Home » Museum Info » News
Local artist Molly Cranch will teach children how to create a pop-up card of Andersonville and a City Silhouette Card, using recycled papers and materials at the Swedish American Museum as part of Green Week on Saturday, July 16, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Cost: $5 for materials.
Up and down Clark Street from July 11 through July 17, Andersonville’s Green Week highlights the neighborhoods eco-friendly businesses and hosts environmental awareness events including farmers’ market cooking demonstrations, neighborhood garden tours, composting and energy efficiency workshops, eco-crafting activities, and documentary films. For more information about Green Week, please click here.
The Swedish American Museum will have a Pop-Up Green Space garden on display in front of the Museum on Monday, July 11, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. as part of Green Week in Andersonville.
Up and down Clark Street from July 11 through July 17, Andersonville’s Green Week highlights the neighborhoods eco-friendly businesses and hosts environmental awareness events including farmers’ market cooking demonstrations, neighborhood garden tours, composting and energy efficiency workshops, eco-crafting activities, and documentary films. For more information about Green Week, please click here.
Up and down Clark Street from July 11 through July 17, 2011, Andersonville’s Green Week highlights the neighborhoods eco-friendly businesses and hosts environmental awareness events including farmers’ market cooking demonstrations, neighborhood garden tours, composting and energy efficiency workshops, eco-crafting activities, and documentary films.
The Museum will host two events during Green Week: we will have a pop-up green space garden on display at our entrance on Monday, July 11 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and we will have local artist Molly Cranch teach children how to make pop-up cards using recycled materials on Saturday, July 16, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Cost for this last event is $5 for all the materials.
For more information about Green Week, please click here.
The Swedish American Museum, in conjunction with the American Jewish Artists Club (AJAC) presents the exhibition Gift of Hope. A combination of art and history, this exhibit tells the story of Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved tens of thousands of Jews from Hitler’s death camps in Hungary during the Second World War.
Join us for three dates in August of special readings by David Chapman surrounding Gift of Hope! For more information about this exhibit, please click here.
On Sunday, July 17 at 3 p.m., come to the Museum for an afternoon of summer theater!
Akvavit Theatre, partnering with the Swedish American Museum, will present a staged reading of the contemporary Swedish play De Frusna På Torget (The Frozen at the Square), a comedy by Lucas Svensson. This is the U.S. premiere and first ever English translation of this play. A short discussion will follow the reading. There is a suggested donation of $10, and refreshments will be served.
This summer, the Museum is offering walking tours of the historic Andersonville neighborhood. Learn about the Swedish heritage in Andersonville in this walking tour that starts and ends at the Museum. Self-guided tour books available at the front desk of the Museum.
Tours run at 11 a.m. every 1st and 3rd Thursday of July and August, starting on June 30. To view our calendar and see when the next tour is, please click here.
Pioneer Camp 2011 begins with Session I from July 11 to July 15 at the Swedish American Museum, and Session II from August 8 to August 12. Registration is now closed for Sessions I and II, but to learn more information about Pioneer Camp for your campers this year or next year, please click here.
“Jenny Lind” returns to the Museum on Sunday, June 26, 2011! The Royal Swedish Academy of Music has selected the 2011 “Jenny Lind” winner to perform in Sweden and the United States, and this year’s winner is soprano Rebecca Rasmussen, from the Stockholm area. She will be accompanied by Daniel Hormazabal Cortes, winner of the Otto Goldschmidt Music Accompaniment Award, who is also from Stockholm.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the 5th Annual Jenny Lind Concert on Sunday, June 26, at 5 p.m., please click here.
The Swedish American Museum, in conjunction with the American Jewish Artists Club (AJAC) presents the exhibition Gift of Hope. A combination of art and history, this exhibit tells the story of Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved tens of thousands of Jews from Hitler’s death camps in Hungary during the Second World War.
Join us Friday, July 8, for family night! For more information about this exhibit, please click here.
Akvavit Theatre, partnering with the Swedish American Museum, will present a staged reading of the contemporary Swedish play De Frusna På Torget (The Frozen at the Square), a comedy by Lucas Svensson. This is the U.S. premiere and first ever English translation of this play. A short discussion will follow the reading. There is a suggested donation of $10, and refreshments will be served.
Your generosity helps the Museum in so many ways. If you missed out on “Give to the Museum Day!” and would still like to make a donation to support the Museum, please click on the Donate button below.
The entrance to The Dream of America: Swedish Immigration to
Chicago, our Permanent Exhibit about Swedish Immigration to the United States, features a large collection of traveling trunks and suitcases. Each piece of luggage made its way here carrying the belongings of someone starting a new life in America and each tells its story through luggage tags, destination labels, and owner names affixed to it.
One of the more recent additions to this collection is an unobtrusive flat-top trunk with the name “Malm” painted on the lid. This trunk traveled to the United States with a 15-year old girl named Gunhild Anna Charlotte Malm, who made the trans-Atlantic journey by herself, in 1910.
