Chicago to work as a domestic servant, she later explained to author
Edith Janson her realization that if her journey turned sour, she could always turn to her
parents to return the favor: “many receive a high rate of interest on [American] money in
Sweden, so I have decided to send some home from time to time and let father place it in
the bank?”

In considering the possibility of emigration for the purpose of employment, many
Scandinavians perceived the typical American workplace as highly valued and revered by
its workers. One editorial in Svenska T ribunen reﬂected this viewpoint in the homeland,
noting that “[the worker in Sweden] knows that the American worker is more respected
socially, even if the requirements for good work are higher than here, and he submits to
these strict demands, because it increases his self respect. He, therefore, emigrates.”15
Family lineage also played a major role in determining the path of potential immigrants
of this wave; in rural areas of Scandinavia — much like other places such as Ireland and

parts of England — family estates would commonly pass intact to the eldest son, thereby

leaving the younger sons and daughters at the mercy of their eldest siblings.l6 In turn,

 

'4 Florence Edith Janson, The Background of Swedish Immigration 1840-1930 (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1931): 22.

'5 “The Emigration from Sweden and the Cause of it,” Svenska T ribunen, June 7, 1882 (Editorial).

'6 A number of historians of immigration previously noted this practice throughout the countries of
Northern Europe. For some examples, see Janson, The Background of Swedish Immigration 1840-1930,

14; Hasia Diner, Erin 's Daughters in America, 1-29; Matovic, “Maids In Motion: Swedish Women in

136

 

young men and women from rural Scandinavia comprised the majority of immigrants to
the United States in search of unskilled work from the 18805 through the turn of the
century.

After deciding to migrate to the United States, a portion of the peasant classes
would temporarily migrate to neighboring countries for transitory employment to fund
their migration to America. However, as the subject of Joy Lintelman’s book, Mina
Anderson complained, domestics in Sweden and Norway were poorly paid; for her ﬁrst
year as a full-time domestic Norway, Anderson’s wages were “twenty-ﬁve kronor, two
pairs of shoes, and a few other small things,” which averaged far below the average wage
of about sixty-eight kronor per year for female farm servants in the 18803.17 While both
Sweden and Norway were slow to urbanize, many women would migrate to larger cities
such as Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Christiana (0510) to look for positions that could
fund the cost of a one-way ticket to America. Mainly due to this pattern, the number of
urban domestics doubled between 1870 and 1900, with Stockholm drawing the highest
numbers out of the three Scandinavian cities.‘8 In looking at the sex ratio of those who
followed this pattern, it was clear that Chicago surpassed Scandinavia’s cities in
attracting young Scandinavian women of typical working age to make the journey to
America. Similar observations on age and sex showed that Chicago’s Scandinavians had
good prospects of fumishing the growing city with young manpower. Ulf Beijbom
alluded to the notion that both the youth and willingness of young Scandinavian men to

accept almost any kind of employment may have outweighed the fact that they arrived.

 

Dalsland,” in Peasant Maids — City Women, 110-126; Dierdre Mageean, “To Be Matched or to Move: Irish
Women’s Prospects in Munster,” in Peasant Maids — City Women, 75-87.

'7 Lintelman, I Go to America, 46.

‘8 Ibid, 50.

137

without any real vocational training for the industrial and constructional work that
predominated the labor market. 19 In 1890, the majority of Scandinavians in the American
workforce held unskilled, working class positions in comparison to other immigrants of

the “old” immigration of Northern and Western Europe.20

Table 3.1: Percentage of Manual Workers of Selected Groups in the Labor Force,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago, 1890
Country of Origin Male Female
Native White 53.56 55.59
Great Britain 72.40 71.73
Germany 85.85 90.48
Ireland 86.24 91.17
Sweden and Norway 90.39 95.10
Denmark 86.02 91 .44

 

 

 

 

(Source: US. Eleventh Census, 1890, “Population,” Part 11, 650-651; Michael Funchion,
“Irish Chicago: Church, Homeland, Politics, and Class: The Shaping of an Ethnic Group,
1870-1900,” in Ethnic Chicago.“ A Multicultural Portrait, eds. Melvin G. Holli and Peter
d’A Jones (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995): 78.

While some public accounts lamented the position of the common immigrant worker in
Chicago’s unskilled labor class, several Scandinavians were quick to show the pride they
held in the positions and their willingness to learn quickly and adhere to their employer’s

demands. Looking back on the prior two decades, in 1900 Scandinavian historian O.N.

Nelson commented proudly that age, sex and occupation “prove that the Scandinavian

 

‘9 Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago, 141.

20 The above table refers to Chicago’s workers who were not considered “white-collar” workers of the
percentage of the population that worked, including immigrants and their children. The percentages noted
are based on the total labor force less the number in unlisted and unclassiﬁable occupations. The percentage
of workers in unlisted and unclassiﬁable occupations ranged from a high of 19.5 percent for native white
males of native parentage to a low of 2.25 for Swedish- and Norwegian-bom females. See US. Eleventh
Census, 1890, “Population,” Part II, 650-651; Michael Funchion, “Irish Chicago: Church, Homeland,
Politics, and Class: The Shaping of an Ethnic Group, 1870-1900,” in Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural
Portrait, ed. Melvin G. Holli and Peter d’A. Jones (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995): 78.

138

 

”2' Speaking more broadly of

immigrants are the cream of the working classes.
Scandinavians in America, Nelson was quick to point out between 1881 and 1890, 1 out
of 5,914 was a clergyman, 1 out of 5,089 a musician, I out of 7,236 a physician or
surgeon, and 1 out of 3.074 a teacher — “in other words, only 1 out of 1,017 had a
profession, while 1 out of 12 was a skilled laborer, and one-half of the Scandinavian
immi grants were either farmers, merchants, or servants.”22 While Scandinavians would
continue to work as manual laborers into the twentieth century, the numbers of those
considered to be unskilled fell within ten years as workers acquired skills on the job,
learned English, and thereby moved into higher paying positions. An inﬂux of “new”
immigrants including Poles and Italians assisted in this process however, Scandinavians
were both quick and eager to learn in their attempts to climb Chicago’s social ladder.
According to the US. Census of 1900, in relation to the other groups of the “old”
immigrant class, Scandinavians still gravitated to manual labor, but by comparison,
Italians and Poles outnumbered them as unskilled laborers.23 These numbers stand out

more juxtaposed to other immi grant and native demographics as shown in the following

table:

 

2' Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, 46.

22 Nelson, 46.

23 These percentages are based on the total labor force minus the number in unlisted occupations. Unlike
the 1890 census (see table 1), all listed occupations could be classiﬁed, and the percentage of unlisted
occupations was less than 5 percent for most groups. See US. Twelfth Census, 1900, “Special Reports:
Occupations,” 516-523; Funchion, “Irish Chicago,” in Ethnic Chicago, 79.

139

Table 3.2: Percentage of Manual Workers of Selected Groups in the Labor Force,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago, 1900
Country of Origin Male Female
Native White 43.16 39.18
British 56.07 45.53
Germans 69.03 70.03
Irish 71.67 61.72
Scandinavian 78.02 80.54
Poles 90.67 87.66
Italians 83.99 80.03

 

 

 

(Source: US. Twelfth Census, 1900, “Special Reports: Occupations,” 516-523;
Funchion, “Irish Chicago,” in Ethnic Chicago, 79.)

In an effort to understand the problems of congestion of immigrants in large cities
throughout America, during the beginning years of the 19005, the Dillingham
Commission conducted a comprehensive study of representative immigrant groups in
America’s seven largest cities. The result of the wide-ranging study created a snapshot of
urban immigrant communities, exhibiting the living and working conditions of the largest
immigrant groups in each city. In the Immigration Commission’s study of Chicago,
researchers located the Townsend street district between Oak and Elm streets to the west,
and the north side of Oak between Sedgwick and Orleans streets, as the most congested
Swedish area in the city. The neighborhood, described as one whose racial character was
in the midst of change, was predominantly Swedish; out of the 161 households examined
for the study, 85 were occupied by ﬁrst- or second-generation Swedes.24 Based on the
numbers of other ethnic groups, the Immigration Commission would predict the

inevitable ﬂight of Swedes and other immigrants of northwest Europe from the area as a

 

24 Reports of the Immigration Commission: Immigrants in C ities; A Study of the Population of Selected
Districts in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Buﬂalo, and Milwaukee, vol. 26
(Washington DC: Government Printing Ofﬁce, 1911): 262.

140

 

 

result of the encroachment of South Italians — an occurrence that pushed many to move
away from the original Swede Town on the north side of the Chicago River. Prior to this
eventual ﬂight however, the ﬁnding of the Commission showed that the Swedes who
lived in the Townsend District were loyal to the area and had lived in the neighborhood
for more than ten years. The district exhibited a comparatively balanced sex ratio of men
to women (327 men to 332 women), and were relatively older than those who resided in
Lake View to the north (50% of men and 45% of women were between the ages of 30 to
44 years of age).25 In helping to pay for their living quarters, 40% of the Swedish
households examined took in boarders or lodgers, but for the most part, Swedes largely
took up gainful employment outside of the home in order to contribute to the family wage
in comparison to other immi grant groups. Within this older demographic of the Swedish
population of Chicago in the Townsend District, the following table illustrates that
native-born females were much more likely to be employed than their foreign-born
Counterparts, whereas employment for both native- and foreign-born males was relatively
Static. 26 The results of this study pointed to a community in ﬂux, whereas a high
Percentage of foreign-born females at home pointed to a large demographic of older,
married women, with their daughters completing school or working throughout the city,

as depicted in table 3.3:

\

‘5 The Commission report noted that “next to the Swedes the race most important numerically is the South
gtalian. The South Italian settlement is expanding in this direction and already 27 households have moved
into this section of the street, the majority into basement apartments,” thereby signaling an inﬂux of
‘mmi grants outside of the margins of Swedes who had built homes within the area. Prior to their eventual
rr‘OVement, the report noted that of 141 foreign-born Swedish immigrants interviewed, 103 had lived in the
area and 126 had lived in the city for over ten years — one of two groups exhibiting the highest percentages
3 f entire residence in a single neighborhood. See Reports of the Immigration Commission, 262-3,268,269,
2 62 8-30.

Ibid, 311,312.

141

Table 3.3: General Occupation of Swedish Males and Females 16 Years of Age or
Over in the Townsend District

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Native-Born Foreign-Born
Males Females Males Females
r"Number Reporting 23 43 135 150
r? (Percent)
rDomestic Service 0% 4.7% 5.9% 16.7%
Manufacturing 56% 25.6% 60% 8.7%
General Labor 0% 0% 3% 0%
Trade 26.1% 25.6% 11.1% 3.3%
Transportation 17.4% 0% 14.1% 0%
Other 0% 2.3% 3% .7%
At Home 0% 4.7% 0% 0%
At School 0% 4.7% 0% 0%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Source: Reports of the Immigration Commission, 262—3, 268, 269, 328-30.)

In analyzing the demographics of Scandinavian women at work between 1890 and the
turn of the century, historians like Margareta Matovic concluded that, once Scandinavian

n 7 ' ° -
2 Yet, thlS assertion IS

women married, they did not work outside the home “as a rule.
mi Sleading, especially in light of the history of the marriage practices of Scandinavians in
Chicago, as well as comparative demographics of neighborhoods like the Townsend

Di strict, or of neighboring immigrant groups. In the Townsend District, the number of
Swedish wives who worked outside of the home was 20.7% - a small number compared

to the majority within the group who did not work outside the home. However, as table

3 .4 illustrates, when compared to all of the other immigrant groups included in the

 

 

27 Matovic uses her chapter in the edited volume on the experiences of four different immigrant groups in

Chicago to create a snapshot of Swedish families living in Lake View at the turn of the century, when the

SWeclish community experienced the beneﬁts of middle-class status. As Matovic uses the term “middle-

C1833” to loosely describe the comparative ease that Swedes experienced in their adjustment to urban life in

.Chicago, she misses the opportunity to examine the demographics of Swedes in the labor force to ﬁrrther

lntel‘rogate the notion of what it meant to be part of the middle-class in Chicago as an immigrant. See

argareta Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life: Swedish-American Women in Lake View,” in
easant Maids — City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America, ed. Christiane Harzi g
Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997): 268-9.

142

Immigration Commission’s study of immigrants in Chicago, Swedish wives ranked the

highest of those who worked”:

Table 3.4: Wives at Work, by general nativity and race of head of family in Chicago,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1890
Nativity/Race Total number of Number of wives Average annual
wives reported at work (%) earnings

Bohemian 143 27 (18.9%) $137
German 122 10 (8.2%) $151
Hebrew (Russian) 90 7 (7.8%) (N 0 answer)
Hebrew (Other) 29 0 (Not applicable)
Irish 78 3 (3.8%) (No answer)
Italian, North 53 7 (13.2%) (No answer)
Italian, South 218 41 (18.8%) $127
Li thuanian 1 17 3 (2.6%) (N 0 answer)
Magyar 20 0 (Not applicable)
Polish 338 23 (6.8%) $153
Serbian 7 0 (Not applicable)
Slovak 64 3 (4.7%) (No answer)
Swedish 111 23 (20.7%) $205

 

 

 

 

(Source: Reports of the Immigration Commission, 324)

Furthermore, as the Commission was quick to point out, Swedish wives who worked

reported average annual earnings of $205 - $50 higher than the average for any of the

other immigrant groups studied.

Of the Swedish women who did work within this district, married or single, it was

Clear that a command of English was vital in earning higher wages as native-born women

were able to command far more in average yearly wages than those who were foreign-

bOrr); of those who reported their wages to the Immigration Commission, their earnings

aVel‘aged $327, with the majority earning $400 to $500 a year, compared to foreign-born

\

28 In the column listing the annual earnings of wives at work, the Immigration Commission noted that it did
not Compute the earnings for those groups due to the small number of subjects involved; reporting these
nu“Ibers would have skewed the balance of earnings to appear that these groups made more than those who
had larger numbers of wives who worked. See Reports of the Immigration Commission, 324.

 

women who only brought in $221. Out of all other immigrant groups in Chicago, Swedes
(and Scandinavians in general) prioritized learning English above all other assimilatory
functions stressed by nativist Chicagoans. This priority was obvious in the investigation
of the Townsend District, which found that out of 117 males and 139 females
investigated, 91.5% of the men and 82% of the women spoke English — numbers far
higher than any of the other groups examined. 29 In regards to literacy, Swedes reported
the highest numbers out of all foreign-born immigrants polled who could both read and
write; with competency of English and the abilities to read and write, Swedes held the
potential to move up the social ladder relatively quickly in comparison to other groups.
The Commission report noted that the Swedes, Germans, and Irish formed a group of
imrnigrants in Chicago whose yearly earnings were distinctly higher than the earnings of
other immigrant groups, while Swedes earned the highest wages among the foreign-born
and were second only to the wage-eamers of native parentage.30 The reasons for this
phenomenon, the Commission concluded, was based on the eagerness of Swedes,
Germans, and Irish to adapt to American society, but hinted that the Swedes had more
factors working in their favor. “The Swedes show great readiness in acquiring this most
Val uable equipment for industrial life,” the Commission claimed, and many illustrated the
essential capabilities of social networking, adaptation, and even forgery if deemed
necessary in ﬁnding steady work.3 1 One Swede who desired to work with “big machines”
upon arrival to Chicago found that such keen tactics coupled with a bit of know-how
from the old country would come to beneﬁt him in ﬁnding good work: “The boss was

Gel‘tnan. He asked me if I had any experience on big machines and I thought of the

\

29

,0 Ibid, 332-33.

,1 Ibid, 315-16.
Ibid. 316, 336-37.

144

threshing machine at home and answered in German: “Naturlichtvis, mein herren.
[ “Naturally, sir]” “You can start tomorrow,” he said.”32 Within the more insular
community of Lake View, Scandinavians were required to form different tactics in
relating to their own thereby creating a community that resembled an urban environment
from the old country.
In comparison to the Townsend District just north of the burgeoning downtown
business district, Lake View was the center of Scandinavian life in Chicago. Annexed to
Chicago in June 1889, the small farming community quickly transformed into housing
divisions and a bustling commercial district made up of businesses that catered to its
Scandinavian neighbors who were mostly Swedish or Norwegian; at the turn of the
century, Swedes constituted 54 and 57 percent of the total population of enumeration
dis tricts 763 and 765 in the 25th ward, or the area which spanned the neighborhood of
Lake View}3 In comparison to the Townsend District, the Scandinavian occupants of
Lake View were relatively younger; 40% of Swedes were children under 15 and the
maj ority of the adult population was between the ages of 20 and 40. Of the adult
population (15 and older), Scandinavian men often worked in skilled positions or as
arti sans while women who lived in the neighborhood largely chose work as

needleworkers or domestic servants.34

3'“
_Lilly and Lennart Setterdahl, Bror Johansson '5 Chicago; with poems by Bror Johansson (Moline, IL:
Elly and Lennart Setterdahl, 1985); in Swedish and English: 73 (Translation mine).
1'Vlatovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life,” in Peasant Maids - City Women, 268.
Analysis of the Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900; Matovic, 269.

34

145

Table 3.5: Occupational structure in 1900 of men and women in enumeration
districts 762 and 765, in percent of the population older than 15 years

 

 

Men Women
Occupation Nﬂber % Occupation Number %
High ofﬁcials 6 1.2 Entrepreneurs 6 1.2
Large entrepreneurs 7 1.4 Domestic servants 22 4.4
Low ofﬁcials/clerks 47 9.5 Laundresses 12 2.4
Small entrepreneurs 42 8.5 Saleswomen 11 2.2
Artisans 149 30.0 Needleworkers 43 8.6
Skilled workers 84 16.9 Clerical workers 14 2.8
Unskilled workers 44 8.9 Factory workers 2 0.4
Service workers 66 13.3 Nurses 6 1.2
No answer given 51 10.3 Boarding 2 0.4
Teachers 5 1.0
Total 496 100 Service workers 5 1.0
No answer given 373 74.5
Total 501 100

(Source: Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life,” in Peasant Maids — City Women,

Table 7.1, 269.)

In her analysis of the occupational structure of Lake View in 1900, Matovic found that
the results of the sexual division of labor were misleading due to the fact that several
married or widowed women had “invisible” employment inside and outside the home as
Small-scale entrepreneurs running a bakery, a boarding house, or a laundry — jobs that
TeSponders did not consider as “work” and therefore did not report to the census
enumerator.” Another misleading result of the census records stems from the number of
Women reported as domestic servants; signiﬁcant numbers of women who previously

call ed Lake View their home worked as live—in domestics with families on the North

\

35
IVlatovic uses this assertion to point to the signiﬁcant number of women who did not give an answer for
occlleation, despite the fact that many of them actually worked and reported their places of work as their
ome address. See Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life,” in Peasant Maids — City Women, 269.

146

Shore and throughout Chicago thereby creating a preponderance of young, Scandinavian
women in areas other than Lake View. What remains clear about the census results,
however, was that Lake View was a vital location in Chicago for both young
Scandinavian families looking for an insular community to raise their children and for
recent immigrants who wished to surround themselves with the familiarities of home.

At the turn of the century, Lake View was abuzz with activity, as new immigrants
moved into the neighborhood and business owners capitalized on the needs of their
Scandinavian neighbors in keeping the traditions of home alive —— a place where
Scandinavians “could ﬁnd anything that they needed.” “Actually, it was better and more

convenient there than in Sweden,” Bror Johansson described of the consumer district of
Lake View, comprised of popular meeting places, Scandinavian restaurants, dancing
ha 115, and theaters where patrons could engage in the language and culture of home.36 In
addition to the network of small businesses that catered to its Scandinavian patrons, a
number of churches saw an increase in patronage as growing numbers of immi grants
swelled their ranks. While not all Scandinavians attended church on a regular basis, four
Lutheran churches were built in Lake View throughout the 18805 and 18903, including
the Elim Swedish Methodist Episcopal and Trinity Lutheran Church, the Lake View
Mission Covenant, and the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of America.
30th the church and the educational system in Lake View were instrumental in
Preserving the culture and tradition of home; many of the churches and schools in the
area taught lessons in both the language of home and English. Over time, this practice
Would become a problem for Swedish children of the ﬁrst- and second-generations
because daily life in Lake View often included use of a jumbled form of the combined

3“
6

147

languages: Swedish was used in private for home and church while English was used in
public at school and work.37 The nature of the community only reinforced such

confusions for those living in between both worlds; businesses like the Dalkullan book

store sold only Swedish-language books and literature and in shops and restaurants like

Belmont Hall, the Viking Temple, and later with the Temperance Cafe’ ldrott, Swedish
was the dominant language spoken — and expected — amongst patrons. In many ways,
expectations in Lake View were backwards from those of other communities throughout
Chicago; neighbors often times took offense to the actions of other Scandinavians who
wished to assimilate into American life.

The insular nature of Lake View was reinforced over time by several factors, but
the most important of these were patterns of marriage and settlement. From their origins
in Chicago, Scandinavians became known as a group that practiced strict endogamy;
according to the census of 1900, two Swedish-born parents were the norm as 92% of
Swedish-American households followed this pattern. Comparatively, 86.5% of Danish-
Arnerican households and 86.9% of Norwegian-American households followed the same
pri Irciples.3'8 Christiane Harzi g and Dirk Hoerder found in their comparative study,

“European Immigrant Women in Chicago at the Turn of the Century,” that if
intermarriage with other ethnic groups took place, the partners often came from other
Scandinavian countries, from Germany, or they were native-born Americans — choices
the authors attributed to the ethnic composition of Lake View.39 Harzig and Hoerder, as

Well as Margareta Matovic illustrated how, despite their strict desires to marry someone

\

37
l\llatovic, 265; Anita R. Olsen, “The Community Created: Chicago Swedes 1880-1920,” in Swedish-

fgmerican Life in Chicago, eds. Dag Blanck and Harald Runblom: ll.

39 TWelfth Census of the United States, 1900; Matovic, 271.

Christiane Harzig and Dirk Hoerder, “European Immigrant Women in Chicago at the Turn of the
entury: A Comparative Approach,” in Swedes in America, 98.

148

from the same country, Scandinavian men and women maintained marriage patterns of
their home countries opting to delay marriage until ﬁnancially secure individually — a
process that often confused American neighbors who chose to marry much younger. In

1 900, according to the marriage records of Trinity Lutheran Church of Chicago in Lake
View, the average age at ﬁrst marriage for members of the church was 28 for men and 24
for women compared to the average ages of 25 for American men and 22 for American
women in the same year.40 Numerous employment options, coupled with a surplus of
single young men, reinforced the choice to delay marriage for young Scandinavian
women. In order to facilitate meetings between Scandinavian youth, groups such as the
Order of Vikings, the Svithiod Order, and the Good Templars organized a number of
social events such as concerts, dances, and picnics. In later years, concern grew amongst
such groups over their youth engaging in immoral behaviors in “unapproved” social
settings as those of the second-generation sought to distance themselves from their
immigrant ties. At the turn of the century, however, Scandinavian youth continued to take
part in community-approved activities in efforts to meet potential mates who shared their
cu ltural heritage.

As previously discussed, in looking at the range of positions Scandinavians
Occupied while living in Chicago, no job has become more synonymous with the
Scandinavians than that of the domestic servant. In the 18603, what was once a simple
10b suited for an older woman who wished to supplement the family wages grew into a
Vital position for younger, immi grant women with the rise of an elite class of Chicagoans

during the 18705 and 18803. Likewise, this shift coincided with the largest wave of

Scandinavian immigrants to date, as young men and women ﬂocked to America with the

 

 

4o
Matovic, 270; Harzig and Hoerder, 98; Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900.

149

promise of good employment and a place to live — a promise, even if left unfulﬁlled, was
0 ornparatively better than what they could expect at home. Traditionally, young women
in the largely agricultural setting of Sweden, Norway and Denmark contributed to a
system of migratory work as maid-servants on nearby farms. Such positions entailed
endless backbreaking, manual labor with no promise of upward mobility or a share of the
farm if they worked for their families — a promise only made to the eldest sons. As
wi tnessed in the letters of friends and family already in the United States, the lure of
hi gher status and independence was a signiﬁcant factor in the decision of many young
women to emigrate. In many of these letters, friends and relatives emphasized the
opportunities cities like Chicago offered Scandinavian women. In 1871, Stina Wiback, a
young Swedish domestic, explained in a letter to her sister that a Scandinavian domestic
in Chicago “can support herself and her husband rather well on her earning, without his
earning anything, for that is what I have been doing ever since I came here.”41 Similarly,
books by Scandinavian travelers and researchers played a vital role in the decision to
emigrate for many women who hoped to secure employment as domestics. Isidor
Kjellberg, a popular Swedish author, painted an idyllic portrait of work as a domestic
Servant in the home of Chicago’s elite in the 18905: “Her workday is from 6 in the
morning until 7 in the evening. Every Sunday and Thursday afternoon she is
fI‘ee. . .Christmas presents, from those, for whom he works, can be expected. . .There is

never a question of “earnest money.”42 For many, the realization of a dismal future in

\

Letter from Stina Wibéick in Chicago to her sister Cari, January 1, 1871 (Emigrant Institute), in Beijbom,
3
42 ' . .

Isidor Kjellberg, Amerika-bok(Link6p1ng, 1893): 36 (Translations mine). Kjellberg uses the ”earnest
oney” to refer to the unfortunate situation many immigrant workers found themselves in of being
l31‘Qmised a certain salary for their labor, but receiving far less when their work was complete. This was an

a 1 too common practice in a time before fair labor laws protected workers from being undercut by their
er‘t‘rployers in pay.

150

their rural homes coupled with the draw of potential advancement pushed many to make

the vital decision to pack their belongings and seek their independence in Chicago.

Maids and the “The Tuxedo of Chicago”: Scandinavian Women and the Experiences
of Domestic Servants on Chicago ’s North Shore
In 1889, prior to the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a

se lect group of elite Chicagoans began to ponder the possibilities for outward mobility
from the city center. Residents of the Prairie Avenue social set, many of which were
former east coast residents drawn to Chicago by industrial growth, grew increasingly
attracted to the idea of moving away from the conﬁnes of the dirty, depression-ravaged
city. As early as 1850, German immi grants who found early success through boosterism
successfully organized New Trier Township on the North Shore — an idyllic village
modeled after Trier, Germany from which many had come.43 Looking to this area and
others like it, many of Chicago’s elite saw the North Shore as an opportunity to build
their “perfect” Chicago, one modeled on the ﬁnest communities of the East Coast. One

Such member of this group was Joseph Sears, a ﬁnancier with money to spare, who

Purchased the 223 acres of land between Chicago’s neighboring regions to the north,

Wilmette and Winnetka, in preparation for what he referred to as a “pioneer experiment
in planned living.”44

His utopian vision, Kenilworth, centered upon palatial mansions with modern
D lumbing and heat, paved streets and walkways, and planned community parks for

1‘ Ecreation, but most importantly an overall “homogenous character.” In order to maintain

\

4
a 3 Coleen Browne Kilner, Joseph Sears and his Kenilworth (1990, second ed.): 138.

Diary of Dorothy Sears, wife of Joseph Sears, dated August 8‘“, 1905, Kenilworth Historical Society,
enilworth, IL.

151

such homogeneity, the deeds by which homeowners acquired their lots contained rigid
restrictions in order to preserve the character of the town as envisioned by Sears,
including large lots and premiums, high quality construction for both homes and
businesses, and sales to Caucasians only.45 Kenilworth drew the attention of many
prominent visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, including famed
architect Daniel Bumham who designed Sears’ home and another residence; Franklin
Burnham, who designed the railroad station and a number of homes; and George W.
Maher, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, who brought the distinctive Prairie style
to the small, afﬂuent village. After the Exposition, Kenilworth and the North Shore as a
whole was often referred to as the “tuxedo of Chicago” — the playground of the very
wealthy.46 Within a matter of several years, Kenilworth and its neighboring communities
would become one of the most afﬂuent areas in all of the United States, thereby drawing
potential employees from all over the world in hopes of living and working amongst the
very rich.

As increasing numbers of afﬂuent Chicagoans moved northward to Kenilworth
and the surrounding North Shore suburbs of Wilmette, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake
Forest, and Evanston, families began to build upon the notion set forth by Sears of
Planned living and homogeneity. Large estates were set back from roads and surrounded
by coach houses, garages, and stables to keep the family unit and its staff in close

proximity. Beyond these gated estates, the main houses were set amongst formal and

iInformal gardens and the lawns were dotted with reﬂecting pools, terraces and arbors in

\

4
4: Lot deed dated 1893, Kenilworth Historical Society, Kenilworth, IL; Kilner, 143.
Kilner, vi.

152

order to bring maximum esthetic appeal to the integrity of the estates.47 In building their
estates into homes, the elite sought to staff their homes with the very best workers,
looking for both efﬁciency and high moral character, but also servants whose physical
features would blend into the opulence of their homes. Based upon the public
commentary in newspapers and in the community regarding Scandinavians discussed in
chapter two, many of the mistresses of the home actively sought such immigrant workers
through advertisements and employment agencies. In ﬁnding Scandinavian workers,
several employers would even go to the length of placing advertisements in Swedish,
Norwegian, and Danish-language newspapers as well as English-language newspapers. In
an era before fair labor practice laws, potential employers felt comfortable placing ads
that speciﬁed the exact qualities they desired in their servants. Some advertisements
made the expectations and moral standards of potential employers clear, such as one
advertisement placed by a female employer in Svenska T ribunen who speciﬁed her desire
to ﬁnd a “Christian Swedish young or middle-age girl for housekeeper.”48
Advertisements in English-language newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune
often demanded competence as the most vital quality the desired of potential employees,
and were often time very speciﬁc as to which groups they would — and would not —
employ. One Michigan Avenue family called for “a competent German, Swedish, or
Norwegian girl for general housework in an American family” and made it very clear that

“no Irish need call.”49

In this advertisement, as well as others, the desire for competence
was often a thin veil for establishing a racial and ethnic social hierarchy in Chicago and

other cities. Other employers were as speciﬁc as noting that they only wanted

 

47 .
Hirsch, l.

48 Advertisement for ”help wanted”, Svenska Tribunen Nyheter, September 7, 1909 (Translation mine), 9.

‘9 Advertisement for “help wanted”, Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1880, 14.

153

Scandinavian women who ﬁt within a certain age range to work in their homes, as one
potential employer, who speciﬁed in a help wanted advertisement that they desired a
“Swedish maid, not over 30 years,” for general housework and cooking in their home.50
According to many similar advertisements that requested younger help, it was clear that
competence and youth were at a premium in the eyes of potential employers who desired
workers who made their homes more attractive, and could also do their jobs well. As time
went on, Scandinavian women would prove themselves as especially talented cooks and
attentive servants for Chicago’s upper crust, while Chicago’s newspapers would continue
to illustrate this preference for their ethnic group in service jobs.

Similar to the calls Chicago’s elite placed for reliable help, Scandinavian girls in
need of employment advertised their services in the “situations wanted” section of
Chicago’s newspapers — many of which illustrated self-awareness of their preferential
status as domestics by carefully noting their countries of origin. Several were quite frank
about only wanting to take on “light housework” in a small American family, while one
Swedish girl was so bold as to state her desire to work for a “ﬁrst-rate” family in a “large
North Shore home” in the “situations wanted” section of the Chicago Tribune.5 1 Others
played upon the notion of their perceived strong, Scandinavian work ethic, like one
“green” Swedish girl who described herself as “strong and willing” and in need of a

“good home more than wages.”52

In later years, Scandinavian women became even more
speciﬁc as to the types of tasks they would — and would not — take on in potential

employment. Many speciﬁed that they were in search of second jobs that required light

housework and would not be required to do laundry or other such arduous tasks; their

 

5" Advertisement for “help wanted,” Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1925, 27.
2 Advertisement for “situations wanted,” Chicago Tribune, November 2 l , 1880, 14.
Ibid.

