Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
50-kr combo-ticket includes Swedish Glass Museum;
June-Aug daily 10:00-17:00; Sept-May Tue-Fri 10:00-17:00, Sat-Sun
10:00-16:00, closed Mon; just down the hill behind the glass museum, Vil-
helm Mobergs Gata 4, tel. 0470/20120,
www.utvandrarnashus.se
.
Background:
As economic woes wracked Sweden from the 1850s to the
1920s (even a potato famine hit at one point), the country was caught up in
an “American Fever.” Nearly 1.3 million mostly poor Swedes endured long
voyages and culture shock to find prosperity and freedom in the American
promised land. In that period, one in six Swedes went to live in the US. So
many left the country that Swedish authorities were forced to rethink their so-
cial policies and to institute reforms.
Visiting the Museum:
In the “Dream of America” exhibit, well-worded
displays—all translated into English—explain various aspects of the immig-
rant experience.
A display about Ellis Island vividly recounts how 3.8 million new arrivals
from around the world entered the US through Manhattan's Castle Garden
processing center between 1886 and 1890. Firsthand accounts recall the entry
procedure, including medical evaluations and an uncomfortable eye exam.
(While the US's immigration policies are more stringent today, even in those
days about 2 percent of would-be Americans were rejected.) The display's
name, “Isle of Hopes, Isle of Tears,” evokes the bittersweet experience of
leaving a comfortable (if troubled) old home for an unfamiliar new one.
The model of a poor, potato-famine-stricken village demonstrates why so
many Swedes were forced to emigrate. The Swedes formed enclaves across
North America: on farms and prairies, from New York to Texas, from Maine
to Seattle—and, of course, in Chicago's “Swede Town” (the world's second-
biggest Swedish town in the world in 1900) and in Minnesota's Twin Cit-
ies. The life-size
Snusgatan
re-creates the main street in a Swedish neigh-
borhood—called “Snoose Boulevard,” for Swedish snuff. Other displays trace
immigrant lifestyles, religion, treatment in the press, women's experiences,
and the Swedish cultural societies that preserved the traditions of the Old
World in the New. Rounding out the exhibit, homage is paid to prominent
Swedish-Americans, including Charles Lindbergh and the second man on the
moon, Buzz Aldrin.