Gunhild lived the first 15 years of her life in Åsenhöga, Sweden. She was born on the seventh day of the seventh month in 1895 (July 7, 1895) and was the 7th and youngest child of a landholder who also owned a small market shop. Her personal reasons for emigrating are not mentioned in the donated material or the unpublished biography of her life written by her daughter, but it is likely she was drawn by the promise of economic prosperity in the United States, like so many others.
As a single, female Swedish immigrant in 1910, Gunhild was not alone. During the 20-year period between 1890 and 1910, nearly one-third of the immigrants arriving from Sweden were single women. Many of these women settled in urban centers such as Chicago and found employment as domestic servants—maids, seamstresses, cooks, laundresses—while many others worked in textile and garment manufacturing.
Like most of these women, Gunhild did not speak English when she arrived in the United States. but that did not deter her from seeking employment as a maid with several wealthy Chicago families. Her brother Martin had moved to Chicago before her, and was a domestic servant with the Potter Palmer family. Gunhild learned the language quickly and within a few years had saved enough money to attend business school. After graduation, she worked in the accounting departments of various Chicago banks.
Though Gunhild’s story is somewhat representative of a large population of women arriving in America to better their economic prospects, she was far from a conventional woman for the time period. She preferred wearing trousers to skirts, and enjoyed camping, hunting, and fishing—as evidenced by the large collection of temporary licenses for such activities contained in her scrapbook.
She married Erick Emanual Ernfred Erickson, a Swedish immigrant
himself, in 1919 and had one child, Evelyn Gunhild Erickson (Smith), in 1921. Just before the Great Depression hit, she and Erick purchased an automobile service station on Lincoln Avenue, just south of Addison St. Gunhild worked at the business alongside her husband—pumping gas, washing windshields, and checking tire pressure—while also managing the finances for the business. They emerged from the Depression with the station not only intact but even quite successful.
In the 1950s, Gunhild and her husband moved to Colorado, following their daughter Evelyn and her family. She lived the rest of her life near Denver, in a modest house with a large, lovely backyard for the outdoor activities which she so enjoyed. In Gunhild’s biography, Evelyn recalls the smörgåsbord they had together every Christmas. Gunhild and Erick even taught Evelyn’s husband (who was of Welsh descent) to pickle herring, at which he apparently excelled.
The traveling trunks in our exhibit are more than meets the eye. They once contained the belongings of Swedish emigrants, and today still represent the lives of those who brought them to the United States. They can tell the stories of those who once owned and used them if we look closely enough. Next time you visit us, see if you can spot Gunhild’s trunk in The Dream of America exhibit..
It’s a special day set aside for members and friends to make online donations in honor of the Swedish American Museum’s 35th anniversary.
Don’t forget to click on the Donate button above before 11:59 p.m. today, June 24, 2011, to make your gift to benefit the Museum.
For more information regarding “Give to the Museum Day!”, please click here.
Please make your donation now!
“Jenny Lind” returns to the Museum on Sunday, June 26, 2011! The Royal Swedish Academy of Music has selected the 2011 “Jenny Lind” winner to perform in Sweden and the United States, and this year’s winner is soprano Rebecca Rasmussen, from the Stockholm area. She will be accompanied by Daniel Hormazabal Cortes, winner of the Otto Goldschmidt Music Accompaniment Award, who is also from Stockholm.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the 5th Annual Jenny Lind Concert on Sunday, June 26, at 5 p.m., please click here.
The Swedish American Museum, in conjunction with the American Jewish Artists Club (AJAC) presents the exhibition Gift of Hope. A combination of art and history, this exhibit tells the story of Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved tens of thousands of Jews from Hitler’s death camps in Hungary during the Second World War.
Join us Friday, July 8, for family night! For more information about this exhibit, please click here.
Akvavit Theatre, partnering with the Swedish American Museum, will present a staged reading of the contemporary Swedish play De Frusna På Torget (The Frozen at the Square), a comedy by Lucas Svensson. This is the U.S. premiere and first ever English translation of this play. A short discussion will follow the reading. There is a suggested donation of $10, and refreshments will be served.
Tomorrow is the official Swedish Midsommar celebration, but it’s also the Swedish American Museum’s “Give to the Museum Day!”
“Give to the Museum Day!” is a special day set aside for members and friends to make online donations in honor of the Swedish American Museum’s 35th anniversary.
Look for the Donate button starting at midnight tonight on our website! Whether you’re donating on your smartphone, internet or telephone, you can “Give to the Museum” and help us reach our goal!
To learn more about “Give to the Museum Day!”, please click here.
“Jenny Lind” returns to the Museum on Sunday, June 26, 2011! The Royal Swedish Academy of Music has selected the 2011 “Jenny Lind” winner to perform in Sweden and the United States, and this year’s winner is soprano Rebecca Rasmussen, from the Stockholm area. She will be accompanied by Daniel Hormazabal Cortes, winner of the Otto Goldschmidt Music Accompaniment Award, who is also from Stockholm.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the 5th Annual Jenny Lind Concert on Sunday, June 26, at 5 p.m., please click here.