154

calls supported their desires for light work by specifying the knowledge of English and
the ability to provide excellent references.53
Scandinavian women were not the only ones to illustrate this acknowledgement of
preference for their ethnic group in service positions; Scandinavian men were equally
speciﬁc in the level of work they could provide in service positions. Men would also note
their ages and marital statuses; however their requirements differed from that of
women’s. Instead, men would often make note of their sobriety and their desires to return
to “the countryside.” In one such advertisement, J. Anderson, a Norwegian chauffeur and
skilled mechanic described himself as “strictly sober” speciﬁed that he was 28, single,
and could work in the city or country; an adjacent request listed by a “middle-aged
married Swede” who worked as a coachman and also noted his sobriety, indicated his
distinct desire to return to a rural environment away from the city.54 Some Scandinavian
men chose to emphasize their sobriety in order to distance themselves from the negative
stereotypes associated with other immigrant groups; others, however, brought attention to
this concern to separate their behaviors from one well-known negative stereotype created
in the early years of “Swede town” — that of the belligerent, drunken Scandinavian

male.55 For Scandinavians in service work, the practice of seeking better employment

when dissatisﬁed with their current positions was one that was carried over from home

 

’3 In a select analysis of the Chicago Tribune between April 1909 and May 1910, the “situations wanted”
section illustrated such acknowledgement of preference in service employment by Swedish, Norwegian,
and Danish women and men. Joy Lintelman recently noted that domestic jobs were plentiﬁrl enough that
Scandinavian immigrant women did not hesitate to leave positions where daily wages, tasks, and
accommodations did not meet their expectations. The bountiful job market at the turn of the century,
coupled with their admittedly preferential status gave Scandinavian domestics a “degree of power” within
the employer/employee relationship. See Lintelman, I Go to America, 102.

Select advertisements from “situations wanted,” Chicago Tribune, April 29, 1909, 22.
55 As a note, this negative stereotypical character will be discussed in greater detail in chapter four, which
explores the negative connotations and social faux pas of Scandinavians within Chicago and popular
culture.

155

according to Christiane Harzi g and Dick Hoerder; in this process of horizontal mobility,
Scandinavians would try to advance and complete their skills, often times giving them a
better bargaining position for the next job, with the goal of becoming a live-in servant in
a millionaire’s home as the ultimate sign of upward mobility and acceptance in American
society.56

Upon entering into Chicago’s workforce, Scandinavian men and women would
soon learn that they were required to work as their own advocates in ﬁnding good work,
or fall into unfortunate situations by employing the help of conniving private employment
agents. As industries grew up with the city, so did private employment agencies, which
took advantage of typical newcomers to the city and stationed agents at Union Station to
descend on the droves of immi grants arriving on trains from New York. Scandinavian
men and women would be approached by these agents, who spoke their native language
and therefore appeared to have the best interest of their neighbors in mind. Nevertheless,
on the North Side of Chicago, scores of “offices” that seemingly catered to the interests
of young Scandinavian men and women operated out of individual’s homes, where
business transactions took place across a kitchen table. Some agents were especially
pervasive in their efforts to exploit new immi grants, not only waiting for incoming trains,

but also walking the streets of Lake View, combing through rooming houses, restaurants,

 

56 Harzig and Hoerder noted this practice as representative of a larger pattern used in seeking employment
in America as previously used in Scandinavia; similarly, David Katzman posed that, for women in
domestic service, changing positions was part of a constant search for better working and living conditions,
however for Scandinavians, the opportunities appeared to be much more readily available. See Christiane
Harzig and Dick Hoerder, “European Immigrant Women in Chicago at the Turn of the Century: A
Comparative Approach,” in Swedes in America: Intercultural and Interethnic Perspectives on
Contemporary Research; a Report of the Symposium Swedes in America: New Perspectives, ed. Ulf
Beijbom (vaxjo, Sweden: The Swedish Emigrant Institute’s Series, 1993): 101; David Katzman, Seven
Days a Week, 139.

156

churches, and immigrant aid societies in the neighborhood. 57 When these employment
“agencies” would nab a potential client, they would require registration fees regardless of
the applicant successfully ﬁnding employment and would often garnish their ﬁrst
month’s wages. In response to the problems created by exploitative agencies, good-
hearted community members worked to establish free employment agencies that would
serve the needs of Scandinavians looking for work and help them enter into safe and
happy working conditions. One such advocate, Othelia Myhrman, combined her efforts
with the Swedish National Union to create an employment agency to speciﬁcally aid
newly-arrived Scandinavian women who sought positions as domestic servants.
Myhrrnan’s ambition was personally inspired by her work as a domestic after her arrival
in Chicago in 1874; after a series of bad employment choices, Myhrman settled into a
comfortable position after a fellow Scandinavian domestic suggested her employer to
Myhrman. Newspapers such as Svenska Nyheter, Svenska Kuriren, and Skandinaven
would regularly report on the positive efforts of such agencies, as well as the number of
employees who made use of their services, often totaling several hundreds in a month; in
May of 1903 alone, the free employment bureau of the Swedish National Association
placed 225 men and 120 women in open positions throughout Chicago, which was the
largest number to date to ﬁnd employment through the efforts of the bureau.58 The
Norwegian National League Employment Ofﬁce witnessed similar numbers of successful
employment transactions, especially noting its success in employing women as

domestics. An article which highlighted the beneﬁts of the employment ofﬁce explained

 

57 Stina Hirsch noted such a transaction recalled by her mother, who experienced several unfortunate
service positions in disjointed homes before learning of the correct ways to go about ﬁnding good
employment. See Hirsch, “The Swedish Maid,” 29.

58 “Swedish National Association’s Employment Bureau,” Svenska Nyheter, June 9, 1903, 2 (Translation
mine).

157

that ﬁnding employment for women to do housework proved to be “most difﬁcult,” as
there were many requests for such work with good pay, but the demand was actually
greater than the number of applicants as Chicagoans clamored for Scandinavian help in
their homes and employed the efforts of the ofﬁce in ﬁnding servants.59 The majority of
young Scandinavian women who went to work in the homes of Chicago’s elite, however,
were able to avoid unfortunate situations through family connections prior to their arrival
in Chicago — a vital distinction between other immigrant groups and Scandinavians
employed as domestics.

Once men and women were able to locate secure positions, their experiences
would vary greatly, yet the location of their employers oftentimes determined the context
of their experiences. In the mansions of the North Shore region, roughly one-third of any
home was designed for use by the employed staff and therefore divided from the family’s
living quarters. Based on the size of the family and their home, and likewise on the
family’s wealth, employers kept a staff that ranged from two to three servants, all the way
up to twenty in some homes; between the 18905 and prior to WWI, many Chicagoans
considered the number of servants employed as an outward determinant of wealth and
family status within society. Stina Hirsch recalled of the Laurence Armour family of
meatpacking wealth that their Lake Forest home regularly kept a staff of eleven; her
mother, who worked for the family for a number of years, lived in the main building with
the other female servants and the males resided in the coach house.60 In a useful

description of the home in which she worked, Hirsch’s mother recollected the spacious

 

59 The article also speciﬁed that the average pay for Scandinavian domestics employed through the ofﬁce
ranged from $4.00 to $5.00 a week “without their being required to do the washing.” See “The Norwegian
Employment Ofﬁce,” Skandinaven, April 24, 1907, 3.

6" Hirsch, 24,25.

158

interior which maintained the style of Victorian living. On the “servant” side of the home
stood a number of rooms devoted to work, including sewing, ironing, ﬂoral arranging,
and silver polishing, which adjoined a spacious laundry room. Conversely, the family’s
living quarters were vastly spacious and dedicated to indoor leisure, including living and
sitting rooms, a library, dining areas, dens, studies, music rooms, billiard and other
playrooms, sun rooms, a terrace, family bedrooms and guest rooms, dressing rooms and
palatial bathrooms with separate baths for adults and children.61 The divisions of the
home and its opulence symbolized a tradition addressed by sociologist Robert Coles who
wrote that the North Shore families largely represented that of the “old stock” of
Americans who inherited their wealth and therefore continued to view society as one
comprised of “separate spheres.”62 However, with the massive inﬂux of good help in
their homes over time, afﬂuent North Shore wives were able to enjoy both “spheres” —
the leisure of home life and the beneﬁts of travel and volunteer work within North Shore
and Chicago society.

The experiences of work in the North Shore homes varied from family to family,
yet Scandinavian domestics could expect a generally positive experience based on the
accounts of various workers. Many families, like the Sears family who established the
village of Kenilworth, expected their staff to maintain an outward appearance of

professionalism and efﬁciency; the Sears family, however, went above and beyond to

 

6' Hirsch, 24.

62 Robert Coles, “Introduction,” in Mary Lloyd Estin, To the Manor Born (Boston, MA: New York Graphic
Society, 1979): 1 1. For further discussion of the beneﬁts provided to upper-class women by way of their
domestic help, a few of the more notable sources on “separate spheres” include Barbara Welter, “The Cult
of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,” American Quarterly xviii (Summer, 1966): 151-174; Kathryn Kish
Sklar, Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity (New Haven, 1973); Katzman, Seven Days a
Week, 147-49. One notable study which illustrates the progressive advancements of middle- to upper—class
women in Chicago is Maureen Flanagan’s, Seeing with their Hearts: Chicago Women and the Vision of a
Good City, 1871-I933 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).

159

guarantee the satisfaction of their staff, which was largely Scandinavian at any given
time. A monthly bill from Marshall Field’s and Company sent to Mr. J. Scars on July 1,
1904 listed various service necessities, including aprons, caps, maids’ dresses, collars and
cuffs, household cleaning items, and three feather mattresses and comforters, and at the
corresponding date in her diary, Mrs. Sears noted the hire of three new domestic servants
in their home.63 In the Sears’ home, servants could expect to take on a majority of the
house work, as Dorothy Sears’ diaries and letters illustrated that her daily schedule was
representative of a life that afﬂuence could afford her. According to her diary, from
August until October of 1905, the Sears family enjoyed a vast European tour, and upon
return, Dorothy returned to recording the events of daily life, which often lamented of
“awful ﬁt[s] of laziness,” “playing with the baby until bedtime,” voice lessons, trips “into
town,” and shopping.64 However, like many other elite families of Chicago, the Sears
family sent their children away to boarding preparation schools on the East Coast when
they reached school-age, and therefore, the servants were only required to care for the
children up to a certain point. And as Dorothy Sears’ diary and various accounts
illustrate, many families that employed Scandinavian domestics were incredibly kind to
them and offered them the vital outlets needed for upward mobility in Chicago society.

One such outlet many North Shore families provided was the opportunity for their
help to learn English. Various advice columns in Chicago newspapers indicated that
society women sought to provide lessons to their maids; one women asked advice

columnist Marion Harland: “I have a Swedish maid who is anxious to learn English. Can

 

63 Sears’ family account books (1903-05) and the diaries of Mrs. Dorothy Sears (1903-04), Kenilworth
Historical Society, Kenilworth, IL.

64 Review of entries between October 1905 and January 1906, diaries of Mrs. Dorothy Sears (1905-06),
Kenilworth Historical Society, Kenilworth, IL.

160

 

you suggest some books [with] interesting yet simple words that I could get for her from
the public library?”65 While Harland’s response, that her responder converse with her
servant rather than force her to read books, indicates suspicion of more selﬁsh desires of
employers for servants to learn English, the question nevertheless shows a genuine desire
to educate servants in American customs and traditions. One popular cookbook written
by Carl Grimskb'ld, Swedish—American Book of Cookery and Adviser for Swedish
Servants in America, became a best-seller after employers and employees purchased the
book in order to help servants learn English. The book, designed for the “newly-arrived
Swedish servant girl” contained advice, menus, and recipes in double-columned pages
with Swedish on the left and English on the right. In the introduction of the book, the
author explained in Swedish that he hoped that his book would rid its reader “of difﬁcult
problems which are associated with the greenhom’s position as a result of being
unfamiliar with local language and habits - ﬁrst and last, cooking.”66 The author
simultaneously wrote an introduction in English intended for the “mistress of the house”
to read in “modeling a kitchen mechanic”:

Let the mistress of the house take two pounds of the very best self-control, one

and a half pounds of justice, one pound of consideration, ﬁe points of patience,

and one pound of discipline. Let his be sweetened with charity, let it simmer well,

and let it be taken daily (in extreme cases in hourly doses , and be kept always on
hand. Then the domestic wheels will run quite smoothly. 7

 

65 “Marion Harland’s Helping Hand,” Chicago Tribune, January 2, 1916, 16.
66 Grimskold is careful to point out that his book was intended for both women and men, including
discussions of various American customs for cooks, waiters, and drivers as well. F urtherrnore, as a Swedish
man who worked as a cook in several American homes, Grimskéld noted that he understood the
experiences of domestics who made use of his book, and could attest to the accuracy and taste of all the
book’s recipes. See Carl Grimskold, Swedish-American Book of Cookery and Adviser for Swedish Servants
gr America (New York: Otto Chils’ Print, 1890), in English and Swedish. (Translations mine): 1.

Ibid, 2.

161

Grimskold’s attention to the position of both the servant and the “mistress of the house”
acknowledged that it was clear most employers actually cared about their charges’ well-
being and genuinely wanted to help them improve their English and their knowledge of
American ways.

Over time, the draw of service positions in the opulent homes of Chicago’s North
Shore spread through publications and letters that expressed the beneﬁts of higher wages
and beneﬁcial treatment in comparison to domestics from other countries. Scandinavians
who worked in the homes of Chicago’s elite would often write home to their loved ones
to inform them of their experiences in America, and would often boast about the
preferential treatment they noticed in relation to other experiences they were told of. One
Chicago domestic wrote to her family that for Scandinavian women, the beneﬁts of
domestic work far outweighed any other position available in Chicago. She exclaimed
that “the striking thing here is that a [Scandinavian] servant girl never brushes any shoes
for her employers, on the contrary they do that themselves. A servant is always on a ﬁrst
name basis with those for whom she works.”68 Historians of immigration often attribute
the positive content of her correspondence, like numerous letters sent home during the
peak years of industrial growth in Chicago, to loneliness and isolation domestics
experienced in their employment. However, as Joy Lintelman recently pointed out, while
desires for their family to join them in America motivated many Scandinavian women to
sometimes overemphasize their positive experiences, the speciﬁc details and content of
their letters suggested that their experiences were, for the most part, largely positive. As

an example, Lintelman uses a letter written by a Swedish domestic in Chicago who wrote

 

68 Letter from Stina Wibéick in Chicago to her sister Cari, January 1, 1871 (Emigrant Institute), in Beijbom,
173.

162

to her family that, working as a domestic, she received three dollars a week and was “free
every Thursday afternoon” and “every Sunday afternoon too” where she did not have to
come back to her place of employment until 10pm.69 The schedule described in the letter
was reminiscent of a growing tendency of employers to allow Scandinavian domestics
Thursday afternoons and Sundays off to engage in leisure, but also to allow them to go to
their own churches. By the 19005, this allotted time for leisure became so common that
on Thursdays, as young Scandinavian women ﬂocked to the trains exiting the North
Shore for the city, conductors would sing out stops in Swedish and Norwegian for

“Torsdagsﬂickor,” or “Thursday girls.”70

While one could speculate as to the validity of
the positive experiences encompassed in their employment, further evidence from the
employers’ perspective suggests that Scandinavian domestics were indeed treasured in
the homes of Chicago’s elite.

One series of letters between a member of one of Chicago’s oldest families,
Walter Franklin Newberry, and his families’ former domestic servant, Hannah Mathison

illustrated that the Newberrys considered Mathison a member of their family. Throughout

the summer of 1893, Mathison, who worked a number of years for the Newberry family,

 

69 Lintelman referenced hundreds of letters from Swedish domestics to their families in support of her
argument that immigrant women’s letters are signiﬁcant to the historiography on the immigrant experience
in America; while some historians, such as H. Arnold Barton, expressed their disdain for mostly
“mundane” letters, Lintelman instead points to the importance of such sources which provide ﬁrst-hand
accounts of the many different facets of the immigrant woman’s life. For further discussion, see Joy
Lintelman, “Between the Mundane and the Memorable: The Letters of Single and Married Swedish
Immigrant Women,” Swedish American Historical Quarterly (ﬁnd volume, number, and year): 159-172;
Sydney Stahl Weinberg, “The Treatment of Women in Immigration History: A Call for Change,” in
Seeking Common Ground: Multidisciplinary Studies of Immigrant Women in the United States, ed. Donna
Gabaccia (W estport, Conn: Praeger, 1992): 3-22; Wolfgang Helbich and Ulrike Sommer, “Immigrant
Letters as Sources,” in The Press of Labor Migrants in Europe and North America, I880s to 1 93 Os
(Bremen: Labor Migration Project, Universitat Bremen, 1985): 39-58; H. Arnold Barton, Letters from the
Promised Land (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1975): 5.

7° Stina Hirsch begins her thesis by describing the experiences of her relatives on a typical Thursday jaunt
into the city, when they would often times visit Ravinia Park to listen to music or would travel to Lake
View where they could visit restaurants, meeting halls, clubrooms, churches, and theaters — all “resounded
with the mother tongue.” See Hirsch, 1, 47.

163

earned enough money in her position to travel home to Norway to tend to her ailing
mother; upon her departure, however, Mr. Newberry wrote to her pleading for her return.
In her reply, which recounted her gratitude to the family for a wealth of different beneﬁts
including her acquisition of English, Mathison replied to Newberry’s plea: “I should like
to see you all very much and hope if I ever get to America again that I must see you all
alive [sic] and well.”71 Furthermore, Mathison’s replies suggested a genuine connection
with the family that went well beyond a typical work arrangement, as she concluded each
letter with “love to you all” and a plea for Newberry to “kiss little Walter, Hannah. . .and
grandma Newberry” for her in her absence.72 One could argue that Mathison’s
correspondences with her former employers were indicative of an incredibly unique work
experience, however Mathison’s positive recollections of her work as a domestic are
reminiscent of a majority of memories recorded by Scandinavian domestics of their work.
As increasing numbers of Scandinavian women found positions in the homes of
Chicago’s elite between the 18903 and the turn of the century, both Scandinavian and
American commentators garnered immense interest in their experiences, which they
painted as relatively enjoyable and proﬁtable in comparison to other working women.
Scandinavian newspapers such as Svenska T ribunen and Norden remarked on the praise

given to their own by American employers who valued their adaptability in the

 

7‘ In addition to Newberry’s plea for Mathison to return to their home, the letters exchanged between
Walter Franklin Newberry and Hannah Mathison detailed an intriguing relationship between a male
employer and his former servant — especially in a position where the head of the household rarely came into
contact with his employee. In her letters, Mathison updated Newberry on all of the details of her family life,
her new position as a cashier in a “tourist shop” in Norway, and her desires to return to America as soon as
her family is self-sufﬁcient after the death of her mother. See letters between Hannah Mathison and Walter
Franklin Newberry, sent from Trondheim, Norway on June 18, 1893 and August 8, 1895, Oliver Perry
Newberry papers, folder 1: “Letters from the 18905 between Walter Franklin Newberry (son) from a former
Norwegian domestic servant,” Midwest Manuscript Series, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL.

72 Letter from Hannah Mathison to Walter Franklin Newberry, June 18, 1895, Oliver Perry Newberry
papers, folder 1: “Letters from the 1890s between Walter Franklin Newberry (son) from a former
Norwegian domestic servant,” Midwest Manuscript Series, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL.

164

 

workplace. In 1891, the well-known editor of Svenska T ribunen, C.F. Peterson,
contributed a vital piece entitled “The Servant Girl” intended to offer immense praise to
the Swedish domestic. Under the pseudonym of “J eppe,” the author remarked that
Swedish “girls” were in high demand by Chicago employers due to their perceived worth
in society; according to such worth, “Jeppe” claimed that the domestic “underwent
beautiﬁcation under the inﬂuence of her enviable profession. . .she appears in elegant
clothing, learns the language under the tutelage of the lady of the house and soon begins
appearing as a lady of society?” Compared to other positions available to immigrant
women — “shop girl”, seamstress, factory worker, waitress, shop assistant — which
required “10 to 12 hours of daily effort,” “Jeppe” remarked that, instead of hard labor, the
ﬁrst objective of the Scandinavian domestic was to become a “real lady” through her
work. Achieving this objective was entirely possible according to “Jeppe,” who pointed
out that Scandinavian domestics could expect to learn English, as well as how to become
an “American girl” by way of their female employers.74

Articles like those written by “J eppe” exhibit bias however such observations
were vital in building a set of ideological characteristics held by the Scandinavian
domestic. A similar commentary examined an article from the New York Herald which
offered great praise for the domestic virtues of Swedish and Norwegian women — virtues,
which were more of a stepping stone to further opportunities. As the article pointed out,
“neither the young women nor the young men from our Scandinavian countries come
here with a view to remain merely good domestic servants, or in subordinated positions.

They set out with hopes and determination to make their fortunes and gain such positions

 

73 CF. Peterson (under the pseudonym “Jeppe”), “The Servant Girl,” Svenska Tribunen, December 10,
1891, l (translations mine); Beijbom, Swedes in America, 119.
74 CF. Peterson, “The Servant Girl,” Svenska T ribunen, December 10, 1891, l (translations mine).

165

in life as they can rightfully claim by virtue of their ability, honesty and

industriousness. . .under no circumstance do the sons and daughters of our nationality
intend to remain on the bottom rungs of the ladder.”75 Community newspapers were
likewise quick to publish the average wages a Scandinavian domestic could expect to
receive for their labor; as one article boasted, “a good Swedish girl often earns from ﬁfty
to seventy ﬁve, yes, one hundred kroner per month, after she becomes accustomed to
American ways.” In a call for more Scandinavian workers, the article went on to explain
that not in “twenty years has there been such a demand for Swedish workers” as
American prosperity allowed for many more city-dwellers to hire domestic help.76 By the
turn of the century, Chicago was situated as a desired location for Scandinavian women
who wanted to take advantage of the beneﬁcial virtues associated with domestic work
they heard so much about from their friends and family, and the newspapers they sent
home.

American publications and Chicago’s newspapers contributed similar praises for
Scandinavian domestics, emphasizing the domestic achievements of such immigrant
workers in Chicago, but also in cities all over America. Features in women’s magazines
such as Harper ’s Bazaar often read like manuals on how to attain and keep valuable
Scandinavian help. One article, written by a woman from Hartford, Connecticut, gave
speciﬁc instructions on how she was able to keep her Swedish domestic happily
employed for three years. While her method of domestic management included Thursday

and Sunday afternoons off and a reasonable curfew, the author stressed that she hoped to

 

75 Commentary on this particular article from the New York Herald circulated widely in the Scandinavian
newspapers in Chicago as the Scandinavian community saw the kind remarks on their own as beneﬁcial to
the group as a whole. See “The Swedish Women as Domestics,” Svenska Tribunen, September 21, 1892, l
(translations mine).

76 “For the Day (Editorial),” Svenska T ribunen, February 6, 1901, 4 (Translations mine).

166

not give readers the impression that her house was “ruled by the maid,” but that a little
tact and consideration for valuable domestics could produce “careful, neat, and most
willing service” instead of a “hostile element” in her kitchen.77 Studies written by
American women including Lucy Maynard Salmon’s Domestic Service and Lillian
Pettengill’s Toilers of the Home illustrated a public curiosity with the true experiences of
domestics in America and took varied approaches to the discussion. In Domestic Service,
Salmon found that, on average, foreign-born domestic servants received higher wages
than native-born domestics due to the “relatively better class of foreign-born than of
native-born women who enter domestic service” in work ethic, but also in appearance.78
Scandinavians, who were the third largest group represented in domestic service, were
the embodiment of this ideology according to Salmon.

Respondents to her surveys admitted that they often chose their servants based on
their appearances; in one survey, “Mrs. V” applied to an employment bureau for
domestic help but refused six applicant because they were not “pretty” or “reﬁned,”
eventually ﬁnding a Scandinavian woman who met her standards.79 Lillian Pettengill
experienced similar judgment from potential employers as an American college student
who posed as an “undercover” immigrant girl for the sake of exposing American
snobbery towards domestic help. In her ﬁrst encounter with a potential employer,
Pettengill commented that one of the ﬁrst remarks made was in reference to her feminine
appearance: “She wanted to know what experience I had, whether my home was in the
city, and how long I had been here; then she paused, and having considered me from top

to toe, remarked with much enthusiasm and for all the world as if I were a prize cow up

 

77 “How I kept my Housemaid for Three Years,” Harpers Bazaar, “April 1908, volume 42, issue 4: 378.
78 Lucy Maynard Salmon, Domestic Service (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901): 92.
79 -

Ibid, 121.

167

for sale, “You are a nice looking girl; yes, a very nice looking girl?”0 Pettengill’s study
similarly illustrated an underlying discourse on perceptions towards other European
immigrant groups. One potential employer was skeptical about her intentions, not that she
was an American posing as an immigrant, but that she was potentially a “rough Irish girl”
instead of a German, as she was posing under the alias “Eliza.”81 As discussed in chapter
two, by the 19105, the “Swedish maid” was becoming a popular character in American
culture used to characterize the beneﬁts and drawbacks of immigrant workers. By this
time, as the ranks of Scandinavian immigrant women grew to staggering numbers,
competition for good domestic positions grew scarce. Though surprisingly, as
competition grew, many Scandinavian women began to criticize the positions they had
become synonymous with, like Inge Lund whose investigation of domestic service
painted a negative image of the popular job.

Lund, a Swede whose 1917 work became famous for exposing the drawbacks of
domestic work for Swedes, took a similar approach to Lillian Pettengill’s study, going
undercover as a newly arrived Swedish immigrant. Her study, En Piga i USA (A Maid in
the U. S.A.), recounted her experiences in New York, where she carefully navigated
between two different personas: the newly arrived “greenhorn” and the Swedish
immigrant who worked in the United States for years and had a ﬁrm grasp of English.
Upon arrival in New York, Lund located a Swedish employment placement agency,
where another Swede looking for domestic work gave her a startling piece of advice in
ﬁnding a reputable job: “Lie! In God’s name! Lie! In this country, it is better to not tell

the truth. . .tell me you never made another home in your entire life. It is nobody’s

 

8° Lillian Pettengill, T oilers of the Home: The Record of a College Woman ’5 Erperience as a Domestic
Servant (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1903): 5.
8‘ Ibid, 36-7, 55.

168

business what you did when you were home!”82 While Lund took the woman’s advice to
lie in order to receive suitable employment, it was her lies that would eventually land her
in an uncomfortable exchange with a potential employer. In an interview for a domestic
position, when asked by the lady of the house about her experiences with domestic work
in Sweden as well as the United States, Lund lied and responded that she had been a
“servant girl” for a long time. After getting tripped up over the reasons that she had such
a ﬁrm grasp of English, Lund realized she was caught in her own lie by her potential
employer. As she recounted of the uncomfortable situation:
Oh, no. This sounds very well and good,” but then she leaned forward and looked
me straight in the eye and declared, "Tell me the truth!” I was so amazed, that —
yes, I probably need not deﬁne what I felt at that moment...“I have known the
whole time that not a single word of what you said is true.” It was now just a
matter of indifference, what was said because the end would at least by the
same. . .she would ask me to go my way. It was just as good to tell the truth. I
couldn’t come up with a new story.83
Through her personal experiences as a Swedish domestic servant, Lund not only
recounted the difﬁculties for Scandinavians in ﬁnding positions by 1917, but also
described the often cyclical nature of employment for domestics. Lund used this cyclical
pattern as the basis for her topic, as she found temporary places to stay in settlement
homes and “safe” hotels, went to Swedish employment agencies, and settled with a
family, only to begin once again when she became dissatisﬁed with her employment.
Lund’s investigative report was one of the only sources to expose the negative aspects of

domestic service at the time, while later recollections like Stina Hirsch’s thesis would

bring attention to problematic encounters with adultery and even sexual harassment.

 

82 Inge Lund, En Piga i U.S.A.: Ett Penskafts Aventyr (A Maid in the U. SA: A Journalist 's Adventure)
(Stockholm: Ahlen & Akerlunds F6rlags, 1917): 31-2. (Translations mine)
83 Ibid, 112-13.

169

Hirsch recalled the reminiscences of Caroline Hansen, who recalled her ﬁrst job in a
large home next to the Lake Forest Country Club as highly uncomfortable when she was
forced to witness her employer’s dalliances while her husband was away. “The lady was
not very nice,” she explained, and every time her husband had to travel out of town for
work, “she had somebody else come in. I wasn’t used to that. I thought it was terrible.”84
As an inexperienced and young Swedish maid, Hansen also encountered problems with
sexual harassment. In one job, she reluctantly recalled one instance when she had to
defend herself “against the advances of a hired man” and another time from one of her
employer’s sons. In remembering these instances, Hansen illustrated both her intelligence
and common sense, as she remarked, “I may have been green, but I wasn’t that dumb?”
Regardless of any negative experiences she encountered, Lund nevertheless
scolded her countrymen for their complaints about the mass exodus of young people from
Sweden to America as she understood the draw of vast opportunities.86 At the same time,
however, the inﬂux of Scandinavian women coming to America for work as domestics
started to dwindle for a number of reasons. The onset of World War I slowed emigration
from Europe altogether, while domestic service in America began to fall out of vogue for
Scandinavians by the late 19105. Those who worked as domestics for a number of years
attained skills vital in moving up the social ladder of employment; they could speak
English, interact with their employers and understand what was expected of them. By and

large, Scandinavians had gained work experience, but most of all, gained social skills and

conﬁdence needed to attain positions that could afford them more independence. And as

 

8‘ Hirsch, 36.

3’ Ibid.

86 A larger discussion of sexuality and the dangers engrained in employment like domestic service is
featured in the following chapter, which explores representation of Scandinavian involvement in crime and
vice during this same era in Chicago.

170

this shift occurred, a second-generation of Scandinavian-Americans came of age that had

similar goals in “getting ahead” in society.

The Growth of the Second-Generation, the Intellectual Club Movement, and the Desire
for “Better” Employment

At the turn of the century and into the 19105, Lake View witnessed a vital shift in
population structure as a large number of second-generation youth were growing into
adulthood. As typical of second-generation immigrant groups, many of Lake View’s
youth had dreams of leaving the old neighborhood, attaining jobs or going to school, and
everything else that signiﬁed the process of “becoming” American. As early as the 19005,
young Scandinavian-American women began to express their desires to attain different
types of employment as that of their mothers’ generation. In an article published in June
1903, the editor of Svenska Nyheter reﬂected these desires, which in his opinion, were
driven mostly by youthful goals for independence and leisure. The debate of the second-
generation, to become a “maid” or a “factory girl” offered many beneﬁts and drawbacks
for both sides; as the editor stated, “if the girl works in a factory, she is able to live at
home, or together with some other girl, or alone, wherever she wants. ...If she takes a
position as a maid, she has a safe place in which to live, and she need not worry about the
food question.”87 The editor expressed an understanding that, during the years of youth,
“the desire is strong for pleasure,” and while both positions offered the beneﬁt of some
nights and weekdays off, the monotonous work of both jobs could make the common

worker too weary to take part in nighttime leisure.88 In the end, the editor concluded that

 

87 “Maid or Factory Girl?” (Editorial) Svenska Nyheter, June 23, 1903, 2 (Translations mine).
88 -
Ibid.

171

while factory work provided a tempting allure of independence, the maid’s work was
much healthier and provided far more security for a young working woman.
Nevertheless, young Scandinavian-Americans continued to pursue positions that offered
both independence and a chance to earn higher wages and gain further credibility in the
American workforce.

