Collection

You can now view our Collection online through our CatalogIt hub. View selected items from the Swedish American Museum’s permanent collection of about 10,000 artifacts and 300 linear feet of archival material. Explore photographs, household items, and more incredible objects that represent a piece of the immigration journey. View items on display in our core exhibit, We Are America, along with other objects that are part of our permanent collection.

Explore the Collection

Collection Highlight

The Granite Rocks Lighthouse on Lake Superior
Leon Lundmark
Oil on canvas
Gift of Randall Bennett
See Details

~

About the Collection

Our permanent collection captures the Swedish-American experience in the United States, Chicago, and the Andersonville neighborhood in which the Museum resides.

The Museum’s permanent collection includes:

Archival material documenting the Swedish immigration experience to Chicago
Personal artifacts and material that illuminate the lives and stories of Chicago’s Swedish and Swedish-American residents
Swedish and Swedish-American decorative art
Farming and agricultural implements: machinery as brought here from Sweden or made by the immigrants and their descendants
Folk art which reflects the perspectives of Swedish artists, from the first immigrants to present day
Fine art relevant to the Swedish experience
Artifacts showing the life and work of Chicago area-based Swedish organizations and businesses

We collect artifacts with the aim to preserve the history of Swedish-Americans in Chicago, the

Swedish-American immigration story, the story of contemporary Swedish-Americans, the relationship between Swedes and Swedish-Americans, and the history of the Andersonville neighborhood.

Donations

The Museum adds new donations to the collection every year through the generosity of local artists, organizations, and members of the public. When people donate items to our collection, they are entrusting us to honor and preserve their legacy.

While we collect a wide variety of materials related to Swedish-Americans, when accepting donations we are looking for items that will fill existing gaps in our collection and broaden our understanding of the Swedish-American immigration experience. Items which are already well-represented in our collection, such as Bibles and LP records, will generally not be accepted.

If you have items you are interested in donating to the Swedish American Museum, please contact the Collection Manager Lisa Lindström via email at llindstrom@samac.org describing the item(s) you wish to donate. If you can, please include photographs of the item(s). Please do not send or bring items you wish to donate to the Museum until you have been contacted by Museum staff.

Please refer to the frequently asked questions for additional information on collection donations.
To review our Collections Policy, please click here.

Research Appointments

The Museum welcomes researchers, students, scholars, journalists, and the general public to utilize our collection for research and study. The Museum is open to researchers by appointment only. Please contact the Collection Manager, Lisa Lindström at llindstrom@samac.org or call the Museum at 773.728.8111 to schedule a time. Please keep in mind that appointment time options will be limited by staff time, staff availability, and the nature of the request. Thank you for your understanding.