The Swedish American Museum, in conjunction with the American Jewish Artists Club (AJAC) presents the exhibition Gift of Hope. A combination of art and history, this exhibit tells the story of Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved tens of thousands of Jews from Hitler’s death camps in Hungary during the Second World War.
Join us Friday, July 8, for family night! For more information about this exhibit, please click here.
Akvavit Theatre, partnering with the Swedish American Museum, will present a staged reading of the contemporary Swedish play De Frusna På Torget (The Frozen at the Square), a comedy by Lucas Svensson. This is the U.S. premiere and first ever English translation of this play. A short discussion will follow the reading. There is a suggested donation of $10, and refreshments will be served.
Join the Swedish American Museum at the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce Chicago Young Professionals’ Midsommar Picnic at Chicago’s Belmont Harbor. Bring your favorite picnic food, beverage, lawn games, and maypole dancing shoes!
The picnic will take place in the park just north-east of the Lincoln Park Archery Range. To view a map, please click here.
The Swedish American Museum, in conjunction with the American Jewish Artists Club (AJAC) presents the upcoming exhibition Gift of Hope, opening Sunday, June 19, 2011 at 11 a.m. A combination of art, history and theater, this exhibit tells the story of Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved tens of thousands of Jews from Hitler’s death camps in Hungary during the Second World War. “Everybody admires his perseverance, his boldness of action, his respect and sensitivity;” says Bob Fields, artist and member of the AJAC for five years, “[and] as being a fine model for everyday human being at any time, especially during his time.”
Born near Stockholm in 1912 to a prominent family, Wallenberg studied in Paris and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before entering the field of banking and commerce. He was in frequent contact with Nazi officials and the Jewish community in Hungary when appointed to the Central European Trading Company, which prompted U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to name Wallenberg as a representative of the War Refugee Board in 1944.
Wallenberg’s duties in Budapest as part of the War Refugee Board—a committee Roosevelt established in 1944 to address the plight of Hungary’s Jews—encompassed issuing Swedish protective passports (known in German as Schutzpasses) for Jews and buying 30 buildings that he operated as safe zones for Jews under the auspices of the Swedish government. His heroic interventions in death marches and deportations, as well as his tireless negotiations with officials behind the scenes, helped 120,000 Hungarian Jews live through the Nazi’s “final solution,” making them the largest surviving Jewish population in Europe. Unfortunately, Wallenberg himself was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1945 and is believed to have died under mysterious circumstances some time afterward.
To honor Wallenberg, members of the AJAC—a club existing since 1926 that boasts around 60 members today—produced several pieces of art in various media, inspired by a collection of Wallenberg’s writings called Raoul Wallenberg: Letters and Dispatches 1924-1944. Fields, who is responsible for seeking out venues and creating exhibit themes for AJAC, says when selecting the last chapter and inviting club members to participate, he instructed them to read it and create new artwork surrounding it. “‘See what you get by the words, time and context of it, and you take it from there,’” he told them.
The Museum would like to thank the following sponsors of this exhibit: City Arts Grants; the Illinois Arts Council; the Swedish Council of America; and the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince.
The following are events schedule for Gift of Hope:
Exhibit Opening: Friday, Sept. 16, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
On Friday, Sept. 16, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the exhibition In the Footsteps of Our Mothers… opens at the Swedish American Museum. In this display by Kerstin Rosengren, she explores the art and craft of traditional Swedish textiles, particularly those handed down through generations of women. “These weavings carry with them a big part of our history, with influences from the Viking Age,” says Rosengren. “I combine the old patterns with my own designs and ideas, as women have done in all times.”
Rosengren was born in Malmö, Sweden, and has a degree in Fashion Design. Knitting by hand since she was five years old, this interest grew into a career and she received a Journeyman´s Certificate in the profession of knitting issued by National Assiciation of Swedish Handicraft (SHR) Society and the foundation for the promotion of crafts. She is a member of ÖSKG (East Scania Artists Society) and a member of Konsthantverkscentrum.
Her work falls into three major categories: linen clothing, woolen clothing and textile art made primarily from wool and wrought iron. She uses all natural materials and has two trademark symbols: the rooster and the thorn. Every piece is unique and begins with a theme, starting from the same basic materials and techniques and transforming into new images reflecting issues with the global environment and politics. ”It is my attempt to intrigue the observer to seek answers in images that are at first glance identical, but that have minute differences,” she explains. ”[Asking] ‘Does this create chaos or harmony? ’”
The Museum would like to thank the following sponsors of this exhibit: City Arts Grants; the Illinois Arts Council; SWEA; and the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince.
Events scheduled for In the Footsteps of Our Mothers… are:
Join the Swedish American Museum at this free outdoor concert at the Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park. Hear Sibelius’ early work based on the great national Finnish epic, the Kalevala, the source of many of his most prominent compositions.
For more information, please visit the Grant Park Music Festival’s website by clicking here.