Quite possibly, the most alluring position available to young women with certain
credentials was that of the “shop girl”; like domestic work, the job offered the chance to
be surrounded by the allure of the ﬁnest goods available to Chicago’s consumers. And
Chicago was the birthplace of some of the world’s most famous department stores,
including Marshall Fields and Montgomery Ward — stores established as a direct effect of
the industrial boom of the 18905 to cater to the needs of a growing elite class connected
to the boom. Modeled after the traditions of ﬁne gentlemen’s shops in London and New
York, the emerging moguls behind these department stores saw an immense opportunity
to capitalize on the emerging tradition of female consumerism. The differences between
these small shops and major department stores were vast, as moguls like Marshall Fields
helped to build an empire of major stores that catered to the female buyer’s needs; most
famously, Marshall Fields’ mantra to “give the lady what she wants” proved to be the
impetus needed for such grandiose success.89 As Chicago’s department stores were built,
merchants capitalized upon the latest technological and esthetic additions in order to
make the female experience of shopping both pleasant and of the highest quality. Stores

like Montgomery Ward and Marshall Fields painted the interior of their stores in a

 

89 Marshall Field was inﬂuenced by the vast consumerism of New York City in the antebellum era and
sought to create a store which would combine the notion of a general store and a mail-order catalogue in a
time when “getting what you wanted” was not an easy task. For further discussion, see Lloyd Wendt and
Herman Kogan, Give the Lady What She Wants! The Story of Marshall Field and Company (Chicago: Rand
McNally & Company, 1952): 223.

172

brilliant white, accentuated with giant windows, wide columns, sprawling staircases, and
ornate chandeliers imported from Europe.90 Department stores, as Susan Porter Benson
asserted, were the agencies of a class-based culture, which carried “the gospel of good
taste, gentility, and propriety to those who could afford its wares,” yet the contrast of
such a culture came with the women whom they hired to sell to bourgeois matrons.91 The
job of the “shop girl,” therefore, became one that was quite selective both in practice and
range.

As Benson pointed out, because there was a limited supply of middle-class
women willing to stand behind a counter, nor were department stores willing to pay such
women what they could earn elsewhere, department store employers were forced to
employ the ranks of working-class women. In what Benson dubbed “the Cinderella of
occupations,” employers looked to transform their working-class “shop girls” into genteel
saleswomen by introducing them to the latest styles and fashion, and encouraging them to
emulate the ladylike behaviors of their customers.92 Several early studies remarked that
the average saleswoman who lived apart from friends and family paid higher than
average rent than those who did not live “adrift” and gravitated toward the more
“fashionable” residential districts. In many of the more industrialized areas of the
country, women in stores were less likely to be foreign—bom than women in other
occupations. However in Chicago, immigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and

Germany were always well represented amongst saleswomen in department stores. 93

 

90 Susan Porter Benson, Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customers in American
Department Stores, 1890-1940 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986): 18-19.
9‘ Ibid, 4-5.

92 Ibid, 5.

93 Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories, 92, 114, 133-35, 187-88; Benson, 208-09.

173

Those from the “old” immigrant classes were more readily accepted into the world of
commerce as the following experiences of one young Scandinavian—American illustrate.
During the summer of 1902, like many Chicago teenagers who had recently
graduated high school, Pauline Hegbom expressed her excitement in her journal over the
potential employment opportunities the city offered. That August, Hegbom would apply
for and receive a job working as a “shop girl” at Montgomery Wards located at Michigan
Avenue and Madison Street — the heart of the commercial district. While Hegbom looked
to separate her choice of position from that which her mother desired — for her to become
a domestic servant like herself — Hegbom continued to live with her family in Logan
Square, regardless of her friends’ requests for her to share a downtown apartment with
them.94 In comparison to the arduous tasks of her friends’ positions, or those of her
mother’s generation, Hegbom described her job as one “she enjoyed every minute of,”
regardless of the relatively low wages she received for her work in comparison to other
positions.95 Hegbom’s group of work peers, she explained, were comprised of “all types
and classes of people,” whose interactions in and outside of work she remembered
fondly; during lunch breaks, Hegbom and her colleagues would regularly patronize
Kohlsatts, a local diner, followed by a leisurely stroll down Michigan Avenue before
returning to work. Once a month on Saturdays Hegbom was not scheduled to work, she
and a group of her colleagues would pull their extra money together to visit a matinee and

get dessert after the show.96 At work, Hegbom excelled in her position as a “shop girl”

 

9’ Pauline Hegbom (Nelson) memoirs, younger years — 19205, Hegbom — Nelson Family Manuscript
Collection, Manuscript Series #39, Box #2, F. M. Johnson Archives and Special Collections at North Park
University, Chicago, IL.
95 Hegbom commented that “we did not make big wages [in] those days”. . .I started at four-ﬁfty a week,”
which ﬁrst-generation Scandinavian women could have made in positions as domestic servants or in
fgctory work. See Pauline Hegbom (Nelson) memoirs.

Ibid.

174

and described Montgomery Ward as “a nice place to work” where the “bosses and crew
ladies and all the help were a very nice type of people” that she admired.97 She took great
pride in her required work uniform, which consisted of long, black skirts, shirtwaists, and
hair bows made of black velvet — an appearance intended to model Chicago’s elite female
consumer. Quite possibly, the only negative encounter Hegbom parlayed of her time at
Wards was her daily trek past Browning Kings Men’s store; in the mornings, the male
employees of the store would stand in the doorway, watching the “shop girls” on their
way to Wards, and would try to persuade them into a date for the evening, which
Hegbom described as “unbecoming” in their efforts to attract female attention.98 Like
many other women in the 19005, Hegbom would later resign from her beloved position at
Montgomery Ward upon marriage, however, in comparison to a job she would later take
at a local grocery, her job at Wards allowed for her to take part in an enjoyable working
culture where she could pretend to be of another class temporarily.

Some of the new opportunities afforded to young men and women in the
Scandinavian community came about by way of the advancement of the community as a
whole. The Augustana Hospital of the City of Chicago opened its training school for
nurses in 1913 as a unique opportunity for young Swedish women who were active
members of the Lutheran Church to become certiﬁed nurses. This highly selective
training program offered the opportunity for women within the community to potentially
earn a signiﬁcant amount of money for their skills, while keeping close watch over their
students. During the school term of two years, the school required its female students to

live in the home provided by the Hospital, submit to a period of probation, and take both

 

9’ Ibid.
98 Ibid.

175

day and evening classes and unpaid work within the wards of the hospital until
graduation.99 Furthermore, the application process was markedly tedious and intended to
narrow the ranks of applicants down to Swedish or Swedish-American women who were
familiar with American customs, could speak excellent English, and were upstanding
members of Lutheran society. As the handbook for nurses speciﬁed, the general
requirements for admission included the following speciﬁcations: “Good health and
physique, good moral character, age no less than twenty-one and not more than thirty-
ﬁve years, love and aptitude for the work, and. . .an academy or high-school
education.”loo In order to successfully complete the probation period, applicants were
required to pass an examination in English, reading, writing and arithmetic, followed by
an additional examination at the end of each year.

Regardless of such intense conditions, the training school for nurses retained an
average of 80 students a year with 21 graduating from the school in 1913. Upon
successful completion of the nursing program, graduates of the Augustana Hospital
training school for nurses found themselves in high demand as many were able to attain
positions as hospital and training school superintendents, assistants, surgical nurses,
visiting social service nurse, and nurses in private families?” Training programs like
those offered at Augustana Hospital illustrate the efforts of the community to educate
their youth and give them opportunities their parents may not have had. And as a growing
number of both employment and educational opportunities shaped the experiences of

Scandinavian men and women in Chicago, it was clear that the group, as a whole, came

 

99 Augustana Hospital Reports, Twenty-Ninth Annual Report, Chicago, IL (1913): 3-4.
'°°1bid, 57.
'0' Ibid.

176

into these new opportunities by way of the hard work and dedication of the early

immigrant classes.

Conclusion

Uniquely, a large proportion of Lake View’s youth were able to attain many of
the beneﬁts available to American youth, while they also remained grounded in the
traditions of their parents’ country. A vital representation of this dual cultural identity
culminated in the summer of 1913, when six members of the Scandinavian youth lodge
Idrott of the International Order of Good Templars created the foundations for Cafe Idrott
— a cooperative temperance cafe that would become Lake View’s cultural center. The six
founding members conceived of the Cafe project as an extension of Swedish tradition
which primarily associated socializing with coffee consumption; while the project was
not necessarily ground—breaking in terms of organizing Swedes, it did, however, offer a
new type of meeting place.102 The café had the advantage of being accessible everyday as
a reputable place for both sexes to socialize, thereby offering an alternative to the
saloons. In comparison to other Chicago ethnic youth, Café Idrott illustrated a unique
emphasis on education and intellectual thought grounded in both Scandinavian and
American traditions. Those who visited the cafe’ could share a cup of coffee with others,
catch up on news from the old country in newspapers and magazines, and participate in
bi-weekly lectures offered by Scandinavian intellectuals throughout Chicago.

As Stina Hirsch and others recounted, the Cafe’ Idrott was a meeting place all
Scandinavians associated with traditions of home, as well as with desires to expand

knowledge. The café offered a vital example of the combination of intellectual

 

 

'02 Per Nordahl, Weaving the Ethnic Fabric, 1 16.

177

advancement and “approved” leisure that the community desired of their youth. As this
chapter investigated, the process of work for Chicago’s Scandinavians was one that was
similarly signiﬁcant to the formation of Nordic ethnic identity as was public discourse on
physical and behavioral traits. The need for reliable workers continued well into the
19105, however, as Scandinavians would discover the connection of work and leisure was
undeniably problematic. The pull of American culture was strong, and as the next chapter
will discuss, not all Scandinavians were interested in partaking in “approved” forms of
leisure offered by their communities. Just like any other immi grant group in Chicago,
Scandinavians found themselves involved in public scandals, negative social
commentary, and crime, regardless of the otherwise positive associations created of their
ethnic group. What varied, however, was the response of Chicagoans and Scandinavians
to stories and events that painted both Nordic men and women as deviant, immoral, and

even suspect.

178

 

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(Fig. 4: The following boat ticket is an example of one of thousands of tickets issued to
single Scandinavian immigrant women. Ticket and photo courtesy of the Swenson
Immigration Center at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL)

179

 

Hushallsorders.

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Gar m: spisen tutu uh och
kol.

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till koknlng.

Jug dull hjelpe dig Innl
lrnkosunn.

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at home.

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six o'clock.

Open the window, and lot in
fresh air, before you go down.

Clear the range from ashes and
and.

Light the ﬁre and put the
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show you, how to cook oat.-
meal.

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(Fig. 5: Selection from best-selling cookbook, Swedish-American Book of Cookery and
Adviser for Swedish Servants in America. As pictured, Gnmskold created a series of '
commonly used phrases that Swedish domestics would commonly hear or need to say in
reply to their employers. Source: Carl Grimskold, Swedish-American Book of Cookery
and Adviser for Swedish Servants in America (New York: Otto Chils’ Pnnt, 1890), in
English and Swedish, 1.)

180

 

Chapter Four
“The desire to go out evenings is strong...the full responsibility for behavior and

manner of living is placed upon the shoulders of the young woman”:
Vice, Representation, and Reform in Scandinavian Chicago

At the height of a city—wide panic over white slavery and vice within Chicago’s
city limits in 1910, public prosecutor Clifford Roe warned of the dangers of female
individualism in a city filled with potential white slavers. While his warnings to lone
Chicago females were stern, his case studies and arguments read like many of the other
numerous white slavery narratives published between the turn of the century and the
city’s closing of the red light district in 1912, painting Chicago’s single, immigrant
women as helpless victims in a cruel urban world. In one of his case studies, Roe
published the testimony of one young Swedish woman who arrived in Chicago in
October 1911, only to quickly “fall” into a life of forced prostitution, according to Roe.
Upon her arrival from a “small town” in Sweden, 3 young man invited the twenty-year-
old on a date at a grass plot near her uncle’s home where she was staying; the woman
accepted the advance, only to be subjected to the man’s forced “relations” with her.
While she was able to ﬁght him off, she lost her cousin’s watch in the squabble — a small
indiscretion which would inevitably lead to her subsequent downfall. According to her
police statement:

“Then I became ﬁ'ightened about losing the watch and left my uncle’s home, and
walked the streets all night. I had about $1.50. About four A.M. the next morning

I rented a room at 24th and State Sts. from a colored man. He registered my name
in a book and I paid him ﬁfty cents. At eleven A.M. that morning I went out and
walked the streets all day until evening, when I met a colored man in the same
neighborhood, and I asked him if he knew where I could get a room and he took
me to a room and I stayed all night with him and he gave me $5.00. He had

181

[relations] with me. The next day I met a colored woman named Mrs. D. at 24th
and Dearbom. I asked her if she knew where I could get a room, and she asked

me to come to her house XXX Dearbom St. in the basement. She then asked me if
I like to make money and I said yes; so Mrs. D. took me into a room and
powdered me up and then we went to saloons hustling for prostitution and took
our men to. . . [the same basement] and Mrs. D. charged them ﬁfty cents for a room
and one dollar for the girl. I hustled at this place for two weeks when Mrs. D. saw
in the newspapers that I was missing from home; she asked me about it and I told
her it was true.”1

While the woman’s own statement admitted to several indiscretions on her part, the
message she tried to express to the Chicago police was similar to Roe’s emphasis - that
she was an innocent victim lured into white slavery by a “colored” woman looking to
make money in a racially-divided world where the young girl’s virtues and fair features
were set at a premium. Roe’s subsequent retelling of the court proceedings of the girl’s
case only perpetuated this image, painting the young Swedish woman as a victim of

drugging and forced submission to the wiles of a dangerous “negress”:

“A thin, frail young woman, aided by a physician, walked slowly into the court
room and took her place on the witness stand...”

“Do you remember meeting a certain young man about a month ago?” I asked
her.

“Yes,” she answered. “I was then employed in an office down-town and one of
the girls working in the same building with me suggested that we attend a dance
on Saturday night. . .It was there I met this young man, whose ﬁrst name was
John.”

John invited her to have a drink of lemonade.

“When I began to drink the lemonade I noticed a peculiar taste about it. After
drinking it I felt dizzy...”

When she regained consciousness she found herself in bed in an entirely strange
room.

“Dearie, how are you?”

 

1 Case 17 - Chicago Vice Study File, cited in Walter C. Reckless’ famous study, Vice in Chicago
(Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1933): 38-9.

182

I tried to answer, but my voice failed me. I lay still for a while, and ﬁnally I
gasped out, “Where am I?”

“You are all right,” said the Negress, “and you will like it here.”2

When Roe inquired in court as to why the young woman did not ﬁght against her
kidnapper, she replied that the “girls” were “cowed into submission” by whippings and
beatings by the “negress” and customers until “their spirits are broken” and “are forced
into a life from which they cannot escape.”3

In later years, upon comparison of Roe’s reﬂections on the court proceedings and
the Swedish woman’s actual police statement, sociologist Walter Reckless noted a
signiﬁcant contrast between the “facts” presented in the case and the literary details
added by Roe to draw public sympathy for the young woman. Remembering back to the
19105, when the sensationalism of white slave trafﬁc overshadowed the realities of
female autonomy, Reckless nevertheless argued that the massive gap between truth and
ﬁction were highly problematic when reﬂecting on the actual historical problem.
According to the process of the case, Reckless reported that a friend of the girl’s uncle
appealed to Roe for help after the case reached a stand-still eleven days after her

disappearance. An investigator found the Swedish woman in a rear room of a saloon at
th . . . . .

30 and State Streets; Within the case ﬁle, the 1nvest1gator empha31zed that he was

“attracted by the fact that a colored woman was accompanied by a very pretty girl.” The

next day, both women were arrested and upon review of the case, the Swedish Council

suggested to the United States Immigration Bureau that the young woman be deported.

 

2 Adapted from Clifford G. Roe, Panders and Their White Slaves (New York and Chicago: Fleming H.
Revell & Company, 1910): ll-17.
3 Ibid.

183

While Reckless admitted that the ﬁnal outcome of the case was uncertain, he hinted that
the young woman acknowledged her indiscretions and refused to prosecute the men she
accused in her trial.4 The ideological gap between Clifford Roe’s and Walter Reckless’

studies illustrate a vital division between public perceptions of female sexuality during

. . th . . .
the white slavery “panic” of the late 19 century and more reallstlc images

acknowledged in the aﬁermath of the ﬁndings of Chicago’s Vice Commission. This gap
is signiﬁcant when considering the uniqueness of the case Reckless presented; ﬁnding
any public discussion of Scandinavians acting outside of the social roles Americans
prescribed them is comparatively difﬁcult when considering the wealth of cases focused
on other immigrant groups of Chicago. While historians have begun to analyze this gap
in public understandings of morality and private spheres in the history of white slavery,
there is a signiﬁcant element that remains understudied in relation to “deviance,” “vice,”
and “preferred” Northern and Western European immigrants who contributed to this
phenomenon, regardless of stereotypes that painted them as moral, upstanding citizens of
their communities.

By the turn of the century, citizens and newcomers to the city had come to regard
Chicago as one of the most lawless cities in the United States, rife with crime, corruption
and sexual danger that threatened young immi grants who arrived within the city looking
for job opportunities and independence. One of the biggest public debates of this era
focused on the threat of “white slavery” — a term which appeared with great frequency at
the turn of the century to refer to an extreme form of prostitution in which a woman was

often exploited through some form of physical coercion, and even kidnapping. Joanne

 

4 Case 17 — Chicago Vice Study File, cited in Walter C. Reckless’ famous study, Vice in Chicago
(Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1933): 38-9.

184

Meyerowitz’s seminal work established that Progressive-minded reformers were
responsible for the creating the image of the innocent victim of male sexual exploitation
within the context of a prevailing Victorian image of women as passionless beings. Over
the course of the 19105 and into the 19205, both public representations of the “women
adrift” began to shift, as the assertive behavior of young independent wage earners
eventually forced reformers, sociologists, and the media to acknowledge the active role
they had in shaping their own lives.5 While recent works have begun to interrogate the
actual experiences of immigrant women, the historiography focusing on reactions of
immigrant communities towards major public issues like white slavery and crime remains
relatively thin. Furthermore, historians of Scandinavian immigrants have only recently
begun to interrogate a wealth of documentation that suggests Scandinavians were
involved in a number of crimes and white slavery narratives, looking only superﬁcially at

various instances where Scandinavian women were “lured” into white slavery.6 From this

 

5 A number of vital works inspired by Meyerowitz original thesis have built upon the notion of a shift in
ideology to include deeper discussions on the deﬁnitions of white slavery, urban space, and sexuality
within Chicago including Kevin Mumford’s Interzones, Amy Lagler’s dissertation, “For God’s Sake Do
Something,” and Karen Abbott’s Sin in the Second City. For further discussion, see Joanne Meyerowitz,
Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930 (Chicago and London: The University
of Chicago Press, 1988): xvii-xxiii; Kevin Mumford, Interzones: Black/White Sex Districts in Chicago and
New York in the Early Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997); Amy R. Lagler,
“For God’s Sake Do Something”: White Slavery Narratives and Moral Panic in Tum-of-the-Century
American Cities,” PhD Dissertation, Michigan State University, 2000; Karen Abbott, Sin in the Second
City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul (New York: Random House, 2007.
See also Janet E. Rasmussen, “I Was Scared to Death When I Came to Chicago”: White Slavery and the
Woman lmmi grant,” in F in(s) de Siecle in Scandinavian Perspective: Studies in Honor of Harald S. Naess,
eds. Faith lngwersen and Mary Kay Norseng (Columbia, SC: Camden House, Inc., 1993): I95.

6 Prior to Ulf Beijbom’s chapter on the experiences of Swedish domestic servants published in 1993,
historians of Scandinavian immigration relied more closely on a standard narrative that emphasized the
upstanding morals of their historical subjects; while these experiences were true for many, especially active
Lutherans, there was much more to be said of the interactions between themes such as gender, vice and the
private sphere in relation to young, single immigrants who came to American cities between the 18805 and
the 19105. A number of recent works have begun to look into this vital discourse, largely suggesting that
the biggest fears in the community were centered on the role of Scandinavian domestics and their
precarious social positions, yet have failed to go into more extensive analysis as to the viewpoints of
Americans and Scandinavians towards young and seemingly endangered women. Furthermore, these recent
works omit any larger discussion of the connections of men and crime, viewpoints of the community

185

vital omission, one could conclude that such documentation simply does not exist, and
that Americans viewed Scandinavians as pious, responsible people in comparison to other
ethnic groups, who therefore did not elicit public concern. However, this was far from the
truth; Scandinavians were well aware of the dangers their young women and men faced
as exhibited in a number of publications, media representations, and discourse of the
community that illustrated a deﬁnitive concern. In an intriguing turn of events, as this
chapter argues, Scandinavians held a completely opposite viewpoint on such issues that
put them ahead of their time. As the “women adrift” of immigrant classes as a whole
were viewed by Americans at the turn of the century as helpless victims, Scandinavians
granted their youth agency in their own lives, and often times held them accountable for
the ramiﬁcations of their decisions, regardless of sex, social or marital status. These
responsibilities given to Scandinavian youth were internal, grounded ﬁrst in the culture of
home and continued in Chicago in deliberate ways. In community newspapers,
Scandinavians would create a private discourse in the languages of home on the dangers
of Chicago’s city spaces, while also warning their youth to act in ways that would bring
community pride, not shame. While the community actively put measures into place to
steer their youth away from dire situations, largely focusing on the establishment of
settlement homes as a haven for youth living adrift, some immigrants nevertheless found

trouble within the city, which community newspapers widely reported in an effort to

 

towards crime, and proposed solutions to prevent their youth from becoming wrapped up in criminal
activities, which this chapter seeks to explore in greater detail. Some of these works include the following:
Ulf Beijbom, “The Promised Land for Swedish Maids,” in Swedes in America: Intercultural and
Interethnic Perspectives on Contemporary Research (V axjo, Sweden: The Swedish Emigrant lnstitute’s
Series, 1993): 117-124; Rasmussen, “I Was Scared to Death When I Came to Chicago,” 194-202;
Margareta Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life: Swedish-American Women in Lake View,” in
Peasant Maids — City Women (1997): 261 -97; Joy Lintelman, “A Good Position,” in I Go to America:
Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society
Press, 2009): 92-134.

186

 

show support for their accused youth. At the same time, Chicago’s newspapers also took
note of such social problems, but often viewed any connections between Scandinavians
and city crime as isolated instances not representative of the larger group. This chapter
will begin to open up larger conversations on the forgotten “dark” side of the
Scandinavian community in Chicago, which included episodes involving public
drunkenness, sexual crime and white slavery, prostitution, and illegitimacy based in
cultural traditions. In bringing these stories to light, this signiﬁcant discourse should open
up further ideological connections between a city coming into the modern era, shifting
ideals of sexual morality, and the establishment of social behaviors deemed appropriate

for Chicago’s various ethnic groups.

“We feel that Scandinavians are law-abiding”: Public Image and Early Encounters
with Vice

From the earliest days of Scandinavian settlement in Chicago, stereotypes were
established for all immigrant groups arriving in the city in droves during the era of
massive industrialization. The Irish were often times depicted as rough drunkards who
were prone to public ﬁghting, while Italians found themselves painth as insular and
sneaky, not allowing outsiders into their community establishments. Just as Chicagoans
created stereotyped perceptions of various immigrant groups as a method of coping with
overwhelming diversity and crowding within neighborhoods, Scandinavians also dealt
with negative stereotypes of their character. One of the most common focused on the

drunken workingrnan who spent his evenings on a barstool at his favorite Scandinavian

187

tavern. As Perry Duis illustrated in The Saloon, in small “ma and pa” operations, the
saloon was not just a place for drinking, but also to get a cheap, home-cooked meal, cash
checks, pick up mail, and conduct other types of necessary business. Over time, as Duis
contends, Chicago became “wide open” as regulations about the use of public places,
from speed limits to peddler’s rules, were largely ignored; the same laissez-faire attitude
prevailed about crime and liquor licensing.7 For immigrants, both “old” and “new,” the
saloon became what Duis termed a “comfortable complement” to their ethnicity.8
Scandinavian saloons, especially those run by Swedes, were located almost entirely
within their tightly concentrated neighborhoods. Danes and Norwegians like the Swedes
owned places on the fringe of the neighborhood and designed their taverns to appeal to a
narrow ethnic audience. Nearly all Scandinavian saloons featured Swedish punch during
the year and “glog”, a traditional spiced wine served during the holidays, advertised
prominently on their signboards outside the taverns. One Swede, Axel Nilsson, operated
a “Texas” buffet adjoining his bar, while Scandia Hall hosted ethnic labor meetings, and
Swedish singing societies met at Andrew Johnson’s bar.9 In almost every way, the
family-run saloon served as the center of the community for socializing, leisure, and in
some instances, the catalyst for crime.

At the same time, however, Scandinavians were quick to remind the public of
their commitment to temperance as a feature of their Lutheran beliefs. Therefore, when
embarrassing public scandals arose, like that of the dismissal of the superintendent of the

morgue of the cook County Poor House for drunkenness in July of 1891, Scandinavian

 

7 Perry Duis, The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1 880-1 920 (Urbana and Chicago:
University of Illinois, 1983): 2, 8.

8 Ibid, 146.

9 History and Souvenir of the Liquor Interests, in Beijbom, Swedes in Chicago: A Demographic and Social
Study of the 1846-1880 Immigration (Uppsala and Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1971): 258-59.

188

 

newspapers often took a position of support on behalf of their blamed countrymen. As the
article, “Victimized Countryman,” explained of the incident, a few days prior, Dr.
Wimermark, the Superintendent of the institution, also a Scandinavian, left for
Minneapolis to attend the United Scandinavian Singers’ and left another man, Mr. Pyne,
in charge. In Dr. Wimerrnark’s absence, the president of the board of trustees visited the
Poor House and left explicit instructions with Pyne that he would have the right to
discharge anyone among the personnel who could be charged with drunkenness. The
article went onto accuse both Mr. Pyne and the president of the board of trustees of
discrimination against their Scandinavian workers who were falsely accused of
negligence on Dr. Wimermark’s behalf and drunkenness on Mr. Christianson’s part.IO
Amongst fairly regular stories in the pages of Scandinavian newspapers that claimed false
accusations of drunkenness and vice against their fellow countrymen appeared periodic
tallies comparing the crime rates of Scandinavians to that of other immigrant groups. In
January 1884, Skandinaven announced that during the course of the previous year, there
were “only six hundred and eighty-three Swedes arrested, four hundred and thirty-six
Norwegians, and no Danes,” compared to “ﬁve thousand four hundred and eight Irish,
and over twenty thousand American-born” — an indication that the editor deemed as a
“favorable indication for the Scandinavians.”ll Six years later in December 1891,
Skandinaven claimed that over the course of the year, there were fewer Scandinavians
accused of crimes than ever before, indicating that “Scandinavians are law-abiding” as
the few cases that came before the courts were for “minor offences.”12 While

Scandinavian newspapers played a major role in calming the fears of the community in

 

'0 “Victimized Countryman,” Svenska Tribunen, July 23, 1891, 3.
” “Crime Among Scandinavians,” Scandinaven, January 28, 1884, 4-
'2 “Crime,” Skandinaven, December 15, 1891, 4.

189

being deemed suspect by the general public, the Scandinavian media nevertheless played
an equally signiﬁcant role in sensationalizing the actions of their own in connection to
clandestine crimes reported by Chicago’s newspapers as a means of defense.

Prior to the turn of the century, the Scandinavian community took additional
action to defend the good-name of their young, female workers. As a large proportion of
young Scandinavian women worked as domestic servants living apart from family, by the
19005, some gained a ﬂeeting notoriety for frivolous and irresponsible behaviors in
connection with a number of unfortunate circumstances reported widely by Chicago’s
newspapers. The ﬁrst public issue, addressed by a man named Kund Larigelando, played
upon societal fears of young immigrant women living independently, when he wrote to
the editor of Skandinaven charging Norwegians with vanity in wanting to dress like
American girls. Lari gelando warned that when they could not afford to do so, Norwegian

girls simply “sold their virtue. . .that is why the houses of shame exist.”13

In response to
his claims, three “industrious shop girls” appealed to the editor of Skandinaven to publish
their plea to the community to come to the defense of the reputation of Norwegian “girls”
in Chicago. It was insinuations like his, the Norwegian girls claimed, that created lasting
negative stereotypes that could have a major effect on future employment and public
opinion: “We have come to the United States of America, where we get our good, honest
pay either as servants or shop girls until we get better positions. But it is always enough
to keep us dressed respectable, and we do not wish to have our reputation spoiled by a

person like K.L. . .we have always been respected by the Americans and we intend to

remain so.”14 The following summer, a similar plea came in the form of a debate between

 

'3 “Girls Resent Charges,” Skandinaven, September 18, 1872, 2.
l4 -
Ibld.

190

two Swedish newspapers after Svenska Amerikaneren published an article which cast
doubt on their responsibilities in their positions; in the article, the editor took offense to
the securing ﬁivolity of maids, who were described as “much ﬁner ladies with clothing
much more expensive than their mistresses,” which struck the editor as odd given the
women earned only “four to ﬁve dollars a week.”15 The viewpoint of Nya Verlden was
quite different, instead arguing in favor of Chicago’s Swedish maids, pointing out that the
any position promised “steady employment, good pay, excellent treatment and lighter
duties” and therefore, if women who worked as maids wanted to spend their hard-earned
money on personal items, they had earned the right to do so.16
Just years after these simpler squabbles played out in the pages of Scandinavian
newspapers, a much more serious piece of news reached Chicago’s newspapers. In
August 1880, the Chicago Tribune reported the cautionary tale of Mrs. Peterson, an
unmarried Norwegian woman “without money or ﬁiends” who suddenly took ill in the
middle of North Des Plaines street. Upon being given temporary shelter in a nearby
tenement house, the woman shortly thereafter delivered a baby. The newspaper reported
that the attending physician refused to allow her to be moved due to her precarious
condition, however the people living in the tenement house “insisted upon the
unfortunate woman’s removal” and she was moved to the County Hospital.17 While
Norwegians nevertheless acknowledged this very public embarrassment for their

community, the attention of their leaders focused much more closely on creating a

solution to the earlier problem of negative stereotypes in relation to their young women.

 

'5 “Nya Verlden” och tjensteﬂickoma” (“New World and the Maid”), Svenska Amerikanaren, July 5, 1873,
3. (Translations mine) The entire exchange between the two newspapers was published in July 1873 as an
ongoing debate over the position of the Swedish maid in Chicago’s society.
16 .

Ibid.
'7 “The City: General News,” Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1880, 8.

191

In 1903, the editor of Svenska Nyheter spoke out on these earlier depictions of the
community, acknowledging the desire young Scandinavian women felt to go out and
have ﬁm with peers after work, but also placed the responsibility of whatever dangers
they may encounter on the young working women:
“The time off may often work in the very opposite direction to that which is
helpful. The desire to go out evenings is strong, nights awake follow, and may
draw consequences far beyond the pale face and the weary body. . .Youth has not
learned what sad consequences may ensure from that which as the moment
seemed pleasant. The full responsibility for behavior and manner of living is
placed upon the shoulders of the young woman; there being no thoughtful lady of
the manor to place restraint on her activities, nobody to persuade her to abstain
from the type of pastime which may have consequences detrimental to the girl
mentally, morally, and physically as well.”18
Many young working women took this responsibility to heart, like Pauline Hegbom, who
told of going to movies or theaters, visiting restaurants and coffee shops, and touring
various city museums like the Art Institute. As she explained, “It was not unusual for a
group to get together and go to a picnic on a Sunday and the girls would bring the
lunch. . .It did not take much to have a good time those days.” However, she made a point
to specify that their activities were always morally sound, and involved “clean sport. . .no
taverns.”19 The agency illustrated by these Swedes and Norwegians in their struggle to be
viewed as legitimate, hard-working immigrants by their peers was representative of a

vital effort of Chicago’s Scandinavians to continue to be viewed as inherently good by

their American neighbors. Nevertheless, the fear of corruption and sexual misconduct

 

‘8 “Maid or Factory Girl?” (Editorial), Svenska Nyheter, June 23, 1903, 2.

’9 Pauline Hegbom (Nelson) memoirs, younger years — 1920s, Hegbom - Nelson Family Manuscript
Collection, Manuscript Series #39, Box #2, F. M. Johnson Archives and Special Collections at North Park
University, Chicago, IL.

192

 

bred by the white slavery panic of the 18903 into the 20th century threatened to unravel
the perfect image Scandinavians were in the process of creating for themselves.

The ﬁrst report of a purported white slavery case involving Scandinavian women
was published in Skandinaven in November 1889, signaling the beginning of a massive
campaign to prevent other young women in the community from falling victim to such
heinous crimes. The victim in question was not of Scandinavian descent, but instead, her
story was told as a cautionary tale to the community’s women to remind them of similar
situations they may have also put themselves into. The article, intended to illicit shock

from its readers, told of “a white slave being held at the Harrison Street [Police] Station”

— a claim the author found unbelievable in the 19th century, “in the modern city of

Chicago.” Even in the Postbellum era, the author stated, “a white woman is bought, sold,
and mortgaged so that when she escapes she is arrested and accused of robbery.” The
girl, Marie Dubhene, described by the author as “small and good-looking” and “hardly
fourteen years old” was lured to Chicago by a woman named Fawn Kittie while working
in Montreal. Marie told the police that she had no money to buy a ticket, but was
promised a “good job” by Kittie; upon arrival in Chicago, Marie soon realized the
situation she had fallen into as Kittie received money from another woman for her work
procuring Marie into white slavery. Regardless of the brothel owner’s warning that
escape would result in her arrest, Marie ﬂed the brothel and was arrested for robbery —
the author warned that this was a common practice to ground white slaves in a perpetual
system, where brothel owners give their “girls” clothing in return for their signature on a

form that states it is their “mortgage” until they earned enough money through

193

prostitution to earn their clothes.20 While Scandinavian newspapers took a similar
approach to American newspapers and various white slavery narratives in expressing the
dangers of the city to its citizens, further exposure of white slavery “rings” illustrated a
much different approach taken in dealing with the community’s young women.

As Joanne Meyerowitz explained, the experiences of these young “women adrift”
combined elements of independence from family, na‘r’vete’, low wages, and sexual service
work, which sparked the imaginations of Victorian, and later, Progressive writers. During
this era, the woman adrift became a symbol of the threats that industrialization and
urbanization posed to womanhood and the family.21 While some viewed her as a threat,
others depicted the independent wage earner as a poor, innocent victim whose virtue was
the community’s responsibility to protect. Between 1889 and the turn of the century, the
pages of Scandinaven, Scandia, and Svenska Nyheter splashed numerous tales of white
slavery across their pages in an effort to warn young women, but also to place
responsibility solely on their shoulders for putting themselves in knowingly dangerous
situations. Likewise, the editors of these various newspapers reﬂected a similar viewpoint
of the community when it came to women making wise decisions in the positions they
chose to work in, with a signiﬁcant emphasis on domestic service. After a certain point in
looking for a safe place to work and live as domestics, many women eventually
exhausted themselves pounding the pavements, and when their money ran out, they
sometimes despaired. Often times, they would ﬁnd themselves making a deal with the
ﬁrst person to approach them with a position, regardless of credentials or references,

much like four girls “found” at one of Sadie Richards’ brothels — a notorious Chicago

 

2" “White Slave Flees,” Skandinaven, November 12, 1889, 1.
2' Meyerowitz, Women Adrift, 41-2.

194

madam, who would hire young girls to work as maids in her private home on Washington
Boulevard. The pages of Scandinaven exposed Richards’ tactics, which were especially
useful in procuring fair Scandinavian girls, to the rest of the community, making a point
of splashing the victim’s names across the headlines for all to see. Clara Larson, Alma
Peterson, Frida Hussen, and Minna Borg were all hired by Richards to work as maids; the
girls worked as proper maids for a period of time, until Richards would introduce them to
some “nice” men who would “entertain” them. It was only a matter of time before the
girls were “thoroughly broken in,” according to the paper.22 Within that same year, a
number of other articles in Scandinaven tracked additional stories of sexual vice,
sometimes claiming that the young Scandinavian women were victims of kidnappings,
including especially graphic details for the context of the time period. One such article
focused on a Norwegian, Fannie Eckstrom, who was forced by a man to live in a room at
his hotel on West Madison Street, where “he and his friends would visit her and force her
to have intercourse against her will,” as other articles told of the devastation experienced
by young girls who were either “diseased or disabled” by several illegal abortions and a
litany of venereal diseases.23 And while some American and immigrant newspapers
denied the presence of any of “their” girls’ involvement in sexual vice, Scandinavian
newspapers, by and large, took full responsibility in acknowledging that the community’s
young women were involved, and even sometimes to blame. In most of the brothels or

“schools of vice,” women were present because they were held against their will,

 

22 “Girls Who Leave Home,” Skandinaven, January 30, 1889, 4.
2’ “Kidnapped,” Skandinaven, March 7, 1889, 10; “Juvenile Delinquency,” Skandinaven, September 24,
1889, 7.

195

however, as the article “Juvenile Delinquency” admitted, a few worked in brothels
“because they liked [this kind of] life.”24

One problem that was particularly unique to Swedish women was the
preponderance of illegitimacy within the community amongst domestics; as Margareta
Matovic argued, American employers, doctors, pastors, and social workers were well-
aware that Swedish immigrant domestics frequently gave birth to illegitimate children.25
In Sweden, pregnancy was traditionally the ﬁrst step towards marriage in rural regions,
often publicly considered as a formal engagement between two people who planned to
marry upon the birth of their child. This practice was acknowledged by the authors of the
Swedish Catalogue of the World ’s Columbian Exposition, who explained the number of
births out of wedlock in Sweden was admittedly high at 10% of all births, while
matrimonial frequency was relatively low; in 1880, 49.3% of all Western European men

ages 25-30 were married, compared to 40% of Swedish men, while only 47.7% of

 

2” “Juvenile Delinquency,” Skandinaven, September 24, 1889, 7.

25 Margareta Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life: Swedish-American Women in Lake View,” in
Peasant Maids — City Women, 275-76; Matovic, “lllegitimacy and marriage in Stockholm in the nineteenth
century,” in Bastardy and its Comparative History, 336. According to the editors of Bastardy and its
Comparative History, illegitimacy has been called a social problem for the last two centuries and a moral
problem from time immemorial, and therefore is a highly documented and vital historical problem. In
deﬁning bastardy in comparative terms within the European cultural tradition, the authors of the volume
look at the procreation of children outside of marriage within the context of various societies from urban to
peasant classes. In understanding the meanings of marriage, personal commitment, and childbirth within
the context of Scandinavian societies, we can better understand the transmission of misunderstood deviant
cultural traditions. For further discussion on illegitimacy within Western Europe, see Peter Laslett,
“Introduction: Comparing illegitimacy over time and between cultures,” in Bastardy and its Comparative
History, eds. Peter Laslett, Karla Oosterveen and Richard M. Smith (London: Edward Arnold Ltd., 1980):
1-68. Looking more speciﬁcally at Scandinavian cultures, the same study poses a lively discourse on the
perrnissiveness of illegitimacy within the context of the 19th century; some commentators, especially those
of Scandinavian descent, argue that in old peasant society, the arrival of a child seemed to have been the
occasion for ofﬁcial marriage, otherwise a marriage would not have taken place, while others who have
researched parish records in Sweden found that there were ﬁnes charged by the church for illegitimacy, but
nothing devastating enough to stop illegitimate births from continuing to occur in subsequent generations.
See R.F. Thomasson, “Premarital Perrnissiveness and lllegitimacy in the Nordic Countries,” Comparative
Studies in Society and History, v. 8, n. 2 (April 1976): 252-70; Ann-Soﬁe Kalvemark, “lllegitimacy and
marriage in three Swedish parishes in the nineteenth century,” in Bastardy and its Comparative History,
330.

196

Swedish women in the same age range were married, compared to 62.5% of all Western
European women.26 At the time, Swedish scholars exhibited a range of viewpoints on this
cultural practice. EH. Th'o‘mberg, a social scientist send to Chicago in 1913 to study
Swedish immigrants, remarked that Swedish women were no more immoral than other
immigrant women, but instead became pregnant out of wedlock more frequently because
they considered conception as binding as marriage. Later community discussions would
show that this ideology was, by and large, supported by Chicago’s Scandinavian citizens,
especially in relation to Castberg’s Laws in Illinois, which granted children born out of
wedlock comparable rights to legitimate children. Some Swedish women, however, were
not as ﬂexible in their moral viewpoints, such as Cecilia Millow who claimed that
Swedish immi grant women had a “ﬂagrant disregard for morals and were not ashamed of
bearing illegitimate children” within American society.27 Aside from these contrasting
viewpoints, the question remains as to why illegitimacy typically is not considered as a
historical problem in connection to the Scandinavian community, but is usually
associated with other immi grant groups. Dorothy Puttee and Mary Ruth Colby’s study,

The Illegitimate Child in Illinois, illustrated a similar surprise as to the preponderance of

 

26 Swedish Catalogue of the World 's Columbian Exposition, 17-19.

27 E.H. Thomberg was sent by the Swedish National Association against Emigration to give a darker
portrayal of living conditions within the city; nevertheless, Thomberg found a “higher type of settlement”
and was impressed with the living conditions, and therefore his study read much like other scholars who
visited the Scandinavian settlements of America and looked favorably on the rich cultural expressions
exhibited in the communities. In referring to the Castberg’s Laws of Illinois, one editorial in Skandinaven
from 1916 told of a “lively discussion” which took place at the Woman’s City Club of Chicago in response
to Catherine Anthony’s study of women’s and children’s living conditions in Norway and Germany. The
sociology student of the University of Chicago referred to the Castberg’s Laws, which affected the rights of
children born out of wedlock; according to the article, the consensus of opinion “was overwhelmingly for
the adoption of these laws of Illinois,” which would give children born out of wedlock the same rights with
respect to parenthood, family name, and monetary contributions of the parents. For further discussion, see
E.H. Thomberg, Lefnadsstandard och Sparkraft med sa'rskild ha'nsyn till den svenska befolkningen i
Chicago (Stockholm, l9lS):42-3; ”Castberg’s Laws in Illinois,” (Editorial) Skandinaven, December 4,
1916, 4; Cecilia Millow, “Till fragan om det moraliska tillstandet bland svenska tjtinsteflickor i America,”
Dagny, Organ fOr F redrika Bremer Forbundet (Stockholm, 1904): 293-94.

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illegitimacy amongst Chicago’s Scandinavians in comparison to other groups of women.
The authors noted one reason for such an oversight was due to the typical association of
poverty and illegitimacy; in doing so, their 1928 study recognized the continuation of a
false stereotype that Chicago’s Scandinavians were ﬁnancially capable, and therefore
would not produce illegitimate children. During that year, in Chicago alone there were
1,346 illegitimate births recorded which totaled 22.8 illegitimate births per 1,000 babies
born. Of that number, the authors emphasize that the problem of illegitimacy was one of
the ‘yvhite race” — out of 1,346 illegitimate births, 73% of those were listed as “white.”28
To the authors’ surprise, of the 144 foreign-born mothers registered as giving birth to
illegitimate children, the majority were of the “old” immigrant classes: 26 were from
Germany, 22 from Ireland, 20 from Poland, 17 from Scandinavia, 16 from Austria, and
10 from Canada, while they emphasized that there were “but 4 Italians, no Greeks, 5
Mexicans, and 3 Czecho-Slovakians [sic].”29 Even today, their conclusions could elicit
surprise when considering the historiography on representations of Scandinavian women,
as well as women from Northern and Western Europe in the context of a larger narrative.
Due mostly to ethnocentrism, historians of white slavery, prostitution, and sexuality in
urban spaces focus more closely on those from the latter groups listed by Puttee and
Colby in connection to unfortunate situations, but as the authors’ study shows, it was
actually those ﬁ'om the “old” immigrant groups who engaged in illegitimacy in much
larger numbers.

Even more surprising, however, is the lack of analysis on a much larger and

strategic plan that several domestic servants of Scandinavian descent knowingly engaged

 

2“ Dorothy Francis Puttee and Mary Ruth Colby, The Illegitimate Child in Illinois (Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1937): 82-3, 85-6.
2" Ibid, 91-2.

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in. According to Matovic and the ﬁndings of The Illegitimate Child in Illinois, a single
marital status was a prerequisite for employment as a domestic, whereas marriage would
normally mark the end of work for women. Yet, many Scandinavian women used the
cultural tradition of illegitimacy as a means to earn more income prior to the birth of their
children. According to Matovic, many women had stable relationships and even secret
engagements, primarily with Scandinavian men, and postponed marriage to keep their
employment.30 In doing so, these women were able to incur more income from their
employers, many of whom pitied their workers for their seemingly dire situations as
illegitimate mothers. As Puttee and Colby noted of this apparent arrangement, “there has
long existed the belief that to enter the ranks of those engaged in domestic service is to
invite illicit love-making, extra-marital intercourse and subsequent unmarried
motherhood,” which the high percentage of unmarried mothers who were also domestics
suggested. Their statistics pointed to the “unorganized” nature of domestic service as
employment, which they argued offered “insufﬁcient education to get further training,”
however, as discussed in chapter three, this was not the case with Scandinavian domestics
who were by and large offered signiﬁcant chances for education and upward social

mobility through their positions.3 1 While public discourse on the nature of illegitimacy

 

3° Matovic pointed out that while Scandinavian women received praise within American society for
marrying within their own communities, while making a concerted effort to learn the ways of America, she
also described the life of a married Scandinavian woman as rife with problems. She explained that even if
the woman came into the marriage with a sizeable dowry, it was incredibly burdensome to pay rent and
debts that homeownership incurred, and were often forced to take boarders or ﬁnd other means of income
that did not take them out of the home. Therefore, a solution for many domestics who understood the
signiﬁcance of their positions was to simply stay in their jobs until their employers asked them to leave
(when their pregnancy got in the way of completing their work, or after the birth of their children). See
Matovic, “Embracing a Middle-Class Life,” in Peasant Maids — City Women, 277-78.

3' Puttee and Colby use their statistics (782 out of 2,381, or 32.84%) of the registered unmarried mothers
who were also domestics to state their case that such positions put women in danger of such unfortunate
situations, while also keeping them grounded in a never-ending cycle of manual labor. Margareta
Matovic’s work has been the only recent argument to suggest otherwise, that Scandinavian women used
pregnancy as an advantage in their positions. The prevalence of illegitimate pregnancy in Scandinavian

199

 

and unsavory behaviors in connection to Scandinavian domestics was not given adequate
attention by the media, a number of crimes, both clandestine and dramatic, forced the
media to take notice at the turn of a new century -— a time when vice in Chicago was
beginning to gain international notoriety.

One of the ﬁrst published tales of clandestine crime involving Scandinavians in
Chicago appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1884, which recounted the charge of Mrs.
Sarah Tarskey, who had reason to believe her husband had been living “in adultery” with
a Norwegian woman on Randolph street. The story, which read as a popular multi-part
drama over the course of several weeks, followed the testimonies of the Tarskeys, as well
as the accused adulteress, Mrs. Bergh, who the media painted as a conniving siren out to
steal Mr. Tarskey away from his wife and effectively end their marriage.32 By the turn of
the century, a series of murderous crimes gripped the Scandinavian community,
effectively turning their attention away from comparatively inconsequential stories of
adultery to much more heinous crimes that had the potential to shatter the positive image
they cultivated. The ﬁrst focused on Fred Hanson, who was found guilty of manslaughter
in the shooting death of an Irishman, Edward O’Connor; while the Swedish-language
newspapers admitted to the fact that Hanson was one of their own, the series of articles
emphasized that Hanson was actually born in Iowa to Swedish immigrants in 1875 and
had lived in Minneapolis for nineteen years prior to his move to Chicago just three

months before committing the crime. The article went on to deﬁne the crime as one of

 

Chicago, as well as throughout America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries is a topic that is in need
of much further analysis given the signiﬁcant discourse the practice suggests in connection to meanings of
motherhood and labor within an urban context. See Puttee and Colby, 98-9; Matovic, “Embracing a Middle
Class Life,” in Peasant Maids — City Women, 275-76.

32 “Romance Ended; The Norwegian Woman’s Friend Arrested on Complaint of His Wife,” Chicago
Tribune, August 5, 1884, 2.

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passion motivated by jealousy — “both men were in love with the same girl,” explained
the news, and the murder was committed in her room.33 The most sensational crime was
yet to come — one that would bring national attention to the dangerous position of single
Scandinavian women within the city. On a cold January night in 1902, Carrie Larson, a
Scandinavian woman, was strangled by a man named Louis Thomb aboard the steamer
“Peerless;” upon realizing another man, Robert Keissig, witnessed the murder, Thomb
proceeded to throw her body overboard into the Chicago River. The response of the
media, both American and Scandinavian, overwhehningly condemned Thomb for his
heinous crime and blamed his numerous attempts for respite from hanging on the
sympathies of “foolish women” and a ﬂawed justice system. Skandinaven reported in
August 1902, just days before Thomb was scheduled to be hanged, that the “deplorable
state of affairs” that allowed for Thomb to receive respite twice before was due to the
“sickly sentimentality of hysterical women who lionize criminals. . .to the delay and

”34 As the case of Carrie Larson illustrates,

uncertainty of justice in our courts of law.
Americans who would attempt to harm members of the Scandinavian community would
receive no immunity for their crimes, regardless of the scenario.

Other murderous crimes that took place involving members of the community as
the assassins would draw interesting parallels — in two speciﬁc cases, regardless of the
details, the media stood by the accused, rather than the victims of the crimes. For
instance, upon initial reports of the death of one Swedish man’s wife, Mrs. John A.

Nordgren, writers for Svenska Nyheter and Skandinaven came to the unﬂinching support

of Nordgren, who was depicted as a victim of the same corrupt court system that had

 

33 “Fred Hanson Guilty,” Svenska Tribunen, April 3, 1901, l l.
3" “The Case of Thombs,” Skandinaven, August 3, 1902, 4; Case of the Murder of Carrie Larson, Chicago
Crime Database, Case number 1326.

201

worked in the community’s favor in the conviction of Carrie Larson’s killer. In
November 1904, Svenska Nyheter reported that the Swedish National League came to the
aid of Nordgren, “convinced of his innocence” and was able to “engage competent
counsel and bring the case before the Illinois Supreme Court” where he was granted a
new trial and later acquitted of all charges.35 Another high-proﬁle case involving a
Scandinavian illustrated the community’s support of the convicted, regardless of sex or
extenuating circumstances. Helga C. Anderson, who was described by the Chicago
Tribune as a “pretty Norwegian woman, 24 years of age” was accused in May of 1907 of
attempting to kill Julius C. Darby, an elevated railway motorrnan, because “he jilted her
after inducing her to obtain a divorce that she might marry him,” according to the paper.
In an effort to garner sympathy on Anderson’s behalf, the newspaper told of the events

that led to Darby’s injury:

“After hearing through gossiping women of the neighborhood. . .that the man was
paying attention to several other women, Miss Anderson forced an interview in
the morning and when she heard from Darby’s own lips that he intended to “turn
her down,” she unwrapped a revolved from a newspaper in her lap and shot him
three times. . .she attempted to shoot herself after she saw what she had done to
Darby, but the bullet imbedded itself in her heavy coat and she was not injured.
“1 love him yet, I can’t help it,” sobbed Miss Anderson as she left the hospital.
The story told by the woman, who gave herself up without any trouble, won the
sympathy of the police. . .Ex-husband approves of shooting: Late in the evening
Waskow [Anderson’s ex-husband] hearing of the shooting of Darby, went to the
station and visited the cell of his former wife. He shook hands with her, and, after
hearing her story, promised to give her “all the aid he could.”

“You did right in shooting him,” he said as he left.”3’6

 

’5 “Announcement Regarding New Trial for John Nordgren,” Svenska Nyheter, November l, 1904, 2.
36 “Avenges her own home and heart; Helga Anderson Shoots Thrice and dangerously wounds Julius C.
Darby,” Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1907, 5.

202

Not at any time did accounts of the crime picture Anderson as a criminal or even an
adulteress, but instead as a woman promised the commitment of marriage by a man who
rescinded his promise — a crime depicted by the newspaper as much worse that the
shooting. Instead, Anderson was almost viewed as a hero for her bold gesture, regardless
of the fact that she was arrested and admittedly guilty of the crime.

Just days later, another crime of passion took center stage as the Reverend Alfred
Dahlstrom, minister of three Evangelical churches in both Chicago and Rockford, was
arrested for the attempted kidnapping of Marta Petersen, a seventeen-year-old Swedish
girl from Chicago. The response from the community was not as supportive to that of
Anderson’s crime; not only was Reverend Dahlstrom a respected minister within the
community, but he had also been living a secret life with Pedersen much to the dismay of
his wife. Upon the report of Pedersen’s mother that the minister had kidnapped her
daughter, he denied knowing the whereabouts of Miss Petersen, but added that he
intended to marry the young girl upon her eighteenth birthday, when she would reach

legal marrying age.37 Regardless of the litany of high-proﬁle crimes involving

Scandinavians in the early years of the 20th century, Chicago’s media, nor did the

majority of Chicago’s citizens, begin to view Scandinavians in a negative light,
associating them with the crimes committed by a select few. Nevertheless, Chicago’s
Scandinavians began the process in 1907 to combat the social evils which threatened
their youth through their contributions to a larger movement — the establishment of
settlement houses geared at placing immigrants on the right path. Through these

establishments, the Scandinavian community was conscious of their public image, which

 

3'7 “Minister Arrested,” Skandinaven, May 23, 1907, 7-

203

was apparent in the outpouring of press releases to Chicago newspapers which brought
attention to the settlement homes that were being built in 1907. While the committees
behind these homes continually emphasized that they came to establish the homes to
assist immigrant women of all backgrounds and nationalities in times of need, through
representations in the media and recollections of the homes, the impetus was quite clear.
Scandinavians looked to build settlement homes that outwardly appeared to acculturate
patrons to the ways of America, but inside, maintained the traditions, and sometimes even

languages, of home.

“At the Immanuel Home we were well taken care of. . .we loved the home”: Public
Concern over Scandinavian Workers and Diverse Settlement Solutions
With the numbers of young, single Scandinavians on the rise in Chicago by the

turn of the century, reformers and citizens alike grew wary over the potential
ramiﬁcations of young immigrants living “adrift.” However, the differences in approach
by groups who sought to help the newly-arrived pointed to distinctive gendered divisions
in thought and practice. Such city reformers increasingly emphasized the need for homes
intended for young women; at the turn of the century, reformers viewed young “women
adrift” in Chicago as helpless victims under constant threat of the dangers of the city.38

One of the best ways to keep young migrants on the correct moral path was to offer them

 

33 Joy Lintelman brieﬂy described the vast network of settlement homes geared towards helping young,
Scandinavian “women adrift” in cities such as Chicago, Denver and New York, looking more speciﬁcally
at Boston’s Swedish Home of Peace. Established in 1903, the home had a similar goal as the Chicago
homes, to serve “girls who are out of employment or temporarily in need of rest and for girls from the
Scandinavian Countries coming to Boston in search of employment and for girls who through sickness and
other misfortunes have become destitute and are in need of temporary care and shelter.” See Joy Lintelman,
I Go to America, 95-6.

204

safe housing options where they would be guaranteed a bed and a meal, but most
importantly, the guidance of other women who operated the settlement houses. In support
of their own, a number of settlement houses aimed towards newly emigrated
Scandinavians opened their doors in Lake View, Lincoln Park, and on the south side
under the guidance of several Lutheran organizations. As early as the 1890s, such
organizations began to conceive of plans to build boarding houses for Scandinavian
working women, but the implementation of such plans would require both collateral and
signiﬁcant voluntary help. Nevertheless, in the opening years of the 19005, an impressive
number of Lutheran settlement homes opened their doors out of need, including many
that operated under the leadership of the Augustana synod such as the Augustana Central
Home, Augustana Lutheran Mission Home and Augustana Women’s Home; other homes
like the Immanuel Women’s Home, Swedish Covenant Home of Mercy, Susanna Wesley
Home, Home of the Vikings, and the Young Ladies’ Ebenezer Home of the Free Church
functioned through the support of community church offerings or groups committed to
maintaining the moral sanctity of the various enclaves.

Newly arrived immigrants learned of these homes through word of mouth or
through the various advertisements in Chicago’s Scandinavian newspapers, many of
which carefully pointed out the intentions of their organizations. One advertisement for
the Augustana Central Home and Inner Mission stressed that the home was intended as a
hospice or mission hotel, but not as a rescue home, old people’s home, or a home for
invalids. Instead, the leadership stressed that Augustana Central Home was “a safe place,
a Christian home for young people where they can stay at very reasonable expenses and

be among ﬁiends that are willing and ready at all times to give information, advice and

205

help in every way possible.”39 Following the lead of several other Progressive reform
organizations in the city, homes like Augustana emphasized the potential dangers faced
by newly arrived immi grants to the city, especially those who came to the city
unaccompanied without knowledge of English. As the advertisement warned, “every
year, thousands of young girls come to Chicago and go down to destruction just because
of lack of these things. . .it prevents much evil and here it is true that “an ounce of
prevention is better than a pound of cure.”40 Similarly, the Susanna Wesley Home
stressed in its advertisement that it was an institution that served a great need within the
city for young women who were “sorely in need who ﬁnd themselves homeless in a great
city where so many grave dangers and temptations lurk?“ For these new immigrants,
settlement homes offered a temporary and safe retreat from the dank conditions and
potential dangers of boarding houses or shoddy hotels, but also included a list of
expectations of them during their stay in these religious organizations.

One of the largest and most successful Scandinavian-operated settlement
organizations for female migrants in Chicago was the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s
Home, which by 1911 would become the largest Lutheran hospice for girls in the United
States. The idea of a Lutheran settlement home for young women living “adrift” was ﬁrst

brought to the attention of the pastor of the Immanuel Lutheran Church by young, mostly

 

’9 Much like the Eleanor Clubs of Chicago, which served as a “haven or way station between the security of
family, home and traditional values” for mostly white-collar working women according to Lisa Fine,
Scandinavian associations of women looked to establish houses of refuge for working women of all
occupations which served as a home away from home. For further discussion, see Lisa Fine, “Between Two
Worlds: Business Women in a Chicago Boarding House 1900-1930,” Journal of Social History, v. 19, n. 3
(Spring 1986): 511-19; Advertisement for the Augustana Central Home and Inner Mission, which was
located at 1346 N. Lasalle Street, in The Swedish Blue Book, A Swedish-American Directory and Yearbook
for Chicago, I 92 7, published annually by the Swedish-American publishing company, Chicago, 1927, 1 15.
40 Advertisement for the Augustana Central Home and Inner Mission, The Swedish Blue Book, A Swedish-
American Directory and Yearbook for Chicago, I 92 7, 115.

4‘ Advertisement for the Susanna Wesley Home of the Swedish M.E. Church on 3143 S. Michigan Avenue,
The Swedish Blue Book, 1927, 120.

206

strangers to the city who would ask the pastor where they could ﬁnd a safe home. The
pastor later recalled that, “if [the visitors] were well and had sufﬁcient money, their
question was easily answered. They could be taken to the YWCA. But if they were ill or

d.”42 In considering viable options for

out of funds, the question was not so easily answere
a safe, yet inexpensive place of respite for young Scandinavian women, he called upon a
group of prominent women of the church’s congregation to undertake the needed project.
The Immanuel Woman’s Home Association organized in January 1907 to begin to locate
a suitable location for a home where working women of the community could go when
out of employment or in need of rest. The purpose of the association mirrored the fears of
American Progressive reformers as they looked to provide a “Christian hospice with a
homelike atmosphere for young women in Chicago, who are away from the protecting
inﬂuence of their parental home and former friends.” The association pointed out that
they “visualized the many dangers and temptations to which the ﬁiendless young woman
in a metropolis like Chicago” was exposed on a daily basis.43 According to the
association, the need for a safe settlement home was in such dire need within the
community that the thirty-three charter members, upon locating the property at 1505 La
Salle Avenue, immediately footed the sum of $7,500 for the three-story home and were
able to open its doors to their patrons by August of the same year.44 Following their goal

to create a retreat that embodied a familial atmosphere, the house featured twelve light

and airy bedrooms decorated with familiar adomments from home in an elegant

 

42 Booklet published by the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home, Historical Sketch of the Immanuel
Woman 's Home, Looking Back T wenty-ﬁve Years (1907-1932), p. 12. Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home
Microﬁlm, Swenson Immigration Center at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL (hereafter abbreviated as
CIWHM).

’3 Ibid, 9; “Immanuel Women’s Home Observes Twenty-Fifth Anniversary,” Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter,
Dec. 7, I932.

44 Constitution and By-Laws for Immanuel Woman’s Home Association, 1911 (CIWHM).

207

Scandinavian style, while the dining hall resembled a Swedish cafe’ with white linens,
porcelain dishes, and potted ﬂowers set on rustic tables. The association also carefully
planned the location of the home as both convenient for its working patrons to travel to
from the business section of the city and peaceful as a home set next to the sprawling
gardens of Lincoln Park.

As was the practice of many settlement homes in Chicago during the Progressive
era, the association expected its patrons to follow a number of strict rules and adhere to
speciﬁc lifestyle choices before they would receive admission to the home. While the
association was organized by Lutheran people and not owned by any one denomination
according to the association, its management remained wholly Scandinavian and
Lutheran. Similarly, the association continually emphasized that women of all
nationalities and backgrounds were invited to stay at the home however the majority of
its patrons were of Scandinavian descent. This outcome can be attributed to the insular
nation of the Home, which carried no campaign of advertising aside from featuring a few
paid advertisements in the yearly Swedish Almanac published by the Augustana Book
Concern and in the “Lutheran Companion.” Patrons were also expected to pay the fee of
$3.50 to $4.00 a week for room and board and the bylaws of the association stressed that
the home was intended as a “Christian hospice,” and not as a rescue home, explaining the
difference being that the majority of those who shared in the hospitality of the home were
able to pay the full price according to the set rates of the home.45 And while the
association would later emphasize that no woman was ever turned away from the
Immanuel Woman’s Home simply because she lacked funds, the association was also

quick to mention that it enlisted the help of outside agencies, such as the Woman’s

 

’5 Historical Sketch of the Immanuel Woman ’s Home, 9 (CIWHM)

208

Protectorate, Traveling Bureaus, and, in the worst-case scenarios, Police Matrons to “take
charge” of those who arrived at the home destitute, friendless and homeless.46 Regardless
of the tendencies of the home to allow only a certain selection of working women
through its doors, it was an incredibly successful endeavor; over the course of thirty
years, the home hosted 18,435 patrons and would later encompass the surrounding
properties to expand the space of the home.47

The patrons who regularly visited the home in between jobs or on during time off
from work reﬂected upon the home as a vital institution in a sometimes unforgiving city.
The women who made use of the home held a variety of different occupations as ofﬁce
workers, dressmakers and tailoresses, clerks, teachers, social workers, and nurses
however domestic servants and cooks were the most frequent patrons, according to the
association records. As one charter member reﬂected, “looking back on a page from the
past we ﬁnd that the home also provided a blessing to many who came as immigrants
from Europe and were employed as servants in private homes.” She went on to note that,
for domestics who came to Immanuel Home, the institution became a “retreat during their
vacations and time off periods. Here they found safe and enjoyable companionship,

(1.”48 Many newly arrived

congenial friends and help and counsel when it was neede
domestics and other working women felt a continuous devotion to their families still in
Scandinavia to maintain their cultural traditions and devout religious practices, thereby

choosing to spend their days off at morally upstanding places like the Immanuel Home.

At night before bedtime, the house matron would lead devotions and the patrons would

 

“‘5 Ibid, 28.

‘7 Ibid,11, 14-19.

’8 Booklet published by the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home Association, The Immanuel Woman ’5
Home, Brief Illustrated Review (1937), 27 (CIWHM)

209

join in singing religious hymns in both English and Swedish; on religious holidays,
Scandinavian women from all over the city were invited to participate in traditional
celebrations that would remind them of home. One former domestic servant, Mrs. John
G. Olsen, recounted one Christmas Eve celebration at the Immanuel Home as one of her
most memorable and reminiscent of her family’s celebrations in Sweden:
“As I think back so many sweet memories linger with me from time to time, there
were the evening devotions, beautiful singing, certain evenings of the week led by
the pastors...[On Christmas Eve] most of us were far from our homes but there at
the table was the usual “lut-ﬁsk,” “jul-grot” and all the “goodies” pertaining to a
traditional “jul-afton.” Girls who were not living permanently at the home were
invited in to participate and enjoy Christmas Eve in a “Home” where Christ was
the center. Following the meal were the devotions, with the beautiful Christmas
text, Christmas songs, “Glada Julafton,” etc. . .Even in a large, strange city we
could join our voices with the congregation in the beautiful “All Hail to Thee, O
Blessed Morn.”49
Other former patrons similarly recounted the spirit of enjoyment amongst women in the
house, despite otherwise meager circumstances; one women remembered parties of
women in their adopted bedrooms where “sometimes there had to be some knocking at
the doors for a little quiet and order.”50 In a time when many Scandinavian immigrants
who came to Chicago for job opportunities soon found that the salaries of Chicago’s
working women were quite meager, the thought of ﬁnding a suitable place to live within
their means seemed altogether impossible. One Norwegian woman who came to the

home when it ﬁrst opened in 1907 remembered it as almost a mirage for her and her

friends, but nevertheless found that the home was a small blessing in her otherwise

 

49 Some of the Scandinavian fare mentioned by Olsen as included on a traditional “jul-afton” or Christmas
Eve smbrgasbord included luteﬁsk, a traditional dish of the Nordic countries typically made from whiteﬁsh
soaked in soda lye, and julgrot, a rice pudding with an almond hidden inside. Recollection of Mrs. John G.
Olsen in a booklet published by the Immanuel Woman’s Home, The Immanuel Woman ’5 Home, Brief
Illustrated Review (1937), 30 (CIWHM).

5" Ibid.

210

unfortunate series of circumstances: “At the Immanuel Home we were taken care of in
every way at a low cost. We loved the Home.”5 '
Similarly, homes opened at the turn of the century intended for Scandinavian
working men under the auspices of settled members of the community to ease the process
of settlement and provide a safe housing choice. In 1904, a group of Swedish newspaper
men conceived of a Scandinavian “People’s House” modeled after those in many cities of
Sweden which would serve as a meeting place and settlement home run by Scandinavian
volunteers. From the beginnings of the process of planning, the group intended for the
house to serve the needs of all Scandinavian newcomers to the city —- Norwegians, Danes,
and even Finns — in creating a brotherhood of Scandinavians, regardless of animosities
from home towards other groups.52 In planning their home, the group lamented over the
struggles of the new immi grant to Chicago, yet pointed out regional divisions within the
city amongst Scandinavians:
“When the young Swede, the young Finn, the young Dane, and the young
Norwegian set their feet on American soil they usually lose track of the friends
and acquaintances which they have acquired during the voyage across the ocean;

they scatter to the north, south, east, and west, and our immigrant ﬁnds himself
alone. In some cases he has relatives and friends to go to, but most newcomers are

 

5 ' Booklet produced in the late 19505 to commemorate the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home and the
work of its association; instead of building a new home for “working girls” in Chicago in 1959, the
Association decided that, based on the comparatively even state of the economy, the collected funds would
be put to better use in building a dormitory for young women on the campus of Augustana College in Rock
Island, Illinois — one of the largest Swedish-American colleges in the United States. The association noted
that in the ﬁfty years since the Chicago home ﬁrst opened, women’s position in society changed greatly,
providing them with immense opportunities in higher education and employment, and thereby their monies
would be much more appropriately served through the dormitory, as well as a scholarship ﬁmd for young
women attending Augustana College and preparing for social welfare work in the sum of $25,000. See The
Closing Chapter of the History of Immanuel Woman ’5 Home Association (CIWHM).

’2 “A Scandinavian People’s House in Chicago,” Svenska Nyheter, June 7, 1904. In an article published
weeks later, the group stressed that Scandinavian unity was not a new idea at home, but was still in need of
attention within America. Aware of the animosities grounded in the Kalmar Union when Swedes,
Norwegians, and Danes were united under the Swedish monarchy, the group stressed the need for skeptics
to attempt to ignore the class divisions created at home by this establishment and come together to form a
workingrnan’s home. See “To the Scandinavians of Chicago,” Svenska Nyheter, June 28, 1904.

211

complete strangers. The Scandinavian immigrant then looks for an organization
where he may ﬁnd sympathy and strike up new ﬁiendships. . .so it would be a
great boon to Scandinavian brotherhood and cooperation if this plan could
become a reality, including at least the societies of the North and Northwest Side
of the city; the south-siders are probably too far removed from the center of the
Scandinavian population to take advantage of this opportunity.”53
From the very beginning, the planning group made it very clear their intentions to build a
home which adopted the same spirit of altruism as Jane Addam’s Hull House, yet was run
by the community for the community — not by middle- to upper-class Chicagoans who
the group felt were blind to the real needs of communities like the Scandinavians. In a
full-page call to organize in Svenska Nyheter in June 1904, the planning committee
pointed out this observation and set out the intentions of the home, stating that “the weak
have to protect themselves against the abuses of the strong, and the lower,
underprivileged classes are gradually becoming conscious of the fact that they are
potentially many times as strong as the so-called upper classes. . .therefore, brother
Scandinavians, imbued with that same spirit, let us also get together and build a great
Scandinavian People’s House, here in Chicago, to serve as out social and political
center.”54 Over the next few years, as plans for the home came to fruition, the central idea
of a general meeting place would transform into something much more vital to
Scandinavian working men — a fraternal center that bred labor organization and socialist
rhetoric.
The Scandinavian People’s Home, like other organizations aimed towards

common workers, embraced education, socialist thought, and fraternity as the driving

force behind “getting ahead” in Chicago society. Historian Pehr Nordahl stressed in his

 

53 .
Ibid.
54 “To the Scandinavians of Chicago,” Svenska Nyheter, June 28, 1904.

212

study of social networks among Swedish-American radicals that organizations like the
Scandinavian People’s Home served as vehicles for socialist mobilization and working-
class unity, thereby serving a much different purpose than clubs which catered to
Scandinavian women.55 Supported by many of Chicago’s labor unions who came to the
aid of Scandinavian workers during previous strikes and lockouts, such community
organizations operated under the same goal of helping others rather than necessarily
showing concern over the moral respectability of those they helped. While organizations
such as the Scandinavian People’s Home and Cafe' Idrott in Lakeview maintained a strict
policy that no alcoholic beverages be sold or consumed on premises, the reasons for such
standards lay with Scandinavian policies and not necessarily out of religious tenets. In the
article, “To the Scandinavians of Chicago,” the planning committee pointed out the vital
necessity of a settlement organization that could help those without ties to any church by
emphasizing that, out of 150,000 Swedes who lived in Chicago in 1904, 40,000 did not
belong to any church that would be able to offer support.56 Nordahl examined this
relationship as representative of a larger trend in Lake View that emphasized the growing
importance of social and political organizations; between 1890 and 1919, approximately
twenty fraternal lodges were established in the area, but only two churches, compared to
the four erected during the 18805 alone. Nordahl saw this “mosaic of organizations” as
instrumental in community building, but also in the formation of a strong campaign of

labor organization grounded in the overlapping inﬂuence of trade unions, culture, and

 

55 Pehr Nordahl, Weaving the Ethnic Fabric: Social Networks Among Swedish-American Radicals in
Chicago 1890-1940 (Stockholm, Sweden: Almquist & Wiksell International, 1994): 13, 21.
56 -

Ibid.

213

politics.57 Therefore, the church, which was the driving force behind community
organization for ﬁrst-generation Scandinavians, was now secondary to fraternal
organizations for men looking to change their social positions and experiences at work.58
Comparatively, this relationship greatly differed from that of women’s
organizations that continued to place religious tenets at the forefront of immigrant aid and
assistance. While an emphasis on piety and moral public behavior continued to shape the
experiences of women who sought the aid of Scandinavian women’s homes, construction
of the Scandinavian People’s Home similarly blended elements of education and
Scandinavian traditions; as the group planned, the home was to be centrally located and
contain modern facilities for theatrical performances and concerts, lecture rooms, lodge
halls, classrooms for night schools, and a library, and additionally contain a gymnasium,
a Swedish massage establishment, and a restaurant offering Scandinavian fare.59 To that
end, both the Scandinavian People’s Home and the Immanuel Woman’s Home of
Chicago took a similar approach to settlement — to offer aid to the newly arrived worker
by surrounding them with the comforts of home. Regardless of sex, the settlement house

movement driven by Progressive-minded individuals sought to keep their youth from

 

57 Nordahl stresses the use of two guiding analytical concepts in his study of social networks amongst
Swedish-American radicals in Chicago: that deﬁned by Eric Hirsch as a “haven” to describe the strategies
employed by Germans, Bohemians, Irish and Anglo-Americans in the Chicago labor movement, and the
position that ethnicity is constructed over time formulated by Werner Sollars, Kathleen Neils Conzen, and
Rudolph Vecoli. See Pehr Nordahl, Weaving the Ethnic Fabric: 23, 25; Eric Hirsch, Urban Revolt: Ethnic
Politics in the Nineteenth Century Chicago Labor Movement (University of California Press, 1990);
Kathleen Neils Conzen, David A. Gerber, Ewa Morawska, George E. Pozzetta and Rudolph J. Vecoli, “The
Invention of Ethnicity: A Perspective from the U.S.A.,” The Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 12,
no. 1 (Fall 1992): 3-41.

58 In the 18703, American fraternal orders founded Swedish lodges or grand lodges, such as the Odd
Fellows, the Knights of Phythia or the Knights of Honor, and the International Order of Good Templars, as
a measure of comradery amongst workers. By the late 18805, however, Scandinavians began to organize
independent orders on their own, such as the Independent Order of Svithiod, the Independent Order of
Vikings and the Vasa Order of America. Within the fraternal organizations, membership was highest
amongst ﬁrst- and second-generation Scandinavians who did not attend any church within Chicago. See
Nordahl, 61.

5" Ibid.

214

falling into lives of deviant behaviors and bad choices. While settlement home programs
stood as a testament to the strength of immigrant communities, vice continued to be an all
too familiar problem on the minds of Chicagoans by the point of the 1910s. When the
Vice Commission of Chicago was charged with the task of reporting on the problems of
crime, white slavery and poverty within the city, their revelations published in 1.911 and
subsequent “closing” of the vice district shortly after drew continued attention to the
connections of vice and immigrant youth. As Chicago’s Scandinavians renewed their
commitments to combating vice within their neighborhoods, a new movement was
underway focused on intellectual grth and socialist ideals — ideologies which involved
a new generation of Scandinavian youth in a movement their Chicago neighbors did not

always understand.

Conclusion: Revelations and Solutions to Combating Vice in Chicago

Prior to publication of the ﬁndings of the Vice Commission of Chicago
encompassed in The Social Evil in Chicago, many Scandinavians directly involved in the
settlement homes continued their work in an effort to combat vice which could
potentially cast a poor Ii ght on the community. These Progressive-minded individuals
worked with other groups of middle-class women within the city to ﬁx the problems of
urban sprawl, including sweat labor and illegal saloons, and used the power of major
social programs such as the Swedish and Norwegian National Leagues to continue to
prevent white slavers from encroaching on their neighborhoods. Through the pages of
Skandinaven, Svenska T ribunen, Svenska Nyheter, and Scandia, numerous articles

submitted by various social reformers emphasized the continued need of the community’s

215

involvement in combating such issues throughout Chicago; from a call that “the sweat
shop must go” to an expose which speciﬁcally blamed immi grants from southern and
eastern Europe for “working their children like slaves,” Scandinavians used their
platform to become vocal and active participants in shaping the social future of their
city.60 Using the power of the press, Scandinavians turned the public’s attention on the
dangers of “concert halls” and various saloons, which operated under the radar of an
ignorant and corrupt police force. Community social reformers did not give leeway to
members of their own community who committed similar crimes; in 1900, an article in
Scandia identiﬁed T.M. Swanson’s Swedish “Concert Hall” at 226 Milwaukee Avenue as
an illegal cabaret, where police found Scandinavian girls (“none of them over twelve
years”) being forced to drink and dance with men, most of whom were “pimps. . .and
crooks of every description.”61 By the time the vice district was closed in 1912,
Chicago’s Scandinavians had become seasoned social reformers armed with a useful
understanding of the problems of the city which held victims and criminals accountable
for their actions.

Looking back at revelations on crime in Chicago, Walter Reckless revealed in his
study of seventy-seven white slave cases in Chicago between 1910 and 1913 an accepted
pattern of procuring or pandering as part of a larger system of patriarchal rule within
modern urban society. As he remarked, “it seemed to be the customary thing in the

. . . . 62
underworld” for a man to have one or several women on hrs arm as hrs public explorts.

 

60 A review of numerous articles from Scandinavian newspapers from this era illustrate an increasing
emphasis on direct social action in the years prior to the publication of The Social Evil in Chicago
including the following: “The Sweat Shop Must Go,” Skandinaven, March 29, 1896, 2; “Children Work
Like Slaves in Chicago,” Skandinaven, September 12, 1907, 8.

6‘ “TM. Swanson’s “Concert Hall” Exposed,” Scandia, May 5, 1900, 7.

62 Reckless, Vice in Chicago, 42-3.

216

Furthermore, Reckless corrected several misconceptions about white slavery according to
the selected cases; one of the most important to this study, that while only six of the
sixty-three girls were reported as immigrants, three of those six were from Scandinavia.
Conversely, none of the men reported as procurers or pimps in the cases were of
Scandinavian descent, or even of Northern or Western Europe, but instead largely
represented by Italians, Poles, and Greeks. 63 Reckless was also explicit to stress that
women involved in the white slave cases under investigation were considered “waywar ”
rather than “virtuous” victims; in the sixty-three cases (with the girls telling their own
stories with lawyers and ofﬁcers helping them), only four instances were reported where
the procurer was actually responsible for violating the girl’s chastity. The ﬁndings of both
Reckless and the Vice Commission of Chicago marked an ideological shift in Chicago’s
society, where crimes committed against seemingly “virtuous” women in Chicago were
given a second glance; however, Scandinavians functioned with this understanding for
years prior to the revelations of Chicagoans. These new understandings would continue
to shape the experiences of Scandinavians into the Great War as the community was
forced to come to terms with new questions about their loyalties to America and their
commitment to “becoming” American.

At the same time, the existence of the residence homes such as the Immanuel

Woman’s Home and the Scandinavian People’s Home served as powerful examples of

. . . . . th .
the resrstance of ethnic identity into the 20 century amongst a group otherwrse noted for

their seamless inclusion in American society. Out of these organizations grew a

 

63 Ibid, 44. See also the Vice Commission of Chicago, The Social Evil in Chicago: A Study of Existing
Conditions with Recommendations by the Vice Commission of Chicago (Chicago: The Vice Commission of
Chicago, 1911).

217

signiﬁcant movement of Scandinavians who desired intellectual, social, and political
enlightenment within their own community, grounded in the socialist traditions of home.
One of these social clubs, the Swedish Educational League, formed in an effort to both
espouse the ideologies of their ancestors who believed work and society needed to be
kept “free and unhampered from all forces that might cause it to stagnate.”64 The group,
which was quite forward in its thinking and social practices, often made public
declarations throughout community advertisements that Scandinavians needed to demand
both ﬁ'eedom of thought and absence of fear in thinking and expression in order to
achieve personal and professional success. As a large segment of the community,
especially second-generation youth, came to embrace the tenets of the Swedish
Educational League for its grandiose gestures towards modern ways of thinking, more
conservative-minded individuals did not view the actions of the group with such
excitement.

Swedish writer Edith Janson would later comment in her recollections of Chicago
during the 19205 that such groups were often comprised of “self-imposed exiles” who
had somehow “found” their way to the United States. When such “agitators and young
radicals,” who Janson recalled as members of the intelligentsia, found themselves to be
“misﬁts” and far-too forward in their thinking, they either returned to Scandinavia or
retreated from public life.65 At the same time, intellectuals within groups like the Swedish
Educational League scoffed at such classiﬁcations which deemed their activities to be

radical and explained that the group was radical “only in a constructive sense” — it

 

6’ Booklet produced by the Swedish Educational League, “Swedish Educational League: An Adult

Education Experiment in Scandinavian Tradition,” Swedish Educational League Records, 1916-1966,
Manuscript Series 3, Box #1, NPU.
65 Janson, The Background of the Immigration from Sweden (1931), 18.

218

 

advocated no political or religious creed but never hesitated to bring into discussion
“progressive and even extreme viewpoints in order to acquaint its audience with the
problems of the day and their possible solutions.”66 The interactions between these two
groups — conservative and more liberal-minded — would culminate in a much larger
ideological discussion upon the onset of World War I, when the loyalties of
Scandinavians would be challenged in light of insinuations that some involved
themselves in radical organizations prior to the war. For a brief period of time, the
positive image Scandinavians cultivated for themselves within their adopted home of
Chicago seemed as if it was on the brink of collapse amongst tension and panic over

loyalties to the American ﬂag.

 

66 Booklet produced by the Swedish Educational League, “Swedish Educational League: An Adult
Education Experiment in Scandinavian Tradition,” Swedish Educational League Records, 1916-1966,
Manuscript Series 3, Box #1, NPU.

219

 

 

 

[firr 13m
Tm: l.\l\l.\\ll»2l. \\'n\|.\.\‘.\ Itum-., rut-LIT. .\. L;- .\I|Ilr \lrrrL tun-run. Ill.

(Fig. 6: The Immanuel Woman’s Home circa 1927. Source: The Swedish Blue Book, A
Swedish-American Directory and Yearbook for Chicago, 192 7, published annually by the
Swedish-American publishing company, Chicago, 1927, 115.)

220

i

r , '
r
,1 I

    

-. . ,
III] I l'TItl\ l‘\lll.l|f|

(Fig. 7: The reception parlor of the Immanuel Woman’s Home. Source: Booklet
published by the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home, Historical Sketch of the Immanuel
Woman’s Home, Looking Back Twenty-five Years (1907-1932), 12. Chicago Immanuel
Woman’s Home Microﬁlm, Swenson Immigration Center at Augustana College, Rock
Island, IL.)

221

 

 

DINING mm“

(Fig. 8: Dining Room of the Immanuel Woman’s Home. Source: Booklet published by
the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home, Historical Sketch of the Immanuel Woman ’3
Home, Looking Back T wenty-ﬁve Years (1907-1932), 12. Chicago Immanuel Woman’s
Home Microﬁlm, Swenson Immigration Center at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.)

222

,z9,.‘,g'

l
n 7”.

V.

‘5 IL.~I:
ea 30?, flag

 

4“.

 

I'MtT OF THE FAIILY AT THE NONI-2.

(Fig. 9: Portrait of some of the working women who lived at the Immanuel Woman’s
Horne, circa 19108. Source: Booklet published by the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s
Home, Historical Sketch of the Immanuel Woman '3 Home, Looking Back T wenty-ﬁve
Years (1907-1932), 12. Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home Microﬁlm, Swenson
Immigration Center at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.)

223

 

 

b‘IUJ. I.|\'I\l. IlnH‘I.

 

 

 

 

 

IIUHNEH IN I‘HI\'\TI". IIIIIJHHU“. l-I’UVIIHIISA IIIHJH'LH INN)“
lintr III "I! ah; dormitories.

(Fig. 10: Photographs of the interior of selected rooms in the Immanuel Woman’s Home.
Source: Booklet published by the Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home, Historical Sketch
of the Immanuel Woman '3 Home, Looking Back Twenty-five Years (1907-1 932), 21.
Chicago Immanuel Woman’s Home Microﬁlm, Swenson Immigration Center at
Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.)

224

Chapter Five
“The Scandinavian people are good citizens now as ever”: The Construction of
Social Success from WWI to the Great Depression

Over the course of 1917, the citizens of Chicago witnessed an international
conﬂict continuously unfold, seemingly progressing out of control. As the growing
conﬂict within Europe played out on the world stage, groups of Chicagoans began to look
upon the foreignness of their European neighbors with speculation and even fear. In the
city they shared in such close proximity with their foreign neighbors, many looked upon
their difference as a threat to the way of life they were so desperate to hold onto as
entrance into the war became increasingly possible. And as recent and former immigrants
and their children struggled to defend their desires to maintain the traditions of their
national cultures, native Chicagoans were insistent that they break their ties to the
homeland for good and become “100% American.” Chicago’s Scandinavians felt the
effects of this struggle, especially in the wake of allegations that various members of their
own community publicly expressed their homeland loyalties to their German neighbors.
Upon the realization that such allegations threatened to divide the community and place
upon it a set of negative characteristics, the editors of Skandinaven reassured its readers
that the positive cultural image built over the course of seventy years in Chicago would
not be tarnished:

“We of Nordic blood are proud of our splendid record as good American citizens,

obedient to law, and loyal to our country. But of late our name has been shadowed

by a dark cloud. Doubt has been cast as to our compliance to law, and our loyalty.

The opinion that is becoming more current lately is to the effect that in the great

war of today, the Scandinavians are among those who stand back, that in our

ranks there are even those who favor the enemy and opposed our own country;
who are, in other words, traitors at heart if not in action. . .The Scandinavian

225

people are good citizens now as ever. Exceptions there are, unfortunately, within

our nationality as within other groups, but taken as a whole, the Scandinavians are

surely as loyal citizens as are to be found in the country. . .”'

The reafﬁrmation of their social position proved to be successful upon the onset
of American involvement in World War 1; many native—born Chicagoans exempted
Scandinavians from suspicions of disloyalty to the allied effort. According to both
American and Scandinavian newspaper reporters, immi grants from the Nordic countries
proved their patriotism on behalf of the United States. American citizenship, after all, was
a badge of honor and the American media looked upon Scandinavians as deserving of
such high regard as some of the most loyal immigrant groups to their adopted home.
Nevertheless, World War I posed signiﬁcant challenges to the emerging Nordic identity
Scandinavians sought to uphold. During the war, it seemed that for Scandinavians in
Chicago, maintaining cultural heritage and demonstrating loyalty to the United States
were not mutually exclusive. However, in 1921, an editorial in Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter
spoke of a later advantage for Scandinavian immigrants, who could “preserve the best of
his native qualities.” The article stressed that while a Scandinavian immigrants to the
United States would be required to learn English, they were also “richer if they preserve
the language and the best of the tradition which they brought with them from the old
fatherland.”2 By the 19205, it became clear that Scandinavians could beneﬁt from the
positive social image engineered in wartime to emerge as a truly privileged immigrant
group, both socially and professionally.

The historiography of Scandinavians in America from World War I to the Great

Depression, like that of many other immigrant groups, is focused almost entirely on the

 

I “A Word in Earnest to Scandinavians,” Skandinaven, August 23, 1917.
2 “The Immigrant,” Editorial, Svenska Tribunen—Nyheter, September 28, 1921. (Translations mine)

226

experiences of the working class and often segmented into three stories: the wartime
effort, the exuberant excesses of 19205, and the hardships felt during the Great
Depression.3 However, in following this segmented chronology of events, one could
dismiss the carefully constructed effort of Scandinavians to achieve social and
professional success from World War I through the 19205. Using a wider scope, this
effort comes to light, exhibiting a signiﬁcant shift. As this chapter argues, the public
image constructed by Scandinavian-Americans in World War I Chicago was one built
upon the acceptance of an American way of life, which entailed patriotism, participation
in the war effort, and an embrace of American culture and ideals. After the war, however,
Scandinavian-Americans exhibited the ability to maintain their positive public image and
enjoy the beneﬁts of subsequent social success while practicing a truly multicultural way
of life. Grounded in a separation of public and private personas, this dualistic identity
meant that Scandinavians could “act” American in public by speaking English and
embracing American markers of success such as education, business acumen, and

suburban life, but could keep another foot in the traditions of the homeland through

 

3 Many of the major works on Scandinavians in American history follow this pattern, segmenting the series
of events into three separate categories by decade. H. Arnold Barton acknowledges the connections
between events of 1917 through 1940, but nevertheless divides his chapters between the three time periods
in A Folk Divided. Another vital omission made in recent histories of Scandinavians is the common
methodology which creates an endpoint at 1920; both Anita R. Olsen and Joy Lintelman end their historical
accounts of Swedes in Chicago at 1920, offering only the explanation that by this point, Swedes and their
Scandinavian neighbors were becoming more Americanized (which I contend was not necessarily the
case). April Schultz likewise offers a similar position in relation to the narrative of the Norwegian
American experience, which is often capped at 1925 due to assimilation after that point. Instead, this
chapter shows that the narrative did not end with the 1920s, but instead grew more complex with the onset
of the Great Depression as Scandinavians were forced to once again reconsider their sense of ethnic
identity in the face of economic turmoil. For further discussion, see Anita Olsen, “Swedish Chicago: The
Extension and Transformation of an Urban Immigrant Community, I880-I920,” Ph.D. Dissertation,
Northwestern University, 1990; Joy Lintelman, “More Freedom, Better Pay: Single Swedish Immigrant
Women in the United States, 1880-1920,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1991; H. Arnold
Barton, A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840-1 940 (Carbondale and
Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994); April Schultz, Ethnicity on Parade: Inventing the
Norwegian American through Celebration (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994): 49.

227

private personas.4 After work and on weekends, Chicago’s Scandinavian-Americans
enjoyed participation in popular social clubs as a marker of social success within the
community, culminating in a suburban organization that blended markers of success in
both cultures — the Nordic Country Club.5 Newspapers and a series of documents from
Scandinavian leisure clubs can help illuminate Scandinavians’ own markers of success;
instead of focusing entirely on social class as a vital marker of success, this discussion
instead looks to a negotiation of public image leading to social success over time.6 After
the initial fear of subversion subsided during World War I, Scandinavians went to work

on a mission to cultivate an image that would illustrate their outward loyalties to the

 

” For further discussions of the distinctions between the public and private spheres for immigrant groups,
see Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in T urn-of-the-Century New York
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986). Furthermore, this was a practice that was common to a
number of other immigrant groups in Chicago and other American cities. Quite possibly, the greatest
attention to the dynamics of this intriguing hyphenated ethnic identity lie in works dedicated to the shifting
prosperity of Jewish-Americans during the same era. Some examples include Deborah Dash Moore, At
Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981); Beth
Wegner, New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise (Syracuse: Syracuse University
Press, 1999); Eric Goldstein, The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2007).

5 Anita Olson, whose work focuses on the religious and ethnic affiliations of Chicago’s Swedish citizens,
agreed that while Swedes had the means and ambition to move their families into the suburbs, the process
of suburbanization did not equal assimilation or loss of a Swedish ethnic identity. Instead, Olson likewise
found that “their adaptation to life in Chicago was a synthetic development which combined the old with
the new, creating a different kind of culture which was neither completely Swedish nor American.”
However, as this chapter further illustrates, the Swedish community and their Scandinavian neighbors had
the capability to express their ethnic identities in unique ways that did not erode under the force of
modernization, using social clubs and afﬁliations to beneﬁt the group as a whole. See Olson, “Swedish
Chicago,” pg. 11.

6 Historians who explore the 19205 often look for certain markers in deﬁning class mobility during this
historical moment; often times, the achievement of education, professional qualiﬁcations, and an embrace
of bourgeois values are practices used as markers in deﬁning class status and the desire to move up the
social ladder. One common marker that is often used to distinguish the entrance of immigrant groups into
the middle to upper classes is their sense of cultural identiﬁcation, or the degree to which they are willing
to accept American standards over those of the homeland. However, as this chapter argues, this ﬁnal
marker of class distinction was negotiable for Scandinavians in Chicago, and in most cases, did not apply.
For further discussion, see Helen M. Lynd and Robert S. Lynd, Middletown: A Study in American Culture
(New York: Harcourt , Brace, and World, 1929); Richard Wightman Fox and TJ. Jackson Lears eds., The
Culture of Consumption (New York, 1983); Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in
Chicago, 1919-1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

228

American cause; after the war ended, this process transformed into a new image-making
process focused on the most celebrated of American values of the 19205 — prosperity.
Regardless of the extent to which their hyphenated American identity was a conscious
choice, by walking a ﬁne line between appearing “American” and embracing
“Scandinavian,” Scandinavian-Americans in Chicago created a process vital to “getting

ahead” as an immigrant group in America.

The Scandinavian Struggle for Credibility and the Establishment of a Positive Public
Persona in World War I Chicago
Leading up to the beginning of America’s involvement in World War I in 1917,

Chicago’s Scandinavian population reached its peak. In 1914, a census report showed
that the population of ﬁrst-generation Scandinavians living in Chicago consisted of
116,740 Swedes, 47,235 Norwegians, and 20,772 Danes, while the second-generation
was rapidly growing to include 62,239 of Swedish descent, 24,748 of Norwegian descent,
and 11,277 of Danish descent.7 The population of Scandinavians in America was also at
an all-time high; according to the census of 1910, the country’s Swedish-bom population
peaked at around 665,000 which together with nearly 700,000 of their American-born
children comprised a total Swedish-American population of nearly 1,363,554, or 1.48
percent of the population of the United States.8 Abroad, the beginning of World War I in
August 1914 would soon foreshadow the end of the great transatlantic migration to the

United States. As immigration statistics illustrate, immigration from Sweden, which in

 

7 Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (Washington DC: National Archives and Records
Administration, 1910); “Scandinavian Census,” Skandinaven, September 17, 1914; Ernest Burgess, Census
Data for the city of Chicago, 1920, table 6, pg. 19.

8 Thirteenth Census of the United States, I 910 (Washington DC: National Archives and Records
Administration, 1910); Barton, A Folk Divided, 210.

229

1913 totaled 16,329 persons, declined to 9,589 in 1914 and was down to 4,538 by 1915,
despite Sweden’s neutral stance in the conﬂict. By 1918, after America entered the war,
Sweden’s immigrants numbered a mere 1,416 — the lowest ﬁgure since the Civil War
era.9 As discussed in chapter three, the demographics of the newest class of Scandinavian
migrants to arrive in Chicago varied from that of earlier waves in signiﬁcant ways mostly
connected to their age. Those who came to Chicago between the turn of the century and
World War I were young by comparison to the earlier generation of immigrants. “New”
immigrants from Scandinavia left urban and industrial employment at home for similar
positions in America while harsh conditions in America’s heartland forced many young
Scandinavian migrants to leave their families’ farms for urban opportunities.

Initially, the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish communities of Chicago welcomed
young newcomers with open arms; at the turn of the century, the notion of intense ethnic
life was sustained largely by commercial endeavors focused on retaining the traditions of
the homeland. For the Scandinavian newcomer, looking through the pages of the press of
their native language, one could easily ﬁnd any service desired: doctors, lawyers, land
agents, building contractors, and employment agencies that appealed to loyalty of the
group. Within the neighborhood, one could ﬁnd a number of banks, home-loan
associations and insurance agencies for professional business or, on a commercial level,
bookstores and newspaper ofﬁces that carried materials in the native language and gift
items ﬁom home. And as a legacy from the very origins of the community, the grocers,

bakeries, butcher shops, ﬁsh markets, and general stores once transplanted from the

 

9 Barton, A Folk Divided, 241.

230

earlier neighborhood of the 19th century remained untouched by time.10 An editorial

featured in Scandia declared that many businesses within Chicago’s insular communities
catered to all Scandinavians like “the Tavern” and “the Perfecto” —— two Norwegian
restaurants that advertised that “men and women from all parts of the Scandinavian
countries, yesterday’s arrivals or the old pioneers” could meet and partake in old
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish delicacies. Of these meeting places, the editor expressed
that “only he who has loved the mother country can truly learn to love the new home of
his choice, [and apply] the inherited love of home and the urge to build in the new
environment.”11 For Chicago’s Scandinavians, the traditions of insular community life
focused on homeland traditions and ethnic prevalence would result in upward economic
mobility in the upcoming decades. However, the key to social success within American
society would be much more difﬁcult to come by, as Scandinavians would realize at the
onset of the most signiﬁcant foreign conﬂict to date.

By the 1910s, Scandinavian scholars and the press had begun to mirror a larger
debate within American public discourse that depicted the “old” classes of immigrants as
inherently “American” and “new” immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Russia,
and Asia as “foreign,” and therefore “evil.” Prior to the foreign conﬂict that would
escalate into the war in Europe, Kendric Charles Babcock of the University of Illinois
reinforced the ideology of the strength of Scandinavians as an ethnic group distinct from
those who were not ﬁt to become American: “As related to the progress of civilization in

America, all immigrants fall into three classes: those who powerfully re-enforce the

 

'0 For further discussion of the importance of ethnic prevalence for Swedish Americans in particular during
the 1900s and I910s, see H. Arnold Barton, A Folk Divided, 212.
“ “Editorial,” Scandia, October 7, 191 1, 4.

231

strength and virtue of the nation, those who supplement its defects with desirable
elements, and those who lower its standards and retard its advancement.” He went onto
speciﬁcally blame the “Chinese in California, the Hungarians in the mines, [and] the
Hebrews in the sweatshops” for the problems America faced in uniting its population as
American citizens rather than a society segmented by cultural difference.12 For many
ethnic groups like Scandinavians, the wartime era would solidify a new tactic of “getting
ahead” in society: using nativism and the push for 100% Americanism as a means of
social survival in a tumultuous time. In doing so, Scandinavians more than ever
harnessed the power of the press, both foreign and English language, in promoting an all-
important wartime message: Scandinavians were good American citizens, and those who
acted out of character were not accepted. At the same time, America’s participation in
the European conﬂict unleashed a bevy of anti-foreigrr sentiments aimed at those
immigrant classes that remained loyal to the ways of the homeland. For many of these
pluralized groups, the price of tradition and familiarity in the old was too high as
Germans and other groups from the “new” immigrant classes faced severe public scrutiny
at the hands of nativists.

In the years preceding the war in Europe, several Scandinavians in Chicago
vocalized an initial stance in support of Germany through articles in foreign language
newspapers and magazines, despite Scandinavian neutrality. In August 1914, Hemlandet
expressed the hope that a “higher power” would assist Germany and its Kaiser, “for in
this war they battle for everything that a civilized people holds sacred.” The Swedish

newspaper’s editor went on to further express that, in the event that Sweden was forced to

 

‘2 Kendric Charles Babcock, The Scandinavian Element in the United States (Urbana, IL, 1914), 9-1 1; see
also Babcock, “The Scandinavian Element in the American Population,” American Historical Review 16
(1911): 300-310.

232

rescind its wartime neutrality, he hoped that his country of origin would join the Central
Powers.l3 Others mirrored the general sentiments of Hemlandet but none to the extent of
the editor of Svenska Amerikanaren; on New Year’s Eve of 1914, he went as far as to
declare Swedish-Americans to be “the most pro-German of all nationalities in the United
States.”14 Chicago’s Scandinavians would soon ﬁnd themselves at the center of a heated
debate posed by nativists; John Hi gham asserted that Germans were the first obvious
target of war nativism when they openly rallied for US. neutrality early in the conﬂict
much like many Scandinavians. In what Higham referred to as a “spectacular reversal of
judgment,” the largest and previously one of the most respected groups in America was
now despised for their untrustworthy stance. ‘5 As a reactionary measure, early pro-
German sentiment expressed in the pages of Scandinavian newspapers would sour as
early as February 1915 as backlash published within American newspapers effectively
turned public opinion against Germans abroad and in America.

In response to a series of articles published in Chicago’s newspapers on
Scandinavia’s trade agreements, the editors of Skandinaven announced their protest over
the insinuation that American goods sent to Holland and the Scandinavian countries were
“passed along” to Germany: “Yes, we protest. The above statements are false as far as the
Scandinavian countries are concerned. . .The supposition that Scandinavia supplies
Germany with food is founded entirely upon the ﬁgures showing the increase in

American exports during the war, but obviously the only fair estimate must be based on a

 

'3 “Wartime Alignments,” Hemlandet, August 6, 1914 (Translations mine).

‘4 Barton, 246; see also Cf. Carl H. Chrislock, Ethnicity Challenged: The Upper Midwest Norwegian-
American Experience in World War I (Northﬁeld, MN, 1981).

'5 Higham, Strangers in the Land, 195-205.

233

comparison of Scandinavia’s total imports from all sources.”16 That April, Skandinaven
took a strident paciﬁst stance as it published a full-page article translated into English and
signed by 373 foreign-language editors in Chicago. The article, which expressed the
consensus of the undersigned editors for an end to the war, was written in response to an
outpouring of telegrams from Scandinavian citizens who agreed that war would bring
nothing but pain and suffering to their neighbors who remained in the homeland:
“We appeal to the American nation and its people, to the noble and fearless
American press, and to the manufacturers of powder, shrapnel, and bullets; we
appeal to the workers of ammunition plants to immediately stop work, to resolve
not to help manufacture gun powder, shrapnel, and bullets to murder our brothers,
to make our mothers and sisters widows and their children fatherless. . .take up
this issue in your churches, in your fraternal organization, in your local press, and
demand of the legislature laws to outlaw the manufacture of munitions.”l7
While the editors’ call was genuine and expressed a signiﬁcance sense of desire to end
the war, the article written as an appeal to the American press held a dual importance as a
vital piece to support a positive public opinion of Scandinavians in America. However,
this article would not initially be enough to sway the American public to consider
Scandinavians to be loyal to the allied cause.
In the aftermath of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 by a German submarine
torpedo, any lingering sentiment held by Scandinavians towards the German campaign
cooled, thereby solidifying Scandinavian loyalty to the side of the allied forces. Even so,

isolated incidents, such as the arrest of Theodore H. Lunde for wartime espionage caused

concern among Chicago’s citizens regarding Scandinavian loyalty to the American cause.

 

‘6 “We Protest!” Skandinaven, February 16, 1915, WPA Foreign Press Survey, Norwegian Press.

‘7 April Schultz pointed out that, in addition to opposition to the war, Norwegian-Americans were
vulnerable to attacks by anti-hyphenists because of their continued use of the Norwegian language, their
strong immigrant press, and their thriving ethnic organization. See Schultz, 41; “An Appeal to the
American People,” Skandinaven, April 7, I915.

234

In November 1917, Lunde, a Norwegian manufacturer of piano metal parts in Chicago,
was arrested for breach of spy regulations; Skandinaven admitted that Lunde may have
been guilty of pledging support to Germany within a society that came to abhor such
sentiments, but nevertheless claimed that Lunde would be cleared of any crime by the
authorities. In one letter claimed by the authorities, Lunde declared his admiration of
Germany’s Kaiser and blamed England for encouraging the beginning of the war,
admitting that he considered the Kaiser to be the “greatest social politician” of the day, “a

Socialist on a large scale.”18

In a time when socialism as an ideology was equated with
anarchy and social upheaval by American nativists, Lunde’s private musings on the
successes of the Kaiser as a social politician were interpreted as subversive, thereby
creating further suspicion about Scandinavian-Americans as “true” citizens loyal to the
American cause. From the Scandinavian perspective, many within the community faced a
highly uncomfortable situation which caused many to overreact — or to become
vehemently silent regarding any position on the war.

As discussions regarding the “new Americanism” reached an apex, some outlets
would take the path of overreaction to express indignation over the supposition that
Scandinavians were not entirely loyal citizens of the United States. The concept of “new
Americanism,” ﬁrst preached by Theodore Roosevelt as a differentiating criticism of
those immigrant groups who were “desirable” and those who were not, was at the
forefront of growing nativist rhetoric during the mid-19105. An editorial in Svenska

Kuriren spoke out against the concept, which was conveniently readdressed during an

election year, as a blatant attack on “hyphenated citizens” who were otherwise fully loyal

 

'8 “Norwegian Arrested, Charged with Espionage,” Skandinaven, November 8, 1917, WPA Foreign Press
Survey, Norwegian Press.

235

to their adopted country. Agitated with the constant reafﬁrmations of loyalty to the
American ﬂag, the editor urged his readers to overlook “all this foolishness” and
reminded them: “We cannot be deprived of our rights as citizens, unless it [is] through
our own shortcomings. When the time comes, we will bring our rights into play, as
heretofore, for the beneﬁt of our adopted land. For us to go forth talking about and

”I

emphasizing our patriotism is both unnecessary and improper. 9 As an additional
response to the editor’s plea, he asked the Swedes of Chicago to decline an invitation to
attend a meeting by the Committee for the Promotion of Loyalty to the United States
extended by a group the editor was eager to point out, included names “similar to
Bohemian and Polish names.” Of the invitation, the editor wrote, “with those nationalities
as represented by these gentlemen, we recognize no solidarity or common ties. We don’t
need to unite them. . .nor do we need their moral support to maintain our loyalty, which
has never been found lacking.”20 In this indignant expression, the editor, knowingly or
not, posed a position that many citizens within the Scandinavian community agreed with
— quietly or not — that the need for excessive reafﬁrmations of loyalty were unnecessary
and somewhat beneath the level of their position within Chicago’s society.

At the center of the debate of nativism and “new Americanism” stood a racial
discourse based on the assumption of the superiority of the Northern European peoples.
The viewpoint of the time received its most inﬂuential expression in Madison Grant’s
work of scientiﬁc racism, The Passing of the Great Race in 1916, which connected race

to the inner dynamics of history. The “Great Race,” wrote Grant posed the racial

superiority of Nordic peoples in intelligence, enterprise, and daring; according to Grant,

 

'9 “The New Americanism,” editorial, Svenska Kuriren, June 22, 1916 (Translations Mine).
70 .
‘ Ibrd.

236

the American nation forfeited its “birthright of Nordic racial purity by opening its doors
to unrestricted immigration to gain cheap labor,” but nevertheless recognized
Scandinavians as “splendid human material” and recognized Sweden as the home to the
“purest Nordic type.”21 Grant would solidify “the Nordic” as “the white man par
excellence,” who was characterized by certain unique physical specializations:

"Blondness, wavy hair, blue eyes, fair skin, [and] a high, narrow and straight nose, which

'""-—-:l

are associated with great stature.”22 Much like earlier discussions associated with Social
Darwinism, Grant equated physicality with an aptness or ability to “succeed” within

society by nature of historically proven capabilities. One of the most unfortunate results

 

'E .I.’ ' a‘H-t 51...“-

of Grant’s racist connotations about those who were “ﬁt” for American society was the
resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915, which agitated for not only “white” but for
“Nordic” supremacy. Despite the fact that Grant’s theories created a beneﬁcial racial
position for Scandinavians, his ideas and the increasingly xenophobic drive for
Americanization created severe tensions amongst ethnic groups within Chicago.

One of the most contested issues surrounding Scandinavian loyalty to the
American war effort hinged on the discussion of citizenship — a tangible concept that was
negotiated by those who had built new homes in Chicago but had not necessarily taken
the more symbolic steps in becoming citizens of the United States. According the Census
of 1910, the majority of Scandinavians in Chicago had begun the process of gaining

American citizenship, as illustrated in the following table:

 

2' Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race (4” edition, New York, 1922): 10-12, 18, 69, 90, 124,
168-9, 177, 193, 206-1 1, 228, 236; John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism
1860-1925 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1955): 155-57, chs. 10, ll.

22 Grant, 79.

237

Table 5.1: Citizenship of Foreign-born white males 21 years of age and over, by
country of birth, for Chicago, 1910 (Females not naturalized until 1920)

Total Naturalized Have lSt papers Alien Citizens (no record)
Norway 1 1,193 6,924 1,319 2,059 891
Sweden 29,436 19,441 3 ,294 4.408 2,293
Denmark 6,126 3,870 797 1,002 457
(Source: Adapted from Burgess, Census Data for the City of Chicago, 1920, table 10, 26) E
In October 1918, the Swedish newspaper Ungdomsva'nnen expressed outward indignation ,6

towards those Swedes who were eligible for citizenship but had not gone through the

 

process of claiming it. “They are not Americans,” the newspaper declared, though Ii
arguing that “they are scarcely Swedes either, for then they ought to stay where they

belong.”23 The author then took a radical position that Swedes who had not claimed

citizenship as American citizens should be given the choice of forced citizenship by the

United States government or deportation to the land “where they are entitled to live.”24
Other outlets spoke of American citizenship as a symbolic badge of honor held by
Scandinavians who were deserving of high regard as some of the most loyal immi grant
groups to their adopted home. One article in Skandinaven argued in 1917 that
Scandinavians were ranked among the best citizens in America, as they were “loyal, hard
working people, obedient to law,” and took great pride in their “willing patriotism” to the

country and its ﬂag.25 The newspaper used the article as a means of defending its citizens

after nativist rhetoric had begun to cast its gaze on the Lutheran Church as an “object of

 

23 “Metropolitan Council, The John Ericsson League of Patriotic Service,” Ungdomsva'nnen, October 7,
1918. See also Barton, 247.

2“ Ibid.

25 “A Word in Earnest to Scandinavians,” Skandinaven, August 23, 1917, WPA Foreign Press Survey,
Norwegian Press.

238

suspicion.”26 While the article acknowledged the fact that outsiders could potentially
view the institution and its foreign nature as suspicious and anti-American, it also sought
to negate such claims with a plea of support to the American cause.

With pressure mounting from both sides on the issue of “becoming” American
and pledging loyalty to the allies, the Scandinavian community pushed forward with its
campaign to assist in the war effort. The campaign, which reached its apex in 1918, was
assiduously focused on the raising of funds through liberty loan drives — an effort which
gave the community’s men and women alike a new chance to attain positions of
leadership and extend their inﬂuence amongst Scandinavians. One such drive reported in
Skandinaven in May 1918 illustrated the extent to which Norwegian women were able to
raise funds through liberty loans through their efforts. The newspaper reported that the

Daughters of Norway, along with other Norwegian women in the community gathered

together at the Chicago Norwegian Club on April 9th for a fundraising drive and were

subsequently able to raise $43,300 within the span of only a couple of weeks.27

As the overall push for liberty loans slowed by the fall, Norwegians continued to
show their support by continuing with the drive; in October 1918, the Norwegian Club
reported in Skandinaven that the members of the club purchased over $20,000 in less than
a week, pushing the overall amount of loans purchased by Norwegians in the third liberty
loan drive to over $5 million.28 In the spirit of competition between ethnic groups, that
fall Svenska Kuriren published a list of the amounts subscribed by the different

nationalities for the Third Liberty Loan. Germans were by far the most apt contributors to

 

26 -
Ibrd.

27 “The Third Liberty Loan,” Skandinaven, May 12, 1918, WPA Foreign Press Survey, Norwegian Press.

28 “The Norwegian Club,” Skandinaven, October 20, 1918; “The Foreign Born and the Third Liberty

Loan,” Editorial, Svenska Kuriren, September 19, 1918 (Translations mine).

239

the cause with $87 million in loans purchased, while Swedes contributed $6 million,
Norwegians $5 million and Danes bought almost $3 million.29 It is important to note that
the editor listed only Scandinavian and German subscriptions, and noted that over 55% of
subscriptions were made by people who omitted their nationalities on their subscriptions.
Thereby, there was no way of truly knowing how much more money Scandinavians
donated to the war effort, but it can be assumed that the numbers were far greater than
calculated. In response to this issue, the Swedish Committee for the Fourth Liberty Loan
Campaign published a plea to the community which asked for each citizen to record their
nationality when subscribing to loans.30 In doing so, Swedes and other Scandinavians
illustrated the importance of recognition in the charitable campaign, as a positive public
image during wartime was just as vital as the drive itself. Throughout each of the
campaigns for the Liberty Loans in support of the war effort, each group was careful to
express to the community the symbolic importance of contribution through subscription
to loans as both patriotic, as well a vital outward expression of one’s citizenship as a
Scandinavian-American.

As the war drew to a close, an intriguing celebration took place which illustrated
the outward expression of Scandinavian-Americanism as a carefully blended sense of
national identity; in a parade which combined the celebration of F oreign-Language Day
in Chicago and the drive for the Liberty Loan, Scandinavians came together on April 24,

1919 to display the combination of old and new. The pages of Skandinaven would

 

29 “The Foreign Born and the Third Liberty Loan,” Editorial, Svenska Kuriren, September 19, 1918
(Translations mine).

30 The author of the article expressed an urgency to give credit where credit was due, stating that, “after
considerable deliberation by leaders from the many Swedish societies, it was decided to urge our
countrymen who subscribe to mark each subscription black with the words “Swedish Division,” in order
that the Swedish purchases can be properly credited and correctly accounted.” See “The Fourth Liberty
Loan Campaign,” Svenska Kuriren, October 3, 1918. (Translations mine)

240

proudly recall: “A chorus of two thousand voices, consisting of foreign-language singing
societies, participated in the foreign-language parade yesterday. There were no
pedestrians in the parade; everybody rode on ﬂoats.”3 ' The featured ﬂoat of the parade, a
sixty-foot long Viking Ship with a costumed Leif Ericson at the helm, stood as the
constant symbol of Norwegian heritage driving down the streets of the adopted homeland
— a sight that, for many, served as a proud reminder of the persistence of Scandinavian
cultural heritage, even decades after migration. Yet, as wartime came to a close and
international migration reconvened, a new battle against the foreign would begin in the
19208, forcing many Scandinavians to reconsider their loyalties to the notion of cultural

persistence.

Nativism, Immigration Quotas, and Outrage in the Scandinavian Community

In the aftermath of World War I, Chicago’s citizens delighted in the return of
America’s soldiers and the return to peacetime, yet in the midst of this period of postwar
euphoria raged growing concerns addressed in wartime by nativist groups. As the debate
in response to the position of immigrants within American society grew to a frenzy by the
mid-1920s, Scandinavians responded in a somewhat surprising manner; instead of
retreating to a thoroughly American way of life, Scandinavians witnessed a cultural
revival, albeit one that worked to combine the two national identities into one palpable
sense of self. Nevertheless, this combined national identity was one that was built under
the guise of approval by American citizens and careﬁrlly constructed in connection to the

growing discussion of the “importance of being Nordic” as raised by authors and nativists

 

3 I “Foreign-Language Day; Liberty Loan Parade,” Skandinaven, April 24, 1919, WPA Foreign Language
Press Survey, Norwegian Press.

241

alike. This notion was illustrated in several popular pieces of commentary and ﬁction
during the 1920s, including Aldous Huxley’s essay of the same title, “The Importance of
Being Nordic.” In his essay, Huxley blamed journalists for creating the discussion on the
importance of being Nordic in the aftermath of WWI, as American men found themselves
in a position of world domination after coming out on the winning side of the war.
Huxley retorted that he found it absurd that the “compatriots of Dante, Michelangelo and E:
Galileo” were only allowed to send a small portion of their population to American due 1
to the immigration quotas, which now painted those from southern and eastern Europe as

,_
“an inferior race.”32 ‘

 

12:.

Prior to the end of the war, Scandinavians continued to reevaluate their position
within America in relation to the ability to express national heritage as their time wore on
in America. One of the continued arguments that Scandinavians pressed well into the
wartime years was the notion that Leif Erikson was the ﬁrst to discover America 3000
years before Columbus, thereby solidifying the position of Scandinavians in the social
fabric of America. In 1917, Norwegians began to shift this argument to one that
emphasized the racial grounding of Americans as Anglo-Saxon; as the editor of
Skandinaven wrote in October 1917, “we cannot allow it to be forgotten that our
continent was discovered by the Norwegians, and that our country is Anglo-Saxon, not
Latin.”33 Conversely, Scandinavians were also quick to express a desire to maintain the
traditions of the homeland in Chicago, especially in relation to the maintenance of foreign

language within the community. That same year, the Chicago Norwegian Club by a

 

’2 Aldous Huxley, “The Importance of Being Nordic,” in Essays New and Old (London: Chatto & Windus,
1926): 199, 200.

33 “Anglo-Saxon, Not Latin,” Editorial, Skandinaven, October 24, 1917, WPA Foreign Language Press
Survey, Norwegian Press.

242

signiﬁcant majority vote moved to use Norwegian instead of English within the conﬁnes
of the club after a period of English-usage only.34 Surprisingly, at war’s end, the push for
the maintenance of foreign language remained strong amongst Scandinavians despite
growing nativist sentiment. In a bold call to the Norwegian community, the editor of
Skandinaven spoke out in August 1920 against the intolerant ‘two-hundred-percenters,”
who, during the war, moved to convert Norwegians to full Americans: “The time has
come to restore real Americanism at home. . .some of [the ‘two-hundred-percenters”]
took the position and said they wanted a law to forbid the use of any other language than
English in the church, the school, and the newspaper. That is ridiculous and absurd. Can’t
a man ﬁght equally well regardless of what language he uses?” The editor went on to
argue that the “forefathers” of the Norwegian community deserved the right to speak
their native language and practice the corresponding cultural habits. As he adamantly
sputtered, “does Americanism demand that we turn our hearts into stone and say to father
and mother and to our grandparents: “We are smarter than you now; we want a law to
forbid you to use the language you like to use!” That is not Americanism. It is
intolerance.”3S Yet, as the number of immigrants in Chicago rose in the postwar years to
an all-time high, many Scandinavians began to shift their gaze to newcomers who would
serve as the perfect scapegoat for ethnic tension in the midst of a tumultuous era.
According to the 1920 census, there were approximately 130,000 Swedes, 72,000
Norwegians and 29,000 Danes who called Chicago their new home — the staggering

numbers, which did not include the second generation, came close to outnumbering some

 

3" “Chicago Norwegian Club Is strong for the Norwegian Language,” Skandinaven, December 21, 1917,
WPA Foreign Language Press Survey, Norwegian Press.

35 “The Foreign Languages,” Editorial, Skandinaven, August 25, 1920, WPA Foreign Language Press
Survey, Norwegian Press.

243

of the major Scandinavian cities by comparison.36 The new inﬂux of immigrants sparked
the discussion of American citizenship once again, especially in 1920 when women
received the right to become naturalized as citizens. As the following table illustrates, a
majority of Chicago’s Scandinavians were naturalized as citizens, those who did not take

the necessary steps were publicly ostracized by nativists:

Table 5.2: Number and Percent naturalized among foreign born white males and
females 21 years of age and over, for Chicago, 1920 (Denmark not listed)

 

Male Total Naturalized Female Total Naturalized
Sweden 28,040 20,366 (72.6%) 28,833 19,774 (68.6%)
Norway 9,473 6,886 (72.7%) 10,102 6,893 (68.2%)

(Source: Adapted from Burgess, Census Data of the City of Chicago, 1920, table 12, 27)

As an inﬂux of immi grants renewed the swell of newcomers to Chicago, nativistic
discussions regarding citizenship and the “desired” and “undesired” immigrant classes
grew to a frenzied pace across the country. Growing nativist sentiments, exacerbated by
World War I, led Congress to set the ﬁrst of many restrictive immigration quotas for each
nationality on May 19, 1921 through the Emergency Quota Act. The act limited the
annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 3% of the
number of persons from that country living in the United States in 1910 according to the
United States Census, in turn, favoring potential immigrants from Northern and Western
Europe. Scholars have long criticized the American Quota Laws which established the

concept of “national origin” as discriminatory; as both John Hi gham and Mae Ngai have

 

36 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920 (Washington DC: National Archives and Records
Administration, 1920); “Census,” Skandinaven, March 27, 1920.

244

 

pointed out, the central theme of the quota process was a race-based nativism, which
favored the “Nordics” of northern and western Europe over the “undesirable races,”
thereby ranking Europeans in a hierarchy of desirability long discussed but not
formalized in legislation.37 Therefore, the initial quotas put into place actually worked to
beneﬁt Scandinavian immigration, which reached the peak of its ﬁnal wave in 1923; for
Sweden alone, the ﬁrst law of 1921 gave the country a quota of 20,042 — a number far at
larger than waves in previous years. The ﬁnal surge of Scandinavian immi grants .
represented the release of accumulated demand; those who had planned to emigrate prior

to the war were now given the opportunity at war’s end.38 However, in 1922, only 43.8%

 

of the quota asked for admission and while the following year saw a surge with 24,948
admitted into the United States, the subsequent quota law of 1924 reduced the quota to
2% instead of 3%, limiting Sweden’s portion to only 9,561.39 After 1924, the number of
return migrants to the Scandinavian countries was greater than those coming to America.
Following the ﬁnal adjustment of immigration quotas by the National Origins Act of
1927 which drastically reduced the quotas for Germany, the Irish Free State, and the
Scandinavian countries, the number of immigrants from the Nordic countries continued

to drastically shrink.

 

37 John Higham wrote that, although intended as a temporary legislation, the act “proved in the long run the
most important tuming-point in American immigration policy” because it imposed numerical limits on
European immigration for the ﬁrst time and established a nationality quota system. See John Higham,
Strangers in the Land, 311; Mae M. Ngai, “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A
Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924,” The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 1 (June
1999): 69-70.

’8 Barton, 25].

’9 In 1923, no less than 24,948 Swedes came to the United States, however during the next year, that
number witnessed a drastic plummet to average slightly fewer than 8,400 immigrants a year between 1924
and 1929. During the course of the Great Depression, the number of annual immigrants from Sweden
dropped to only 900 a year — far below the quota set for Sweden and far below return migration to Sweden.
See US. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States, I 922, p. 10], table 74;
Statistisk a°rsbokﬁir Sverige, 1930, p. 65; Barton, 241.

245

The Scandinavian newspapers of Chicago illustrated an overwhelming public
response to the regulation of immigration by Congress, beginning with a more positive

response in relation to the beneﬁcial notion of Scandinavians as a “desired” group in

America. One notable reaction emerged after the publication of the November 18th, 1922

issue of the Saturday Evening Post which posed a proposal to increase the “more
desirable” immigration stock and decrease the “less adaptable.” To the delight of its
Scandinavian readers, the subsequent editorial ranked Scandinavians among the most
desirable immigrants, and declared that “such a law would be based on fairness and

consideration to all concerned, and would, in addition, signify a deserved tribute to those

I:

 

past generations of immigrants to which this country is so greatly indebted. It would
express our appreciation of the excellent qualities of the Scandinavian peoples, who have
contributed so much to the development of the Northwest.”40 Much of the favorable
response to Scandinavian immigration came from the perspective of industrialists who
viewed them as a group of diligent and specialized workers; upon publication of the
annual report of the Bureau of Immigration in Washington, a particularly favorable
section titled “Trades and Occupations of Immigrants of Various Countries” came to the
attention of the editors of Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter. As the editors shared with their
readers, national ﬁgures showed that the Scandinavian population contained a higher
percentage of individuals with special occupational training than any of the other
immigrant groups in America.41 However, many of Chicago’s established Scandinavians

did not view immigration quotas that favored further immigration from Scandinavia as a

 

’0 Kenneth Roberts, “Editorial,” Saturday Evening Post, November 18, 1922; “The Regulation of
Immigration,” Editorial, Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter, November 22, I922 (Translations mine).

4' “The Immigrants from the North,” Svenska Tribunen-Nyheter, January 31, 1923; “The Immigration Bill,”
Editorial, Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter, February 14, I923 (Translations mine).

246

positive measure. Instead, the older generation viewed the new class of immigrants in the
19205 as a menace to the established status quo — young people who would have to
endure the arduous tasks of learning English and become somewhat Americanized. One
editorial retorted that such newcomers often attracted unfortunate public attention and
stood to give the community a bad name: “These exceptions seem to represent a certain

hoodlum element, which glories in making passes at ladies on the street and indulges in

similar ungentlemanly conduct. Perhaps they got away with that sort of thing in Sweden,
but they need not think that it will go unpunished here. The sooner they get their ﬁngers

burned, the better it will be for them. . .it will teach them manners.”42 Upon the passage of '

 

FF- -. .

the National Origins Act of 1927, many of the community’s outlets that once complained
about the qualities of its new immigrants would change their direction.

The National Origins Act of 1927, which effectively reduced the quota granted to
the Nordic countries, caused many of Chicago’s Scandinavians to express their outrage,
sometimes to the point of blatant racism towards other European groups. Some chose to
place the blame on the disparate groups previously outraged by their own low quotas; one
such reaction came from Carl L. Bengston who indigrrantly inquired within the pages of
The Lutheran Companion: “Can anyone calculate wherein the United States will be
beneﬁted by the immigration of more Italians, Poles and Irish, Belgians and Dutch, and
by reducing the quota of Germans and Scandinavians?”43 A later, more hostile editorial in
Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter pushed the argument that the revised quotas were not only

inconvenient but also impractical in building a country of “desirables.” The editor stemly

 

’2 “Swedish Newcomers,” Editorial, Svenska T ribunen-Nyheter, November 28, 1923.

43 Carl J. Bengston, “Opinion,” The Lutheran Companion, October 26, 1929; Finis Herbert Capps, From
Isolationism to Involvement: The Swedish Immigrant Press in America, 1 914-1945 (Chicago: Swedish
Pioneer Historical Society, 1966): 112-13; Barton, 252.

247

posed: “For a long time the immigrants from Northern Europe have been hailed as
forming the backbone of our nation. Are these highly valued Danes, Norwegians, and
Swedes now going to be thrown aside to make room for Lithuanians and long-bearded,
half-wild newcomers from Soviet Russia?”44 Other outlets expressed more of a fearful
concern for the potential loss of cultural practices and heritage; one newspaper warned
that, if the 1924 quota were not relinquished, “all our socially constructive Swedish-
American institutions, including the press, societies, fraternal orders, churches, old
people’s homes and orphanages — in a word, all that the Swedish Americans from the

earliest times down to the present have with such great sacriﬁces built up, will slowly but

 

surely wither and die.”45 As the potential threat of the loss of cultural identity gained
recognition, the community responded in a somewhat astonishing manner — in the
shadow of nativist rhetoric regarding immigrant “backwardness,” Chicago’s
Scandinavians witnessed a cultural revival which built upon the ideal of a truly dualistic
sense of citizenship in America.

In the years that followed the persecution of ethnic diversity in America by
nativists, Scandinavian-American cultural life revived to a surprising degree.
Representations of homeland culture were once again celebrated within the
neighborhoods of Lakeview and Andersonville in Chicago and membership in
Scandinavian churches and societies steadily grew throughout the 19205.?5 The
Norwegian community used the 1925 Centennial of its establishment in America to
reﬂect upon its own hyphenated American identity; the Centennial was what scholar

April Schultz found to be a “speciﬁc site of contestation” that could not be understood

 

’4 “Why the About Face?” Editorial, Svenska T ribunen-Mvheter, March 20, I929.
‘5 Barton, 252-53, 379.
4" Barton, 242.

248

outside of the context of American nativism and the immediate tensions surrounding
communities of foreigners.47 Celebrations such as the 1925 Norwegian Centennial
became commonplace in this period, while the actual practices of the homeland fell off,
especially the use of Scandinavian languages in the public sphere. Yet, while the earlier
public emphasis on foreign language publications and literary culture fell off in the
postwar years, those who still had knowledge of the language of home continued to F
privately educate their American-born children in it. However, the second generation

held a divergent image of America from that of their parents in the 19205. Entertainer

 

Lydia Hedberg, who toured America from 1920 to 1923 as a Swedish folk singer and
storyteller recalled the vision of second generation Swedish Americans as a confused
space in between cultures. Most of them, she wrote, behaved in a manner unbecoming to
public spaces; the young women quickly adopted every Americanism, bobbing their hair
and sporting hom-rimmed glasses while speaking a “mish-mash slang” that combined
English and the language of their parents. Hegberg was most disturbed in her travels by
the “panicky anxiety” she encountered amongst the children of “well-to-do”
Scandinavian immigrants who sought to conceal their Swedish origins and avoid any
identiﬁcation with newcomers from the homeland.48 Despite her encounters with such
insecure youth, Hegberg noted her failed perception that the process of becoming “well-
to-do” would require full Americanization in moving into the upper classes of Chicago
society; instead, she found successﬁrl Scandinavians who mapped out a new direction in

America - one that did not require the loss of ethnic identity and cultural heritage.

 

‘7 Schultz’s full length study explores the meanings of community and ethnic identity through the cultural
celebrations of Norwegian Americans. See April Schultz, Ethnicity on Parade, 38.
4“ Lydia Hedberg (Bergslagsmor), Reseminnenﬁ'tin U.S.A. (Skovde, 1925): 29, 81

249

By the 19203, the last of the new arrivals from Scandinavia made their way into a
complex ethnic community that was quite different from the segmented communities of
the 18805. The once centralized enclaves that Scandinavians shared had now grown to
accommodate diverse groups of citizens and the community that was once desperate to
hold onto ties to the homeland had found other ways to express cultural heritage. As
Anita Olsen found in her study of North Park, the newly developing suburban regions of It“
Chicago allowed Scandinavians to exert social power over their environment and recreate
their community afﬁliations outside of the city. In doing so, these former immigrants

were able to strengthen ethnic consciousness in areas removed ﬁom central Chicago and

 

assert Scandinavian presence within the city as well as outside of it.49 The importance of
this inner-migration to suburban regions of Chicago would prove to be vital in continuing
the traditions of the homeland in a uniquely American way, emphasizing the beneﬁts of
the potential in America to become “well-to-do.” Many Scandinavian-Americans joined
others in the early ﬂight to the suburbs; the urban ethnic neighborhoods, once sites of
substantial ethnic businesses and institutions, gave rise to an ethnic elite who “dominated
the public life of the koloni [neighborhood] and claimed to represent the group in its
dealings outside the neighborhood,” according to April Schultz and John J enswold.
Suburbanization, they found, proved to be a paradox for such ethnic elites; on one hand,
ﬂight from the centralized urban community had the potential to weaken their hold on the
community, but on the other, they could express a truly Scandinavian-American

pluralistic identity in suburban regions through participation in the new lifestyle of

 

49 Anita Olsen, “The Community Created: Chicago Swedes 1880-1920,” in Swedish-American Life in
Chicago, 57.

250

American consumer culture.50 As Liz Cohen questioned the standard view of the 19208 as
a decade where mass consumer culture worked to assimilate ethnic Americans, she also
discovered that Chicago’s ethnic citizens interpreted consumer behavior differently than
their American neighbors.5 1 Therefore, as suburban ﬂight for Americans would largely
symbolize class mobility, Scandinavians grounded their move to the suburbs in rural
traditions of the homeland where home ownership had very different meanings. F“-
F or many of these former immigrants, upward mobility entailed the possibilities

to enjoy the ﬁner things that the booming consumerism of the 19208 now had to offer; 1,

 

during this era of opulence, members of Chicago’s Scandinavian elite took the steps to

“rm—.11.. ..

separate themselves from the city and their neighbors in forming their own insular
corrrrnunity, even in the wake of nativist calls to “become American.” For members of
this group, the opportunity to take advantage of the celebratory culture of the 19208 was
far too tempting — they would soon set out to create a private space where high-class
leisure and social interaction would offer the chance for new beginnings, however

nostalgic of the homeland.

“It is a privilege to belong to the Nordic”: Leisure, Ethnic Identity, and the Nordic
Country Club
On May 10, 1925, in the spirit of America’s celebratory afﬂuence, a group of
prominent Scandinavians prepared to break ground on a wooded site in the northwest

Chicago suburb of Itasca, Illinois. Just over a year later on Memorial Day 1926, the

 

’0 Schultz, Ethnicity on Parade, 57; John R. Jenswold, “Becoming American, Becoming Suburban:
Norwegians in the 19208,” Norwegian-American Studies 33 (1992): 5-6.
5 ' Liz Cohen, Making a New Deal, 182; Jenswold, “Becoming American, Becoming Suburban,” 16-17.

251

founders would celebrate the opening of the Nordic Country Club — a bucolic
establishment set upon sprawling one-hundred—and-twenty acres of golf courses and park
land. The Nordic Country Club was conceived of by what was considered to be
Chicago’s Scandinavian elite — a successful group of doctors, lawyers, and businessmen
who desired a weekend retreat from the rigors of city life. Their ideal “home away from
home” would become a vital cultural institution that developed out of two larger social p-
movements in American cities during the 19208: the great suburban migration and the
growth and popularity of country clubs for America’s upper classes. Yet, the construction

of the Nordic Country Club was unlike any other afﬂuent suburban escape of the day.

 

The Club, built almost exclusively by ﬁrst- and second-generation Scandinavian-
Americans, symbolized the acceptance of an immigrant group into Chicago’s elite.
However, the appearance of the club, the activities and traditions practiced, and the
people who gained membership to the club were, in every sense of the word,
Scandinavian.

The notion of separation from the rigors of city life had become popular since the
earliest years of the population boom in Chicago, especially for groups like
Scandinavians who had both the means and the desire to become suburban. As early as
the 18808, those Scandinavians who could afford to do so retreated to the new suburban
areas outlying the city limits including Lakeview and what would later become
Andersonville. Historian Anita Olson Gustafson explained that as Scandinavians moved
outside the city, they “brought” their community afﬁliations with them, including
churches, secular clubs, labor unions, temperance societies, and professional associations.

Thereby, rather than losing their ethnic afﬁliations and Americanizing, the process of

252

suburbanization gave them a window of opportunity in the city’s development to create
the ethnic communities they so desired.52 In 1893, a real estate company called the
Swedish University Association (SUA) purchased land in the newly-established
neighborhood of North Park with the intention to transform the land acquisition into “an
entire Swedish Covenant colony” within Chicago — a plan Gustafson attributed to the
process of taking an American institution, the urban-style subdivision, to “shape the E'
needs of an ethnic sectarian community.” While the suburb and the educational
institution of North Park would eventually ﬂourish into one of the most successful

endeavors of the insular Swedish group, the notion of creating a completely

 

homogeneous community within a growing urban area (that incidentally was
incorporated into the Chicago city limits by the turn of the century) created immense
internal conﬂicts complicated by economic and demographic forces.53 The early social
experiment of the North Park group would nevertheless create a model for Scandinavians
who also wished to temporarily escape from Chicago’s city limits, either through home
ownership or through membership in an association like the Nordic Country Club.

From the initial stages of planning, the would-be founders of the Nordic Country
Club publicly acknowledged a “genuine need” for such a foundation. For many
prominent Scandinavian Chicagoans, the once exciting culture of the city neighborhoods
and streets transformed over time into a nuisance, especially for those who expressed
nostalgia for the simple life of the homeland. In the planning stages of the project,

Nordic’s investors looked to other prominent Chicago clubs of private membership for

 

52 In her article, “North Park: Building a Swedish Community in Chicago,” Olson uses the Swedish
community to show the prevalence of ethnic ties even within the outlying suburban communities
surrounding Chicago. See Anita Olson Gustafson, “North Park: Building a Swedish Community in
ghicago,” The Journal of American Ethnic History v. 22/2 (Winter 2003): 31-49.

Ibid, 32.

253

cues in execution and maintenance such as the Evanston Golf Club and others on the
North Shore. In looking to these clubs, the most important component of a country club
was its distance ﬁ'om the city coupled with an aesthetically pleasing surrounding area.
One of the ﬁrst public announcements published by the investors stressed this component
and even went as far as to encourage its prospective members to relocate to the northwest
suburb of Itasca. In one of the early promotional maps of the Nordic Country Club and F
the surrounding housing developments, the authors stressed that potential investors move

to Itasca because it was not plagued with the dirt and smoke of suburbs surrounding

 

Chicago, was only a short commute to the city, but most importantly, it was “an

 

American community of substantial, prosperous people, who live modestly but well.”54

Another announcement similarly promised a “very attractive location, close to the city,”
easily accessible by train from the city and plans that would make the club “one of the
most attractive and complete clubs in the country.” Investors in the club also expressed a
new emphasis on transportation by automobile, noting that the club was “far enough
away to lose the noise and dirt and din of the city, yet near enough to be within an hour’s
easy drive.”55 Most importantly, the investors expressed the discourse of prominent
Scandinavians of the city who “appreciated for some time the need of a club of this

kind.”56 To such afﬂuent Scandinavians, the need for a beautiful retreat from the city was

 

5" Publicity map of Itasca and the proposed Nordic Country Club, Nordic Country Club Records, 1924-
1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #8 — Maps, blueprints (n.d.), F. M. Johnson Archives and
Special Collections at North Park University, Chicago, IL (hereafter denoted as NPU).

5 Commemorative booklet printed for the Nordic Country Club (mid-19208), Nordic Country Club
Records, 1924-1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #7 — Scrapbook, NPU.

5° Within the announcement, the investors encouraged prospective members to purchase property in the
subdivision of 1200 acres near the potential club, promising that it was “property which will greatly
increase in value.” Nordic Country Club Records, 1924-1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #2
— Contracts. NPU.

254

just as important as the proposed features of the club, which markedly embraced both
American and Scandinavian culture.

In the earliest years of planning, the Nordic Country Club was, ﬁrst and foremost,
proposed as an organization conceived of by Scandinavian men for Scandinavian men.
Touted as “a place where the busy man of today and his family can get the recreation, the
play, the fun, the pure air and sunshine, and the social atmosphere of a summer or winter L'—
resort within easy reach of home,” the club was advertised as one built by a group of men

“with vision and foresight” to “provide an ideal outdoor playground” for the successful

 

Nordic man.57 In doing so, the club would become an escape for Scandinavian men of a E
particular social and economic standing who sought an outlet for the sporting pastime of '
their adopted class and of the homeland; at the club, members and their families could
partake in golf, tennis, “saddle and kindred” sports embraced by the upper classes as
appropriate leisure activities. By the 19208 according to the club’s publicity, “places of
wholesome and public playgrounds had been taxed beyond their lirrrits” within Chicago,
and therefore the club’s investors proposed a new opportunity for sophisticated leisure
that combined class and a renewed sense of cultural heritage.58
In 1925, Carl Collier, Campaign and Publicity director for the proposed club put
out an eager rallying call to the charter members in a push to sign up the 375 social
members of the club needed for its opening. Aside from various dramatic and humorous
asides in his speech, Collier reiterated the “genuine need” for a Nordic Country Club in

revitalizing body and mind for Scandinavian Americans plagued by the rigors of city life:

 

57 Commemorative booklet printed for the Nordic Country Club.
58 .
Ibid.

255

“This conference has been called to encourage [Scandinavian] Americans to make
more of their opportunities and appropriate more of the advantages of America.
For a long time one of the ideals of perfection has been that of a sound mind in a
sound body. When most of our original educational institutions were founded they
at ﬁrst served a race of pioneers. They were attended by those whose very
existence depended on an active outdoor life in the open country. The most
universal custom among all the people was bodily exercise. . .too much emphasis
cannot be placed on the effort to get the people off the streets into spacious open
places where these is good sunlight and plenty of fresh air. . .it restores the natural
balance of life and nourishes the moral ﬁber of mankind.”59
Collier and the founding members viewed citizenship as a tangible concept, not a given,
and leisure as a practice that could actually strengthen the quality of citizenship for
Scandinavian Americans. Furthermore, leisure and sport were both embraced by the
founding members as a piece of cultural heritage to be given to Americans; as Collier
wrote, “we can go a long way in that direction by getting [Americans] out of doors and
really interested in nature. We can make still further progress by engaging them in
sports.”60 Thereby in establishing a cultural leisure establishment focused on the
importance of the natural world, Scandinavian Americans could embrace their heritage
and express to their American neighbors the beneﬁts of maintaining Scandinavian culture
in America.
The Nordic Country Club, which was ﬁrst publicly advertised in Chicago’s
newspapers as “the ﬁrst 100 percent Swedish country club in the country,” was actually
intended as a private club for Chicago’s Scandinavians of a certain social standing.”1

Collier speciﬁcally expressed that neither he, nor the charter members, would accept just

any “Tom, Dick, or Harry” as a member of their club: “We would have no difﬁculty in

 

59 Membership (potential members) list 1925, Nordic Country Club Records, l924-l93 1, Manuscript
Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #4, NPU.

6° Ibid.

6' “New Nordic Country Club; Nordic Club purchases 200 acres,” Herald-Examiner, April 19, 1925;
“Country Club for Chicago Scandinavians,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, April 19, 1925.

256

enrolling the ﬁrst hundred in the loop district alone, if we just went right out and told our
story, as there is hardly an intelligent man in the entire loop district that would not grab it.
But we don’t want that. We want to build this organization for your friends and our

friends.”62 According to both Collier and the bylaws of the club, “friends” were of a

particular standing in the Scandinavian community. The bylaws of the club indicated that
any individual over the age of 21 was eligible for membership however the “small print” if“
of the bylaws noted that the potential members were required to endure a lengthy process
which included a vote by the board of directors, with three negative votes resulting in the

denial of membership. The reasons for such staunch eligibility requirements for charter

 

membership were clear: charter members of the club would actually hold a stake of the
land that the club occupied for $1,000 in eight installments at the beginnings of the
building process — a wise investment for the time, but also a hefty price to pay for
membership to a social club.63 Regular social memberships (without a stake of the club)
to the club were additionally costly — the price of membership in the initial years of the
club increased with every 100 people who joined beginning at $350 going up to $550 for
the last to commit to annual membership. The investors in the club were aware of the fact
that creating an afﬂuent country club grounded in the cultural heritage of the homeland
would require a signiﬁcant amount of collateral in order to guarantee Iong-terrn success.
Initial membership in the Nordic Country Club was also limited to men with
visiting rights extended to “ladies of the immediate family.” In doing so, the Nordic

Country Club would later maintain a family atmosphere on the surface, but was managed

 

62 Membership (potential members) list 1925, Nordic Country Club Records, l924-193 l , Manuscript
Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #4, NPU.

63 Nordic Country Club By-Laws (Adopted April 13, 1925), Nordic Country Club Records, l924-193 1,
Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1 , Folder #1 , NPU.

257

and viewed as somewhat of a fraternal organization. In campaigning for social members,
the investors (who were all men) produced membership recommendation cards which
expressed their desire for a “congenial, social atmosphere where the business and
professional man and his family may have all the advantages of an ideal Country Club
away from the din of the usual crowds.”64 The bylaws of the club made it clear that
women and children of members were more than welcome to enjoy the privileges of the

club without membership, but would be subject to additional rules and regulations that

 

actual members were not. Such exclusions included golf tournaments and various

weekend activities where the presence of women and children was not desired by the

lam-121‘”

male members of the club. The bylaws were also very speciﬁc about the extent to which
the club’s forefathers desired to maintain a morally upstanding facade; in 1930, an
amendment was added to the bylaws which speciﬁed that “ladies of the immediate family
shall be construed to mean the wife and daughters of a member residing with him.”65
Whether or not the amendment was added in response to an uncomfortable situation is
unknown, however it was clear that, even in the modern era, the members of the Nordic
Country Club continued to hold onto their moral beliefs despite the introduction of
modern social mores.

In addition to the fraternal undertones of the goals of the club, it was clear that the
charter members looked to ﬁll its ranks with athletically and culturally rrrinded citizens of
the Scandinavian community in Chicago. In a letter of correspondence between director

Carl Hjalmar Lundquist and the rest of the charter members written in July 1925,

Lundquist urged his “red army” to instill pride within their recruitments for being

 

6’ Membership Recommendation Card, Nordic Country Club Records, l924-1931, Manuscript Collection
#6, Box #1, Folder #4, NPU.
6’ Nordic Country Club Bylaws, Sections 14 and 15.

258

selected, as he wrote that “it is a privilege to belong to the Nordic, a privilege you have
already seen, and we would like to see more of your friends join so as to keep up the
quality of our members on the same high plane as it is now.”66 In doing so, there was a
speciﬁc demographic that the charter members were especially eager to recruit within
Chicago; while socioeconomic status was crucial, recruiters targeted groups such as the
United Swedish Singers of Chicago and the Swedish-American Athletic Association P-
comprised of Scandinavian men of important social standing in the community. After the 1
club opened in 1926, an article in the club’s newsletter, “The Nordic Fairway,” discussed

the pride of the club in having members that represented virtually every business and

 

industry due to the keen maneuvering of early recruiters. The most important outcome of

their tactics, according to the newsletter, was the caliber of “gentlemen” they located to

ﬁll their ranks:
“You know many of them yourselves. Bankers and bakers, manufacturers and
merchants, lawyers and brokers, instructors and sales managers, as well as
salesmen. But go ahead, ﬁnish the list yourself. In the ﬁnal analysis we all agree
that, whatever the business or profession of our fellow members may be, the
secret of success for Nordic lies in the fact that they are real men; real friends,
good companions and gentlemen. And that, after all, will make any enterprise
successful.”67

Despite the facade of rational planning and execution of the club’s goals in the early

stages of recruitment, the charter members did not escape the occasional squabbles, often

times sparked by egotism and jealousy over rank in the hierarchy of the club. One such

disagreement arose in June 1925 between Carl Hjalmar Lundquist and Chas Fellowes

 

(’6 Letter from Carl Hjalmar Lundquist to the Nordic Country Club charter members, Nordic Country Club
Records, l924-193l, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #4, NPU.

67 Article from the club’s newsletter, “The Nordic Fairway”, October 1929, Nordic Country Club Records,
l924-l93l, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #6 (Periodicals 1925-29), NPU.

259

when Lundquist, who was both a director and major investor in the club, discovered that
F ellowes printed his name on every piece of letterhead and publicity for the club. The
simple acknowledgement outraged Lundquist, who wished to be more of a silent partner
in the dealings of the club, prompting him to scribble a terse letter to his once close
friend. In the letter, Lundquist referenced a conﬁdential talk between the two men where
F ellowes suggested that Lundquist not take such an active part in the organization work '7
after Lundquist equally lamented over his rise to leadership in the somewhat risky
enterprise. Lundquist explained to Fellowes that he would be obliged to “lay low so as to

give those a chance who wanted to be in the limelight,” therefore becoming appalled

 

when the Board of Directors approved a listing of the entire Board on all correspondence
of the Nordic Country Club — a move Lundquist accused of “smell[ing] something akin to
egotism.” In a bold move, Lundquist ended his letter with a word of advice to Fellowes
and more broadly, to the other directors: “Let’s do business like businessmen — not
kids.”68 This early animosity expressed between Lundquist and Fellowes would
transform into a much larger issue in upcoming years, when the club and its members
faced a tumultuous climate of maintaining an afﬂuent social club in the midst of the
country’s greatest economic depression. In the years leading up to the stock market crash
however, the Nordic Country Club prospered under the guidance of its charter members,
eager to transform the club into an oasis dedicated to Scandinavian heritage away from
the conﬁnes of city life.

In a push to mark the inaugural season of the Nordic Country Club, the charter

members published and distributed a commemorative booklet to each new member of the

 

(’8 Letter written by Carl Hjalmar Lundquist to Chas H. Fellowes on June 19, 1925, Nordic Country Club
Records, l924-l931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #4, NPU.

260

club separated into features for men and women. In the booklet, the members could view
the architectural sketches of the new clubhouse - a palatial Nordic chalet reminiscent of
structures in the homeland with classic Tudor lines. The booklet touted the many
possibilities for leisure and relaxation that the club had to offer to its members; for those
who wished to stay indoors, the club provided a spacious lounge complete with billiard
and card rooms for rainy days or evening play. Catering to members’ wives, the booklet
described the opulent ball room to be used for dinner dances and other social affairs;
down the hall from the ball room, the club’s female patrons could ﬁnd a library, reading
and writing rooms advertised as a cozy respite complete with wide, open ﬁreplaces. The
central most part of the club for all its patrons would be the main dining room, where
husbands and their families could come together to reconnect after a long day of leisure.
As the booklet advertised, the dining room was one that catered “to the inner man” with
the ﬁnest foods, comfort and cuisine — it was a place “to chat and smoke and while away
a pleasant hour.”69 Sketches accompanied the booklet’s description of the club’s
amenities, alternating between scenes of men in full dinner dress smoking pipes in the
lounge and elegant couples dancing in the grand ballroom. From the booklet, the
directors’ message was clear to the club’s newly anointed members that their investment
would be one to celebrate in the months leading up to its opening.

Beginning in 1925 and continuing through the 19308, the club published a
monthly newsletter for its members, which combined ethnic humor, current events, and
regular features of prominent club members. Over time, the newsletter would shift from a

simple retelling of events to become a vital reﬂection of the changes the afﬂuent

 

69 Commemorative booklet published for the members of the Nordic Country Club (1926), Nordic Country
Club Records, l924-l93 l , Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1 , Folder #6 — Periodicals l925-29, NPU.

261

 

Scandinavian members faced in the economic downfall of the country. In the ﬁrst edition
of the newsletter, the newly recruited members of the club were introduced to the “who’s
who” of the organization, including E.F.T. Lundquist (club’s ﬁrst vice president), Ernest
G. Dahl (club’s second vice president), C. Hilding Anderson (club treasurer), and Nils J.
Lindskoog (club director). The bios of each prominent man told a similar story of
emigration to America during the 18808 with their families, with a strong emphasis on
the point that each considered Chicago to be their permanent home. Additionally, each
sketch attributed their success to their integration into American society, which thereby
rewarded them with ﬁne homes and healthy, happy families. Yet, each biographical
sketch told the story of a Scandinavian man who became highly industrious and
successful through their acculturation into American life as businessmen, lawyers, and
doctors, while also pointing out the duality of their own identities as Scandinavian-
Americans.

The Swedish Blue Book, a widely-read community directory which featured
prominent Swedish-American leaders and businesses, mirrored the descriptions of this
network of businessmen who created a vital “old boys club” inside and outside of the
community. The biographical sketches on the Scandinavian-American “society set” of
the city followed a pattern in achieving social success; the descriptions of mostly men in
Chicago and its surrounding suburban regions painted a picture of business success in
American society and social success in Scandinavian fraternal groups. In turn, many of
the descriptions told a similar tale: education at Ivy League institutions or those revered
by the Scandinavian community, such as North Park and Augustana Colleges; active

participation in the political realm; building a business from the ground up, or working as

262

 

a number of positions that signaled success in the American workforce including law,
business, or economics; and participation in any of the fraternal groups, especially the
Scandinavian male choirs.7O Not only was it clear that the charter members of the Nordic
Country Club and other Scandinavians sought an outlet to separate themselves from
Chicago’s society, but it was also apparent that their outlet was chosen as a deliberate
celebration of Scandinavian culture as they remembered it. Almost all of the men
belonged to prominent Swedish clubs within the city including the Vikings, the Svithiods,

the Svithiod Singing Club, the Odd Fellows, and the Fish Fans Club and some like C.

 

Hilding Anderson were not even born in Scandinavia, but nevertheless desired a place i
that embraced it. Even from the “who’s who” section of “the Nordic Fairway,” the
members of the Nordic Country Club illustrated the capability of Scandinavians to walk a
very ﬁne line in American society between appearing “American” and embracing
“Scandinavian.”

Another prominent feature of “the Nordic Fairway” illustrated a collection of
jokes entitled “in the rough” that embraced a Scandinavian-American discourse on
navigating within American society. One such joke played on the common stereotype
that painted Scandinavians as taller than the average person:

“Conductor — “How old is your little boy?

Fond Mother — “Four”

Conductor - “How old are you, my little man?”

Boy — “Four”

Conductor — “Well, I’ll ride him free this time, but when he grows up he’ll be
either a liar or a giant.”7|

 

70 See The Swedish Blue Book, A Swedish-American Directory and Year Book for Chicago, I 92 7,
published annually by the Swedish-American Publishing Co., Chicago, 1927.

' “The Nordic Fairway,” October 1929, Nordic Country Club Records, l924-1931, Manuscript Collection
#6, Box #1, Folder #6 — Periodicals 1925-29, NPU.

263

Other jokes featured in the newsletter poked fun at a more unfortunate stereotype -— that
of the rural, and therefore not fully acculturated, Scandinavian:
“Ole Oleson came into a drug store in a Minnesota village and inquired if they
had any “squirrel” whiskey. “No,” said the clerk, “but I can slip you a little Old
Crow.” “Aye don’t want to ﬂy,” said Ole. “Aye yust want to yump around a
little?”-
In the waning years of the 19208, the jokes appeared to point towards the club’s male i
contingency, despite the fact that women associated with the club also read the

newsletters. The September 1926 edition was an example of this shift, when several,

more colorful jokes that addressed sexuality and alcohol consumption during prohibition

 

were scattered throughout the newsletter. Many of the jokes appeared to drift away from
cultural stereotypes to focus more on American discourse and mores in society, including
a view of youth culture:
“The ﬁrst thing a freshman learns in college is how to judge good whisky. This is
how it’s done: One drops a hammer in the whisky, if it ﬂoats it’s fair whisky; if it
sinks, the whisky is poor; but of the hammer dissolves — that’s whisky.”73
This particular brand of humor was reminiscent of a process that took place over the
course of the 19108 and 19208 whereas Scandinavians became more accepting of the
practice of alcohol consumption by members of their group. Scandinavians (especially
Swedes) who were once known for their strict temperance now seemed to embrace
American social customs, especially the most popular references of sneaking alcohol

during prohibition, according to the pages of “the Nordic Fairway.” Several jokes also

 

72 -
Ibid.

73 “The Nordic Fairway,” September 1926, Nordic Country Club Records, l924-l931, Manuscript

Collection #6, Box #1 , Folder #6 — Periodicals l925-29, NPU.

264

 

featured a more open interpretation of sexuality than illustrated in previous years by
Scandinavians, including ones that addressed premarital relations and ﬂirtatious public
encounters. One featured a father asking his daughter’s suitor his explanation for his
daughter sitting on the young man’s lap. To the father’s question, the man replied, “I got

”74

here early, sir, before the others. Another appeared as a serious letter to the editor of

the newsletter of a young member looking for answers to his personal dilemma: F“

1‘ TIL“ .

“Dear Editor — I cannot get over being sleepy about two o’clock in the morning.
What do you suggest?”

Answer — “Marry the girl and then you can stay at home nights.”75

 

mu 1‘:
‘1”
‘1! .

The pages of “the Nordic Fairway” offer an invaluable glimpse into the social discourse
of an ethnic group in the process of blending two dominant national identities — humor
that focused on common jokes from the homeland seamlessly blended with new jokes
about Scandinavians in genuinely American situations. Historian Joy Lintelman
explained that ethnic humor was a tool used to bring the community together into a
common discourse about those outside of the margins, yet, for this group of privileged
Scandinavians, the humor was now focused back on their own. In doing so, the two
identities would combine into one negotiated persona.76 However, this did not necessarily
mean that everyone was in on the joke.

Despite the pretense that the Nordic Country Club was a place for both men and
their families, the pages of “the Nordic Fairway” maintained the appearance of a fraternal

organization with chauvinistic discourse centered upon its female contingent. In one

 

7‘ Ibid.

75 Ibid.

76 See Joy Lintelman, “Our Serving Sisters”: Swedish-American Domestic Servants and Their Ethnic
Community,” Social Science History, v. 15, n. 3 (Fall 1991): 384-86; W.R. Linneman, “Immigration
Stereotypes: 1880-1900,” Studies in American Humor 1 (1974): 28-39.

265

article, one member joked about the possibility of an annual ladies’ “stag” where the
members’ wives could play the men for a day: “Turn the club over to the ladies for the
day. Give them the whole lay-out and tell them to go to it. We wonder how many of them
would be speaking to each other by evening.”77 In another article from the same issue, the
editor talked about the chance for “the boys” to become reacquainted with their homes as
winter was on the horizon, cancelling the opportunity for golf. The editor lamented that
winter would mean that the members would be required to “become the head of a
household once more, and to get on speaking terms with the wife. So, taking it all in all,
perhaps it is just as well to have a bit of winter for a change.”78 While the majority of the
newsletters focused almost exclusively of merits on the golf course and personal briefs on
its members (including weddings and birth announcements), the newsletters also featured
cultural events that celebrated Scandinavian traditions. The club held an annual crawﬁsh
dinner as a way to bring together members and their families for a traditional midsommar
celebration outside of the city. “The Nordic Fairway” boasted about the extensive amount
of money the club set aside to specially import crawﬁsh from Sweden and Norway for
the occasion, but truly embraced the opportunity to gather with fellow Scandinavians.
The spirit of celebration during the 19205 could not, however, be maintained forever. As
the effects of the stock market crash and the Great Depression took effect in Chicago and
throughout its suburban regions, Scandinavians would ﬁnd themselves in complicated

ﬁnancial situations — and some, in great need.

 

77 “The Nordic Fairway,” September 1929, Nordic Country Club Records, l924-1931, Manuscript
7Collection #6, Box #1 , Folder #6 — Periodicals l925-29, NPU
8 .

Ib1d.

266

 

II “1%

The Curtain Falls: The Great Depression and the Scandinavian Community in
Chicago
Upon entering into major ﬁnancial investments, many of Chicago’s most
successful businessmen encountered some degree of hesitation about the age of opulence
that encapsulated 19205 ﬁnancial decisions. Even before entering into one of his most

successful social and professional endeavors, Carl Hjalmar Lundquist, one of the

 

founders of the Nordic Country Club and a prominent leader within the Scandinavian
community, hesitated before entering into such a signiﬁcant investment. In a document

prepared by his lawyer and good friend, Chas Fellowes, it was clear that the Nordic

 

Country Club had the potential to be viable but this was only contingent on the w
cooperation of Lundquist and his colleagues; F ellowes reminded him and the other
investors of their social standing by pointing out that, “there are several members of the
Organization committee of the Nordic Country Club who are widely known and stand
very prominently among the Swedish population of Chicago. . .the cooperation of these
officials with a subdivision company in connection with the sale of properties adjacent to
or near the property of the Nordic Country club would be very valuable, depending upon
the manner in which their cooperation and inﬂuence were capitalized or used.”79 Along
with their investment, the charter members agreed to receive a physical claim to the club
in the form of 50 by 150 foot prOperty lots in addition to their share in equity, yet for
shrewd businessmen like Lundquist, the right to property meant that there was the vile
potential to have their homes rescinded by the bank if the deal fell through. Being a

shrewd lawyer and political ﬁgure, Lundquist was a dynamic thinker when it came to

 

79 Legal document prepared by Chas Fellowes of Fellowes, Lawrence &Fellowes LLP, Nordic Country
Club Records, 1924-1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder # 9 - Miscellaneous, n.d., NPU.

267

anything that involved the potential for failure in business. Following Fellowes’
document in his ﬁles, Lundquist attached a hand-written note which read as somewhat of
a nervous stream of consciousness as to the consequences of this business endeavor:

“I am organizing this thing. Getting my friend into it. Assuming the responsibility

of having them put $7,000 into it with a chance of loss $700 I stand to lose. May

have to do $700 of work to save it. Put up $25.00 each [month] and will have to

put up more for committee work. I am attending banquets and meetings 3 nights a

week to put it on. I am obli gating myself to Hilding [Anderson] and others on

behalf of this and making enemies out of some people I would rather be friends
with.”80
Despite his skepticism, Lundquist would eventually enter into the business deal, and as
previously discussed, would unwillingly become a major leader within the enterprise. In
hindsight, however, Lundquist would later regret his early decision when the dismal years
of the Great Depression would quietly diminish his portfolio thereby wrecking havoc on
his relationships with his business associates.

Lundquist’s rise to professional and political success read very much like a page
of the “who’s who” section of “the Nordic Fairway”; a distinguished Swedish-American
journalist, author, engineer, and later lawyer, Lundquist was highly educated and well
respected. Lundquist’s professional career was indicative of the extent to which
Scandinavians had the potential to navigate between their own culture and that of
Chicago. Aﬁer working as the city editor of Svenska T ribunen, F osterlandet, and Svenska

Posten of Rockford in the early 19005, Lundquist made the bold decision to put himself

through Chicago Law School; for years, Lundquist labored through school during the day

 

8° Hand-written note by Carl Hjalmar Lundquist in response to the tactics laid out by Chas Fellowes in
getting Scandinavians (mostly Swedes) to commit to purchasing land and joining the club ranks. Nordic
Country Club Records, l924- l 931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1 , Folder # 9 — Miscellaneous, n.d.,
NPU.

268

 

and worked as a tool and die maker at night. Even upon admittance to the bar in 1922 and
working as an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago in 1923, Lundquist
prioritized his identity as a Swedish-American in his free time, becoming an active
member of the Svithiod Singing Club, chairman of Verdandi Lodge #3 and Varmlands
Nation, and organizing the Chicago branch of the Swedish Cultural Society in 1923.81
Through his participation in these groups and his work as city counsel, Lundquist was h
able to make a number of vital professional connections, which would later inform his
participation in the investment deal surrounding the Nordic Country Club. Like many of

his colleagues and Scandinavian neighbors, by the late 19205 Lundquist had the means j "
L

 

and desire to live outside of the city-in the comfortable suburb of Rockford with his
family. Yet, his move to Rockford would become both a physical and metaphorical
separation from his colleagues at the Nordic Country Club as his participation weakened
and he visited the club only on rare occasions. And in 1930, as many others at the club
began to feel the early effects of the Great Depression, Lundquist was no exception — for
him, the devastating effects would come in the form of public humiliation by his
colleagues.

For many of Nordic’s members, the signiﬁcant economic hardship and social
upheaval of the depression would transform the group, who was once a carefree
community dedicated to combining customs from the homeland with beneﬁts of
American consumerism into one situated in economic survival. During the early years of

the 19308, many of Nordic’s members were forced to withdraw their social membership

 

or face the consequences of delinquency from failure to pay club dues —- both measures

 

8' The biographical information regarding Carl Hjalmar Lundquist is derived from the information sheet
prepared by archivist Anne Jenner. The description and biographic information accompanies the Carl
Hjalmar Lundquist manuscript collection and the archives of North Park University.

269

holding a high cost in the public sphere. Like other members, Lundquist encountered
similar ﬁnancial woes which were not abetted by his distance from the club and its board
of directors. On May 28, 1930, the board of directors charged Lundquist with the ﬁrst of
several notices of debt to the club over the course of the 19303; in the terse letter,
Lundquist was informed of the board’s resolution that unless his indebtedness to April 1,
which amounted to a staggering $462.95, was paid within ten days, he would be E’—
suspended from “all the rights and privileges of the Club.” 82 As a bold response to the

board’s notice, instead of appearing in person at a board meeting to refute the issue,

 

Lundquist sent a letter of resignation as a member of the board of directors and
furthermore requested that his membership be transferred to a “non-resident member” of
the club. Upon his request, the board agreed to reinstate him a few months later as a
“non-resident member” of the club, yet by January 1931, Lundquist was once again
delinquent with payments that now amounted to $546.70, resulting in his denial of
membership. After years of this back and forth ﬁnancial struggle between Lundquist and
the board of directors, Lundquist ﬁnally ﬁled legal papers in August 1941 to be released
from his monetary commitment to the club, promising his son, Donald, a membership
transferal and thereby releasing Lundquist from further payments to the club.83 While the

private ﬁnancial dealings of the club were never made public in written form to its

 

82 The papers of the Nordic Country Club are indicative of both the ﬁnancial climate and contrast of the
19205 and the 19303; while the majority of the papers illustrate the club as an opulent and successful
ﬁnancial endeavor, the inclusion of Lundquist’s personal ﬁnancial woes stands out within the manuscript
collection. And while Lundquist’s struggles with the club to release him from debt would fortunately not
haunt him later in his political career, the papers nevertheless illustrate a time when personal ﬁnancial crisis
could come to outweigh friendships and business relationships. See notice of debt issued by the Board of
Directors of the Nordic Country Club in response to a failure of payment by Carl Hjalmar Lundquist on
April 1, 1930, Nordic Country Club Records, 1924-1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #4 —
Membership, NPU.

8’ Ibid; Legal papers ﬁled by Carl Hjalmar Lundquist v. the board of directors, Nordic Country Club,
Nordic Country Club Records, 1924-1931, Manuscript Collection #6, Box #1, Folder #7 - Scrapbook,
NPU.

270

members, the tell-tale signs of public embarrassment were nevertheless present in simple
omission. The pages of “the Nordic Fairway,” once sprinkled with regular accolades of
the successes of Lundquist — such as his invitation to meet the Crown Prince of Sweden
in June 1926 — were now devoid of any mention of Lundquist or his family, even as most
suffered the effects of the depression in one way or another.

Publicity from the Nordic Country Club delivered to Chicago’s newspapers r.-.
attempted to similarly not discuss the ﬁnancial problems the club or its members faced in

rational terms; in one Herald Examiner article, the club even expressed the ways in

 

which the club, built in the “boom days” by Scandinavian contractors had became

somewhat of a “melting pot” that welcomed other ethnic groups with open arms:
“Irishmen rubbed elbows with Swedes, Germans fratemized with the Irish, and
everybody was happy until depression caught up with Nordic. New and substantial
reﬁnancing was accomplished among the members and Nordic Hills now is in full
bloom.”84 Yet, within the pages of “the Nordic Fairway,” the story was very different;
around the same time, the editor of the newsletter declared that Scandinavian
membership of the club was still holding strong without mention of other ethnic groups
welcomed into the club. Furthermore, the club’s directory was almost entirely comprised
of Scandinavian names; even in the grips of the Great Depression, the Nordic Country
Club remained selective in its membership by ethnicity and social standing in the
community. The economic problems that the Nordic Country Club faced were
representative of a much larger issue that was unfolding back in the city.

At the same time, a much different story was taking place in Chicago, where a

ﬁnal surge of Scandinavian immigrants were beginning to navigate the neighborhoods

 

8" “Nordic Golfers Begin Season,” Herald Examiner, April 25, 1933.

271

much like the ﬁrst settlers had done. One of these new immigrants was Bror Johansson, a
Smalander who emigrated to Chicago in 1926 and would later tell the story of the shift he
witnessed from prosperity to the “starving years” of the depression. His interviewers
described Johansson in 1985 as “a big and tall man with clear-cut features, a blond
Viking with blue eyes and a warm and friendly smile that deﬁnitely contradicts the
roughneck vision one can get from hearing his story.”85 While Johansson took pride in
the fact that he was not a “typical Swedish—American” - he did not attend church, was a
lifelong Democrat, and chose to remain in Chicago after “almost all other Swedes” had
moved to the suburbs — he nevertheless encountered similar experiences as those who
also came to Chicago as “greenhoms” during the 19203.86 Johansson came to Chicago
with a marked advantage over other immigrants from Scandinavia by way of his
knowledge of English, as well as his strong determination to succeed in the big city.
Upon arrival by train from New York in August 1926, a former neighbor met Johansson
and took him immediately to Lake View in preparation of a card party later that evening.
As he got ready to go to the party, Bror mistakenly put on a hat he brought from Sweden;

998

to that, his brother warned: “You can’t wear it. It doesn’t look American. 7 Going out

that night, Johansson described the neighborhood, where “Swedes could ﬁnd anything
they needed”:

“The Dalkullan store was just a few blocks north of Belmont on Clark Street. It
has the very best snuff, imported from Sweden. The Vic Theatre was located one
block south of Belmont on Shefﬁeld, opposite Mary Garden Dancing Place,
which was a nice place with good music. East of Clark, on Belmont, was the
whore house. The famous cooperative Cafe’ Idrott was located at 3204 Shefﬁeld.
Many a Swede picked up his mail there until he had an address of his own. It has

 

85 Lilly and Lennart Setterdahl, Bror Johansson '5 Chicago; with poems by Bror Johansson (Moline, IL:
Lilly and Lennart Setterdahl, 1985); in Swedish and English, 1 l.
86 -
Ibid, 16.
8’ Ibid, 71.

272

 

 

a good library and there was always a crowds of people reading the newspapers, both
America, Swedish-American and Swedish papers. Café Idrott was clean and approved
by the church people. No dancing or whiskey in that place. Everything was

orderly. . .the Educational League in Chicago arranged lectures and other programs at
Café Idrott. . .Among the larger eating establishments, were Gastis’ Smorgasbord,
Gufstafson’s and Mrs. Swanson’s. There were 17 Swedish restaurants within walking
distance.”88

Upon settlement, Bror found work after only one weekend and moved to 3221 Shefﬁeld '5’“
Avenue in the heart of Lake View, where he shared a ﬁrst ﬂoor “bachelor” apartment
with four other men from Sweden. During the late 19203, Johansson recalled his

experiences in the apartment on Shefﬁeld as ones of perpetual mischief, whereas his

 

ti

work experiences were not as enjoyable.

Beginning in a construction job, which Johansson labeled “slave work,” he was
able to hold his job until he received his ﬁrst paycheck, when he was also ﬁred. In the
late 19205, well-paying, union supported positions in manual labor were difﬁcult to attain
in Lake View; as discussed in chapter three, Johansson was ﬁnally able to come into a
good position by lying about his ethnicity to a potential employer, who was German, by
speaking German to him.89 Upon onset of the ﬁnancial woes of the Great Depression,

J ohansson refused to leave his new home as others had done, despite the fact that he was
only working temporarily for a printing company for three to four months a year.
Johansson, like many other Scandinavians, remained vehemently stubborn in accepting
”9o

handouts, and in his words, “never stooped to the level of standing in a soup line.

J ohansson was, however, forced to swallow his pride in ﬁnding employment when he

 

 

88 Ibid, 75.
89 Ibid, 77, 91.
9° Ibid, 83.

273

hesitantly took a job working at a laundry, where he made only 12 1/2 cents an hour

washing clothes and working as the foreman. At his job, Johansson endured constant
theft from laundresses employed at the laundry. Upon one instance, the laundresses had
rolled blankets and sheets around their bodies and underneath their skirts, and upon the
end of their shifts, casually “walked away with the loot.” Rather than accusing the
women who Johansson admitted “probably had to steal” in such dire times, he instead
defended himself to his boss by explaining that he thought the women were pregnant,
exclaiming to his boss, “You can’t expect me to look under their skirts, can you?”91 Upon
his inevitable dismissal from the laundry, Johansson also resented to theft when he and
another Swede, Swan Donell, became partners in the business of buying and selling gold
and silver. Between 1933 and 1934, the two admittedly “swindled their way through the
Depression,” going door to door in suburban regions of the city and taking advantage of
people who “made the most money,” but were also most afraid of losing their homes if
they did not meet their mortgage payments. Johansson and his partner would “appraise”
jewelry for their customers who were desperate to make ends meet: “If it was worth $35,

5.”92 Johansson expressed no remorse for his

we paid $5 ad sold it to a jeweler for $3
underhanded business tactics, but also realized the potential for arrest and admitted to

never patronizing the streets of Chicago.

When times grew incredibly dire, Johansson and the four men who lived in the
“bachelor apartment” retreated to a more primitive way of life when they purchased ﬁve

piglets from a farmer in Wisconsin; over the next year, they kept the ﬁve pigs in the

 

9‘ Ibid, 85.
92 Ibid, 88-9.

274

 

 

basement of the house, fed them scraps from the food they brought home, and one by
one, the pigs were eventually slaughtered to provide food for the table. Johansson later
defended the actions of his roommates and himself in such times of need by explaining
that “times were hard, but all of us survived. . .except the pigs.”93 The story of survival
Johansson told of his experiences as a Swede in Chicago during the Great Depression
stand as a testament to the marked contrast between established and “greenhorn” r—a
Scandinavians as two different classes of immigrants. While all groups suffered to a
certain extent, the diversity of their experiences and the ways they chose to cope with

economic loss illustrate vital issues pertaining to identity, image, and social class in the

 

midst of the Great Depression. L2;

Conclusion

H. Arnold Barton put it best when he referred to the era that encompassed the
Great Depression as “the afterglow” for Scandinavian Americans; as the Great
Depression slowly fell across the city of Chicago and reeked havoc upon the
Scandinavian community, many citizens came to reﬂect upon the migrations before and

reconsidered their relationship with the homeland. For many, the grip of the Great

 

Depression was far too immense to come to terms with, as improving economic
conditions in the homeland called many to return home. For those who refused to give up
on their adopted homes, the strong support system established in the earliest years of the
ﬁnancially dire epoch helped many to cope with economic and social issues that would

soon follow. Within the city, the sole remnants of the once thriving Scandinavian

 

"3 Ibid, 92-3.

275

communities appeared dismal as time went on; in 1930, the remains in Lake View
included the Swedish Club on North LaSalle Street, a few rooming houses on North
Clark Street and several small businesses while the majority of Scandinavian businesses
were reestablished in Andersonville during the 19205. Those who had not migrated to the
suburbs moved their homes and businesses north to Andersonville and Lakeview, south
to Englewood, and west to Irving Park and Albany Park.94 Bror Johansson, who survived
the depression by becoming a pawn broker, noted that not every Scandinavian was so
lucky. Some were forced to sell their handcrafted homes and recalled instances where up
to ﬁve men shared a single room in local boarding houses to get by; other more
unfortunate souls drowned themselves in Belmont Harbor rather than be perceived as a
failure within their community.95 And while community missions like Fyrbake
distributed basics such as food and clothing, many Scandinavians stuck to their cultural
tendencies towards stubborn pride, often refusing to ask for charity of any kind. To
historians who study Scandinavians in Chicago during the Great Depression, this
stubbornness creates difﬁculty in comparing the experiences of former immigrant groups
in the midst of economic and social struggle — on the surface, it appears that few needed
aid, but in looking deeper, it becomes more apparent that many simply did not ask for it
until their ultimate survival hinged upon it.

The practice of re-migration was a common tactic of avoidance; while Barton
argued that the majority of those who re-mi grated during the 19303 were “new”

immigrants, who migrated as early as the 19203, others fell into the most loyal of

 

9" Kerstin b. Land with Carl lsaacson, Andersonville.“ A Swedish-American Landmark Neighborhood,
booklet published by the Swedish American Museum Center, 2003, pg. 17.

95 Lilly and Lennart Setterdahl, Bror Johansson ’3 Chicago; with poems by Bror Johansson (Moline, IL:
Lilly and Lennart Setterdahl, 1985); in Swedish and English, 81, 91.

276

 

 

Scandinavian-American groups that simply chose to return to the homeland before times
became unbearably difﬁcult. Advertisements in the pages of the Swedish Blue Book from
1926 and 1927 stood as a testament to a simpler and more prosperous time; the practice
of summer excursions and periodic visits back home had grown incredibly popular
amongst Scandinavians as early as 1914, when grandiose passenger liners like the
Skandinavien-Amerika Linien attracted customers to take “an ideal vacation trip this
summer. . .enjoy the healthy, invigorating climate of the North Lands! ”96 While simple
summer excursions were now out of reach for the majority of Scandinavians, a number
put together all of their funds in an effort to escape the economic depression with every
intention of returning when the ﬁnancial climate improved. Yet, for a small group of
dedicated loyalists in the homeland and in America, as Barton explained, the emigration
became a “kind of modern morality play,” a “collective tragedy of the hapless masses
who escaped capitalist oppression in their native land only to be swallowed up by the

h.”97 However, for most, the grand movement of people

insatiable American Moloc
became transmuted into a story of dreams fulﬁlled in a vast city — these dreams would be

revisited at a time when the community needed them most during the city’s centennial

celebration, A Century of Progress 1933.

 

9" Advertisement for the Skandinavien-Amerika Linien (Swedish America Line), printed in the Swedish
Blue Book and the Yearbook of the American Daughters of Sweden, Manuscript Series #1 1, Box #1 1,
Folder — Yearbooks, NPU.

9’ Barton, 243.

277

 

 

 

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278

 

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(Fig. 12: Program and Menu from the Skandinavien-Amerika Linien, a passenger liner
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279

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(Fig. 13: Postcard from the R.M.S. Celtic, a passenger liner that connected Sweden and
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Image and postcard courtesy of the Swenson Immigration Center at Augustana College,
Rock Island, IL.)

280

Conclusion: “In spite of all its faults, we love our city”: Cultural Celebration in the
midst of Depression

Like the majority of Chicago’s citizens, Scandinavians found themselves
struggling with the effects of the Great Depression in 1932. Bror Johansson recalled
Lakeview during this time as a community of destitute men and women forced to
swallow their pride and take advantage of public assistance, such as the Salvation Army,
whose line of patrons regularly spanned two city blocks. When asked to remember this
time, Johansson shuddered at the sheer suffering he witnessed; as the Salvationists sang
out to the crowd awaiting food and shelter that God would “open the pearly gates” and
eventually offer them salvation, Johansson snidely commented, “I hope that the pearly
gates opened for my colleagues at American Color Company — they had no roof over
their heads.”1 J ohansson expressed further disdain over the lack of help from the church,
which received his fervent support in foundational years, as one of his friends was turned
away and was told “you are supposed to help the church and not visa versa.”2 For many
like J ohansson, there seemed to be little respite from constant ﬁnancial constraints.
Therefore, it came as no surprise to community leaders that word of initial plans for the
community’s participation in the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933 was met with a
mixture of confusion and skepticism. Nevertheless, Scandinavian Day at the Century of
Progress would prove to be the push Chicago’s Scandinavians would need to create
change through a renewed embrace of traditions from home.

In the year prior to the Century of Progress, community leaders like Carl

Lundquist emphasized the importance of revisiting many of the community’s basic ideas

 

l Lilly and Lennart, Bror Johansson ’3 Chicago, 81.
2 Ibid, 83.

281

on the meanings of Nordic identity within American culture, which he continued to view
as a careful mixture of the traditions of their old and new homes. Scandinavians, he
argued, should not “foolishly sacriﬁce [their] mother tongue entirely to be all-American”
or anglicize their names beyond recognition, because “the Scandinavian is a
cosmopolitan” capable of blending into and accepting many different cultural ideals.3
Lundquist went on in his speech to emphasize the importance of community strength in
such dire times, even when it was easier to place fault on the city for economic problems
of the Great Depression, explaining that “in spite of all its faults, we love our city, and are
content to live here in preference to any place on earth, with the reservation, of course
that since we can’t get what we life, we have learned to like what we can get.”4 Just
months earlier, Lundquist and other leaders portrayed the mixed heritage of
Scandinavian-Americans in the form of a pageant widely acknowledged as both
successful and important in community building. The pageant, which took place at
Wrigley Field and was attended by 15,000 peOple from all over the city, symbolically
paid tribute to the founders of America and Sweden, commemorating the tri-centennial of
the death of the founder of the Swedish Empire, King Gustavus Adolphus, and the
bicentennial of the birth of George Washington. On a two-hundred foot stage, a thousand
members of the Scandinavian community depicted in fourteen scenes the “advance of the
Nordic race during the last ten centuries,” which connected the departure of Leif Erickson

for Iceland with the role of Swedish heroes in the American Revolution and the

 

3 Selection from a speech given by Carl Lundquist to the United Nordic Folk Dancers of America on
December 11, 1932. See Carl Hjalmar Lundquist Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript Collection #30, Box #3,
Folder 14 — 1932 Program and speech give to the United Nordic Folk Dancers, NPU.
4 .

Ibrd.

282

 

 

foundation of America.5 Lundquist and other community leaders would come to view the
pageant of September 1932 as a dress-rehearsal for festivities of Scandinavian Day, an
event with two major goals: to illustrate the important duality of Scandinavian-American
identity in Chicago and the effort to bring Scandinavians together in celebration and give
them the impetus to succeed in the face of the Great Depression.

Over the course of the following year, Carl Lundquist tirelessly labored over the
details for Scandinavian Day, putting all of his efforts into ensuring that the events of the
day would portray Chicago’s Scandinavians as one of the strongest ethnic groups in the
city. A letter from HR. Hedman, president of the Hedman Manufacturing Company to
Lundquist detailed his desire to join efforts with other groups to use Scandinavian Day as
a means to earn much-needed money for the community in the aftermath of the
celebration, and suggested to Lundquist the need to court the American press in order to
swell the celebration’s attendance. As he explained to Lundquist of the importance of the
American press:

“A large number of our people will come from out of town and they should be

told beforehand what to expect. Not all of these people read the papers of their

own language. . .they should be told repeatedly in the press and over the radio
about the programs for the respective days. Whether we know it or not, we are in

the show business; we are resentin a s ectacle and must use eve means
6
available to get our message across before our respective days.”

 

5 In two separate articles from the Herald Examiner, the events of the pageant were recalled with great
success by the Chicago paper, which went into further detail as to the extensive importance of this singular
event to the symbolic role of Scandinavian-Americans in Chicago as the pageant included all of the major
Scandinavian national organizations including the Independent Order of Svithiod, the Independent order of
Vikings, I.O.G.T. Scandinavian Fraternity of America, the Independent Order of Ladies of Vikings, the
Independent Order Ladies of Svithiod, the United Swedish Singers of Chicago, and 100 individual clubs
and societies of Chicago. See “Swedes to Pay Two Tributes, Herald Examiner, September 5, 1932, 2;
“Nordic Race Progress is told in Show,” Herald Examiner, September 12, 1932, 3.

6 Throughout their correspondence, it was decided that Scandinavian Day on June 23, 1933 would be the
culmination of a week of national celebration days, which would include Swedish-American Day on June
19, Norwegian-American Day on June 20, Danish-American Day on June 21, and Finnish- American Day
on June 22. See letter sent from HR. Hedman to Carl Lundquist on April 18, 1933, Carl Hjalmar Lundquist

283

 

 

Shortly after their correspondence suggested the desire to court the American press in

support of Scandinavian Day, Lundquist sent a press release on May 23rd to all Chicago

newspapers, in which he expressed the “excitement and urgency to get as many

Scandinavians to the city” as possible for the celebration: “special trains have been
chartered in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis and other centers, and every 5,“
passenger will have two “red letter days” in mind, his own national day and Scandinavian

Day.”7 Within the same press release, Lundquist included an anecdotal story intended for

_ 4 JVnh‘u .

publication on the reaction of Captain Magnus Andersen, who had become famous

 

F1 ..
3 ‘dl

amongst the Scandinavian community for the mini replica of Leif Eriksen’s Viking ship
he displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. When Lundquist asked
Andersen of his intentions to visit Scandinavian Day, he explained that he and his wife
eagerly awaited the grand exposition and expected that it would “be very different from
the Columbian Exposition” due to the now strong presence of Scandinavians in Chicago.8
When the day of celebration arrived, Lundquist would incorporate his noted excitement
into a speech which would be remembered for years as the story of Scandinavian success
in America.

As the master of ceremonies of Scandinavian Day, Lundquist would give his

famous speech before an audience of thousands at Soldier Field to commemorate the

 

Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript Collection #30, Box #3, Folder #5 — Documents on Lundquist’s work as a
member of the Swedish-American Committee for the 1933 World’s Fair, NPU.

7 Press release authored by Carl Lundquist sent Monday, May 22, 1933, Manuscript Collection #30, Box
#3, Folder #5 - Documents on Lundquist’s work as a member of the Swedish-American Committee for the
1933 World’s Fair, NPU. An example of the press release was published the same day in Chicago Daily
Tribune; see “Notes on the World’s Fair,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 22, 1933, pg. 4.

7 Ibid.

284

importance of the individual celebrations of the various Scandinavian nations and mark

the opening of Scandinavian Day. Throughout his speech, Lundquist took the opportunity

to encourage Scandinavians to remain strong through such dire times, recollecting the

early days of settlement in America as similarly discouraging: “We Scandinavians are of

a hard-headed but creative race which has never admitted defeat and never will. . .our

culture is not of a superﬁcial character, nor is our civilization, but they have stood lasting r.—

and solidly for centuries as a bulwark of strength among the nations of the earth.”9

. 4 .‘r‘ “K“: ‘N‘VA'

Lundquist concluded his speech to a subsequent standing ovation by emphasizing the

perseverance of Scandinavian-Americans in publicly embracing the traditions of home,

 

 

even in the midst of nativists’ continued calls for all ethnic groups to Americanize once i”!

and for all:

“There is in us an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of imperishable love of
liberty, of undying adherence to principle. From a purely American standpoint
there is, as I see it, a grave danger in discarding the solid teachings and beliefs
that have contributed to the strength and progress of the Scandinavian peoples
throughout these many centuries, and it is entirely proper for us to glory in the
accomplishments and contributions which our race and its great men have made
to the common progress of humanity.”lo

Lundquist’s speech at Scandinavian Day illustrated a signiﬁcant shift that took place in
the forty years that spanned the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Century

of Progress in 1933, where a community once divided along national lines had come to

 

9 In reviewing Lundquist’s documents, there appeared to be two different versions of the same speech — one
which was given in the planning stages of Scandinavian Day in 1932 and a ﬁnal version of the speech
which included more details on the current state of Scandinavian pride and cultural strength given on June
23, 1933 at Soldier Field. See “Scandinavian Day at the Century of Progress,” speech written and given by
Carl Lundquist, Carl Hjalmar Lundquist Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript Collection #30, Box #3, Folder #5
— Documents on Lundquist’s work as a member of the Swedish-American Committee for the 1933 World’s
Fair, NPU.

'0 Ibid. See also later correspondence from Lundquist, where he recalled the favorable reception of his
speech to a standing ovation at Soldier Field; Carl Hjalmar Lundquist Papers, 1899-1966, Manuscript
Collection #30, Box #3, Folder #6 — Correspondence and Clippings: Swedish Day, 1935, NPU.

285

realize the beneﬁts of joining together as one group under the united identity of
Scandinavian-Americans.

Over the decades which followed the celebration of Scandinavian Day at the
Century of Progress in 1933, pe0p1e within the community continued to persevere in the
face of adversity, through another World War, as well as a tumultuous era in Chicago’s
history, when Lakeview went through a period of transition during the 19605 and 19705
into an area of the city where crime was rampant. During this period, many community
members stubbornly stayed within the neighborhood, refusing to give up their homes
even when several of Chicago’s media outlets declared that Lakeview was becoming
ghettoized. Other Scandinavian-Americans, however, chose to migrate north up Clark
Street to a neighborhood claimed by other Scandinavians upon annexation as the
community of Andersonville. Today, this vibrant area is known across the city for its
embrace of mostly Swedish culture, with a mixture of businesses such as grocery stores,
delicatessens, restaurants, and the Swedish-American Museum and Center serving as the
center of the neighborhood. And while the neighborhood in recent years has transitioned
into one which caters to both young professionals and the gay and lesbian community,
the Scandinavian element is still very much alive -— looking north, one can see the water
tower painted with the Swedish ﬂag for miles as a testament to the survival of one of
Chicago’s largest and most inﬂuential immigrant groups.

In the historical study of Scandinavians within American cities, there remains
much to be explored. There continues to be a signiﬁcant divide between historians of
Scandinavian America and migration historians — while Scandinavian and Scandinavian-

American historians have begun to touch upon the importance of racial and ethnic

286

 

 

preference in American culture, the perspective of most narratives continues to focus
almost entirely on Scandinavians (or divided along national lines) without regard to the
inﬂuence of the American perspective on the lives of immigrants within history.
Furthermore, while historians like Joy Lintelman and Margareta Matovic brought an
individual focus to the role of the female Scandinavian immigrant within America, the
historiography on Scandinavians in America continues to lack studies focused on the F
gendered dynamics of community formation and ethnic identity within both an urban, as
well as a rural context.ll In researching for the topic of this dissertation, I was struck by

the wealth of available archival sources on various Scandinavian athletic associations,

 

fratemal organizations, and socialist and intellectual clubs which were highly popular :..
with the second-generation of Scandinavian youth within Chicago; the materials available

on these groups provide ample opportunities for analysis on themes such as the historical

study of masculinity, the history of sport and athleticism, and the gendered meanings

behind public community engagement.

In building a gendered history of Scandinavians in America, the study of the
historical connections between Scandinavians and sexuality, as discussed in chapter four,
is largely omitted from the narrative. This omission is not, by any means, due to a lack of
resources touching upon these connections; rather, in my opinion, this omission is mainly
due to the habits of an older generation of historians who do not View such studies as
historically relevant, nor appropriate, to the study of their own. However, such studies
could further the study of such vital topics as the racial connotations of white slavery

with Nordic ethnic identity; at the turn of the century, in a society where the whiter the

 

'1 See Joy Lintelman’s most recent work, I Go to America, as well as the Margareta Matovic’s work on the
experiences of the female Swedish immigrant within Chicago in her chapter, “Embracing a Middle-Class
Life” in Peasant Maids — City Women.

287

skin, the more attractive the immigrant, more is left to be interrogated on the lengths to
which procurers actively sought female Scandinavian immi grants for the value of their
racial features. Numerous sources pertaining to the connections of the modern era, the
idea of cosmopolitanism which Carl Lundquist frequently acknowledged in his speeches,
and the inﬂuence of Swedish intellectuals and artists could also shed light on a group of
Scandinavians who functioned outside of the margins of the communities. While [-
Christine Stansell touched upon such an underground, intellectual society in her book,
American Modems, a study of the inﬂuence of clubs like the Swedish Educational

League and various socialist groups on the intellectual grth of individuals could lead

 

‘E1

to intriguing conclusions when considering previous stereotypes associated with
Scandinavians. ‘2
Furthermore, while a wealth of useful materials on Chicago’s diverse immigrants
contribute to the historiography of the social history of Chicago, there is a signiﬁcant lack
of monographs which focus on the experiences of either Norwegian or Danish
immigrants. Historians of the Swedish immigrant experience continue to dominate the
standard narrative on Scandinavian immigrants in Chicago, which most likely contributes
to the problematic association of “Swedish” with “Scandinavian.” While neither group
brought the immense numbers of immi grants that Sweden claimed, their numbers were

nevertheless vital to the uniﬁed community of Nordic immigrants. With continued study

into the experiences of Scandinavians in both urban and rural spaces, across America and

 

'2 Within both Stansell and Nordahl’s works, the two authors touched upon a unique group of “bohemians”
within Chicago comprised of individuals of Scandinavian descent (most notably Carl Sandburg) who both
lived and convened in minimalist spaces on Chicago’s south side during the 19105. See Christine Stansell,
American Modems: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century (New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 2000); Pehr Nordahl, Weaving the Ethnic F abric: Social Networks Among Swedish-American
Radicals in Chicago 1890-1940 (New York: Coronet Books, 1994).

288

 

throughout the world, the history of such a unique group of people will contribute vital
scholarly connections which bridge the gaps in major historical themes.

The topic of this dissertation will undoubtedly make a vital contribution to the
historiography of Scandinavians, ethnic and racial identity, the process of immigration,
the study of gender and sexuality, and the experience of work. Historical discourse on the
issue of preference in relation to European immigrant groups is one that is far—reaching, r
yet vastly unexplored in relation to communities like Scandinavians who did not witness

the same types of struggles other immigrant communities were forced to face. Because of

 

these vast differences, the standard narrative on American immigration garnered a 1'
tendency to focus on the most disparate groups, while ignoring the signiﬁcance of social
preference, class status, and racialized identities built upon American ideals. The topic of
my work begins to bring these issues into focus, exploring the community building
efforts of three different, yet united groups of EurOpean immigrants in one of the most
historically-important cities in the United States. Furthermore, in connection with the
historiography of Scandinavian Americans, my work redirects the focus of previous
studies away from the ﬁliopietism of past narratives to take into consideration the larger
importance of American people, culture, and ideals in deﬁning racial and ethnic
categories of European immigrants. By incorporating the two perspectives, this project
will make an important contribution to emerging research on similar studies that explore
the living patterns and interactions of immigrants and their urban neighbors within their

adopted homes.

289

 

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